turtlebud

Please let me know the appropriate forum to post this question is (or the best way to search for this topic if it's already been posted - I tried searching with Hawaii and Miles, but was not able to find a similar thread that was already started).

I got the popular chase sapphire reserve card for the 100k mile sign up bonus with the intention of taking the family to Hawaii this summer. I've done a fair share of research on how to book 4 round trip tickets for 100k miles, but as I have never done this before am not quite sure if I have it right.

The best value seems to be transferring the points to british airways and booking a flight via BA with Alaska or AA. My understanding is that the saver/cheapest fares from west coast (OAK) to hawaii can be booked for 25k, round trip per ticket.

Q: How do I know which seats under the saver/cheapest fares are available? I see main cabin and first class, but under main cabin, there are at least 3 different prices - (17.5, 22.5, and 30k). Is the 17.5 one the only one that I can book with the BA 25k miles or is it any main cabin seats?

Assuming I find dates with available seats, my understanding is that I need to create a BA Avios account, call BA and reserve/book the tickets with miles.

Q: Do I need to create an account for each family member? Can I book all 4 tickets at the same time? Am I missing any significant steps?

Thanks very much!

Yoshi212

You only need 1 BAEC membership to transfer points & book tickets.

You'll be looking for SAAver level tickets for redemption. finding 4 tickets on the same flight is going to be the real challenge. If you find 2 you should be happy and just use those points & then use your remaining points to reduce cost of the purchase of the reminding tickets via the Chase Travel Portal.

ponickka

One option is to check out Koreanair.com for the SkyTeam award.

For me, i can book 4 tix from LAX to Hawaii for 25k each (Last time (couple days ago) i checked the Korean site, i was able to find the flights in July.

If it is available for you, then consider transferring the points from Chase UR to Korean Air.

Good luck!

beckoa

Welcome to Flyertalk turtlebud.

As you're looking at travel to Hawaii, we'll move this to the Destination Hawaii forum.

~beckoa, co-moderator Information Desk

turtlebud

Thanks for the quick reply Yoshi!

Am I looking for tickets from the british airways site or american airlines? I suspect american airlines because you reference SAAver level tickets, which I see on AA. Also, when I search for flights on BA, I get an error (I tried different dates, ranging from january through july for just 1 passenger and got the same error).

We are unable to find seats for your journey. The most common reasons for this are:
You may have requested a route that we do not operate at that time of year.
We may not fly to the destination you have chosen.

I found flights for 4 that are Economy MileSAAver tickets (see attached). Would these tickets be valid for the 25k round trip redemption from BA?

turtlebud

Thanks ponickka!

I tried the korean air site, but got the following message when I tried to look for flights from OAK to HNL (I was just looking for regular flights however, as I haven't created a KoreanAir account yet so I can't search by miles).

The itinerary that you’ve selected is not sold online. Please contact a Korean Air Service Center.

I even tried LAX to HNL and got the same message.

Are you searching by mile redemption?

guv1976

Only if the MileSAAver awards being offered are on AS nonstop flights. If the awards require connecting flights, then BAEC will charge you a lot more than 25,000 Avios per roundtrip.

turtlebud

Sounds good beckoa, thanks!

turtlebud

Slowly getting there in terms of understanding this process. I was able to talk to a customer service rep at BA (after a 45 minute wait) to check some flights that I have been looking at and confirm availability.

The good news is that I was able to find flights that had enough availability for my family of 4. The bad news is that we also see if our friends would be able to book as well so that we can go together.

According to BA (and a couple other sources) it seems that there are only 7 seats available to book at the sAAver (25k) rate for any flight. I looked at other airlines that might be options (Delta, via KoreanAir), but the only non-stop flights on the same day seem to be that same Alaska Air flight (based on time and AS flight number being the same).

If KoreanAir partner and BA partners both use Alaska Air, does that mean if I book 4 seats via BA, then only 3 will be left to book via KoreanAir? Do they both pull from the same pool of sAAver class tickets?

If so, does that mean that our family and our friends family (they have 5 people, but the youngest is 2 yo) wouldn't all be able to book tickets at the 25k rate?

@Yoshi212 mentioned booking the other ticket via the chase UR portal, so that is one option.

I guess another option would be for them to book Hawaiian Airlines via Korean for 30k round trip?

tatterdema

You pretty much have it down in a nutshell. What about having your friends fly the next day and stay a day longer? Or a day earlier. I would do it to save the points, but I am cheap that way.