If i need to search somewher let me know and I apoligize if this is in the wrong place.

I have 2 friends trying to join us in Maui in July and of course being last minute they want to use miles and fly in First from DFW to Maui. There travel dates are July 14 returning on the 20th.

I have checked with AA and nothing avaliablle except coach at the aanytime rate. He has a huge amount of AMX points that could be converted to another airline if I knew which one would have avaliability.

Thanks for any help in this Matter.

UA has availability for those dates. 60,000 mi for F.

Depart: UA 549/45 or 549/89
Return: UA 48/234 (Red-eye)

You should forget AA; their availability to Hawaii (assume you're hoping for milesaaver) is pathetic, and they charge more miles to boot (than united) for fc to Hawaii. Read the AA threads and you'll see even the AA diehards agree on one thing - that AA's Hawaii fc is overpriced and offers a crappy product for fc expectations.

I was able to book two fc seats about 1.5 months ago on United using ff points. Even though they weren't the milesaaver equivalent, they were still [substantially] less miles for united's "anytime" equivalent.

Also, FWIW, and to my utter amazement, I was also able to book Hawaii on Continental for domestic, again when AA had none (except double miles - never any milesaaver). AA lost 2x fc and 4x std coach of my business because of this.

Sad reality is AMEX's MR does not participate w/ United, so your probably out of luck w/ this idea.

IMO you (your friend) should immediately do these things: a) forget AA b) dump the amex that earns MR points c) quickly get the starwood AMEX and start earning the most valuable currency in the US affinity world - the spg starpoint. You'll (your friend) will soon learn the relative NON-value and inflexible choice MR offers.

Good luck.

Did you ask American to look at partner airlines? In the past, they have been able to get me Hawaii tickets using a combination of AA and Hawaiian Airlines flights.

But you could transfer your AMEX miles to ANA, since United is an ANA partner. In fact, the ANA rewards web site shows these flights avail. But be sure to call ANA and confirm before transfering your miles!!!

Did you try routing on American through Kona (KOA)?

Everyone kept telling me no luck but when I asked them to check KOA, there were 7 seats. When I check the inventory for the dates you listed, it looks like there is one seat in First to KOA outbound if they go through LAX and 2 or 3 seats in first on the return, again if they connect through LAX.

Maybe that would work?

I want to thank everyone for there information and posts. I used Whisttler814 suggestion and traded for 120K UA miles.Thank you for looking up the flight avaliability.


Please feel free to close this thread

you could potentially save miles by waitlisting for saver seats AFTER booking standard award seats. needs to be done with a MP account.

The OP booked saver awards (60kx4) for US-HI.

I guess we all have different experiences, but I have always found AA much easier (than UA) to book Award flights on, whether FC or coach. True, it's not a great FC product and it takes more miles. I would try Kona, as well as Lihue or Maui. Or to one island and from another. An interisland flight will be around $75 or you can always try to use miles between islands as well. If I want to use my UA miles, I generally book 330 days in advance. Not the case with AA.

This is a prime example of YMMV, much like whether to take a free ticket or a $300 voucher for a bump. I use AX MR since I have virtually unlimited spending on their charge card. With SPG AX it is a credit card and I would not be able to charge nearly as much as I do now. So in the end... it all depends.

(and in case anyone is wondering I have taken both $300 voucher and free ticket, depending on the circumstances. With NW, the free ticket is more valuable to me since fares out of my small central MN airport are much higher than from elsewhere, I book early, I routinely save well over $300, and for the additional savings don't mind foregoing a few miles).

Nope I booked 2 F class tickets DFW-OGG for 60K each. It was always the goal to fly in First with Maui being the destination. The thought of connecting from another island was just no appealing as this trip is only 6 days. Since AA is the only carrier with a non stop from DFW to OGG they were already going to have to make one stop each way.

This time United won out with a savings of 30K miles over AA since they had the avaliability.