One of the most common questions Leana and I are asked is: How can we book flights to Hawaii with miles and points from credit cards?
Hawaii is such a dream vacation spot. I’ve been there 3 times, and I’d still love to go back again. Even though the flights are long (especially from the East Coast), I like that we don’t need to mess with immigration and different driving laws since Hawaii is part of the United States.
Unfortunately, traveling to Hawaii isn’t cheap. Flights run $1000+ from many parts of the USA. Plus, lodging and food costs are higher in Hawaii. So, getting award flights can knock a significant amount off the price of a Hawaiian vacation.
Fortunately, there are a lot of ways to fly to Hawaii on miles and points. The best way for you will depend on the location of your home airport, your previous credit card history and your 5/24 status. Today, I’m covering two different credit card strategies to book flights to Hawaii.
Method One: Accumulate and Use Chase Ultimate Rewards
Accumulating Chase Ultimate Rewards is a great way to book award flights to Hawaii. You can transfer Chase points to several useful travel partners, including Southwest Airlines, United and British Airways.
Recommended cards: I recommend applying for the Chase Sapphire Preferred (affiliate link) card. The current welcome bonus is 60,000 points after spending $4000 in the first 3 months. It does have an annual fee of $95. If you and a partner/spouse each get this card, you will have at least 128,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards. If you have a small business, you can also apply for the Chase Ink Preferred card.(affiliate link). This card’s welcome bonus is currently 100,000 points after spending $8000 in the first 3 months ($95 annual fee). Note: Chase will likely not approve you for a new card if you’ve opened 5 or more new cards in the past 24 months. See this post for more details. If you and your partner both open a Chase Sapphire Preferred card plus one Chase Ink Preferred card, you would have at least 236,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points.
How to use Chase Ultimate Rewards to book award flights to Hawaii:
Transfer to Southwest Airlines: The great thing about booking flights on Southwest Airlines is that the price in points is based on the cash price. Therefore, there is always award availability, although the number of points will vary. From the West Coast, I see one-way award prices as low as 11.779 points. Connecting flights from other U.S. cities will run higher. The lowest I see from DFW in June is ~25,000 miles each way.
Transfer to British Airways: You can use British Airways Avios (miles) to book American Airlines flights or Alaska Airlines flights. British Airways has a distance-based chart and charges by flight segment, so the best deals will be on nonstop flights from the West Coast of the U.S. Nonstop flights between LAX and Hawaii are 16,000 miles each way. See this post for more info on using British Airways Avios.
Nonstop flights from DFW are 20,750 Avios.
Transfer to United: United has nonstop and connecting flights from many U.S. cities with one-way award flights for as low as 25,000 miles each way. For example, I see a lot of availability in the fall from Houston to Honolulu:
Transfer to Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer: When you transfer to Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles, you can book Star Alliance Flights (United) or Alaska Airline flights to Hawaii. Note that transferring Chase Ultimate Rewards to Singapore can take up to 7 days. A flight from Houston to Honolulu on a United plane is as low as 19,500 KrisFlyer miles:
Singapore KrisFlyer miles can also be used to fly from the West Coast to Hawaii on nonstop Alaska Airlines flights for 13,000 miles. But, you cannot book those flights online. You must call Singapore Airlines to book.
Transfer to Air Canada Aeroplan: Aeroplan miles can also be used for Star Alliance flights, including United Airlines. The price in miles is less than through United, but the taxes are more. You can get from LAX to Honolulu for 12,500 miles:
Prices vary by US city. Flights from Houston to Honolulu are 22,500 miles.
Method 2: Accumulate and Use American Airlines Miles
I always recommend collecting flexible points (like Chase Ultimate Rewards) before airline miles because you have more options with flexible points. But, maybe you are over 5/24 and can’t get any new Chase cards at the moment. Or, maybe you live near an American Airlines hub. Collecting AA miles is another way to get to Hawaii, and there are several credit cards available to help you rack up those miles.
