Taking Advantage of the Hawaiian/Alaska Airlines Merge
Alaska has been one of my favorite miles to redeem, though not talked about enough in the points and miles community, in my opinion. Most likely because you can only get these points by getting co-branded cards or the Bilt card (which is only for renters). Being a fan of Chase-specific cards, it’s hard to think about taking a 5/24 spot there. However, I have found some great value in holding Alaska miles, especially when going to Portland, Oregon or Seattle, Washington. They also fly to the Caribbean and Europe, which is where I have been looking lately.
So, when I heard about the Hawaiian/Alaskan merge that happened last September, I was ecstatic! This meant there was double the opportunity to collect Alaska miles because any Hawaiian points gained from their co-branded personal and business credit card, transfers 1:1 to Alaska miles. Hawaiian miles, in my opinion, hasn’t held as much value for me as Alaska miles, so I took advantage of the merge and transferred my miles.
Let me tell you the process of opening this Hawaiian card, though, because I was very excited about it:
At the beginning of January, I was looking on a reddit thread and saw someone mention a promo they found that gave them 70k Hawaiian miles after just one purchase. I did a little more digging and found it to be true, so I went to this website and typed in the promo code. It worked! I was instantly approved and loaded my card onto my Google Pay that very night, then went straight to the store and bought some Doritos for family pizza night. A few weeks later, I had 70k Hawaiian miles!
Naturally, I then transferred them to my Alaska account and can confirm that both the Hawaiian card promo and the transferring is as easy as it sounds! This was a Hawaiian personal card, so it does take a 5/24 spot, but it was worth it to my husband and me as I was only at 3/24.
To transfer between accounts, go to this site. Here’s what it looked like after you’re logged in to both airline accounts:
These were the 70k miles I received from the one purchase promo! I already had about 27k Alaska miles in my account
My points transferred instantly. You can do this between either of these, if you wanted to transfer Alaska miles to Hawaiian; it’s still 1:1.
Once I hit continue, this screen popped up:
Once you Transfer, the miles will transfer instantly with no fee.
Another way to gain Alaska miles now that these two programs have merged, is to transfer AMEX Membership Rewards® to your Hawaiian account, then transfer those to Alaska miles.
Example Redemption:
Like I said, I’ve used Alaska miles to take non-stop flights to Seattle for a vendor event and author event. It cost me 10k miles one-way back in September 2024, and 15k miles each way in 2023. The Alaska Airlines Visa Signature® personal card’s welcome offer is 70k miles after $3,000 spent in the first 90 days as of February 2025. Their Alaska Airlines Visa® Business Card is 70k miles after $4,000 spent in the first 90 days. If you’d like to apply for the card, please email ktpoints2adventure@gmail.com or go to the contact page to send a message with your email, and I will send you a link! I appreciate the support.
Summary:
Whether you find Hawaiian miles or Alaska miles to be more valuable to you, the merge gives us all more flexible options in how we use our valuable points for free travel.
