Best Ways to Get to Hawaii Using Points & Miles

There are so many airlines and so many award programs that it’s hard to answer someone when they ask “which is the best points/miles to accrue?” When I’m asked this question, I usually ask, “well…where do you want to go?” One of the most common answers is somewhere in Hawaii.

And why not? It’s beautiful, a shorter flight than many international destinations, and doesn’t require a passport for US citizens. I thought I’d do a quick write up given that it’s one of the most asked about destinations, so let’s get right into some of the best ways to get to Hawaii using points and miles.

Note that all prices quoted are one-way prices. Double the amount for the round-trip cost.

By the way, I’m still experimenting with YouTube and made a video that covers the same topic as this post. If you prefer watching/listening to reading, check out the video below. You can also subscribe to ensure you don’t miss any future videos (I do video reviews of airlines and hotels as well). Subscribing also helps me out, which I greatly appreciate.

British Airways Avios

British Airways is a member of the Oneworld alliance, of which American Airlines is also a member (and soon, Alaska Airlines as well). That allows us to use British Airways points, called Avios, for flights on American. The thing that makes British Airways unique is their distance-based award chart.

While it won’t be ideal for everyone, those on the West Coast are able to fly to Hawaii for just 13,000 British Airways Avios in Economy. American Airlines flies to the major airports in Hawaii exclusively from LAX, PHX, and DFW. Both LAX and PHX fall into the 13,000 Avios range, while DFW is less of a good deal at 20,750 Avios in Economy.

As an added bonus, British Airways already has Alaska Airlines as a partner airline even though the latter isn’t part of any alliance yet. That means that we can also book Alaska Airlines flights from the West Coast using Avios for the same price. This makes Oakland, San Diego, San Jose, Seattle, Portland, and San Francisco also available, in addition to more flights from Los Angeles.

The main difference is that American Airlines flights can be booked on the British Airways website, while Alaska Airlines flights have to be booked by calling British Airways. You can search for Alaska Airlines award availability on the AA.com website before calling BA.

If you’re looking for Business Class, it’s no longer a good deal. It’ll cost 38,750 Avios from the West Coast cities, which is quite a premium.

British Airways is a transfer partner of American Express Membership Rewards and Chase Ultimate Rewards. Amex, in particular, runs transfer bonuses of 30%-50% about once a year, so that’s a good way to subsidize the trip cost even further.

Singapore Airlines Krisflyer Miles

Another foreign carrier that has decent pricing from the US mainland to Hawaii is Singapore Airlines. Singapore Airlines is a member of Star Alliance, which allows us to use their Krisflyer miles for flights on United Airlines.

Singapore Airlines’ pricing for United awards to Hawaii is straightforward: 17,500 miles in Economy and 34,500 in Business Class. United currently flies to the major Hawaiian airports from Los Angeles, San Francisco, Denver, Chicago, Houston, Newark, and Washington-Dulles.

And coincidentally, like British Airways, Singapore Airlines also has a non-alliance partnership with Alaska Airlines. The award chart for Alaska flights to Hawaii is a little confusing, but offers good value if you’re willing to look into it.

It’s broken into several Zones:

Zone 1: California, Oregon, Washington

Zone 2: Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Wyoming, Utah

Zone 3: Arkansas, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, Wisconsin

Unfortunately, all other states are located in Zone 4, which surprisingly do not allow awards to Hawaii with Alaska.

Krisflyer prices are noted in Economy / Business format. Note that Business is not a good deal, and also that all travel must be on Alaska Airlines (no mixing with UA allowed).

Zone 1 to Hawaii: 12,000 / 44,500

Zone 2 to Hawaii: 11,500 / 42,000

Zone 3 to Hawaii: 12,500 / 46,500

Economy is a great deal on Alaska using Singapore Airlines Krisflyer miles. But, like with British Airways, you’ll need to call Singapore Airlines to book Alaska awards as they do not appear on Singapore’s website (note that United awards do).