Recommended cards: The easiest card for earning American Airlines miles is the Barclay AAvantage Aviator Mastercard (my referral link). The current bonus on this card is 75,000 miles after you make one purchase, add an authorized user who makes one purchase, and pay the annual $99 fee. (This offer expires 1/31/24). That’s it! Barclay lets you add anyone age 13 and up as an authorized user. So, if you have teenagers in that age range, I recommend you add them as an authorized user. If you and your partner each get this card, you will have 150,000 American Airline miles. Citi also has American Airlines credit cards. Currently, the Citi /AAdvantage Platinum Select Mastercard (non-affiliate link) has a 50,000-mile bonus (it’s been higher in the past) after spending $2500 in the first 3 months. The annual fee is waived the first year. If you and your partner each get this card, that’s another 105,000 AA miles. Plus, if you have a small business, you can get the CitiBusiness/AAdvantage Platinum Select Mastercard (affiliate link) with its own 65,000-mile welcome bonus. Just getting the two personal cards (both you and partner) would get you over 250,000 AA miles!
Using AA miles: It’s easy to use AA miles online, and I’ve found a lot of award availability with up to 7 sAAver award seats on each flight. That makes it a great option for large families. AA also lets you put award tickets on hold for a few days. Award prices are as low as 22,500 miles each way:
I like that AA has nonstop flights from DFW to both Oahu and Maui.
Final Thoughts
There are a lot of ways to earn miles and points to fly to Hawaii, and this post just covers a few. In reality, many of us utilize a “mix and match” strategy when it comes to booking award tickets to Hawaii, using one currency for one way and a different currency for the flight home. Flexible points like Chase Ultimate Rewards give you many transfer partner options, but American Airlines miles are very easy to earn. Remember to always look for award availability before you transfer points, book as far in advance as possible, and be flexible with your dates.
Are you planning a trip to Hawaii with miles and points?
amen!
@Jean Luc I don’t want to pick an argument with you, but I’m one of those people who would absolutely burn 45k United miles on a $600 ticket. And I’ve been doing this hobby for over 20 years, not to mention writing on this blog for over 10. So I wouldn’t call myself low-information, or whatever that means. We all value miles differently and if you got 45k United miles via sign-up bonus, then redeeming them towards a $600 ticket for Hawaii trip is an excellent value proposition for a family on a budget. Different strokes to different folks.
@Leana Some people live by a value of points and miles that they’ve ready or heard from a blogger/vlogger and believe it to be gospel. I love when folks say that they’ll never redeem for less than 2cpp in value.
IMO, my points and miles are worth whatever I choose to redeem them for. I’m not going to let someone I don’t know (or even those I do) tell me what the value of my points should be.
@Jean Luc seems to have a similar mindset. However, what he (or she) fails to realize is that some folks are willing to use their points in miles for any value…regardless of how it stacks up to the opinion of others.
I can tell you that I would happily use 45K miles against a $600 ticket. My ability to earn MR points is soo easy that I’d probably use them for even less value because the rate of replenishment is extremely fast in my situation.
As you said, different strokes for different folks and @Jean Luc may find even more happiness in this hobby if they’d stop letting some outside source tell them what the value of their travel currency should be.
Well said, Leana and @2808 Heavy. 🙂
“Not true. Check out flights in December 2024”
I did, and here’s what I found. Again, this is United, for Houston to Honolulu, one way, in December 2024.
Dec 13 – 25: 45k miles vs $430-$600
Dec 26 – 28: 90k miles vs $1500 to $1600
So my apologies, you were correct. You can actually get a very decent value for your miles (1.77 cents per mile). Provided you’re willing to blow 90k, that is, rather than fork $1600. For a one way economy flight. Otherwise, no.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
@Jean Luc How did you not see early December with flights from $500-$600 or 25k miles? And many dates in November.Those deals are there. You just have to book far in advance and be flexible with your dates.
“ The price of that one-way flight from Houston to Hawaii varies from $300-$600 depending on the day, so on some days it does make more sense to use miles”
When the cash rate is $600, United charges 45k miles (I just checked). Only low information readers would consider this a good deal, so, honestly, you’re not doing them any favors by not mentioning this.
