Best ways to get to Hawaii using points and miles (2025)
If Hawaii’s tropical paradise is on your mind, you probably want to know how to get there with miles and points. Alaska, AA, Delta, Hawaiian, Southwest, and United Airlines all have flights from the mainland US to Hawaii. However, you can sometimes save points by booking these flights with foreign airline programs — perhaps paying […] The post Best ways to get to Hawaii using points and miles (2025) appeared first on Frequent Miler. Frequent Miler may receive compensation from CHASE. American Express, Capital One, or other partners.
If Hawaii’s tropical paradise is on your mind, you probably want to know how to get there with miles and points. Alaska, AA, Delta, Hawaiian, Southwest, and United Airlines all have flights from the mainland US to Hawaii. However, you can sometimes save points by booking these flights with foreign airline programs — perhaps paying as few as 10,000 miles one-way from as far as New York or Boston to Honolulu.
Awards to Hawaii can be difficult to find, especially during peak season. For this reason, we’ve included a few tricks for booking cheaper paid flights in addition to the usual reward program sweet spots.
This guide has been updated for 2025 with award chart changes, surcharge information, and cancellation policies.
What are transferable currencies?
If you want to use airline miles, it’s great to have transferable points. Transferable point programs let you transfer your points to any of a number of airline programs. This is appealing because it gives you the freedom to book many different flights through many different methods, some of which are strikingly cheaper than others. If you’re not familiar with transferable points programs, please check out our guides:
- Amex Membership Rewards Complete Guide
- Bilt Rewards Complete Guide
- Capital One “Rewards miles” Complete Guide
- Chase Ultimate Rewards Complete Guide
- Citi ThankYou Rewards Complete Guide
- Wells Fargo Rewards Complete Guide (coming soon)
How to save on paid flights to Hawaii
Alaska Airlines Companion Fare
This is a great trick for getting cheap flights to Hawaii. As long as Alaska (and soon, Hawaiian) Airlines flights are available and you travel in pairs, this option can save a bundle.
How to get it: Alaska Airlines credit card holders can get one discount code each year (note that those who have opened the card since January 18, 2023 will need to spend $6,000 on the card during a calendar year to get a companion fare code; those whose accounts were opened prior to 1/18/23 receive an annual companion fare code as a standard card benefit). Qualifying cards: Alaska Airlines Visa Signature consumer card (US), the Alaska Airlines Visa Business card (US), as well as the World Elite and Platinum Plus MasterCard (Canada).
Flight requirement: Officially, it must be a round-trip paid published coach airfare on Alaska Airlines. Unofficially, one-way (and multi-city) itineraries also work.
Companion benefit: Pay “from $121” ($99 base fare plus applicable taxes and fees from $22 depending on your Alaska Airlines flight itinerary).
Southwest Companion Pass
If you have earned a Southwest Companion Pass, you can fly two people for the price of one! This is true whether you pay cash or points for your flight.
Vacation Packages
Bundled air + hotel vacation packages sometimes offer far better flight prices than those available directly from the airlines unbundled. If you don’t need the hotel portion, you may be able to book the cheapest hotel option for just one night (and throw it away) even if you plan to stay at the destination far longer. Alternatively you may be able to bundle a car rental instead of a hotel. As an example, we’ve saved tons of money in the past booking Delta Vacation flights + car rentals to Hawaii. In many instances, the price with the car rental has been significantly less than the cost to buy airfare alone.
Best ways to get to Hawaii using points and miles
Alaska Airlines using Alaska Mileage Plan
- The short story: Alaska offers variable award pricing for both American Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines and Alaska Airlines flights. Normal "saver" pricing is very competitive and economy award sales can be some of the best deals around.
- Miles required: Starts at 17,500 miles each way in economy or 35,000 miles in business. During Alaska Mileage Plan's regular award sales, we've seen rates as low as 7,500 miles each way to/from West Coast gateways. See full award charts here.
- How to find awards: Search for available space at AlaskaAir.com.
- How to book awards: Book online at AlaskaAir.com.
- Change and cancellation fees: None for award tickets. There is a non-refundable $12.50 partner booking fee if booking partner awards.
- Key warnings: Transfers from Marriott can take 7 days or more.
- Transfer from: Bilt, Marriott
Alaska Airlines or United using Singapore KrisFlyer miles
- The short story: Singapore KrisFlyer charges fewer miles for domestic flights to Hawaii than United does for the same flights. Additionally, they have a great chart for Alaska Airlines for those originating in parts of the US other than the East Coast.
