How to use Frequent Flyer miles for Hawaii flights
I don’t believe in coincidences, so when 3 different friends recently asked me about getting to Hawaii using Miles & Points, I felt like the stars were aligned or the universe was trying to tell me something (or maybe Hawaii is just really popular). I needed to write a post about this. Hawaii is, so far, my favorite place on the planet (specifically Kauai, specifically-er the North Shore). While I am not an expert, I have planned 3 trips to Hawaii where all of the flights were free (so I guess that does make me an expert, right? Not really).
I will start by explaining how we have planned our Hawaii trips, and then will add some other options as well. For all 3 of these trips, we are originating from the East Coast, but wanted to break up the trip by flying to/from the West Coast and avoiding a super-long flight. We (and my in-laws) have family to visit on the West Coast and places we wanted to go before/after Hawaii, so this is how I chose to book our trips.
How we used miles for our next Hawaii vacation flights (#1)
1. Used British Airways Avios (their frequent flyer mile program) on Alaskan Airlines metal (this means the actual plane you will be flying on) to get from (OAK) Oakland, CA to (KOA) Kona Airport on the Big Island.
- I knew we wanted a direct flight from the West Coast to the Big Island, so I looked here to see which airlines fly from which airports to get to KOA
- British Airways uses a distance-based award chart, which makes it “cheaper” in miles to get from the West Coast to Hawaii than it would with any other Frequent Flyer program (it is 12,500 Avios per person instead of the more typical 20,000 miles in other programs)
- Because BA is in the Oneworld alliance, you can “purchase” a flight on one of their partner airlines using Avios & use the Avios award chart (which is more generous for the short-haul flights)
TOTAL = 50,000 British Airways Avios for 4 people from Oakland-Kona
How can you get British Airways Avios?
- By getting a Chase British Airways credit card (at the time of this writing, the bonus is 50,000 miles after spending $2000 within 3 months)
- By transferring Chase Ultimate Rewards point 1:1 for Avios (you can get UR points by getting a Chase Sapphire Preferred or Chase Ink Bold or Ink Plus Business Card)
- By transferring American Express Membership Rewards point to British Airways (you can get Amex points from various Amex cards). Many times there are transfer bonuses of 20%-50% when you transfer Membership Rewards point to British Airways Avios
- By transferring SPG points to British Airways (you will get 25,000 miles for transferring 20,000 SPG points). You can get SPG points by staying in their hotels or you can get an SPG personal and/or business card with a 25,000 point bonus
- Shopping at the British Airways shopping portal
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2. Used Southwest Rapid Rewards miles to get us from Philadelphia to Oakland
(We will stay a couple of days before our flight to Kona)
- Southwest reward tickets are based on the cost of the actual ticket (70 points per dollar, just recently raised from 60 points per dollar), so the lower fares will have lower miles “cost”
- Southwest offers Companion Passes (maybe my favorite thing ever) – if you earn 110,000 miles in a calendar year, you get a pass where you can bring a companion on your paid OR reward flights & just pay the taxes (like, $2.50). So if you get 2 credit card sign-up bonuses at 50K bonus miles each, you just have to get an extra 6K miles (after the minimum spend requirements) to get a Companion Pass
TOTAL = It was about 20,000 miles total for all 4 of us
How can you get Southwest Rapid Rewards points?
- Chase has 4 different Southwest credit cards (2 personal, 2 business) and they often offer 50,000 bonus miles for signing up and meeting the minimum spend requirement
- Transfer from Chase Ultimate Rewards (same as above)
- Shop using the Southwest shopping portal
- Transfer hotel points to Southwest
- Earn Southwest points when renting cars
- Rapid Rewards Dining (see here for more information about earning miles & points for dining out)
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3. Used United Airlines miles for inter-island flights on Hawaiian Airlines – from the Big Island to Kauai (via Honolulu)
- Each flight cost 5,000 United Miles (flown on Hawaiian Airlines) and $5.00
TOTAL = 20,000 miles for the 4 of us
How can you get United miles?
- Chase offers United Airlines credit cards. When we got them a while back, the bonus was much higher at 65,000 miles per card (and we each got one)
- Transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards points (as above)
- United’s Dining and Entertainment partners
- United shopping portal
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4. Used British Airways Avios to fly from LIH (Kauai) to SEA (Seattle) on Alaskan Airlines
- Same as above. 12,500 British Airways Avios each to get from Hawaii to the West Coast
TOTAL = 50,000 British Airways Avios for 4 people
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5. Used United miles to fly from Seattle to Philadelphia
- We were able to get first class saver tickets for 25,000 miles per ticket, which was the best option for the flights and dates that we wanted and needed
TOTAL = 100,000 United miles for 4 first class one-way tickets
So the total for 4 people is 240,000 miles for this Hawaiian vacation! 5 different flights. And we only paid the taxes/fees!
This is how it breaks down for that trip in Credit Card sign-ups:
- British Airways Chase card (we got it when the bonus was 100,000 miles), but if you have 2 people you could each get it with a 50,00 mile bonus
- Southwest Chase card x 2 (we each got 2 Southwest cards – we booked tons of trips with these miles plus Companion Pass)
- United Airlines card (we each got one when bonus was 65,000 miles)
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How my in-laws are getting to Hawaii (#2)
This is similar to what we did, with less credit card sign-ups and only 2 people. They are only going to one island, so did not need the interisland flight.
- They got a British Airways Visa with the 50,000 mile sign up bonus. This is enough for the 2 of them to get roundtrip from the West Coast to Hawaii
- They got a Southwest Visa with a 50,000 mile bonus. This was enough to book the 2 of them to and from the West Coast
So, for 2 credit card sign-ups, they were able to get 2 people from the East Coast to Hawaii only paying for the taxes and fees.
How we traveled to Hawaii in 2012 (#3)
We pretty much followed similar steps as in #1. We used British Airways Avios (that we had gotten from a 100,000 mile sign-up bonus) to book the 4 of us roundtrip to Hawaii from the West Coast on American Airlines (because of the partner alliance). We used American Airlines to get us to the West Coast so that we could spend some time at Disneyland before Hawaii and visiting family near Los Angeles after our Hawaii trip.
Using other Frequent Flyer programs to get to Hawaii
In addition to what I have written about our experiences, you can also fly airlines such as American, United, USAirways, Delta, Alaskan, and Hawiian airlines to Hawaii from the Mainland. Generally flights are 40,000 miles roundtrip. They can be harder to book, and you may have various connections and layovers. There are also some direct East Coast to Honolulu flights as well, but these have not been practical for our family and our travel plans.
Here are the things to consider:
- It can take time to apply for the card (and wait for a good bonus), get it in the mail, meet the minimum spend, have the miles post to your account, and then book the flights.
- You may have to be flexible with dates, flights, airports (both on the Mainland and in Hawaii)
- I have booked our 2 trips exactly on the date that the flights became available (11 months out), and my in-laws’ trip about 8 months out (they weren’t able to get the exact dates that would have been ideal, but it worked out)
What do you do if you don’t have much time to wait?
If you are looking to book a Hawaii flight, but don’t have much time to wait for the above considerations, consider getting a credit card that offers cash back for travel. That way you can purchase your tickets and get a refund (statement credit) for your travel purchase. I recently got the Barclaycard Arrival World MasterCard. This would be a great option for any travel that you have to pay for, especially if 2 spouses could each get a card. With the current bonus, you would each get $440 worth of free travel. You could use this bonus to offset the cost of your flights. The 40,000 bonus points for this offer equal $440 worth of travel.
Here is the information for the Barclaycard:
