Hawaii - Flying to Hawaii 3-4 times per year for work on my dime.

Thanks in advance for any insight...

I just had a contract awarded to me that will put me in Hawaii 3 or 4 time every year. I am based in Long Beach, and can easily use LAX, John Wayne or LGB.

I am a pretty die hard Southwest flyer, and would love any insight into what airline I should start using for the flights to Hawaii. I will be on 3 or 4 of the islands each trip, so I am fairly flexible as to where I land and leave from. The inter-island travel will be a whole separate set of decisions... :confused:


I have been about 4 pages of threads back and don't really see what I am looking for.

Curious which program with which airline will be best over the course of the next few years. Thanks in advance for any help.

For nonstops. Lax would be your best bet with aa dl ua or Hawaiian
Interisland go with Hawaiian or Island Air
Avoid Mesa Go! airlines and or mokulele

Also CO direct to ITO now from LAX.
If you are looking at maximizing some FF miles that you can use to later offset the cost of flights in the future, you might consider joining HA miles program and using them for all your Hawaii travel. Eventually will save you $.

I would also look to fly out of LAX but would choose to fly one of aa, dl or ua over ha from the mainland, unless you want to use your miles for more free flights to the islands. Certainly you could use Hawaiian miles for other trips, but you are much more limited than what you would get from the legacy carriers and their alliances. They also have many more direct flights to the other islands if you'd prefer to not transfer in HNL every time.

Hawaiian now gives Actual miles vs. a 500 mile min on InterIsland flights
Some exceptions for pualani elite members and those with a Hawaiian Airlines branded CC

Lots of options here.

AA, DL, and UA all fly to LIH, HNL, OGG, and KOA out of LAX.
CO flies to HNL and ITO out of LAX, and HNL and OGG from SNA.
HA flies just to HNL out of LAX, but connects to all the other 4 from there, so you could do all mileage on one airline for points with HA.

CO's planes are least desirable, IMO. Older, smaller 73G's and 738's with no power, no seatback TV's.

AA's 757's are about the same, except newer and with power available in approx. every other seat.

DL flies 753's and 76P's. No power, shared TV. But in the 76P (a 767-300) you have a 2-3-2, meaning each row has 2 window seats, 4 aisle seats, and only 1 middle.

Best planes are a toss-up.

HA is flying new 332's with individual TV's and power, but only 32" pitch in economy (still better than 31" from most others).

UA flies a 757 and a 763. Shared TV and no power with either, but the 763 has the desirable 2-3-2 configuration and both have Economy Plus, with 35" seat pitch.

I wouldn't advise using miles or $ to get F on such a short flight - it's OK for DFW, ORD, JFK, etc. but really a waste when there are only maybe 3 hours sleep time, max, after meals, etc. - and these seats don't lie anywhere near flat anyway. This advice holds for any of the airlines.

If I were in your shoes, I would rule out everybody except HA (and use them exclusively for interisland) and UA (E+). Just my $0.02.

Keep in mind that you get Pualani Gold status at 20,000 miles. Might make it worthwhile to figure out whether you'd actually make that 4th trip to hit status.

UA has the most options and even more now with CO. If you manage to get even entry level elite status you'll have a good shot at being upgraded - HI routes are some of the easiest in that regard.
(and drop WN along the way - they are more expensive than the rest these days and without FF program for all practical purpose)

HA flies just to HNL out of LAX, but connects to all the other 4 from there, so you could do all mileage on one airline for points with HA.OP should mention which island. I don't regularly fly HA because of the connection thru HNL, of course they'd be great if HNL is where OP is going.

UA/CO may have best options for you. direct flights from LAX to all major islands. also CO N/S from SNA to Oahu and Maui...but not great schedules. but, overall might be best option. If I recall correctly, you can also use UA/CO miles for HA redemption...others may be able to verify that.

I like HA service and planes best...but flying only to HNL isn't great/convenient.

good luck

If a good frequent flyer program is an important consideration, I would avoid Delta. Their otherwise generous elite upgrade policy does not apply on their Hawaii flights, and award flights are very hard to obtain at the low redemption level. Go to the DL forum and you will see a new thread almost every day about the award scarcity.

AA works for me, albeit from the Hawaii end. By booking well in advance, I am often able to book interisland HA-AA codeshares connecting onto AA mainland flights for the same price as a flight from the mainland to HNL alone. They offer upgrades to and from Hawaii (with some limits,) and I have found low award redemption to be a breeze compared to DL. I hear that UA/CO is good in both these regards as well, and I am considering their ITO-LAX option. For now, I am with AA, mainly because I have business in Texas and Oklahoma that they make easy.

CO's planes are least desirable, IMO. Older, smaller 73G's and 738's with no power, no seatback TV's.



I flew a CO 737-700 from SNA-HNL in March and had power and personal TV in row 10. Has something changed?

Personally I would use UA/CO Mileage Plus. Hawaiian and Island Air are partners so you can accrue Mileage Plus miles on island hoppers.

