boruchflyer

First post so let me know if this is the wrong place for this. Thank you!

I am trying to find a good deal using miles from NYC to Kauai Island, HI.

I have miles from AA (lots), BA 100k, US Airways 40k, Continental 50k and 25k Starwood.

Travel is April 3 to April 16 but dates are flexible give or take 2/3 days. (Pesach!!)

Thank you all for your time and help.

broadwayblue

A quick look at AA shows award inventory available at the business saver level (75k miles roundtrip) on the exact dates you listed. Granted, it will not be the best routing, nor will it get you to Kauai (AA only offers award flights from the mainland to HNL and OGG as far as I'm aware.) But you could go LGA-DFW-LAX-HNL and then buy a cheap ticket (or use more miles for an inter-island flight) to get from HNL to LIH.

jafrelin

Aa flies lax to lih.

sargenet

What about booking one way flights??

Look to use your AA miles on the way TO Lihue...

Then United on the way back.

I noticed that United has one way tickets from LIH to NYC for 20K each with only one stop (in Los Angeles)..(April 13th for example)

We have taken a few trips to Hawaii where we used AA miles there and United back....

broadwayblue

Ah, that's it. Thanks. I typically fly LGA-DFW-OGG/HNL. So when I went to Kauai I had to buy a ticket from HNL-LIH.

guv1976

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.1030 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

Welcome to FT!

If you are looking to fly Coach, and can find AA MileSAAver award availability in Coach from LIH back to NYC, then you can add on a one-way from NYC to Europe, Central America, or South America (after a months-long stopover in NYC), and actually spend fewer miles (15-20K miles total) than by booking LIH-NYC alone (22.5K miles).

leeflyer

look at using AA from NYC to west coast then take Hawaiian Airlines (HA) from west coast to Hawaii. AA and HA are partners so you should be able to book as 1 award. You will have to call AA to book it.
Alternatively, you can try using Alaska Air from west coast but I am not sure if they fly to Kauai. Have fun!

saacman5033

Hawaiian does not fly direct to Kauai from the west coast but Alaska does. Still, worth checking HA to get availability to one of the other islands and pay for the interisland flight if necessary.

boruchflyer

thank you all for your responses!

boruchflyer

For what it's worth, I also have 53k Thank You points.

Happy

TYP can only be used to "purchase" the ticket at the value of 0.01 per point or if you have the Premier card, it would be 0.0133 per point value.

It does not help you go very far for what you want to do.

Your best bet is to use either AA or UA miles to go one-way outbound, then use AA miles to go in-bound as guv1976 suggest - that would save you some miles as your travel period is off-peak for Europe or South America, in coach. Business class has no seasonal difference.

You actually can book the inbound all on AA website yourself. System automatically price it out correctly.

AS may not work as you most likely have to overnight at AS's west coast cities before you can fly to LIH the next day. Check AS schedule to decide if this works. I know it does not work for me coming from MIA.

In any case, from NYC to LIH, you either arrive LIH very late at night such as almost 10pm or have an overnight somewhere in West Coast.

AA does fly to LIH from LAX - 2 daily flights one in the morning one in the afternoon. You can book this on AA website therefore saves you $25 phone booking fee if you involve HA or AS in the mix.

I would not be bothered to mix HA in the picture.

guv1976

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.1030 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

Even though there is no "seasonality" to Business Class awards when using AA miles, LIH-NYC costs 37.5K AAdvantage miles year round for a Business/First award; LIH-NYC (stopover) - Central America/South America 1 costs only 30K AAdvantage miles year round for a Business/First award.

Happy

You let the cat out of the bag... Yes, append South America to the inbound redemption by far is the most cost-effective whether it is in coach or in business/first.

The biggest problem for the poster is to find the business/first seats to/from LIH. Also an aircraft swap might post some issue. Somehow an aircraft swap tends to happen quite frequently with Hawaii-LAX flights.

The NYC-LIM or wherever in Central America / South America 1, is easier to find seats in business than in coach, for some unfathomable reason. AA is far more generous in releasing premium cabin seats than coach seats despite coach section aint full by any means.

abouna

If you intend to go first/business class from NYC then I suggest considering flying into HNL via Dallas or ORD (if they still fly from ORD) and either using extra miles or buying an inter-island flight to get to LIH. You get AA's real business class seats on those routes and it makes a big difference in comfort on the long flight, especially coming back when it is an overnight flight most of the time.

skimple

OK. So just so that I understand - append the Central/South America routing after the "stopover" and then conveniently miss the check-in for the final leg? So this would only work on the inbound, and you would have to book inbound/outbound separately even if both are on AA?

Very curious....