dukerau

BA is cheap for the west coast only (AA/AS flights). Korean is 25k round trip (on Delta) but must be booked as round trip. Flying Blue is 15k each way (on Delta) and can be booked as one way. Singapore is 17.5k each way (on United) and can be booked one way. Those are the cheapest ways to Hawaii in each alliance, and Chase transfers to all of them.

MapleLeafss

Sorry that is right, was typing too fast. Even better...

travelfly27

Can I hold the Avios flight before transferring UR?

AimClickShoot

So we're trying to work this system and get to Hawaii at Christmas time. As a teacher its a long stretch of time off for me, and my kids, and my husband is off from the auto shut-down.

Now we can get there, but it's going to wipe all the points we have and then some. Are we just SOL as it's a busy travel time? I can't find a single saver fare.

I'm trying to get from DTW (Detroit) to OGG (Maui). Our dates are 12/23 to whenever after that, likely 12/30 or 12/31.

I've tried seeing if I can get a rewards flight from somewhere off the west coast cheaper. And I'm not having luck. I've looked at trying to leave from other hubs, etc.....

HELP!

guv1976

That's a tough time of year to find lowest-tier award seats to Hawaii -- especially if you're looking for multiple seats. If you've already checked the AA, DL, and UA websites and not found lowest-tier seats on those carriers (or on AS which would show up on aa.com, if available), then I'm afraid that you're out of luck.

How much are cash tickets?

84fiero

It's likely to be a tough find given the holidays. But have you tried looking for award seats flying into HNL or maybe KOA and then buying separate tickets to/from OGG? Inter-island cash fares are usually relatively cheap (although may be a bit higher too over the holidays).

You could keep looking as availability ebbs and flows - look at an ExpertFlyer subscription and setting up alerts where available (can't recall offhand which airlines EF can do alerts for).

Also try your searches using smaller quantity increments where you could get part of the seats at saver levels and part at higher levels - still better than all of them at the higher/anytime/standard level. For example if there are 3 saver seats available but you search for a quantity of 4, you'll only see a result offering 4 at the standard mileage level. But if you search first for 3 seats you would be able to redeem for 3 at the saver level and separately go back for the fourth at the standard level. I wouldn't get my hopes up given the holiday period but on occasion it can be worth the extra search time IME.

jjmiller69

Have you tried DTW to HNL. If you find something you can book inter island flights pretty reasonable. Good luck on using your Chase UR's at such a busy time.

sam_goh

You're going to be out of luck trying to use UR -> UA miles in this situation. Usually you can find flights 330 out, but UA blocks off saver awards during peak periods. This year it's about Dec 19 leaving and Jan 8 returning. Some random inventory opens much closer in, but not enough to plan on. The best we've ever done is switch from full price Y to a saver J at close-in award time.

paralemo

Hello all,

Any help would be much appreciated because I'm a bit of a reward points rookie. I have been gathering up points for a couple of years, and now have a LOT of them. In the past 1-2 years I've been trying to use them but we haven't done too much travelling and I don't want to waste them on 1:1 ratio. I was waiting for a nice flight and maybe hotel stay.

We decided to do a few days in Hawaii. Pretty flexible in terms of dates, but ideally within June or July.

So, I was excited to use my many UR points to get it done... and so far it's not looking good. I can go and book through the UR portal - but that's a waste.. I'm better off converting to $$ and booking from anywhere, so I have more options. I then called up British Airways, because they're partnered with a few airlines and I know I can convert my points to BA points... but I was told that they have 0 availability for ANY days within June, July, or even August. I almost thought that the guy was kidding. I started by asking for Honolulu, but then proceeded to say ANY Hawaii airport. Nothing.

Any advice? I would like to get the flights (maybe even first class if it's a good deal) and then maybe hotels, though I know that the points don't go as far for hotel stays..

Let me know what you think.

Thank you very much in advance!

Merlinrnr

Check American's website for award availability in the Saver level. If it's available you should be able to book it with BA Avios for 25k round trip . Otherwise check United's website and see if they have Saver level availability. You can book with Singapore miles for 35k round trip. Another option is to check Delta for the lowest level availability and book with Korean miles for 25k round trip. Also you can mix and match with one ways depending on availability.

briggek8717

Book Delta flights using Korean Airline miles. If you can find space on Delta for 45,000 miles RT, you should be able to book it with 25,000 Korean miles transferred from UR. You'd want to confirm that KE sees the same flights available before transferring any points. You will probably also need to go through their process of proving you are family members so you can book flights for the rest of your family using your miles.

I've done this twice now, and it saves a ton of points. Looks like there is plenty of space if you are willing to go mid August or so.

paralemo

Thank you so much both! Do I need to "call" Korean or Singapore or BA to use those points? Online it seems like none of them show availability (but I was not able to search through Singapore because it didn't show any Hawaiian airports among destinations, so it probably doesn't let you search among their partners).

Also, it looks like August is probably out of the picture, so we're looking into June/July -- I was able to find a lot of point options on Delta and United - but for way too many points (I would be much better off point cash for them instead). That's the part that I'm missing I guess.. The way I see it, if I was able to buy coach tickets for $500 then I would like to be able to get those for 30k points or so.. Alternatively if I need to pay 60k points then it's cheaper to convert 50k points to $ and pay cash.

On that same logic, why would Delta even offer a 60k one-way ticket when the equivalent in cash is about $250? Would anyone go for that?

My understanding is that it comes down to availability.. maybe you can buy 60k point one way tickets on any day... but there are some days where there may be availability for a 25k roundtrip or a 60k first class roundtrip! And that's all great, but are points a bit way too restricting?

It is high season, but it sounds a bit far fetched that I cannot find a good point ticket from LAX to any Hawaii airport within any days of June or July..

Or I may be doing it wrong of course -- my hope is that I am! I have so many points that I've been saving thinking that I will use them to their full potential but I'm starting to think that maybe there is no such thing unless if you're flying off season to obscure destinations..

Thanks again everyone!

garykung

Deleted

philemer

DL has numerous seats @ 45K >HNL and return. You can use KE to book these. Set up an acct. online and then you'll need to call and send proof that family member really is a family member. After that gets settled call to make rez. If they show cheap seats then transfer UR>KE & book the DL flts.

Read post #3 here: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta...er-thread.html

paralemo

Thank you both.

garykung -- I included all of the details in my first post. I have a few hundred thousand points, but the idea is that I want to utilize the wisely so that they stretch further than their dollar equivalent.

philemer - Thanks for the suggestion. I will definitely try that. I wasn't able to find many at 45k but I did find a few at 55k so that could be the way to go.

Another question -- I found a good rate on first class through Virgin America which would be awesome. Is there any way to utilize that?? I know they partnered with Alaskan.. and that neither airline is an official partner, but is there a connection through another partner I could utilize?