Originally Posted by
lougord99
And I bet those planes were half filled with award flyers.
No one knows for certain, but I can't imagine a Hawaii flight going out with 50% award users.
It seems like the usual laws of supply and demand as they pertain to the airlines' willingness to load award inventory would apply to Hawaii just like anywhere else.
I don't think Hawaii has a truly off-peak season (clearly the cold weather months in the U.S. contain some of the max-peak weeks to warm destinations), but we've only had success using our miles to Hawaii in the (U.S.) summer when presumably fewer people are seeking a tropical island.
Maybe *our* flights (by virtue of the timing) had a higher-than-average percentage of award users, but I'd guess it was closer to 10-20% than 50% Again, anecdotal observations based on how freakin' hard it is to find award seats to Hawaii without a huge amount of advance planning.
Summer is also a nice time to go for hotel awards - we've always received nice upgrades and enjoyed less-than-full hotels, reasonably easy-to-book activities, access to restaurants, etc. (OK, that's OT...)