Need help getting award seats to Hawaii
 

First, I'm new at flyertalk, so please excuse my lack of abbreviations! I need to strategize how to get three award tickets from Philadelphia area to Honolulu outbound and return from Kona Intl for next summer (June 23 - July 8 ). I have 250K Marriott pts and will trade them for a travel package which includes 120K air miles (can be deposited into any award acct I choose). My husband and I have accts with Delta and USAir (about 8300 miles in each). I'm told I have to wait until the return flights are available, but what's the chance the outbound flights will be available at that point? I appreciate your suggestions:)

Welcome to FT, travelbuddy13!

You'll certainly get a lot of advice on this topic, but you may find more relevant advice in either the DL or the US specific forum. Although, you don't want to post the same quesiton in both.

I'll start by offering you this piece of advice ... You should arrange your award flight to AND from HNL. For your return, book a (relatively) inexpensive, one-way 'island-hopper' from KOA to HNL. You will find award availability into and out of HNL on either airline much better than any other airport in Hawaii.

Good luck!

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I think you are more likely to find frequent-flyer seat availability on AA and UA. And since both allow one en route stopover (either outbound or return), you can probably get your flight from HNL to KOA for free (on a partner carrier). I also think that you may well be able to find award availability out of KOA on them, as long as there is some flexibility in your dates.

By the way, AA permits both a stopover and an open jaw. So if you wanted to break up your trip in California for a few days, you could do so on an AA award. (But if you use California as your stopover, you would have to pay for the HNL-KOA segment

Also, do not be surprised if you are not able to find three seats on the same flights. That is asking for alot... especially for a Hawaiian destination.

Also realize that the key to award travel is flexibility. If you must travel on specific days you have severely limited your chances of finding tickets.

Mrs. Cargojon and I recently scored saver awards on UA from MDT-OGG. Like others have said, you just have to be flexible and plan your trip around when you can get tix.

UA has a decent search tool for availability and such.

I would have to agree with the above posts about UA having good availability. I have looked for flights from PDX to Kona on a number of airlines and UA has some of the best availability on award seats via SFO and LAX to Kona. It would just be a matter of finding an award seat from PHL that would connect in one of those cities.