Took a flight to Oahu earlier this week and was talking to my friends on how I scored a business class flight on Hawaiian Airlines for only $230.20 and this got there attention. I had so many people asking me about it I thought it be way easier to write this post to explain it all. While there are many post and videos talking about the sweet spots of other airline loyalty programs for flights to Hawaii there aren’t many in regards to Hawaiian Airlines. Just to name a few
Delta but through partner airlines and Skyteam
- Virgin Atlantic (20K Economy / 37.5K Business non-stop)
- Flying Blue KLM/Airfrance (17.5K Economy / 30K Business)
- Avios Aer Lingus/Iberia/Qatar but book through British Airways (13.5K Economy / 39K Business West coast and 62K lie flat out of DFW)
- KrisFlyer Singapore Air ( 19.5K Economy / 39K Business)
- Turkish Miles (10K Economy/ 15K Business)
While all these seem like great options some are hard to come by and you often have to wait for deals or promotions to get the lowest rate. Flying out of Austin there’s really only is one option that I would consider and thats Hawaiian Airlines nonstop 8 hour flight on their Airbus A300.
Hawaiian Airlines Deep Dive
With a current fleet size of 66 aircraft 24 of them are Airbus A330-200 aircraft that are equipped with lie flat seats (Wiki). They like to call them “first class” but really shouldn’t given that its only economy and 18 of these seats in each on of thei aircrafts (Fleet). But I won’t complain given that I have flown these bird in business class to Japan and both the west coast and central US and had an enjoyable experience.
What gets me exited about flying Hawaiian isn’t there currently fleet of airplanes but the 12 Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners with 34 Leihoku Suites that they currently have on order from Boeing. Why should you care? Because the strategy that I’m about to share works on these planes too (Yes I already tried it and have one of the first flights booked on this new plane). Also because airlines like Qantas, Air New Zealand and United use this plane for 4 of the 10 longest nonstop flights including AKL-JFK, DFW-MEL, PER – LHR and IAH to SYD (Link).
I’m sure they’ll change the points needed for these 17+ hour flights but its good to know these planes have the distance in them. I predict this is the start of Hawaiian offering nonstop flight to Europe. Oh and did I mention that they are retrofitting free Starlink internet on all their planes. (Some airlines don’t want it because they have to agree not to charge their passengers and airlines would rather make another buck off us).
Hawaiian Airlines Award Chard
There aren’t many promotions that happen for Hawaiian Airlines besides the occasional 20% bonus transfer bonus from American Express so not many people consider it which is great for me. At first glance the award chart is nothing to write home about but looking close you see the saver first (First Class 1) and saver first upgrade fares (Upgrade 1).
Looking at all these award amounts can be confusing so to put it simply Hawaiian Airlines prices are dynamic and an Economy ticket can cost from 20k – 95K points for West coast 25K – 110K for Central, 30K – 120K for East and 40K – 140 for Japan, Korea Australia and New Zealand. Same applies for First Class 40k – 130K for most of the US. We however don’t really care about this and want to focus on Milage Upgrade Prices.
They don’t separate North America into three separate regions like they do in the award chart so lets simplify all this to see that stands out.
First thing that stands out is that First Class Saver is 40,000 for all of North America i.e If you can find first class points availability during promotions it’ll be 40K points. First Flex is the standard rate for a first class booking making First Saver look pretty good.
Looking down at First Saver Upgrade i.e. upgrading to first while theres a promotion is only 25k for all 3 regions and 50k all other times during First Flex Upgrade which isn’t bad compared to the regular First Flex booking awards.
SO WHAT DOES THIS ALL MEAN.
Book a regular ticket (some people on the internet have said buying basic economy worked for the other said it didn’t so YMMV) and just upgrade to first for 50k miles or if you’re lucky and find First Save Upgrade space, upgrade for only 25,000. For me I waited for Hawaiian Airlines to have a sale for tickets and booked a one way for $230.20 and upgraded for 50K points bypassing the almost $2k they wanted in cash for the upgrade.
There are ways to use Expert Flyer to find First- Saver & Partner Awards (D) and First – Saver Upgrade (A) but I’ll probably write a whole other post on that.
TLDR
If you find business class seats for 40k points book them because that’s the lowest they’ll be. If you already booked a ticket then upgrade for only 25K
If the business class ticket is showing up for full price between 80k – 130k+ depending on where you are just book a regular seat and upgrade.