Another reason why this is a good way to book is because Singapore Airlines Krisflyer miles are relatively easy to accrue as they are transfer partners of Amex, Chase, and Citi ThankYou Rewards.

Delta Air Lines

I hate Delta. Or rather, I hate their Skymiles program (the airline itself is quite good imo). They did away with award charts, making this difficult. I still wanted to include them as they may be useful to some.

Delta doesn’t have a set minimum cost, and they charge different amounts for Basic Economy and Regular Economy. From Los Angeles, you can find Basic Economy flights for just 13,000 Skymiles, which is pretty good. The lowest I can find regular economy is 15,500, while the lowest First Class is 44,000 from LAX. Flying from other airports that Delta flies from is generally going to cost more. That’s just how Delta works.

Delta is a transfer partner of Amex, in case you need to top up your account.

Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles

This, in my opinion, is the best value in points and miles world. Not just for flights from the US to Hawaii, but I think this is the best value of any airline program for any flight to anywhere. As with Singapore Airlines, Turkish Airlines is a member of Star Alliance, which allows us to use their miles for flights on United Airlines.

The cost? Just 7,500 miles each way in Economy and just 12,500 miles each way in Business. Yup.

There are no strange region restrictions. You can fly from Newark to Hawaii in Business Class for 12,500 Turkish miles. Actually, this is the price for flights from anywhere in the US to anywhere else in the US. So, go wild!

I’ve seen a lot of misinformation that these flights are not bookable online. This is not true. You need a (free) Miles and Smiles account to search, but you can definitely do so online. The Star Alliance search engine is different from the Turkish one, though. Once logged in, click on your name, then click Miles Transactions, and the first box on the right side will be titled “Star Alliance award ticket” with a “Book Now” link under it. That’s where you want to book. I have not checked if there is more availability when calling versus booking online, but I’d be curious of any of you know the answer to this.

While it’s not a commonly used program, Turkish Airlines is a transfer partner of Citi ThankYou Rewards. Those points are now a whole lot more valuable given these (and other) amazing values on the Turkish Airlines award chart.

Using Amex and Chase Points Directly

If you’re like most people, you hate searching for award availability. You just want to fly when you have vacation time, right? If you have the Chase Sapphire Reserve card or the Amex Business Platinum, you might be able to do better than most of the mileage costs mentioned above.

I’ve talked about The Flight Deal many times before in my blog. They’re one of my favorite websites and one of the most important tools someone in our hobby has available. They post cheap flights, almost always in Economy, from various cities to destinations based on a defined criteria that essentially guarantees us of a good deal (read their “About Us” page for more on this).

Just this week, there have been several deals posted to Hawaii from various US cities. These deals are often priced between $200-$350 (East Coast is generally around $500). If you can take advantage of one of these deals, and you have one of the two cards mentioned above, you can get some cheap flights.

On the high end of $350, booking through the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal would get you this round trip flight for 23,333 miles, or under 12,000 one way. On the low end of $200, you’re looking at a round trip cost of just 13,333.

The Amex Business Platinum gives a 35% rebate on flights booked through the Amex travel portal. While you’ll need to have all the points up front, you can end up doing pretty well. That same $350 flight would cost 35,000 Membership Rewards points initially, but you’d be rebated 35% of them, bringing your actually cost down to 22,750, which is cheaper than the CSR’s cost above for the same price.

This isn’t for everyone, but it’s something I think is worth mentioning as a lot of people forget this is an option. On top of the cheap prices noted above, you’ll also earn miles for the trip, which further subsidizes your trip cost.

Summary

There are so many programs that it’s hard (and pointless) to mention each one in a single post. I mentioned the ones I think provide the best values (plus Delta) but there are undoubtedly others that are also useful when taking availability into account. But any way you look at it, there’s no doubt that Turkish is the best option for Business Class.

What other options are out there that you use or prefer?