Question - How to find availability for upgrade to FIRST CLASS
 

First time trying to upgrade to FIRST CLASS with points. Advice please! Thanks!
I have Hawaiian airlines points 25k. Trying to upgrade ECONOMY to FIRST CLASS, HNL to JFK.I see there are 4 seats available on Expert Flyer. I called Hawaiian Airlines and they said there were none available for upgrade with points. Very confused. Thanks.

My experience in the couple of years (flying from HNL to JFK red eye 6 or 8 times) is that there are very few seats allocated to the 25,000 mile upgrade. If there are upgrades they tend to require 50,000 miles per seat. During the covid period when fewer people were flying, I did manage to snag a 25000 for only one of the two flights I took March and April 2021. For the LAX to HNL flight I've had better luck with 25,000 upgrade. I don't have experience using the upgrade certificates since I don't want to wait to the 30 days mark to get on the waitlist. If anyone has recent experience with the certificates I'd love to hear about it.
Unfortunately for the mileage upgrade it requires calling the service center to ask if available and call more than once to check. I did get lucky once precovid when someone else must have cancelled a reservation having a 25000 upgrade. I tried to upgrade when I purchased the ticket and was not able to. I checked about a week before flying back from HNL to JFK and was able to upgrade with the 25000.

Just because you see 4 open seats, that does not mean HA has allocated any for upgraders. This is a very common practice among airlines - if they think they can sell the seat to someone paying a first class fare, they don't want to fill it with an upgrader paying a coach fare. If HA thinks they have no chance of selling a seat to someone willing to pay a first class fare, they might make it available to upgraders.

Hi,

Planning to go PHX to Hawaii and as I have the HA Credit Card I was wondering if there is a way to purchase Economy for two (to make use of the 50% companion fare) and use miles to upgrade instantly.
BTW I plan to fly in October when (if that happens) would be the best chance to get "saver" award availability. Right now it is 80k per leg per person and I was hoping if that might go down.