MilesBuzz! - Which miles to use for Hawaii inter-island flights?

I have miles on AA, United, US Airways , and British Airways. Which of these is easiest/cheapest to book inter-island Hawaii flights? I believe you can buy inter-island flights for just $80 each way. So it may make more sense to buy instead of use miles if I have to pay $30+ in fees for each booking.

Interisland flights can be booked on UA.com and AA.com. UA charges 5K each way, whether non-stop or connecting flight. AA is 5K one-way but I thought I'd read that it's per-segment - someone more familiar with AA can probably confirm if that's accurate or not.

UA.com provides more choices with Island Air options in addition to HA.

All you pay in cash with both of those options, is the $2.50 PFC (or whatever that little tax/fee item is) so long as you book online.

We used miles for ITO-OGG this summer. I had debated a bit on which way to go - $80-$100 isn't much but it felt like a lot for a ~30 minute flight. Plus we had plenty of other expenses so ended up going with miles and am glad we did.

I have miles on AA, United, US Airways , and British Airways. Which of these is easiest/cheapest to book inter-island Hawaii flights? I believe you can buy inter-island flights for just $80 each way. So it may make more sense to buy instead of use miles if I have to pay $30+ in fees for each booking.

Interisland flights are not book able with BA miles so you can rule that out. US will hit you with a fee that makes an inter island booking unreasonable IMO. That leaves AA and UA. Both are good options with UA having the advantage of having access to Island Air in addition to Hawaiian.

Why are you booking the interisland portion separate? Why not just add it into your award booking from the beginning?

there are other threads regarding this topic in the hawaii airlines forum..

i would just pay cash..the UA flights will be in the early morning/last flight at night..you can also book with aa and delta miles as well

Agree on just paying the cash because they're usually just $80 each way on Hawaiian Airlines 717s

I would honestly pay cash, I've seen some down to close to mid 50's last time we were in Kona (KOA-HNL)

Not worth the 5k miles imho.