A good friend of mine measures a person by what he dubs their “say/do” ratio. In other words, does this person do what they say they will do? Those with a high “say/do” ratio come through on what they promise to do. This week, I can’t help but think of the contrast in say/do ratio between Hilton Honors and American Express Membership Rewards.
While Hilton several months ago said, “Hilton is fully committed to delivering the best value to our members”, they have now made not one but two massive award increases at many of the most desirable properties in the span of less than six months — including at many Hilton-branded properties (not just SLH) — serving to decrease the value of points at those properties. The fact that this has happened not once but twice in such a short period of is evidence of a low say/do ratio, Hilton.
On the flip side, Amex has given us six weeks of advance notice that transfers to Hawaiian Miles will end, which is not only enough time to carefully plan your final uses of that beloved sweet spot use of points, it is even enough time to potentially open a new credit card, meet the spending requirement, get the welcome bonus, and transfer to Hawaiian and on to Alaska. In fairness, Amex may be required to give advance notice, but the bottom line is that this is the way it ought to be when a program is going to make a significant change to its promised value proposition. When Amex promises value to members, they deliver. Learn from Amex’s say/do ratio, Hilton.
On the blog this week, you’ll find more detail about both of those situations as well as the latest Bilt transfer partner, a very helpful video comparing award search tools, everything you need to know about free checked bags via credit card, and a lot more.
This week on the Frequent Miler blog…
Combined Alaska/Hawaiian loyalty program now expected in August
We had long anticipated the new combined Alaska/Hawaiian Airlines program to launch “this summer”, but now we have a clearer idea of which part of summer as it has been made official that the new joined program will launch in August. I think the speed with which this has happened is likely good for members and I have particularly appreciated the updates along the way to keep members following the roadmap of progress along the way.
Amex to Hawaiian transfers ending on June 30th
With the launch of the combined Alaska/Hawaiian program, we are unsurprisingly seeing the end of transfers from American Express Membership Rewards to Hawaiian Airlines HawaiianMiles on June 30, 2025. Kudos to Amex and Hawaiian for giving us six weeks of advance notice rather than pulling transfers unannounced. I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw this messaging on the Amex site! We had previously reported that signs pointed to a June 30th end date, but I had been stressing that it may happen sooner. I still won’t wait until the last days to transfer, but I will probably wait until some additional points post over the next month so I can make one big transfer to Hawaiian, gather my family’s miles into my Hawaiian account, and then move them to my Alaska account. Note that if you do not move your miles from Hawaiian to Alaska, they should automatically show up in whatever the new program is, but I highly recommend being proactive and moving them to the Alaska side now. If you wait, it is likely that your miles will end up in purgatory for at least a few days while the computer systems try to link up accounts that aren’t linked and match names and frequent flyer info, etc — I’d want to go ahead and get those miles on the Alaska side before June 30th.
Another overnight Hilton price hike…all the way to 200K points per night
While Amex gets kudos for advanced notice, Hilton takes the polar opposite approach toward its members, pulling out the rug with no advance notice nor notification afterwards, instead leaving members to find out what they’ve done when nobody was looking. After spending more than a year as the darling of the blogosphere, Hilton has really Bonvoyed us all with huge increases in the maximum redemption levels at many hotels. This is massively disappointing, not only because of the big increases in award rate (for the second time in six months) but because the elimination of an award chart makes Hilton feel OK with making these changes without notifying members. It is precisely this type of unannounced devaluation that fuels my disdain for no-award-chart programs. While Hilton had done a fantastic job of integrating SLH up to this point, I suppose we were due for a reminder that Hilton hasn’t made the program user-friendly from a value predictability standpoint, I just wouldn’t have expected to have seen properties increase from 120,000 points per night to 200,000 points per night in the space of six months — a more than 50% increase in award cost for what had been the most expensive properties. Hilton Free Night Certificates will continue to be highly desirable and of course not all properties increased in award rate (a couple of my favorites remain unchanged), but this does do some damage to the prospect of collecting Hilton points long-term.
Where is Spirit Airlines headed next?
While Hilton works to make points worth less without telling you, Spirit seems to be trying to make its own points look more valuable with the introduction of extra legroom seating and the ability to use points at fairly consistent value toward both that Go Comfy bundle and the Go Big bundle as well. If you wanted to book the Spirit Airlines Big Front Seat and you could get 1.25c per point in value for that booking, would you consider transferring points to Spirit? That’s the type of question that you might soon be able to debate as I picked up some hints about what might be coming next for Spirit Airlines and reported them here.
