MilesBuzz! - What would you do? Miles vs. pay...

Hi, first post! Planning honeymoon, flying from SFO to Big Island and then Maui (for Lanai). Want to do United first class, unfortunately saver awards all booked, so have to do 120k miles per person for 1st. Am 6.5k short, so would have to spend approx. $196 to get the 240k total. Or...could pay for coach at $677/each and use 30k each in miles for confirmed upgrade. Blow out the account, or???

Thanks much,
CACard

Welcome to FlyerTalk!

If you buy the ticket, you are spending around $577 more per person, but saving 95k per person in miles, roughly (that includes the miles earned on the paid ticket). To most, 95k miles is worth much more than $577.

So, if I am reading this correctly, you are in favor of buying the ticket and getting confirmed upgrade with miles? That is the option I am leaning toward. I guess the only downsides are: (a) cashflow and (b) risk of UA's mileage program going away at some point and the excess mles being worthless.

Hello and welcome to Flyertalk. Here's one way to look at it:

Redeeming for 2 First tickets:
Cost is 240k miles and $196

Purchasing 2 coach tickets and upgrading:
Cost is approx 49k miles (60k for upgrades less approx 11k earned, no status assumed) and $1354

Net cost of purchasing/upgrading:
191K miles saved/earned (240k-49k) for $1158 ($1354-$196), or six-tenths of a cent per mile, generally considered a very good cost per mile earned. Purchasing also contributes towards elite level (re)qualification for next year.

I would clearly purchase and upgrade.

I would absolutely pay for the ticket and use the miles to upgrade. 120k per person to get to Hawaii (especially from the West Coast) is too much.

If it weren't your honeymoon, I'd say Hawaii first from SFO isn't even worth the 30k upgrade. But since you are sitting on 200k, what the hell...

Think about the great first anniversary trip you'll be able to take with your pile of miles. Start thinking about that a month or two after the honeymoon and you will get business class Saver tickets to just about anywhere you want to go.

Pay coach, use points to upgrade. It's worth it, 'specially for honeymoon http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

Reality check

It the $677 each an upgradable fare? If not, then this analysis goes away.

The intra island flights are no big deal in first, indeed most would same the same for the flight from the West coast, if not the honeymoon part. Why are you traveling to three islands? Seems like that is too "busy".

Note some people would suggest burning the miles because of the iffy nature of UA. Guess the opinions have changed some since the Union votes.

Have a great new shared life

The UA rep gave me the rate with the suggestion of the confirmed upgrade, so yes she confirmed it was upgradeable. Great question though! We aren't doing three islands, it's just that there isn't a way to fly that we can find from the Big Island to Lanai. My understanding is my choices are: (a) fly Big Island to Honolulu to Lanai, or (b) fly Big Island to Maui, then take the boat over to Lanai.

Another option would be to call MP and ask them if they will let your account go negative for a little while. they sometimes approve it...

Welcome to Flyertalk, cacard.

There's been lots of good suggestions made on this thread, and it's already been pretty active (since I went to sleep, I guess!). So I'm not going to move it. However, I'd suggest posing specific United questions over on the United Mileage Plus forum (http://www.flyertalk.com/forumcgi/forumdisplay.cgi?action=topics&forum=United&number=50&DaysPrune=5&LastLogin=).

I will add to the thread that pretty much all United fares to Hawaii are upgradeable with miles (and by United elites with domestic 500 mile upgrade certificates, but those confirm only at the elite's upgrade window). They are also upgradeable with 1K Systemwide upgrades, but not with 1K Confirmed North American Upgrades (also known as HK49s) unless the member is a resident of Hawaii.

If there are no saver awards available, I'd definitely consider buying the ticket and confirming the upgrade (as long as confirmable upgrade space is available at the time you book. Make sure.)

Of course, if the CSR says upgrade space is available and it turns out that the space is not available, as long as you buy the tickets on united.com or from United directly over the phone you can always refund the tickets within 24 hours regardless of whether the tickets are refundable or not under the fare rules. And then you can start over.

Finally, when looking for Saver award space to Hawaii, consider checking whether Delta has any award availability. United miles can still be used to redeem Delta flights.

For that matter, consider routing through Canada -- check to see if Air Canada has any availability, and if they do claim a Star Alliance award with your United miles.

And also check availability on Aloha Airlines from each of their US gateways. Mileage Plus miles can be used to fly on Aloha.

And make sure that you're checking all United routings... that is, consider flying from LAX, SFO, and DEN. And consider flying to ANY of United's destinations in Hawaii. After all, you as long as you get to Hawaii you can always claim an intra-island award on Aloha for only 5000 miles.

There's more than one way to get to Hawaii!

Best,
Gary
aka gleff
MilesBuzz and Delta moderator

[This message has been edited by gleff (edited 04-18-2003).]

I really appreciate all of the fantastic recommendations everyone has provided!!! This site was a great find!

Thanks again,
CACard

If DL is still running SFO-HNL, have you checked if Delta BusinessElite is available?

I think Aloha Island Air flies the Kahului-Lanai City route, unless they've recently chopped it out. Not that the boat is a bad choice. I went to Lanai and Molokai both on one-day-wonder air trips (first flight out, last flight back) using UA miles on Island Air back in December (on my pinched budget it actually made more sense to do that out of HNL than to try staying overnight at those places).

I liked Lanai but it's 'spensive. Was very lucky to hit it on a clear day to hike the Munro trail to Lanaihale & the great views. Rental car costs are murder and you need something that's allowed off the paved roads to see a good chunk of the island. The C&C lodges, though, looked great for a super-splurge.