bigbri73

I have 100k amex points that im looking to use to book my flight for my honeymoon in april 2017. We have selected to go to hawaii so I've been researching how my 100k amex points can getme there.

Any suggestions? Looking to fly out of newark, new york or philly.

TMM1982

Virgin America is an option.

joachimm

Transfer to Hawaiian and there is availability on the nonstop JFK-HNL. I was just looking at this today and there seems to be lots of coach award availability in March and early April. Since I have the hawaiian credit card it is coming up for 35K miles, it might be a little higher for you.

This route gets good reviews if you can handle the 13 hour direct flight.

You might sign up for HawaiianMiles and call to confirm those awards are available before you do the transfer though.

bigbri73

It's coming up as 60k miles for me. I'm looking 1st week in april.

joachimm

I'm seeing 95K Sat Apr 1-8th and 70k 1st-7th for two tickets so it must be the credit card discount that is the difference.

The amounts I see generally are 35K, 42.5K and 47.5K. I would call to confirm that this is what's going on.

Getting the card shouldn't take that long, and although the AF of $89 is not waived first year, it sounds like it might make this trip feasible for you with 100k MR.

Also again, I'd call HA to confirm that there are actual award seats on these flights before you do the transfer. I thought I remember reading somewhere that their website shows phantom inventory sometimes.

Troopers

Right now for two tickets, I'm seeing: 47.5k April 1-7 and 35k Apr 1-7. I do have the card.

bigbri73

I signed up for the card 2 days ago to get the discount and of course now I see 97,500 per ticket. A few days ago it was in the 60s. Not sure why it would go up that much in such a short period of time..

Thanks everyone for their help

joachimm

I was looking today also and noticed the 97.5K and 60Ks in April. Seems like it really jumped up over the last few weeks. There are still some 37.5K here and there, even before April. A bunch of 35K in October and November, go figure.

bigbri73

FYI- trips dropped to 35k miles (if you have the card) in april of next year. Was able to get 2 tickets jfk-hnl in april 2017 for 70k points and $22 worth of taxes.

Never been to hawaii before so i have to decide if I want to stay in Oahu or go to one of the other islands. Any recommendations? We leave sunday and come back tuesday (9 days0

joachimm

Wow, well done!

Try tripadvisor for itinerary questions, you'll get a lot more help over there.

For your first time, Maui or Hawaii would probably be better experiences. Oahu is much more built up, but still has some great locations.

We went to Maui, Hawaii, and Kauai over 16 days last summer and they were great, but I'm looking forward to visiting the North Shore of Oahu next. You can probably skip Waikiki unless you are looking for a Vegas type experience. Oahu in general is more of a residential island than a vacation destination IMO.

That said, since we've visited other islands recently, our next trip will probably be 3-4 nights in Waikiki at the Royal Hawaiian and 4-5 nights on the North Shore (Turtle Bay).

Enjoy!

Biggie Fries

I have the Amex Bus Plat and have been looking forward to earning the 50% discount by paying with MR points. Yesterday, I was searching Amex Travel for F flights to HNL on AA. I could not find any AA RTs although for other destinations I picked randomly, there was coverage of AA flights; and to HNL there were some mixed itineraries AA/HA. But no coverage of the standard itineraries.

Anyone know anything about this? Can they book by phone flights they don't seem to be willing to offer on the website? To be clear, I am not looking at awards bookings. I am looking at standard cash prices where I want to be able to pay with their MR points equivalents.

mia

Did you try searching for business class?

Biggie Fries

No, I hadn't -- thanks for the tip. The flights are there as J.

I seem to have missed the memo.

LinzLinz

I have about 100,000 MR points and 30,000 Starpoints. I've stalked the thread for a while and done some research, with mixed results. I'm wanting to fly DFW to Hawaii (pretty open to any Hawaii hotspots) in Spring 2018. What is the most efficient way to use points for flights? Is there a specific airline that is best for this route? 3-4 people will be traveling - I know points will likely not cover all. Any help is appreciated!

Duke787

Best bet is going to be Singapore Airlines giving you access to UA award flights.

Singapore charges 17.5k/person for each direction to Hawaii (so you are looking at 105k for 3 and 140k for 4 - in which case I would do 20k to SQ plus the 5k bonus transfer bump and then 75k from MR).

To check for award space you need to search on the UA website and then would need to call SQ to book it. Only Saver award (X for Y and I for J) is available to SQ - XN and IN are not available to SQ.

This overview is a good one (didn't write it but I think it's a good overview of the SQ process): https://www.milevalue.com/guide-book...isflyer-miles/

A couple caveats:

1) MR and SPG don't transfer instantly to SQ so you have to take a little leap of faith that seats will exist once the miles make it to your SQ account

2) You need to be on all UA or UAx metal so if you are searching the UA website for award availability and see segments with Island Air or Hawaiian Air, SQ will not be able to book those

A quick example of where this would work based on a quick search:

April 10th: DFW - IAH - HNL (availability for 4 in Y - 70k SQ miles)
April 18th: HNL - IAH - DFW (availability for 4 in Y - 70k SQ miles)

You'd pull the flight numbers and follow the steps laid out in the link above to call SQ and get this booked.