That was fast: Hawaiian changes Hilton transfer rate

At the end of January I responded to the surge of posts about changes to the ratio at which Virgin Atlantic Flying Club miles could be transferred to Hilton HHonors points by pointing out that the Hawaiian Airlines transfer ratio hadn't changed.

Unfortunately, Hawaiian quickly followed suit and devalued their transfer ratio, so that Hawaiian Airlines mile can now be transferred to Hilton HHonors only at a ratio of 1 HawaiianMile for 1.5 HHonors points, in increments of 10,000 HawaiianMiles (for 15,000 HHonors points).

I don't like to play armchair industry analyst, but it was obviously problematic for Hilton's co-branded credit card issuers, American Express and Citi, that the Barclaycard-issued Hawaiian Airlines co-branded credit card was giving a higher signup bonus — in terms of HHonors points — than HHonors' own co-branded credit cards.

That problem has now been finessed, by reducing the appeal of the Hawaiian Airlines card for those interested only in transferring their miles to Hilton HHonors points, without devaluing Hawaiian's own award chart.