OK....my best friend is getting married in Hawaii and wants me to go. Only 15 people or so will be there so it is important to him. I want to do this on the cheap, but with an eye for cost effective use on miles and points....even possibly paying for something to receive points or miles. Tentative schedule is as follows:

6/6: RDU-HNL
6/11: HNL-RDU

Days can be changed +/- 1 day if needed except the wedding is on the 10th.

I am DL PM with about 320k+ in my account now. I am Diamond with HH with 200k+. Starwood Plat with 44k. If I want to use Hertz, I think I have like 8k #1 awards points (these seem to accumulate slowly!!!!) I will travel first class to HNL - just a question of how. In terms of hotel selection ideas....I am near 30....but don't like to party till 3am so getting sloshed is not my thing. I am bringing my girlfriend who has no status on anything. Stay would be in/near Honolulu.

Thanks for the ideas in advance.

DLSIZE,

I did just that about two summers ago (only difference is that I turned out to be their ONLY guest at the wedding and it was in Maui).

I flew DL from SFO-HNL for 60K miles, First Class. I don't know if you'll be doing ATL-HNL, LAX-HNL or SFO-HNL, but the return flight HNL-SFO is red-eye (leave 11PM, arrive 5AM), so to be stuck in Coach for that would be plain awful (4-5 hour flight from SFO). I would strongly suggest redeeming miles for two free First Class (plus you get the most bang for the buck since you fly from the East Coast) and not worry about paying $600+/person in airfare. Book them asap, though. They can do miles redemption on the phone while reserving your tickets. You'll definitely impress the gf.

Hotels, I stayed at the Hyatt in Waikiki Beach which I think is way overpriced. Not sure about the Hilton (is the wedding IN Honolulu?); you may give them a try. The Sheraton often has 35% off for any of their Hawaiian properties; you may want to look into this in their website, for the dates you want. Also, if you receive a 50% off Starwood coupon, you may use them here too. (if you find that it brings down the nightly rate to $100 or less). If you don't, there should be plenty of people who are giving it away or trading it on the Coupon Connection board.

Since you have an abundant of Hilton points though, you may instead want to redeem those for a decent property on or around Waikiki Beach (if you're a first timer in Hawaii and want to experience touristy Honolulu), or somewhere else in Honolulu (if you're sick and tired of the beach scene). You may also want to check the Point Saver award for Hilton (it's all in their website) to see if there are any Hawaiian properties that have reduced point redemption.

Oh by the way, if you plan to spend most of your time at the beach and the wedding, don't worry about renting a car. I personally prefer walking, taking the bus or cab when my blood alcohol is too high to be standing up. Save money that way. There are one day tours to Diamond Head or if you play golf, I believe they have shuttles that go to selected courses as well.

In any case, that's a start; but should be close enough to travelling in style. All in all, if you choose to use miles/hotel points, do it as soon as you can.

Hope this helps (a bit)!
Jamester

[This message has been edited by Jamester (edited 02-11-2001).]

Yep, you can do it on DL.

As far as hotels, don't you want to stay where the wedding party is staying? Where are they staying?

I like the Hyatt too, but you have no status there. If the wedding party is in Waikiki, there are several decent Sheraton's, and a really nice W that several FT members have reported about in the Starwood forum. There's also the Hilton Hawaiian Village, which, personally, I didn't care for, though the Ali'i tower is very nice .. it's a separate 5-star hotel within the Hawaiian Village. Others seem to like it more than I did, so take it for what it's worth. I thought the property itself was very nice, but the standard rooms they gave us in the Rainbow tower were very plain. We expected more.

Most Waikiki hotels have view rooms with balconies. I think those rooms are worth the extra $$ or points it takes to get them.

I agree that you really don't need a car for your entire stay if you stay in Waikiki. If you go and explore the rest of the island (highly recommended), you can just rent a car for the day. Many of the hotels have car rental facilities right in the hotels. Hertz will not be far from your hotel, if it isn't in the hotel you choose.

A suggestion .. if the wedding is just a few days of your time, you might want to go somewhere besides Waikiki, perhaps to one of the other islands for a few days if you have the time. There are superb properties, both Hilton and Starwood (Luxury Collection hotels) on the other islands you might enjoy. If you island hop, search the forums for "interisland coupons", or you can check your programs to see if any of them have stellar deals on interisland coupons.

If you have some flexibility on where you stay, you can read up on the Sheraton and W Waikiki properties on the Starwood forum and on the Hilton Hawaiian Village on the Hilton forum.

-David

Doesn't HH have an award where you can stay on two islands?

As U have so many points in Hilton I would do the 100000 6 night hawaiian village award.Theres plenty to do in honoolulu.

Note, if you are paying for a Starwood Property in Hawaii -- at least the Sheraton ones -- and want to use a 50% discount award, it will have to be at the W or a Westin (if there is one where you want to stay). All Sheratons offer SPG members a year-round 35% discount without redeeming points.