skypilot

I'm new so don't throw me out of the airplane (let me know if I'm in wrong forum). I need to change my UAL FF miles to Hawaiian FF miles. I have 90k and the wife has 54k miles. How can I do it, third party? Will be flying more often to Hawaii now. I also have 42k Hilton Honors pts. Appreciate any and all ideas.

steve100

What may help us answer this question is understanding why you want to do this? Sometimes not exchanging miles can be better. For example, you mention that you want Hawaiian miles - is this for interisland trips in Hawaii? If so, United is partners with Aloha airlines and you can just use your UA miles and ticket on Aloha.

You mention that you will be flying more often to Hawaii now. Well, United has very good frequent service to Hawaii from the mainland.

flyhawaii

Well there is no official way to do this but my family is sitting with 130K Hawaiian Miles that I could trade with you for your United Miles! You could private message me and I maybe able to help you.

skypilot

I want to exchange to fly from CA to HI. Keep the tips coming. Very much appreciated. skypilot

channa

Exactly.

I really don't understand why you'd want to switch. You have UA miles, you live in the Bay Area, a UA hub, and UA has non-stops to several islands from SFO. In fact, UA has more frequent service SFO-Hawaii than HA.

Plus, Aloha has non-stops to several islands from OAK and SMF (on which you can earn/redeem UA miles as well).

I think you're in a good spot where you are.

skypilot

I don't know how to send a pm.

skypilot

Hi channa,
My problem is that I can't see spending the FF miles that UAL wants to fly to HI. I also have 60k Delta SkyMiles to fly eastbound and always build with my AmEx card.
keep em coming,
skypilot

channa

I don't follow. HA is 35K coach/60K first. UA is the same for saver awards. I have redeemed several times to, thru, and within Hawaii using UA miles at the saver level.

DL also has a SFO-HNL non-stop, and allows routings of SMF-SLC-HNL

skypilot

I tried yesterday to book a flight to LIH (on UAL) and kept getting the "saver awards not accepted", but it would accept the std 60k/120k. As for DL, I personally called them and they said I can't fly east to fly west. They said I could drive to SLC and then fly award travel to HI (didn't sound too good).

cblaisd

The automated award book page on UA's website often does not have all the actual seats that are available. This is one of those times that it is much better to talk with an actual person at UA. I would recommend the awards reservations desk at 888-467-2768 rather than one of the "generic" lines. They can search different routings and call also see if there is the possibility of a saver partner award on Aloha from Oakland to Hawaii.

And, re interisland travel, UA is one of the airlines (unlike AA) that still has round-trip interisland award tix for 5000 miles -- probably the best mileage award there is, imo.


Click on the poster's username at the left side of the post. This will take you to their profile page. On it is a link to "Send Private Message"

channa

OK, so it's not an issue of transferring UA to HA, rather an issue of securing saver awards to LIH using your UA or DL miles.

Finding award travel is a function of availability, and the skill of the agent. You sometimes have to prod them.

First, what dates are you looking for, and what class of service? Award availability changes over time.

Now, here are some ideas:

Forget the website. Phone agents are better at this than the website.

Your options on UA are SFO-LIH or SFO/SJC/OAK/SMF-LAX-LIH. Be flexible, and be sure the agent checks flights through LAX, too. You may have to prod them for this.

Also, ask them to check OAK-LIH on Aloha (AQ just started this non-stop service, and you can use your UA miles on this).

Or, ask them to fly you OAK/SMF-HNL-LIH or similar routing on AQ.

Finally, a RT inter-island on AQ is only 5,000 UA miles. So, if LIH is the problem from the mainland, and UA can get you into HNL (there are a LOT more flights into HNL), then it's only an additional 5,000 miles to get to LIH.

As for DL, there is one SFO-HNL flight per day that leaves in the evening. It is often lightly loaded due to time, so it's not that difficult to score.

skypilot

Hi cblaisd,
Thx much for the tip. Some real good people posting replies to me and very much appreciated. I'm from e bay. Let me know if I can send a pm. Wouldn't think of it w/o ok. Once again, thank you.

slippahs

Never seen so many posts in such a short time on the Hawai`i Airlines board...

I am unaware that you can book an AQ flight using UA miles for transpac. flights nor have I had any success in doing so. http://www.united.com/page/article/0,,1183,00.html doesn't explain how and only lists details on redeem UA awards for AQ inter-island flights. Anyone care to please enlighten me with actual experiences? You can, for sure, redeem AQ miles for UA transpac flights.

edited to actually answer the question posed by the OP: Stick with UA. As said before, HA doesn't have the extensive coverage that UA has out of the Bay Area. Also, if you obtain or hold elite status, it'll go a bit farther on UA (with Economy Plus) and should you need to fly to the East Coast, you can build upon your UA account (since HA doesn't operate flights past PHX/LAS yet). If you fly AQ, you can credit those miles to your UA account, but they're not credited as EQM, if that makes a difference. You can also funnel your miles to an HA account (thought with significant devaluation).

aloha

channa

There are a few threads on this, here's one example: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...ighlight=aloha

slippahs

Interesting. Always been told that UA cannot and that their website states such cannot be done.

Something to look into.

aloha