- Miles required: For United flights: 19,500 miles each way in economy or 39,000 in business (as compared to 22.5K / 40K through United). For Alaska Airlines flights: award prices range from 13.5K to 14K one-way in economy class.
- How to find awards: Search for available United Airlines space at United.com (Note: Do not log in — logging in may show you expanded availability based on your credit card or elite status that is not available for partner bookings) or SingaporeAir.com (See: Book United flights online with Singapore miles– but note that business class prices have increased since that post was written). For Alaska Airlines award space, search at AA.com
- How to book awards: Book online at SingaporeAir.com or over the phone with Singapore KrisFlyer. Alaska awards must be booked over the phone.
- Change and cancellation fees:
- Change of date / route / class / add a stopover for travel on Singapore Airlines or Silk Air: $25.
- Change of date / route / class on partner airlines: $50.
- Cancellation: $75.
- No-show: $100-$200.
- Key warnings: Note that transfers to Singapore KrisFlyer are now instant from Amex Membership Rewards and typically take around 7 hours from Capital One and Chase (slightly longer from Citi). Waitlisted itineraries that do not clear by 14 days prior to departure will get canceled. Be aware that United.com and AA.com will show availability for flights with longer/overnight connections that are not available with Singapore KrisFlyer miles, so be sure to double check availability at SingaporeAir.com or with a phone agent before booking.
- Transfer from: Amex, Capital One, Chase, Citi, Marriott
American Airlines or Alaska Airlines from the west coast using Qatar Avios
- The short story: Qatar Airways Privilege Club offers a distance-based chart that offers one of the best deals for economy class flights between the west coast of the US and Hawaii.
- Miles required: 16K Avios + $5.60 each way in economy class on Alaska or American Airlines for flights covering a distance of 2,000-3,000 miles.
- How to find awards: Search and book at QatarAirways.com or use Qantas.com to see an availability calendar.
- How to book awards: Book online at QatarAirways.com
- Change and cancellation fees: $25 more than 24 hours in advance / $100 Between 3-24 hours in advance / Nonrefundable within 3 hours or after departure
- Key warnings: Awards become expensive or nonrefundable to cancel close to departure, so this is not a good option for booking backup flights.
- Transfer from: Amex, Citi. Also transfer to BA and then to Qatar with: Bilt, Capital One, Chase, Wells Fargo
American Airlines or Alaska Airlines using Finnair Avios
- The short story: Finnair offers a zone-based award chart, so flights from the East Coast of the USA on Alaska Airlines or American Airlines can be a great value.
- Miles required: 13,500 Avios each way on Alaska or 15K on AA plus $5.60 for economy-class between North America (including east coast cities) and Hawaii. 47.5K Avios each way in business class on American Airlines or 50.5K each way in first class on Alaska.
- How to find awards: Search for available Alaska space at britishairways.com.
- How to book awards: Book via chat at finnair.com or over the phone at 929-474-6049 or 323-694-7646 (Mon–Fri 8 a.m.–8 p.m., Sat–Sun 8 a.m.–6 p.m. Eastern Time)
- Key warnings: The British Airways site sometimes shows phantom award space for AA (see: Phantom menace: an award search time suck). You may want to double-check Qantas.com for availability before transferring points.
- Transfer from: Capital One. Also transfer to BA and then to Finnair with Amex, Bilt, Chase, Wells Fargo or to Qatar and then to Finnair with Citi.
Delta using Air France miles
Air France is one of the cheapest options for booking Delta flights to Hawaii. Unfortunately, Delta’s partner award space is extremely hard to find, especially for first class awards.
- The short story: Air France charges far fewer miles than Delta for Delta flights to Hawaii, but finding award availability can be a huge challenge.
- Miles required: 17.5K one-way in economy, or 30K one-way in business class for Delta flights from the US mainland to Hawaii.
- How to find awards: Use the Virgin Atlantic 5 week award search to find availability (see this post for details). Next, confirm your findings at AirFrance.us (you’ll need to create a free Flying Blue frequent flyer account to search)
- How to book awards: Book online at AirFrance.us. Can also book via phone when the website returns errors or try KLM's website.
- Change and cancellation fees: €70.