For years now, redeeming United, American, Delta etc miles for domestic flights is not worth it. You’re much better off getting a 2% cash back card and using that money to buy tickets with cash. If you or your readers disagree, please provide examples.
I see, for example, a comment from a gentleman who proudly says he has a credit card that he uses to accrue Hawaiian miles. Probably at a rate of 1 mile per dollar. And then he says that’s how he will fly to HI “for free”. I feel really sorry for him – he’s getting such a lousy deal …
@Jean Luc “When the cash rate is $600, United charges 45k miles (I just checked).” Not true. Check out flights in December 2024. I’m glad you found a credit card strategy that works for you. We will just have to agree to disagree on several points, and that’s ok. Thanks for reading, and enjoy your evening!
Kudos to those who can tolerate the flight in saver eco award space. I tried it and I really, really wish I could have tolerated it a bit better because I’d definitely visit HNL more often.
I book with AS from SEA to HNL and that was the longest 6.5 hours of my travel life. I can handle the 737-900ER on short haul domestic trips but 6.5 hours in that seat was just too much.
@2808 Heavy I understand. It’s about 8 hours nonstop from DFW. We flew in Economy for two trips and then in Premium Economy on the third trip. We were just so excited to be going to Hawaii.
@Nancy I’m sure some would call it a waste of points/miles but I was really tempted to book an extra seat for myself so that my wife and I could have an entire row to ourselves.
The space is already tight and having a 3rd person just made the 6.5 hour flight a little less tolerable.
What do you think? Do you know of anyone who has done such just to have a little extra space. I don’t mind throwing the miles away if it means making the flight experience a bit better.
@2808 Heavy I haven’t done it, but I would definitely consider it in the future, especially for Europe flights!
Great post! Hawaiian Airlines is another great option. I accumulate miles quickly with their credit card. My son and I are going to Kauai for free in September.
@ericlarsen57 We flew on Hawaiian Airlines home from Oahu, and we enjoyed everything about the flight more than we enjoyed our AA flight. 🙂 Glad you are having luck with their miles. Have a great trip to Kauai!
“United has nonstop and connecting flights from many U.S. cities with one-way award flights for as low as 25,000 miles each way. For example, I see a lot of availability in the fall from Houston to Honolulu”
First, the example you picked shows a 30 minute layover in LAX. Good luck making that connection!
Second, that example shows that the ticket costs 25k miles. The cash rate is around $300. That’s a very low value per mile. I think you should have pointed out to your readers what is a reasonable redemption rate. This is a major problem with the US domestic flights – the carriers want a lot of points for the domestic flights, so most of the time it’s simply not worth the trouble. The only advantage is that you cancel the award flights for free and not have to worry about e-credits that expire in one year.
good point. i often see articles like this showing many award redemption examples and i think it’ll be easy to get them, then when it comes time for me to find a flight i am unable to find anything reasonable. it can be really tough!
@Sara I found these examples fairly quickly when I did a search the other day. I didn’t include transferring to Air France for Delta flights on my list because I couldn’t easily find award space examples. To increase your chances of booking the flights you want with miles: Book early (like 11 months in advance), be flexible with your dates, and have multiple miles/points currencies you can work with.
@Jean Luc Thanks for your feedback. The purpose of this post was to just show how much award prices are for each airline via Chase transfer. I included examples of award availability that I found easily. I’m not suggesting that anyone take these exact flights, and I just took a screenshot of the first Houston flight on that day. United has other 25k flights on the same day with longer layovers, and I replaced my screenshot with a different one if that makes you feel better. 🙂 The value of using miles vs. paying with cash is a topic we’ve written about in the past and will likely cover again soon, but not in this same post. For newbies, I like to keep my posts shorter because it’s a lot of information to digest. The price of that one-way flight from Houston to Hawaii varies from $300-$600 depending on the day, so on some days it does make more sense to use miles.
Nice 👍
@Satyam Thanks!