Hawaii-based Airlines - Using Hawaiian Miles for Partner Awards

I've been hearing some conflicting information on how difficult it is to use Hawaiian miles on Delta. I've used Delta miles to book many Delta awards and haven't had TOO much difficulty (although its not as easy as booking AA awards). Is the availability for DL awards (using HA miles) the same as if I were using DL miles? Can anyone comment on the ease of using HA miles for partner awards? Can HA miles be used on American Airlines?

Generally, on the whole, HA availability on partner airlines is hard to come by. This is primarily the reason why I bank to other airlines when possible even when flying HA and avoid HA miles except to transfer to HHonors.

IIRC, the availability for using Skymiles is not the same as if using HawaiianMiles.

So if I've got a bunch of Hawaiian Airlines miles and I don't want to go to Hawaii. What are my best options for getting International flights?

From where, to where? In coach or business class?

So if I've got a bunch of Hawaiian Airlines miles and I don't want to go to Hawaii. What are my best options for getting International flights?

How many is a bunch?

I live near Miami, I have about 250k. What are my best options? International and domestic?

If you want intercontinental Business class awards (say, to Europe) you're going to work for it on Delta-operated flights. People with DL miles have the option of burning them on Air France, KLM and Alitalia (among others) to fly trans-Atlantic, in addition to redeeming more miles for Medium or High band Delta awards

work for it? meaning difficult? I usually fly coach. Also, it doesn't have to be Europe. Can be Japan or anywhere in Asia too. Any better options that would be easier to get an award ticket for? Does HA have good award options to get to Asia? Probably have to connect in HNL?

If you want to redeem HA miles for Delta flights, you need Delta's Low band award inventory.

http://dmn.delta.com/skymiles/direct/charts/us49/

The complaint that airlines don't make enough Low/saver/off-peak awards available is universal across FlyerTalk, but Delta's profoundly dysfunctional award calendar also make those available awards difficult to find. Advance search techniques are found in the thread below:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta-skymiles/1029634-definitive-how-search-low-tier-business-awards.html

Hawaiian Airlines reservation agents may not have the patience to conduct extensive searches for Delta award inventory; certainly some of Delta's own are unwilling.

Instead of trying to master Delta's award search, why not fly a different Hawaiian partner carrier? Maybe Virgin Atlantic, Miami to London (or beyond)?

Thanks for the reply, very helpful. Three questions :-)


1.) Ok, so if I understand correctly, HA miles can only be redeemed for LOW level award space on Delta? I cannot redeem HA miles for mid or high tier priced DL awards? Can you clarify that for me?



2. ) Also, I know HA has some other partners. What partners would I have the most ease redeeming my HA miles on? Doesn't have to be to Europe.


3.) Can I redeem my HA miles ON HA to go to Japan?

Thanks for the reply, very helpful. Three questions :-)


1.) Ok, so if I understand correctly, HA miles can only be redeemed for LOW level award space on Delta? I cannot redeem HA miles for mid or high tier priced DL awards? Can you clarify that for me?



Delta - as far as I know - only makes its Low band award inventory available for redemption with partner miles. This is true for the 20+ carriers that can redeem on Delta. You have no direct mechanism to redeem more HA miles for Delta Medium or High band awards, as can be done with Delta miles on Delta-operated flights.

As for your other questions, sorry, I'm a Delta and AA guy. I can't offer much help with regards to award availability on other carriers available with HA miles, other than to tell you watch out for blackout dates if you want to fly Korean Air. (I know that because Delta miles can be redeemed on KE, too.) Good luck using your miles.

I guess I'm just more concerned about which partners charge excessive fuel surcharges.

3.) Can I redeem my HA miles ON HA to go to Japan?
Yes, you can redeem your HawaiianMiles on HA to go to several international destinations, including Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Australia, and Tahiti. :cool:

Thanks for the reply, very helpful. Three questions :-)


2. ) Also, I know HA has some other partners. What partners would I have the most ease redeeming my HA miles on? Doesn't have to be to Europe.


3.) Can I redeem my HA miles ON HA to go to Japan?

what airlines you can redemn ha miles with
http://www.hawaiianair.com/HawaiianMiles/use-on-partner-airlines/

yes HA flies to japan...but only from Hawaii
http://www.hawaiianair.com/Aboutus/Pages/routemap.aspx

PM sent.

I've seen which airlines HA partners with.

From what you've described, I can book Delta LOW-Level awards, as long as the routing is on DELTA metal.

As far as ANA and Korean air, I see no point to use my miles on them, since HA flies to Japan and Korea anyways.

How about Virgin Atlantic? I don't know much about them. Do they charge hefty fuel surcharges?

And a followup question from Anitia's question above - does anyone know if you can do a stopover (i.e. London) using HA miles on Virgin Atlantic? I know you can't do an open jaw (website says RT only), but the HA T&C's don't address stopovers that I can see. Thanks!

And a followup question from Anitia's question above - does anyone know if you can do a stopover (i.e. London) using HA miles on Virgin Atlantic? I know you can't do an open jaw (website says RT only), but the HA T&C's don't address stopovers that I can see. Thanks!

I would call HA to enquire about this. Actually, I would call several times if you don't like the answer you get at first as Hawaiianmiles folks seem to be especially clueless in general. If you call, please report back as I'm curious to know the answer to this. I tend to avoid HawaiianMiles in general, but the ability to do a stopover with VS would be a great benefit.