Reno1979, there are several things to consider. The first question I would ask myself is, how long is this contract good for? From there you can figure out how many times you will be in Hawaii. In reality you have to decide if you want to save cash or receive some benefit from a FF program. They can go hand in hand at times. Just one trip will net you 5,000 miles. If you fly 3 to 4 times a year, that will be 15K to 20 K per year.

You will also need to take into consideration a hotel program. Some programs will give you better benefits related to transfering miles into a FF program. You should also consider car rental programs as well.

I would download all of the airlines schedules and take a good look at them. They can change but you can get an idea of which airlines fly to which islands and their flight times. As an example, HA flies non stop from LAX into HNL but does not fly non stop to LIH out of LAX. DL might fly non stop into LIH but they have a late arrival time.

Great info. I thank all that posted. I will be caught right in between 3-4 flights per year. Definitely 4 the first year. Flying in and out of HNL will always be acceptable.

The reason I just can't get away from Southwest is I change flights ALL THE TIME. I book and rebook constantly. Change fees would kill me. The flights I frequent from LAX are not out of line with any legacy price wise, but a change fee would suck.

Thanks again.

I flew a CO 737-700 from SNA-HNL in March and had power and personal TV in row 10. Has something changed?

Personally I would use UA/CO Mileage Plus. Hawaiian and Island Air are partners so you can accrue Mileage Plus miles on island hoppers.
Nothing has changed. All 737-700 aircraft are equip with DirectTV now (and also should have power):

http://www.continental.com/CMS/en-US/travel/Pages/DirecTVFleetStatus.aspx

Also, remember that you cannot bank Hawaiian interisland flights to a UA account unless they are flown in conjunction with a UA mainland flight. Not sure if that changes with the merger, since CO's policy is different.

Hawaiian now gives Actual miles vs. a 500 mile min on InterIsland flights
Some exceptions for pualani elite members and those with a Hawaiian Airlines branded CC

Thanks for jogging my memory..

I've flown Hawaiian a couple times over the last couple of years.. and don't recall miles ever being credited to my Aeroplan account..

I suppose Hawaiian has to be star alliance for them to credit? What group of airlines are they?

Thanks for jogging my memory..

I've flown Hawaiian a couple times over the last couple of years.. and don't recall miles ever being credited to my Aeroplan account..

I suppose Hawaiian has to be star alliance for them to credit? What group of airlines are they?
Of the US majors, you can credit to DL, UA/CO, AA. All still give 500 miles minimums for HA segments. With UA, though, you can only earn if the segment is tagged on to a domestic UA flight.

Of the US majors, you can credit to DL, UA/CO, AA. All still give 500 miles minimums for HA segments. With UA, though, you can only earn if the segment is tagged on to a domestic UA flight.

I checked interisland flights with UA.. something like $600 pp last spring break..

I said to myself.. Hawaiian is the answer.. That's an expensive interisland trip on uA.. hindsight.. an expensive 500 miles to purchase..

I checked interisland flights with UA.. something like $600 pp last spring break..

I said to myself.. Hawaiian is the answer.. That's an expensive interisland trip on uA.. hindsight.. an expensive 500 miles to purchase..
I don't know if Hawaiian is necessarily the answer. If you don't have Pualani status or the BOA/BOH credit card and are solely looking to redeem for HA interisland flights, you're looking at 15,000 miles per roundtrip reward. Compare that to CO/AA, which only require 10,000 miles for the same roundtrip reward. Sure, HA has better availability, but under these circumstances, you're getting more bang for each mile if you bank to someone other than HA. With AA, you also may be charged a booking fee; CO allows you to book those rewards online thereby avoiding such fee.

I don't know if Hawaiian is necessarily the answer. If you don't have Pualani status or the BOA/BOH credit card and are solely looking to redeem for HA interisland flights, you're looking at 15,000 miles per roundtrip reward. Compare that to CO/AA, which only require 10,000 miles for the same roundtrip reward. Sure, HA has better availability, but under these circumstances, you're getting more bang for each mile if you bank to someone other than HA. With AA, you also may be charged a booking fee; CO allows you to book those rewards online thereby avoiding such fee.

Thanks for the clarification.. We pay for our interisland flights.. usually just works out to be $100 pp one way..

We don't do roundtrips back to the same island.. we open jaw out of the islands on FF redemptions..

For a 15 minute roundtrip flight.. seems a bit of a waste of 10K or 15K.. but its good info to know..

And we don't mind paying the extra to fly with Hawaiian, over Mokulele/Go! I guess some locals didn't like the way Mokulele pushed out Aloha..

Once you achieve Gold status, you can do standby to earlier flights with no change fee. Otherwise its a $30 change fee each flight, plus whatever the difference in the fare. It might be worthwhile buying the Pulani status.

Once you achieve Gold status, you can do standby to earlier flights with no change fee. Otherwise its a $30 change fee each flight, plus whatever the difference in the fare. It might be worthwhile buying the Pulani status.

This is where I heard Mokulele/Go! airlines can provide standby at no charge..

For us.. we felt Hawaiian.. well.. makes our vacation feel Hawaiian.. we've always showed up at flight time.. and they've been very helpful with excellent customer service..