130K AA miles enough for business class award to / from Hawaii?
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 2013
Posts: 16
130K AA miles enough for business class award to / from Hawaii?
I used to travel AA for business and recently have switched to a different airline. I have 130K miles with AA and don't want them to go to waste so was thinking about taking the wife on a trip to Hawaii (don't know which islands).
Anyone have experience with using their points for Hawaii? Business class worth it or no? Just trying to use up my 130K points in the most efficient way.
Anyone have experience with using their points for Hawaii? Business class worth it or no? Just trying to use up my 130K points in the most efficient way.
#3
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Not here; there!
Programs: AA Lifetime Gold
Posts: 29,360
I used to travel AA for business and recently have switched to a different airline. I have 130K miles with AA and don't want them to go to waste so was thinking about taking the wife on a trip to Hawaii (don't know which islands).
Anyone have experience with using their points for Hawaii? Business class worth it or no? Just trying to use up my 130K points in the most efficient way.
Anyone have experience with using their points for Hawaii? Business class worth it or no? Just trying to use up my 130K points in the most efficient way.
From what city are you starting?
Using AA miles for Business Class travel to near South America (e.g., Ecuador, Peru, or Colombia) would be cheaper.
#4
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Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Not here; there!
Programs: AA Lifetime Gold
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A MileSAAver Business Class roundtrip award between the Mainland and Hawaii now costs 110K AA miles. Not sure where you came up with 80K.
#6
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Thousand Oaks, Ca., USA
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True, but depending from where, Hawaiian Airlines may be the better purchase. Lie flats from LAX on Hawaiian, you have to leave DFW for lie flights on AA.
#8
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Location: RDU <|> MMX
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I used to travel AA for business and recently have switched to a different airline. I have 130K miles with AA and don't want them to go to waste so was thinking about taking the wife on a trip to Hawaii (don't know which islands).
Anyone have experience with using their points for Hawaii? Business class worth it or no? Just trying to use up my 130K points in the most efficient way.
Anyone have experience with using their points for Hawaii? Business class worth it or no? Just trying to use up my 130K points in the most efficient way.
From the west coast, there are quicker and easier options than backtracking to DFW (from LAX and PHX), however all of these will be on 321's with standard domestic first class recliner type seats. AS also has tons of flights to Hawaii from virtually every large west coast city, but again these will be on 737's with a standard domestic first class. But, business award availability is MUCH easier to come by on these flights. Keep in mind using AA miles for flights on AS will not be an option much longer.
That said, in terms of an efficient use of miles, then west coast to Hawaii for 55k each way in business is a pretty horrible use of miles, IMO. For basically the same amount you can get to Europe (57.5k) or Japan/Korea (60k) in business class.
#9
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: CLT
Programs: AA EP, AA AC
Posts: 4,268
Actually, there is lie flat to the islands from DFW to HNL/OGG and seasonally from ORD-HNL and believe that as of right now anyway, PHX has a A330 flying to HNL as well. As others mentioned, sAAver awards on any of those flights is a challenge.
Safe Travels
Safe Travels
#10
Moderator: American AAdvantage
Join Date: May 2000
Location: NorCal - SMF area
Programs: AA LT Plat; HH LT Diamond, Matre-plongeur des Muccis
Posts: 62,948
Another option for the moment (AA chose to end the award possibilities with AS) is to use Alaska Airlines. Though 130,000 AA miles wont get two there in domestic F, AS offers some nonstop Hawaii flights. We used AA miles for SMF-KOA return in August. MileSAAver awards In domestic First.
#11
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: NYC
Programs: AA EXP/OWE, Marriott Ambassador
Posts: 880
Hey HardHitter! Not sure when you are looking to fly, but this is one of those flights I would just pay cash for. Shelling out miles (depending how you value them) could be a far-more expensive option than if you just paid cash. For me, unless it's lie flat, it's not worth using miles.
Considering it's Hawaii, I would set expectations to have a non-favorable mileage redemption. If you're open to just paying up, here is a quick search that I found. (Again I don't know the dates you're traveling so I can't really help there, but I would advise being flexible with travel to HI and recommend flying mid-week.)
Random Date Findings: Tuesday 2/4 - Monday 2/10
Hawaiian Airlines - $1337.52 RT/pp - certainly not the cheapest deal, but pretty good considering you get lie-flat, and it's direct (I've never flown this product, and can't comment on it on that basis, but it is lie-flat)
American - $150 more/pp and you connect via LAX in regular domestic biz seats (non lie-flat)
United - same $ as American, but unlike American, their regular biz lie-flat product is garbage (2-4-2), unless you snag Polaris
I would highly advise against paying 100s-of-thousands of miles to fly to HI. If you can fly for $1338 in lie-flat, essentially that redemption would be 1 cent per mile, which to me is a garbage redemption assuming $130k miles as some posters have alluded to. Save those 100k+ miles for redemptions to Europe in Flagship lie-flat products, or for redemption on BA or another partner airline. (But that's just me.)
Considering it's Hawaii, I would set expectations to have a non-favorable mileage redemption. If you're open to just paying up, here is a quick search that I found. (Again I don't know the dates you're traveling so I can't really help there, but I would advise being flexible with travel to HI and recommend flying mid-week.)
Random Date Findings: Tuesday 2/4 - Monday 2/10
Hawaiian Airlines - $1337.52 RT/pp - certainly not the cheapest deal, but pretty good considering you get lie-flat, and it's direct (I've never flown this product, and can't comment on it on that basis, but it is lie-flat)
American - $150 more/pp and you connect via LAX in regular domestic biz seats (non lie-flat)
United - same $ as American, but unlike American, their regular biz lie-flat product is garbage (2-4-2), unless you snag Polaris
I would highly advise against paying 100s-of-thousands of miles to fly to HI. If you can fly for $1338 in lie-flat, essentially that redemption would be 1 cent per mile, which to me is a garbage redemption assuming $130k miles as some posters have alluded to. Save those 100k+ miles for redemptions to Europe in Flagship lie-flat products, or for redemption on BA or another partner airline. (But that's just me.)
#12
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Join Date: May 2004
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Not worth it to get a lie flat seat from DFW.
#13
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: CLT
Programs: AA EP, AA AC
Posts: 4,268
Safe Travels