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A lot of people read about incredible international business and first class beds, and they want to enjoy those beds on their next trip. Unfortunately their next trip is to Hawaii, which is almost exclusively served by planes that are configured with domestic first class–recliners with 8″ of extra pitch compared to economy class.
I’ve written before about how to get to Hawaii in a bed, and I am reprising the subject because I see amazing availability to Hawaii in international-style first class and in flat beds for as little as 40k miles.
United is flying flat beds to Honolulu from Denver, Houston, Newark, Dulles, and San Francisco throughout 2013.
The tell-tale sign that a Hawaii flight has flat beds is that it lists space in the third column on the search results labeled “First (three-cabin flights).”
Additionally, you can click View Seats in the bottom right corner of a search result. Beds are displayed as a bed-shaped icon, while normal seats are a square. Color denotes class name, which does not always correspond to whether something is a seat or bed, so check the icon.
Denver
I am currently seeing space from Denver to Honolulu on United flight 328 leaving Denver daily at noon and arriving in Honolulu at 3:13 PM. From studying the flight schedule, it looks like this flight is operated by a 777-200 with flat bed first class from March 1 to August 12, 2013.
A quick search showed availability in first class on most days.
First class oneway is 50k, a 10k premium over normal domestic first class style seats. Business class on the flights are recliner seats. They feature 55″ of pitch, more than a foot more leg room than normal domestic first, and cost 40k each way. Economy seats are the normal economy seats and cost 20k miles each way.
Houston
Houston has one daily flight–UA 219–to Honolulu operated by a 777-200 departing at 9:37 AM and landing at 2:05 PM on its entire upcoming schedule.
This flight has almost daily space in flat bed first class. First class oneway is 50k, a 10k premium over normal domestic first class style seats. Business class on the flights are recliner seats. They feature 55″ of pitch, more than a foot more leg room than normal domestic first, and cost 40k each way. Economy seats are the normal economy seats and cost 20k miles each way.
San Francisco
San Francisco has three to six daily flight to Honolulu depending on the day and month. The morning flight–9 AM–on Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday is operated by a 777-200 with a three-cabin configuration in January.
This plane is configured like the 777-200 flying from Houston and Denver.
Perhaps the better deal from SFO is to find the 767-400ER that occasionally flies to Honolulu.
If you can find space on this two-cabin plane, business class is 40k each way, meaning a bed for 40k.
Newark and Washington-Dulles
Newark and Washington-Dulles both have once-daily flights to Honolulu. Both routes are served by 767-400ERs. Availability isn’t as good as on any of the routes mentioned so far. But if you find space in business class, you are getting a fully flat bed for 40k each way on 10+ hour flights.
Chicago
Chicago doesn’t have flat bed seats to Hawaii. The daily flight from O’Hare is served by a two-cabin 777-200 without flat beds.
Los Angeles
LAX doesn’t have flights to Hawaii served by planes with flat beds.
Cleveland
Cleveland doesn’t have nonstop service to Hawaii.
How to Book
All of these flights are bookable with United and US Airways miles.
United charges 20k/40k/50k each way for economy/business/first class to Hawaii from the mainland. That makes business class on a 767-400ER the best value to Hawaii.
US Airways charges 40k roundtrip in economy and 70k roundtrip in business or first to Hawaii.
That makes the 777-200 first class the best value to Hawaii. Unfortunately, US Airways charges taxes ($2.5 per segment) plus $50 on Hawaii redemptions, but 70k roundtrip for 16+ hours of international-style first class from Houston is unbeatable.
To book United awards, use united.com as explained in my beginner’s series. Don’t forget you can add a free oneway on United awards to Hawaii.
To book US Airways awards, use united.com to search, then call 800-622-1015 to book. There is no phone fee to book partner awards by phone.
Worth It?
Is this many miles worth it for a domestic vacation? I think so if you live anywhere but the west coast. If you are willing to spend 100k roundtrip in business class to Europe–and most of my Award Booking Service clients want exactly that–then this is a similar deal and better in many cases.
The east coast is about a seven to eight hour flight from mainland Europe and six hours behind it. The east coast is a ten to eleven hour flight to Honolulu and five to six hours ahead depending on the season. That means in terms of time in the seat and how much you need to rest to avoid jet lag, the flights are very comparable.
By either metric, 100k roundtrip is reasonable to Hawaii if it’s reasonable to Europe. And I think 100k roundtrip to Europe is very reasonable.
Add in the fact that you can book to Hawaii roundtrip in a bed with US Airways miles for 70k roundtrip, and you have a relative steal. This is one of many US Airways award chart sweet spots.
p.s.
United’s direct flights from JFK to San Francisco and LAX are operated on p.s. 757s, which feature flat bed first class seats (but not flat business class seats.)
Another option to maximize flat beds to Hawaii would be to fly a p.s. flight from JFK, stopover in San Francisco or Los Angeles (with United miles only since they allow stopovers to Hawaii but US Airways doesn’t), continue a few days later to Honolulu on a flat bed, then return on the direct flat bed to Newark for 90k total miles.
