There’s been a lot of buzz surrounding Alaska Airlines’ acquisition of Hawaiian Airlines. For those who collect points and miles, the most exciting aspect of the merger is the ability to transfer HawaiianMiles to Alaska MileagePlan. I’m not rushing to transfer my miles since it took me nearly a decade to use the Alaska miles in my account, but I recognize that many people find excellent value in award redemptions with MileagePlan.
One of the things that made Alaska’s MileagePlan program different was that it wasn’t a partner with any transferrable point program. That changed when Bilt Rewards started allowing 1:1 transfers to MileagePlan earlier this year. But that still means that the other main ways to gather Alaska miles were by flying on Alaska Airlines or partners, with a co-brand credit card, or by purchasing miles.
Transferring AMEX Membership Rewards to Alaska MileagePlan
This situation changed when it became possible to transfer HawaiianMiles to MileagePlan, as Hawaiian is a transfer partner with AMEX Membership Rewards. Now, you can transfer AMEX points to Hawaiian and then to Alaska Airlines. This process is precisely what many individuals, who have amassed a large number of AMEX points, intended to do. It seems, however, that many of these AMEX cardholders had never transferred points to Delta, Hawaiian, or JetBlue before, and were unaware of the additional fee AMEX charges for transferring points to U.S.-based airlines.
You’ll pay an excise tax offset fee ($0.0006 per point, up to $99) for points transferred to a U.S. airline frequent flyer program. This fee offsets the federal excise tax we must pay when you transfer points. It may be more or less than the actual amount of the excise tax we pay on any individual transfer.
That means a transfer of 50,000 points would cost you $30, while a 125,000-point transfer costs $75. These fees are capped at no more than $99 per transfer. This means transfers of 165,000 points or more will cost $99, regardless of how many points you transfer.
Several Reddit threads featured complaints ranging from why AMEX charges for transferring points when other banks don’t, which is a fair critique, to how this makes transferring AMEX points to Alaska a lousy value, which is a horrible hot take. While I only got a value of 1.15 cents per point on my award tickets, the average value people give to Alaska miles is closer to 2 cents each. Paying a fee of $0.0006 per point isn’t going to destroy the value of Alaska points.
Should You Transfer AMEX Membership Rewards Points?
That depends on how often you use Alaska MileagePlan to book award tickets. If you’re always in need of Alaska miles, then it would make sense to transfer AMEX points, even if you have to pay a small fee. Alaska Airlines is a part of the oneworld alliance but has several non-alliance partners. This is why many find oversized value from miles in the program. Here’s a list of the airlines you can book using Alaska miles:
- Aer Lingus
- Air Tahiti Nui
- American Airlines
- British Airways
- Cathay Pacific
- Condor
- Fiji Airways
- Finnair
- Hainan Airlines
- Iberia
- Icelandair
- Japan Airlines
- Korean Air
- LATAM
- Malaysia Airlines
- Oman Air
- Porter Airlines
- Qantas
- Qatar Airways
- Royal Air Maroc
- Royal Jordanian
- Singapore Airlines
- SriLankan Airlines
- Starlux Airlines
Alaska MileagePlan award redemptions are based on the trip distance and have three different award charts: “Americas,” “Europe, Middle East, Africa,” and “Asia Pacific.”
Final Thought
While this pathway to transfer points from American Express Membership Rewards to Alaska MileagePlan isn’t going away tomorrow, time is limited to take advantage of this opportunity. Alaska will eventually merge the two programs into MileagePlan, removing the ability to transfer points from AMEX. Reporting puts the target date for this to happen in late-2025 which isn’t soon but also isn’t that far off.
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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