Thanks saacman. I had the same thought yesterday after I posted. Tried calling a couple of times last night but couldn't wait out the hold times. Reached them today - no-go. No stopovers allowed, just connections. They wouldn't confirm how much layover time was allowed for a connection, even with some prompting on my part (24 hrs? 12 hrs?). To your point, it still may be a YMMV situation depending on the agent you get, but the one I talked to was adamant that stopovers were not allowed.

How about Virgin Atlantic? I don't know much about them. Do they charge hefty fuel surcharges?

I'm curious to find out if redeeming on Virgin is easy. 70k miles to anywhere in the world sounds pretty good. Most promising is travel to Asia as most FF programs charge a min of 80k to fly to Asia.

I am too curious to see the availability of HA miles on Virgin Atlantic's upper class.

I check JFK to HNL flights, and the business class is mostly unavailable, even using 80k miles one-way.

Virgin Atlantic puts fuel surcharges on award tickets. I wish I could use HA miles on American, or something with better availability to Europe.

I know delta awards are difficult to use. Just out of curiosity, has anyone successfully booked a delta award with hawaiian miles?
how about with any other partner airlines?

has anyone successfully booked Virgin Atlantic's upper class with hawaiian miles?
I saw it available on VS.com one rep told me it have to come back confirmed, im already waiting one week its still not confirmed, now they say the seats are not available, even seats i see on vs.com.

I have 140K HA miles so I called to check availability on 6 routes that I would normally book with Delta.

I first asked about Nashville to the Dominican Republic..... Long pause from CSR.......and then she says "Is that in Europe?". No dice once I explain to her where DR is.

Next up, a simple 2 hr flight into one of Delta's largest hubs in the US. BNA to MSP.......long pause again, then she says, "Nashville to Mississippi, one moment please.".........

Wow. No seats on that one either.

Finally, I asked for Nashville into Montego Bay, Jamaica for Spring Break next March. Long pause....."Montego Bay, is that in Florida, USA?"

Needless to say, there was no award availability to Europe (PUJ), Mississippi (MSP), or Florida, USA (MBJ) for the dates I needed or +- 3 weeks of those dates.

I asked the CSR if she had ever successfully booked an award seat on Delta using HA miles. She said occasionally it works out. She said that she and her department have never seen more than 2 award seats on the same flight, even on short haul ones from Atlanta to Detroit or Atlanta to Memphis, etc.

I think I'm going to give up on the pseudo HA/Delta relationship and transfer all my HA miles and Virgin miles to Hilton. 480,000 more Hilton miles isn't too shabby for 4 card sign ups.

If you've successfully found a way to make HA miles useful on Delta send me a PM.

Thanks,
baxterboy12

As hard as it is to find DL award seats with DL miles, it's no wonder it's difficult using HA miles. Have you found low level availability on DL's website prior to calling HA?

I'm curious to see about the using HA miles on Virgin Atlantic. Does ANYONE have any experience booking Virgin Atlantic OR Delta OR ANY partner airline award with Hawaiian miles? As soon as I get enough miles, I'll let you know my experience. :-)

As hard as it is to find DL award seats with DL miles, it's no wonder it's difficult using HA miles. Have you found low level availability on DL's website prior to calling HA?

I have been working all day with this. I have talked a ton of reps. I have found low level space on DL.com and have spoon feed to HA reps. No space. They seem to not find any space ever even if open LL on DL.com.

BTW found out that N space must exist for coach and O for biz on HA miles.

Has anyone EVER booked any seats on Delta with HA points? HUGE thanks in advance.

A couple of years ago, wishing to get from California to Europe, I spent probably two weeks of back and forth with the HA center trying to get a booking on either Delta or Virgin Atlantic. My efforts resulted in failure.

Ever optimistic, I just completed a phone call with the HA center. All I was trying to figure out was whether or not to even try...asking the question "have you or any other rep that you know of EVER been able to successfully book an Upper Class ticket on Virgin using HA miles?"...in other words, please don't ask me to waste my time or yours if the effort is going to likely fail.

The ONLY answer I could get was that HA reps have limited access to partner airline data bases and all they could do was submit a request for a specific itenerary. I then asked if they might receive an answer back giving optional dates that could successfully be booked. The answer was no. So, I asked, if I submit a request for a specific date, and it was rejected, I would have to submit another specific itinerary? Yes, was the answer...and it would take 24 to 48 hours to receive a reply. So, I then asked, if I were turned down for 10 or so different date requests, it could take as much as 20 days to finally conclude the answer was still NO? And the reply to that? Yes!.

I have used HA miles on HA bookings with great success, and I suspect, that is how I will continue to use those miles. Partner awards using HA miles, in spite of the hype of supposed benefits, are probably just wishful thinking.

I note that NO ONE here on this thread has ever answered in the affirmative to the question about success in booking a partner award with either Delta or Virgin Atlantic.

I note that NO ONE here on this thread has ever answered in the affirmative to the question about success in booking a partner award with either Delta or Virgin Atlantic.

That is pathetic. Why do they even have partners? Delta has non-existant availability for its own flyers, it's foolish to think that they would give any space to HA.

As a side note, does HA allow one-way awards for flights to Asia?

BTW found out that N space must exist for coach and O for biz on HA miles.


Those are the same inventory buckets for Low band award space secured with Delta miles.

Just out of curiousity, has anyone here ever actually booked ANY partner (Delta, Virgin, etc.) award using HA miles? Ever heard of someone doing it?

Here's a recent example:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/20192962-post22.html

Wow, that's an incredible story. Its amazing how poorly run HA Miles call center is.