I was able to book 4 UA award tickets from SAN to HNL for the Thanksgiving week. I did it 10 months before the travel date. I can not make any comparison though since this is my first trip to Hawaii. Is Thanksgiving considerred as busier time for the year?

WJ

October/November (until Thanksgiving).

The worst is Christmas/NewYears, then Spring Break, then summer. These are times when families take vacations and they can plan months in advance.

Also, you will need some flexibility when seeking >2 seats as some airlines are pretty stingy with inventory. If you want to use miles for everyone, you may need to split up and travel different flights, or consider 2 in F, 2 in Y, etc. My friends traveled consecutive days in order to bring their family to Australia in business class.

We had no trouble snagging F upgrades on AA (using miles one direction and 500 mile "stickers" on the return) with 3 weeks notice last November. YMMV.

You are correct, my mistake. 35k.

Another question...
 

Is it best to try to book it online, or better to call and have them look for availability?

Thanks for all your comments! I had been hoping I could find a First Class on NWA for the 45K as they have advertised... but I haven't found anything les than 70K... but I'll keep looking... I don't really have any set time frame.

I just got my UA card to bump my miles over 40K... guess I'll start looking on UA too...

Best Airport to fly into?
 

Any thoughts on best airport to fly into as well? Does this make a difference in using miles? Should I search the different airports?

my wife and I were able to fly to Hawaii in June on the award tickets on American Airlines. The only problem is we had to fly on Tuesday.

Well, there are much more flights to HNL than any other airport, so you will probably have a much easier time flying there. As for the other islands, it depends on which airline you are flying, as not all airlines service each island.

IMO, it's much better to fly directly to the island you will be on, and if you're doing multiple islands have an open jaw ticket. The extra connection is a real PITA.

For award seats, the demand is EXTREMELY high year-round.

For each island, there is pretty much one choice in terms of mainland flights. HNL, KOA, OGG, LIH.

HNL and OGG can both handle widebodies. KOA and LIH can handle 757's - not sure about widebodies.

From a mileage perspective, it makes no difference. In fact, most awards allow an open jaw - so you could, for example, fly into KOA and out of LIH. You'd simply buy the interisland segment separately or book a separate award. (Most major U.S. airlines have a partnership with one of the Hawaiian carriers for interisland awards for 5,000-10,000 miles.)

For the times I last did this (3 and 5 years ago), I couldn't find routings that would allow me to book the entire 2-island trip under one 35k award. If there is anyone that will let you do Mainland-Island1-Island2-Mainland (regardless of whether there are normal connections in there), I'm not aware of it. Maybe if Island1 is a logical routing to/from Island2 and it would be treated as a stopover instead of Open Jaw? I don't know...we avoided HNL whenever possible, which is the "logical routing" place that might be allowed. We always had to spend the extra 5k per ticket.

Is that true for BA out of LHR? Or all airlines? Seems like you'd be able to get something like LHR-ORD-HNL and simply be subject to the award availability of each segment. And you've probably got a couple of windows per year where demand on those segments is somewhat off-peak.

Now through Thanksgiving. Post-Spring-Break through start of the transatlantic peak season. Etc.

I don't understand. BA doesn't fly to HNL except on AA metal. Has that changed recently?

Probably not. I was just responding to the guy who said it was EXTREMELY hard to get award seats to Hawaii - ever - presumably out of Heathrow.

Since getting to Hawaii from the mainland USA isn't too difficult, I was speculating that maybe he was a BA guy having trouble getting the LHR-ORD (or wherever) piece. Yes, I was thinking AA for the ORD-HNL segment...again, that flight isn't too tough to get with a little planning.

Very few people go to Hawaii between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I've been there and played on some world class golf courses, cheaply, and in 2 1/2 hours. I never saw a soul on any of the courses, whereas at other times, they were packed and it would take 5+ hours to play and much $$$$$

Or is it very few people in Hawaii play golf between Thanksgiving and Christmas?

Though late-November to December 25th isn't as busy as post-Christmas, there is still some heavy travel to/from the Islands.

And, FWIW, the easiest time of the year to use miles to Hawaii is either 330 days out, or 2 weeks before your trip.

PS: There's a great deal of information on the Hawaii forum linked below (and likely where this thread belong, :hint: :hint: mods ;) ), for those of you who don't know about it.

Where was this advertised? :confused:

If you look at the NWA charts closely, it is 45/90K for First Class within US49 (excludes Hawaii) - it is 75/150K for First Class between the USS49 and Hawaii! (It is 35/70K to Hawaii in coach! :( )