Update 9/27/24: We’ve now received multiple reports of folks getting Amex/Hawaiian transfers to work, with the miles displaying instantly in their Hawaiian accounts. It looks like some have been able to do it online even after repeatedly getting error messages and others have been successful via chat rep.
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Uh-oh.
There’s been a lot of anticipation (and speculation) about what would happen with American Express Membership Rewards transfers to Hawaiian Airlines once it became possible to transfer HawaiianMiles to Alaska Mileage Plan. Alaska has never been a partner of a major transferable currency (sorry Bilt), and once transfers became possible from Hawaiian to Alaska, it would effectively mean that you could transfer Membership Rewards to Alaska.
Well, Hawaiian/Alaska transfers are now live…and Amex/Hawaiian isn’t working.
Online, attempts to transfer lead to an error message:
At first I thought that this might be because of increased volume due to the Alaska/Hawaiian transfer going live, but I didn’t have issues with any of Amex’s other partners.
So, I got help from an Amex chat rep and was successfully able to transfer 1,000 points to Hawaiian with their help…only to have those points instantly refunded:
That’s not a good sign.
Quick Thoughts
Greg and Nick discussed whether or not the Amex/Hawaiian transfer would eventually end, and when, on last week’s Frequent Miler on the Air. They both agreed that the most likely scenario would be that it would go away next year sometime when the programs combined, but that there was a small chance it might die as soon as you could move HawaiianMiles to Alaska. Could the longshot actually be happening?
It could still be that this is simply a temporary technical issue. If anyone is able to successfully make a transfer, please let us know in the comments (and tell us if you did it online or with a rep).
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Worked for me. Today I transferred 30k MR points to Hawaiian and then to Alaska.
Did amex charge u a fee to transfer the points to Hawaiian?
There’s always the 0.6% fee, no way to avoid it. It’s capped at $99 so doing 200k+ transfer is better
Bet, Thanks!!!!
It finally worked for me this afternoon after several failures last night and this morning. Transferred 24k miles.
Just transferred 58k
Two failures and a success on the morning of 9/27/24. First was error screen. Second was a identity check that was failing even with correct info. Third, ended up going to chat and they made the transfer for me. Instant Success!
I had to try a few times in the amex app, but it eventually worked for me too (transfer from amex to hawaiian)
throw in another DP for transfer success. I successfully transferred Amex—> Hawaiian just now, desktop, no error
Let’s have a coffee break, shall we?!
I successfully transferred 225,000 Amex—> Hawaiian —> Alaska just now. I encountered an error in the amex app initially when transferring to hawaiian, but the transfer went through after I resubmitted it. If you get an error, click past it, and your transfer details should still be there. Then, push it through again. The transfer from Hawaiian to Alaska was smooth and instantaneous.
Thanks for the tip. It worked for me exactly as you said.
Is it working? Both signin option on transfer portal is pointing to Alaska Airlines only.
Stupid of me!! It worked
Worked for me just now. Transferred 200k points to Hawaiian.
Can you share the transfer portal link? Both signin pages are landing to Alaska airlines signin page
A bowel-evacuating headline to be sure.
I was able to finally xfr 36k MR points using the Amex Android app to my Hawaiian account after trying at least three other times via the app and the web. I confirmed that they were now in my HA account.
Still not working for me either. Receiving a variety of error messages. Logged in/out, etc.
For whatever it’s worth, it finally worked for me this afternoon after multiple attempts this morning and around lunchtime. After more failed attempts, I ended up calling the number on the back of my phone and trying to go into the rewards menu, which prompted me to make a new security key. I went through that process and then attempted to go back to the phone menu to talk to someone about the transfer, and then it routed me into the “make a new security key” part AGAIN. I decided to prompt for an operator (press 0), and then they offered to send a chat link, which I accepted. Before I engaged in the chat, though, I thought I’d try one more time to make the transfer, and then it worked with no problem! On my laptop. Transferred immediately to Hawaiian, transferred then to Alaska, and already have three tickets on Condor booked with the points. Woo hoo!
Seems to be working for me now: Transfer MR to HA to AS went smoothly.
At 8:37am I took a shot at transferring Amex miles to HA. It went through and the points showed up in my HA account.
Waited a few minutes and then logged in and out of both accounts again just to verify they were still there and they were!
Can’t speak to transferring to Alaska since I am actually using them for an HA flight.