bartman9

I am pretty new to all of this, so I appreciate any help you can offer. I am starting to accumulate points and sign up for credit cards. But, I want to make sure I am being strategic about it. I am interested in several different trips in 2012, but what I would like to do is just take one and see how I could pull it off with all your expert advice. It is somewhat hypothetical as I don't have a date in mind just yet. But, it would be really helpful for me to see how you would go about doing it with my points.

I will be flying with my wife and two daughters out of ROC and want to get to Hawaii for a 2 weeks vacation. I have about 400K SPG points and will be applying for all the AA cards to get 150K AA miles.

If you were in my shoes, how would you plan this trip? Remember, I am very ignorant in this as I have never used points to redeem airline tickets. I haven't the faintest idea how many points it would take or which airlines would provide the best bang (class) for the point. Any help you have to offer is greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Dave

elmococker

Hi Dave!

Sorry, but you are gonna get a little slammed on here if you think you can get 4 people to Hawai'i for 150k miles... That being said, I just looked at AA.com and if you have alot of flexibility and do not plan on travelling on weekends then you might be able to do it...

The SPG points are a good start and should be easy enough to use (or so I am told)

Do you have any status with AA? It might help with increased availability.

Do you have any other options for airlines? It sounds like you are a little low on points right now, and you are banking on CC points to put you over that edge,

Do you have a particular island in mind??? Any particular dates or months?

The more details you can provide, the better help we can be.

Thanks and Happy Travels!

bartman9

Not looking to get slammed here, just looking for some help and advice. So if my questions sound stupid, I apologize. I need to start somewhere...

Anyway, I do realize that my AA miles are not even close. But, I do have a fair amount of SPG points that I can transfer to different airlines. So I was hoping for some suggestions on what would be the best way of doing that. Or, if I am way off in my thinking, I appreciate that insight too.

Thanks,
Dave

Edit: Forgot to answer some of your questions. I don't have any status in any airline. We would probably spend our whole time on Maui.

Mommy Points

I have to disagree a little bit with the previous posted and say that if you have some flexibility, you can absolutely get four people to Hawaii with 150,000 AA miles if you go during the "off peak" season which is i: Jan. 12 - Mar. 8; Aug. 22 - Dec. 15. It is just 35,000 miles per person round-trip.

As to where to start, get the miles, and then start looking for reward seat availability on American's website. When you find days you want, look at the SPG website to find points availability for hotels you want. When you find dates you like that have both hotels and flights available, snag them quick.

Other than that advice, just keep reading Flyertalk and some of the different miles and points blogs and you will be set in no time. Good luck!

philemer

150K AA miles CAN get 4 people to HI. Off Peak season is 35K/person. You may not all get on the same flt. but you can get there. If you go during Peak season it's 45K/person. You can convert SPG into AA to get the miles you need (20K SPG=25K AA).

bartman9

Thank you for your responses. This is very helpful. A couple of questions:

- Is it hard to find 4 reward seats on the same flight? I know this is probably hard to generalize as depends on a lot of different things, but any insight is appreciated.

- How does elite status play into this? Does it help in getting reward seats?

- If you had your airline of choice flying into Hawaii (from the east coast USA) what airline would you fly and why?

chillinthemost

When are you planning on going, and to which island(s)?

philemer

1. Yes
2. Do you have elite status? Which airline?
3. Can't answer that one

You also need to be realistic. There aren't many ways to accumulate a lot of points/miles quickly besides cc sign up bonuses. And, there aren't that many great sign up bonuses now that would give you enough miles to get to HI besides CITI AA cards. You can also convert your SPG pts to miles on some airlines at 20K for 25K. But you may be saving these for hotel stays. Check out the SPG site for more info. And, again, be realistic. If you plan on going to HI next year you don't have many choices.

bartman9

This trip is somewhat hypothetical as I am trying to use this example to learn. But, we are very interested in actually doing this.

I am thinking right now we would go toward the end of next year Nov-Dec timeframe.

We are mainly interested in spending our time on Maui.

bartman9

I also have my own business where we charge a fair amount. So I can easily rack up another 250K-300K points on a credit card by the time we go. I just would like some help deciding what credit card those charges should go on to get the best mile value.

akp

My family of 5 went to Hawaii on reward tickets in June 2011. We were all on the same flights. I booked as soon as the booking window opened which helped. We flew Delta, not AA, but I think all 5 of us went for 200K miles and about $50 bucks.

Since it was Delta, obviously doesn't apply directly, but I wanted to give you hope that it can be done

Anita

FederalFlyer

You actually have a ton of options given your situation. So you may need to be more specific to get a better answer. First, when you say you want to "get" to Hawaii, does that mean you plan on using points/miles just for the flight... Or do you also plan to use those points to cover your hotel while there? Second, where in Hawaii are you hypothetically wanting to go... Oahu, Hawaii, Kauai, etc? Third, do you want to fly in First Class or is economy ok (and, if you want first class, then are the girls old enough that they could fly in economy together while you and your wife sat up front or do they need an adult with them)? Fifth, when would this hypothetical trip hypothetically take place... There are obviously times when it's much harder to find award tickets to Hawaii (e.g., Xmas) so your travel dates do make a difference. Nevertheless, It can be done (I'm in Hawaii now on points). Lastly, how much out-of-pocket are you comfortable with for the flight (fees or possible positioning flights) as well as hotel stays (cash and points might be a hotel option)

akp

I'm a newbie myself, so take my advice with a (huge) grain of salt.

Since you don't already have a lot of points with any airline, I'd start by looking at which airlines have good routings from your home airport to Maui. You don't want to start building AA points for this trip only to find you can only get there with a painful 3 stop flight.

Once you've picked the airline you want to fly, figure out how to get points on that airline, or how to get the best overall value. If AA works well, by all means get the 3x50K AA credit cards for yourself and your wife (and the daughters if they are adults!).

Chase UR points transfer to United and Continental. Amex MR points transfer to Delta and Hawaiian among others.

Don't ignore Alaska Airlines as an option if their routing works for you. Their credit card comes with a companion pass that works for Hawaii (I think most companion passes are continental us only). If you and your wife were willing to book paid tickets, you could each get a companion pass for $99 for one of the daughters. I *think* all of these earn miles. The Alaska Airlines Visa doesn't have a huge signup bonus (maybe 30K).

bartman9

Well ideally I would like to take the whole trip for free. But, I am realistic and realize I will probably have to cover some expenses. I am pretty familiar with using points for hotels. But have no experience with the airlines. So I thought I would just focus on seeking help on that.

We definitely want to spend our time on Maui

Girls are too young to sit by themselves, so I think we are going to have to settle for economy.

For the sake of discussion, lets say we are going the beginning of December. I assume that would be off peak. You are in Hawaii now - how nice!! I am jealous. it is cold and dreary here.

tassojunior

If you're in Rochester--

Non-Stop starting in June from JFK. 35K RT. Beautiful new wide body with excellent Hawaiian service. The BofA credit card and the Bank of Hawaii credit card each give an easy 35K for opening. BofA and BofH usually allow multiple cards for same airline, tho best to wait 90 days between openings. Would come out to $79 per RT ticket. Spend is only $1K in 4 months. (Miles also may be transferred to Hawaiian).

Otherwise AA off-peak is best bet unless you can get 35K AK (which is hard to find).