Points for the next generation | Frequent miler on the Air Ep306 | 5-16-25
Whether you will soon be flying Spirit, Hawaiian, Alaska, American, or some other airline, you’ll want to make sure to get your kids signed up for the airline loyalty program so that they can also earn miles on the flight (and in some cases, maybe pool them with yours!). That is one of many things one can do to get the next generation prepped for points. From adding them as authorized users (my kids have been AUs since they were newborns!) to shopping portal bonuses to double dipping on the cost of college, there are a lot of ways to get your kids ready to build their own pile of points in the future. There is no time like the present to get started.
Kiva: Do good and increase credit card spend
Greg has been making Kiva loans for even longer than I have been working for the blog. I had intended to follow his blueprint years ago, but just never got off the ground with it. Reading his updated information here makes me once again curious because I see some potential for the juice to be worth the squeeze here to do some good and earn some points while doing it.
Air Tahiti via Air France KLM Flying Blue: Pluses and minuses
Air Tahiti flights can now be booked with Air France / KLM Flying Blue miles. While I was initially pretty excited about that prospect, my enthusiasm waned as I dug into a number of routes highlighted by a reader. While my eyes had initially been drawn to the Tahiti-to-Bora Bora flights, a reader pointed out that there are a bunch of Air Tahiti routes that are now bookable via Flying Blue….and unfortunately, most of them are not a good deal. I hope that these flights will eventually price together with the flight from Los Angeles in some sort of non-cumulative way so that it might make sense to book your trip from Los Angeles to Tahiti and beyond, but for now these mostly aren’t a good deal, which is particularly true for those of us traveling with kids.
Free Checked Bags via Credit Card Complete Guide
Do you have an airline credit card that provides free checked bags? Does that apply to others on your reservation, and if so, how many? Do you need to use your airline credit card to buy your ticket, or do you get free bags automatically just for having the card? The details of free checked bags via credit card vary from one airline to another, so check this resource for the details on your airline card and its associated requirements.
Japan Airlines added as a new Bilt transfer partner
Bilt continues to expand its partnerships, now with Japan Airlines in the fold. This is an interesting pick. None of the other major transferable currencies can convert to Japan Airlines (JAL) Mileage Plan, but we know that the technical capability for transfers to JAL exists since they partner with Marriott (at 3 Marriott points to 1 JAL mile) and they ever so briefly partnered with Barclays for transfers from the blink-and-you-might-have-missed-it Arrival Premier card (which was widely panned upon launch years ago and actually got pulled 6 months after they launched the card). My excitement here is tempered though: while JAL has long been known to have some great uses, it would require quite a big balance of Bilt points to take full advantage here. If you want to transfer to Bilt partners like Avianca Lifemiles or Flying Blue, you can easily combine forces with your other transferable points to have plenty of points for a meaningful redemption. Your ability to get JAL points is going to more or less rest entirely on your Bilt balance (and perhaps a transfer from Marriott). I think this is a really cool partnership, but one that is less likely to yield big value for anyone but the most engaged Bilt member.
Bilt Rewards Complete Guide (2025)
Speaking of Bilt and its transfer partners, Tim has fully updated our Bilt Rewards Complete Guide, which had fallen a bit behind given the many changes we have seen over the past year or two. From the cap on Rent Day points to ways to earn other than via rent and the credit card, this complete guide has everything you need to know about Bilt Rewards.
Got in on that 100K offer? Here’s what to do next…
Many people recently opened the Chase Sapphire Preferred card because it had a fantastic welcome offer (since expired). If you or someone you know recently opened the card, this post is your blueprint for maximizing value. Read it, study it, bookmark it to come back later and be the master of your Sapphire Preferred card.
Watch Greg compare the top award search tools – which one is best? (Video)
When award search tools first hit the scene a few years ago, I thought I was too cool for them. I knew enough to be able to hand-search through various programs and figure out my award options without leaning on a search tool. I can now laugh heartily and my own stupidity in resisting those tools at the start: the development (and frequent improvement!) of award search tools has been an absolute game-changer and massive time-saver. I literally use these tools almost every single day, keeping tabs on upcoming trips, looking for new availability, setting alerts, etc. In this video, Greg looks at a theoretical trip via several search tools, which gives a full view of the strengths and weaknesses to help you determine which is a fit for you.
That’s it for this week at Frequent Miler. Keep an eye on this week’s last chance deals to be sure you grab them before they are gone.
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Hilton just needs to make all the redemptions “premium room rewards” and if you thought 200k was high try 500k!
Do you think the new premium cc launch by Alaska will coincide with the loyalty merger between Alaska and Hawaiian?
The mathematician in me feels compelled to point out that a high say/do ratio implies someone who does NOT follow through on their word (i.e. they say a lot and / or do very little). For our purposes, i think we want a ratio of 1: a loyalty program that says what it will do and then does what it says.