- Key warnings: Air France's website is buggy and will often return errors when trying to complete a booking. If that happens, try calling or using the app.
- Transfer from: Amex, Bilt, Capital One, Chase Ultimate Rewards, Citi Thank You Marriott Bonvoy, Wells Fargo.
Delta using Virgin Atlantic miles
- The short story: Virgin Atlantic often offers Delta flights to Hawaii for far fewer miles than Delta would charge for the same itinerary and it can be an even better deal through Virgin Atlantic if you catch a transfer bonus.
- Miles required: Varies by distance. See the full award chart here. Nonstop routes from the west coast of the US should run 22K in economy or 70K in business (business class is not a good deal).
- How to find awards: Search for available space at VirginAtlantic.com
- How to book awards: Book online at VirginAtlantic.com.
- Change/Cancellation fees: $100. If your original taxes were less than $100, Virgin Atlantic will allow you to simply forfeit the taxes.
- Key warnings: Virgin Atlantic charges each segment separately, so they are not a good choice for connecting itineraries.
- Transfer from: Amex, Chase, Capital One, Citi, Bilt
Southwest using Southwest points
Southwest doesn’t have any relevant partners, but their own points are useful especially since they’re fully refundable. Additionally, if you have earned a Southwest Companion Pass, you can fly two people for the price of one!
United using Turkish Miles & Smiles
Turkish offers the best deal to Hawaii, bar none. 10K one-way in economy or 15K one-way in business class is insane.
- The short story: Turkish offers the same pricing on flights to Hawaii as for other domestic US awards, making them an unbelievable value for flights to Hawaii.
- Miles required: 10,000 miles each way in economy class or 15,000 miles each way in business class (can include connections for the same price)
- How to find awards: Search and book awards at TurkishAirlines.com. Note that you can also try searching AirCanada.com for additional space that should be bookable via email.
- How to book awards: Some awards can be booked online at TurkishAirlines.com (click "Award Ticket" on the home page, then log in and choose the "Star Alliance" tab on the award search tool). If you see an award on AirCanada.com that is not available at the Turkish website, you can try an email booking. Once an email agent sets up the reservation, you can call to pay the taxes and ticket rather than emailing back with the requested screen shots of your credit card and ID.
- Change and cancellation fees: The fee to change or cancel is $70 per passenger, though I've been unsuccessful in finding agents who know how to change a partner award. Thus cancelling for $70 is your best bet.
- Key warnings: Turkish appears to have a max connect time of 4 hours on a domestic itinerary, so itineraries with a longer connection would require 2 awards. Also, for an unknown reason, Turkish phone agents often can't see award space that other partner airlines can see. Booking over the phone can be very challenging. We highly recommend calling to put an award on hold before you transfer points to Turkish miles.
- Transfer from: Bilt, Citi Thank You, Capital One, Marriott Bonvoy
How to get the miles
The following chart shows the available transferable points programs for each of the above airline frequent flyer programs:
| Rewards Program | Amex Transfer Ratio (and transfer time) | Chase Transfer Ratio (and transfer time) | Citi Transfer Ratio (and transfer time) | Capital One Transfer Ratio (and transfer time) | Bilt Transfer Ratio (and transfer time) | Wells Fargo Transfer Ratio (and transfer time) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Air France KLM Flying Blue | 1 to 1 (Instant) | 1 to 1 (Instant) | 1 to 1 (Instant) | 1 to 1 (Instant) | 1 to 1 (Instant) | 1 to 1 (Unknown) |
| Alaska MileagePlan | 1 to 1 via Hawaiian (Instant) | 1 to 1 (Instant) | ||||
| Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer | 1 to 1 (Instant) | 1 to 1 (~1 day) | 1 to 1 (~1 day) | 1 to 1 (Instant) | ||
| Southwest Rapid Rewards | 1 to 1 (Instant) | |||||
| Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles | 1 to 1 (12 - 24 hours) | 1 to 1 (Instant) | 1 to 1 (Instant) | |||
| Virgin Atlantic Flying Club | 1 to 1 (Instant) | 1 to 1 (Instant) | 1 to 1 (Instant) | 1 to 1 (Instant) | 1 to 1 (Instant) | 1 to 1 (Unkown) |
The post Best ways to get to Hawaii using points and miles (2025) appeared first on Frequent Miler. Frequent Miler may receive compensation from CHASE. American Express, Capital One, or other partners.