Recap
Flat-bed options are widely available to Hawaii for your 2013 vacation on United flights with United or US Airways miles. Roundtrips can be had for as few as 70k US Airways miles or 80k United miles.
If you think Europe is a good deal in business class, take a look at Hawaii too.
I’m on vacation in–you guessed it–Hawaii until Wednesday, so I may not answer email. If you are emailing about the Award Booking Service, email milevaluebooking (at) gmail (dot) com.
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I just tried to book one of these using US Air miles, and the rep couldn’t see ANY first-class award space on the 3-cabin United flights. It’s all visible through United’s web site, but it appears as though US isn’t able to see any of it — economy and business space was visible, but no first-class space on any day. I even got the rep to try a long-sell and that wouldn’t go through.
Unless you have direct experience to the contrary, I don’t think these are bookable with US miles.
Those seats also don’t show up on ANA, which doubly suggests that US can’t book them.
Hawaii is a 5.5 or 6 hour flight from the west coast, so if you’re flying from the east coast, it is a pretty long flight. Might be worth paying more miles for the flight.
Hi Scott, you said “with United miles only since they allow stopovers to Hawaii but US Airways doesn’t” Can you explain the stopover rule on US miles redemption? I thought one stopover or one open jaw is permitted.
Yes, that’s the rule on int’l itins. They don’t (officially) allow it on domestic trips.
Okay, I take that back — SOME of the first-class space is visible on US. I was able to find IAD-HNL in first (on both ANA and US), but not DEN-HNL (on either ANA or US).
I think Hawaii routes has different route policy than domestic flights which includes continental U.S., Alaska, and Canada.
Per Stopovers 3: For travel outside the continental U.S., Canada and Alaska, you’re allowed one stopover per US Airways itinerary at a US Airways gateway or international destination (or in a partner hub city if you’re traveling on an award partner).
http://www.usairways.com/en-US/dividendmiles/programdetails/memberguide.html
Yes, I’m pretty sure this is true (since Hawaii is a separate zone from the continental US, and therefore isn’t subject to the ‘no stopovers within the same zone’ rule). I just booked one of these trips with a stopover and had no issues, even after the itinerary got sent to the rate desk for verification.
Thanks! I also found some successful samples on ft.
Great post. As someone who just did the DEN to HNL trip, having a lie-flat would have been awesome…especially on the return trip. I had just been searching for availability on united in February with no luck, now I know when to try!
Quality article and highly educational. Keep up the great work!
I’ve gotten confirmation from both US and United over the phone that those first-class seats are not released to US (or US is blocking them, but since ANA can’t see them, I think the issue is on United’s end). Even had a very helpful United agent who called US herself and came to the same conclusion.
Unfortunately, that means no international first class for 70k — the best you can do is 100k United miles, or try to get the Newark or Dulles flights in business for 70k US miles (but as noted, availability is much worse on those flights).
Same issue with Avianca. I can see the award space on United, but can’t book it with Avianca miles
good post but this news is fairly old and has been covered several times before
I used US Airways mile to book a first class round trip flight to Kauai (LIH) for Oct 2013. It was 70k miles per person: layover in Phoenix (US Airways on the way there) and United (1134) direct to Denver in a flat bed. It appears the flat beds exist coming from LIH as well as Honolulu.
I looked for availability on the IAD-HNL leg (we’re going to Maui in February). The flight shows a 3-class offering, but in “View Seats” the 767 seats don’t show as lie-flat.
Yes, I noticed that as well — I believe the 3-class flights from the east coast only fly from EWR, not IAD. That said, the biz-class seats on the IAD flights are the barcaloungers (so much better than domestic F), and the flight isn’t a redeye, so it doesn’t matter as much. I didn’t sweat it and just made sure to book a true lie-flat on the redeye return.
That’s a two-cabin flight. Just first and economy (and economy plus, which is not a separate cabin). I checked May 15 – 21 on the direct IAD-HNL. When the aircraft is a 767-400ER, first class is 40k and lie flat. When it is just 767, it is not lie flat.
Hi there! This post is very helpful, thanks! I was searching for a nonstop flight from WAS (any airport) to HNL yesterday (10/26/13 to 11/9/13) and could have sworn I saw a 1st/Business class Saver award for 40k miles each way. Today when I search, no 40k saver award is available! Only the 80k standard award. Do you know anything about this? Our dates are flexible but I can’t find the 40k nonstop on any date! We really want to do the flat beds nonstop. I found a few one-stop flights where the 2nd flight would have the flat beds (like Newark, as your post references) but I’m not ready to settle for that flight as I swear I saw the 40k nonstop yesterday…
[…] (Note that these flights feature domestic-style first class. There are some international-style business class beds that United flies to Hawaii from Newark, Washington, San Francisco, Denver, Houston, and more. See here for more on those flights.) […]
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