Get up to 100% bonus miles: Buy Hawaiian Airlines miles and transfer to Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan now

05.11.2024 - 00:13 / thepointsguy.com

Attention, points and miles enthusiasts: Hawaiian Airlines is currently offering up to 100% bonus miles when you purchase HawaiianMiles through Nov. 15. Though we don't often recommend buying points and miles, it may be worth considering following Alaska Airlines' acquisition of the carrier. Following the merger, loyalty program members can transfer HawaiianMiles to Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan.

But is purchasing miles really a good investment? Here's everything you need to know about the sale and how to decide if buying miles is right for you.

Related: Buy bonus points and miles with these promotions

From now through Nov. 15, you can purchase HawaiianMiles with up to a 100% bonus — effectively cutting the cost per mile in half. However, the discount depends on how many miles you buy, and it may vary from one member to another.

Here are the details on the bonus miles deal I found in my personal HawaiianMiles account:

You must purchase miles in 1,000-mile increments. There's a limit of 100,000 miles per transaction (before the bonus) but no cap on the total number of miles you can buy per year. Therefore, in theory, you could purchase as many miles as you want in multiple transactions during this sale.

Note that HawaiianMiles transactions may take up to 72 hours to process.

This may not seem like a great deal, considering that HawaiianMiles are worth 1.2 cents each per TPG's November 2024 valuations. However, thanks to the recent merger between Hawaiian Airlines and Alaska Airlines, you can now transfer miles between the carriers' loyalty programs at a 1:1 ratio.

Since Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles are valued at 1.4 cents apiece, according to TPG's November 2024 valuations, buying miles during Hawaiian's sale and transferring them to Alaska could provide solid savings. Alaska is part of the Oneworld alliance, opening a variety of partner award opportunities, and it still uses an award chart, which can result in some high-value redemptions.

Related: Alaska Airlines overhauls Mileage Plan with milestone perks, new status-earning options and upgrade updates

This sale definitely makes buying HawaiianMiles a better value proposition than usual. However, we generally recommend buying miles only when you have a specific redemption in mind. Stocking up on miles — even when they're on sale — isn't a great strategy because points and miles can be devalued at any time.

This is especially true in the case of Hawaiian and Alaska miles right now. Since the merger, the airlines have announced plans to eventually operate under a single loyalty program. This could mean overhauling the current programs — and potentially doing away with Alaska's valuable award chart and switching to dynamic pricing. This could