Mileage Runs to Hawaii now...
Aug 16, 2018, 12:32 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Jul 2015
Location: San Francisco
Programs: UA MM Plat, UA 1MM, Hilton Lifetime Gold, Marriott Gold, Hertz Gold, CLEAR, AS MVP Gold
Posts: 3,618
Mileage Runs to Hawaii now...
Just spoke to a women doing EWR-SFO-KOA-SFO-EWR today for $350 to get her to 1K. She does the 90 minute turnaround at KOA. Pretty amazing price since given I paid over $650 for the SFO-KOA-SFO leg months ago. BTW, she did get CPU'ed on the SFO-KOA flight leaving now. Just wondering how many are doing mileage runs in and out of Hawaii now? Seems like in the past it would have been price prohibitive with other cheaper routes available.
Aug 16, 2018, 12:42 pm
#3
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: HNL
Programs: UA GS4MM, MR LT Plat, Hilton Gold
Posts: 6,447
I doubt Hawaii in general is a good MR candidate anymore.......
Aug 16, 2018, 12:52 pm
#4
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: NYC
Programs: UA 1K, Hyatt Globalist, Bonvoy Titanium, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 368
[ EWR/JFK-Hawaii flights have frequently been 350-450~ on UA and AA for the past 2-3 months.
Last edited by WineCountryUA; Aug 16, 2018 at 1:06 pm Reason: snarky commeny removed
Aug 16, 2018, 12:54 pm
#5
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: New York, NY
Programs: UA, AA, DL, Hertz, Avis, National, Hyatt, Hilton, SPG, Marriott
Posts: 9,450
The price is low but not unheard of to the Islands.
The best, for me, was in 2009 with a 2x EQM promo. For around $350, I did EWR-IAH-HNL-IAH-EWR in about 30 hours with 7h on the ground in HNL... more than enough time for some beach time on Waikiki, a swim, a few mai tais at Duke's, dinner and a leisurely evening at HNL before heading back. 21k EQM for that, with no qualifying dollar threshold got me to CO Platinum for the first time. Good days... even if the rest of the world was, at the time, in utter turmoil and financial ruin!
The best, for me, was in 2009 with a 2x EQM promo. For around $350, I did EWR-IAH-HNL-IAH-EWR in about 30 hours with 7h on the ground in HNL... more than enough time for some beach time on Waikiki, a swim, a few mai tais at Duke's, dinner and a leisurely evening at HNL before heading back. 21k EQM for that, with no qualifying dollar threshold got me to CO Platinum for the first time. Good days... even if the rest of the world was, at the time, in utter turmoil and financial ruin!
Aug 16, 2018, 12:55 pm
#6
Join Date: Sep 2010
Posts: 90
That being said, it's a good fare to Hawaii and it's been available for a month or two now at least.
Aug 16, 2018, 1:02 pm
#7
Join Date: Jan 2017
Location: SFO
Programs: United 1MM GS, Marriott Platinum Elite, Hilton Diamond, Hertz President's Circle
Posts: 283
I’d consider doing one for the GPUs and RPUs
Aug 16, 2018, 1:03 pm
#8
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Aug 16, 2018, 1:06 pm
#9
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: HNL
Programs: UA GS4MM, MR LT Plat, Hilton Gold
Posts: 6,447
I guess I'll take your word for it - I do fly EWR-HNL a few times a year, and I've never seen sub $500 this year. Even a quick check of September/October dates don't yield me anything sub $500, but I might not be looking at the right dates
Last edited by WineCountryUA; Aug 16, 2018 at 1:11 pm Reason: quote updated to reflect Moderator edit
Aug 16, 2018, 1:10 pm
#10
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: NYC
Programs: UA 1K, Hyatt Globalist, Bonvoy Titanium, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 368
Most of the deals are not to HNL, they are to the other islands unfortunately.
Aug 16, 2018, 1:13 pm
#11
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: In between IAD and DCA
Programs: UA Plat 1.1MM , Marriott Gold Elite, Hyatt Discoverist
Posts: 2,262
Hawaii has some decent fares I've noticed in the past. I've never done it though. I'm still waiting to pull the trigger on the $650-750 fares to Nairobi with same day turnaround! 
Aug 16, 2018, 1:14 pm
#12
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: PSM
Posts: 69,232
Depends on the travel patterns. One or two work trips in J could cover the PQDs in a hurry but leave someone well short on PQMs. I'm (unexpectedly) over 20k EQDs on AA but still short of EXP this year. It happens.
Aug 16, 2018, 1:19 pm
#13
Join Date: May 2001
Location: HNL
Posts: 1,015
I've haven't looked at fares in months, but for a while fares between HNL (and possibly other island locales) and YYZ were very good, both Y and F. I have the Chase PP Platinum waiver, and this likely would have been my go-to mileage run had I needed PQM.
Aug 16, 2018, 1:22 pm
#14
Original Poster
Join Date: Jul 2015
Location: San Francisco
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My wife and I have both fallen into this, high end J fares for work related trips early in the year quickly got us over the $20K EQD but we still needed miles. Usually within a few months this becomes a non issue and we have not had the need to actually do a "mileage runs".
Aug 16, 2018, 2:31 pm
#15
Join Date: May 2010
Location: SFO
Programs: UA MM, Marriott LT Plat
Posts: 264
PQD qualification for 1k met.
Around 44k PQM's earned for the TATL, say another 3k for the short domestic flights..
So, I could easily picture somebody doing a mileage run to bump up to Gold, or if the rest of their flying is domestic, to Plat or 1k. Personally, I've not done a mileage run since before the merger, but I could certainly understand somebody doing one.