philemer

55K will not work using KE. You must find the lowest rate on DL. Please review the thread on the DL forum I linked to.

guv1976

I'm seeing a few days in June and July (more in August) when AA has two SAAver seats available on the LAX-LIH (Kauai) nonstop. Those seats should be bookable at ba.com for just 12.5K Avios each. You'd have to check aa.com to see if SAAver seats are available from LIH to LAX on any dates that would work for you.

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garykung

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Amelorn

From the West Coast to HI, there are relatively few widebodies plying the skies versus narrowbodies, when you account for the majors + HA + AS + VX. HA is the most reliable user of A330s, but barring SFO flights, you're going to still get the (very) old recliners. If I am going to cross the Pacific in a recliner, I would much rather get VX's 55" pitch over HA's 45" or 38"-ish on the majors' F.

Compared with most FT users, I am unusually agnostic and carefree about wide- versus narrowbody so long as I am happy with the hard/soft product. Then again, I cut my flying teeth on transatlantics JFK-EDI on DL's 757s.

garykung

Not true. Just UA alone, most of its HNL flights are operated by B772. HA's A330s are considered widebody.

If you have to count, the number of widebodies should be about the same as narrowbodies.

paralemo

Garykung - I put the airport on the title of the thread. It's LAX. I'm sure that you can use a million points for a trip to Hawaii, so you're right.. But I would only use them if I'm getting great savings (ie. 30% discount versus the dollar equivalent). With that in mind a few hundred thousand points should be enough.

Philemer and guv1976 thanks both.. Looks like I'm getting somewhere. I may have to book it aas 2x one ways rather than a roubdtrip.

Is there any way to book Virgin America with my points?

garykung

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mia

Yes, you can transfer to Singapore Airlines (SQ) and redeem through their program (Krisflyer) for flights operated by various partner airline including Virgin America. The redemption chart is here:

https://www.singaporeair.com/saar5/p...Awardchart.pdf

Do NOT transfer until you have verified that award seats are available through Krisflyer for your route on your date.

Amelorn

I am aware that the 330 is a widebody aircraft, thanks.

I knew anecdotally from my search and purchase of a flight HNL-LAX 3 days ago that most flights seemed to be operated by a narrowbody.

I conducted a little survey of west coast flights to Honolulu to check up on that, organizing the document by airline and airport. I used two hypothetical dates on 5/25 and 5/26.

It turns out that west coast airports (ANC, SEA, PDX, SFO, OAK, SJC, SLC, LAX, SAN, PHX, DEN) send 15 widebodies to Honolulu and 27 narrowbodies. Surprisingly, AA doesn't fly any widebody aircraft to HNL from its West Coast ports. In the event that HA ever decides to switch certain west coast airports to 321neo service, that number will drop.

bgriff

Hawaii is a very challenging market to get really good deals using miles, because everyone wants to use their miles to go to Hawaii, and the airlines know it.

If you really want to use your miles for flights to Hawaii, worth exploring all of the options in this thread, but you may find the 1 cent ratio is actually a pretty good return.

If you have, or would consider getting, the Chase Sapphire Reserve card, being able to redeem UR points for 1.5 cents each against airfare is probably about as good as you're likely to get with any redemption via an airline, and will give you a lot more flexibility.

Hotels in Hawaii are also expensive. Unless you have multiple hundreds of thousands of points, you may find it more efficient to buy flights with cash (LAX-Hawaii is a pretty competitive market, so cash fares aren't that expensive, especially in advance outside peak season -- which is the only chance you'd have of finding mileage redemption flights anyway) and use UR points to transfer to Hyatt for hotels.

Depending how long you plan to stay, that may eat up a lot of / all of your UR points, but may also represent a great value for the points and likely a better value than you'd get on airfare. The Andaz Maui, which can be booked with Hyatt points, gets particularly good reviews, though verify that rooms are available to book with points on your dates before you transfer -- points redemption rooms can be scarce at that hotel.

Productivity

If you are using Korean Air to book Delta make sure you have round trip availability. KE will only book partners as full round trips. One ways are only on their own metal.

Newgene

This probably could be posted in a bunch of locations, but this seems like the best place to start. I would appreciate any advice on this. We have over 700k UR points, and we would like to know the most point efficient way to get to Hawaii. Here is the information people will probably want:

-- Flying out of MSY
-- Flying into HNL (but would consider other airports or islands to stay)
-- Can be anywhere in or around 4Q17
-- Can be first or business
-- Targeting a lie flat seat
-- 1 week trip; leaving on any day of the week, and getting on the return flight on the same day of the following week
-- Found UA flights with 777 legs for $2100; can use UR at 1.5 (140k points)

Am I missing a transfer option that would conserve points? If it isn't obvious, no problem. I just wanted to ask this before I commit.

mia

I have consolidated several threads discussing travel between various points in the USA and Hawaii. Suggestions applicable from any airport that does not offer non-stop service to Hawaii are likely applicable to other airports.

Klimo

Leaving for HNL in 30 days and was in a similar situation. After looking at eervything, I just decided to pay cash for discounted business in a lay flat out of MSP. RT in F was $2k. I would have only gotten ~1.5c per point on redemption. Didn't seem like a good use of points.

For you, it looks like a similar situation. Delta flies A330s out of ATL and MSP to HNL. Usually sub $2500 flights in F on lie flats.

Newgene

Thanks for the suggestion. So far, it really comes down to if I'll pay cash or UR points for the ticket. I accumulate UR points quickly, so 1.5 is probably a decent option for me. It would drop us down to around 450k points.

Since we are getting close to 1M UR points, I figured we would start burning them. So, the cash option would probably be second to the 1.5 UR route.