PIT to Maui.
 

Trying to get 4 people from PIT to MAUI on early Feb 2014. Have around 150K Ultimate Reward points. What's the best way to go about doing this?

Xfer to united, 4x40k miles. If you need to sign up for the united credit card for the extra 10k or just use your card for purchases between now and then...

Got it. I think I can get another 10K or so by the time I'm ready to book.

Does transferring to British Airways help at all in this case or is United the way to go?

you can only transfer from UR to United if you have Chase Sapphire. If you don't have it, apply now so you can transfer when you get it.

I do have Chase Sapphire so the transfer part is covered. Question is.. is there an advantage to transfer to British Airways instead of United for this trip?

Using avios for domestic travel is really only beneficial for short haul domestic flights as their pricing is distance base per segment. Because Pitt to Maui is neither short nor direct, using avios is not a good alternative.

IMHO, BA is a terrible way to go since they use a distance-based formula.

Thank you.

You can transfer from Ultimate Rewards to airline or hotel programs if you have any one of these cards:

• Sapphire Preferred
• Ink Bold
• Ink Plus
• JP Morgan Select
• JP Morgan Palladium

You can earn Ultimate Rewards with these cards which do not permit transfers unless you also hold a card from the first group:

• Sapphire
• Freedom
• Ink Classic
• Ink Cash

Technically, I think you need chase sapphire preferred, ink bold or ink plus (there might be another)...

Are you even sure you can get 4 seats in Y to Maui in Feb? It's a pretty popular time of year to go, since President's Day is mid-month.

i would not write off BA miles they may be beneficial, if you have trouble finding flights with united to OGG you could fly united PIT-LAX for 12500 miles one way then fly AA using BA miles LAX-OGG for 12500 one way, this is 25k one way insead of 20k but if it gets you the dates you want for just a 5k premium it might be worth it, also you could add a stop over in LA for a few days and see some west coast sites if you might want. some times we need to think outside the box of avios are bad for longer flights

Are there any direct flights from PIT to LAX on BA partners?

You might have to fly to DFW then to OGG which would cost 27.5ow...

edit: Nevermind, I understand what your are saying about using united and BA avios, sorry

That's a good idea given that availability may be sparse.

PIT-LAX on United for 12.5K one-way and LAX-OGG on AA (Using BA) for 12.5K one-way. (Just recapping to make sure I got it) :-)

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

Yes, that's correct.

And if you wanted to stop over in California, you could also fly PIT-SFO on UA, and OAK-OGG or SJC-OGG on AS, as AS is another BA redemption partner.

For redemptions with just UA miles, there is also (at least for now) the possibility of PIT-PHX-OGG on US. That option will likely disappear if US merges with AA.