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Don’t ignore the Hawaiian Miles program. Hawaiian Miles are easy to earn, and there are sweet spots on the chart that offer solid value.
Hawaiian Airlines miles have never been easier to acquire. Anyone can get 71,000 Hawaiian miles by opening just two credit cards.
The Hawaiian Airlines® World Elite MasterCard® comes with a 35,000 mile sign-up bonus after spending $1,000 in 90 days. The Hawaiian Airlines® Business MasterCard® comes with a 35,000 mile sign-up bonus after the first purchase. If you’re not sure whether or not you can open a business card, you probably can. See this post.
In addition, American Express Membership Rewards transfer 1:1 to Hawaiian Miles. (There is a fee of $0.60 per 1,000 points transferred.)
Opening Hawaiian Airlines cards also gives access to two unique benefits:
- The ability to share miles freely between Hawaiian Airlines accounts
- A 5,000 mile discount on roundtrip awards to Hawaii
Hawaiian Miles shine for itineraries involving their hub, Honolulu. For many of these routes, Hawaiian awards offer unparalleled value.
Hawaiian Airlines also partners with several airlines, including ANA, American, China Airlines, Jet Blue, Korean Air, Virgin America, Virgin Atlantic, and Virgin Australia. On many partner routes, using other miles can provide better value. However, there is one major exception that could save you tens of thousands of miles.
- Why does Hawaiian Airlines have one of the best award programs for families?
- What are the best deals using Hawaiian miles?
- When should you use Hawaiian miles for partner flights?
Share Miles
It’s easy for one person to get 71,000 Hawaiian miles. The Hawaiian Airlines® World Elite MasterCard® comes with a 35,000 mile sign-up bonus after spending $1,000 in 90 days. The Hawaiian Airlines® Business MasterCard® comes with a 35,000 mile sign-up bonus after the first purchase.
You and a spouse could each earn 71,000 miles, but two accounts with 71,000 miles are less powerful than one account with 142,000 miles.
Hawaiian Airlines cardholders with family members who also accrue Hawaiian miles can take advantage of a unique benefit: Hawaiian miles can be combined into one account through the share miles program. This free benefit can turn worthless “leftover” miles into an award goldmine.
Anyone who has a card open can receive Hawaiian Miles from another account for free. Most airlines charge over 1 cent per mile for transfers of this kind!
The Best Deals Using Hawaiian Airlines Miles
For all award flights listed below, the award price is the same or better than the same route using miles from a different program.
17,500 miles
Economy, one-way, Hawaii to:
- New York City
- Las Vegas
British Airways offer excellent deals from most West Coast cities to Hawaii, but they do not have any partner flights from Las Vegas. Thus, Hawaiian miles are the best miles to use for award flights from Las Vegas to Hawaii.
The Hawaiian Airlines award chart states that flights from Hawaii to the mainland cost 20,000 miles. However, for holders of the Hawaiian Airlines credit card the price is discounted to 17,500 miles.
27,500 Miles
Economy class, one-way, Hawaii to:
- Pago Pago, Samoa
- Papeete, Tahiti
40,000 Miles
Economy class, one-way, Hawaii to:
- Brisbane
- Sydney
- Auckland
First class, one-way, Hawaii to:
- Seattle
- Portland
- Sacramento
- Oakland
- San Francisco
- San Jose
- Los Angeles
- San Diego
- Las Vegas
- Phoenix
- New York City
47,500 miles
First class, one-way, Hawaii to:
- Pago Pago, Samoa
- Papeete, Tahiti
65,000 MILES
First class, one-way, Hawaii to:
- Brisbane
- Sydney
- Auckland
- Taipei
- Beijing
Partner Airline Flights
Many partner airline award flights using Hawaiian miles are not a good deal. Korean Air has many direct flights from their hub in Seoul to America and to many destinations in Europe. In many cases, flights on Korean Air are actually cheaper using Hawaiian miles than using Korean Air miles. This niche use of Hawaiian miles can provide great value to travelers with itineraries involving travel to Seoul.
30,000 miles
Economy class, round-trip, Korean Air, Seoul to:
- Akita
- Aomori
- Fukuoka
- Hakodate
- Kagoshima
- Komatsu
- Nagasaki
- Nagoya
- Niigata
- Oita
- Okayama
- Osaka
- Sapporo
- Shizuoka
- Tokyo (Narita, Haneda)
- Beijing
- Changsha
- Dalian
- Guangzhou
- Hong Kong
- Jinan
- Kunming
- Mudanjiang
- Qingdao
- Shanghai (Hongqiao)
- Shenyang
- Shenzhen
- Tianjin
- Tunxi
- Weihai
- Wuhan
- Ximen
- Xian
- Yanji
- Zhengzhou
- Irukutsk
- Taipei
- Ulaanbaatar
- Vladivostok
- Bangkok
- Cebu
- Chiang Mai
- Da Nang
- Denpasar Bali
- Hanoi
- Ho Chi Minh City
- Jakarta
- Kota Kinabalu
- Kuala Lumpur
- Manila
- Palau
- Phnom Penh
- Phuket
- Siem Reap
- Singapore
- Yangon
- Guam
- Colombo
- Malé
- Mumbai
- Kathmandu
- Tashkent
Korean Air, a transfer partner of Ultimate Rewards, charges 30,000 to 75,000 miles for the above itineraries.
30,000 Hawaiian miles could also be used for a round-trip ticket departing from any of the Asian cities listed above and going to Seoul.
100,000 miles
Economy class, round-trip, to Seoul from any of the following:
- Atlanta
- Chicago
- Dallas
- Honolulu
- Houston
- Las Vegas
- Los Angeles
- New York
- San Francisco
- Seattle
- Toronto
- Vancouver
- Washington D.C.
Korean Air, a transfer partner of Ultimate Rewards, charges 105,000 miles for the above itineraries during their peak travel dates. Delta charges 70,000 miles roundtrip.
200,000 MILES
Business class, round-trip, to Seoul from any of the following:
- Atlanta
- Chicago
- Dallas
- Honolulu
- Houston
- Las Vegas
- Los Angeles
- New York
- San Francisco
- Seattle
- Toronto
- Vancouver
- Washington D.C.
Korean Air, a transfer partner of Ultimate Rewards, charges 240,000 miles for the above itineraries during their peak travel dates. Delta charges 140,000 miles roundtrip.
Other Airline Partners
Hawaiian Miles can also be redeemed for flights on ANA, American, China Airlines, Jet Blue, Virgin America, Virgin Atlantic, and Virgin Australia. Check out the award charts here. None of the deals jump out at me as better than using Hawaiian Miles on Hawaiian flights.
Bottom Line
The Hawaiian Airlines® World Elite MasterCard® comes with a 35,000 mile sign-up bonus after spending $1,000 in 90 days. The Hawaiian Airlines® Business MasterCard® comes with a 35,000 mile sign-up bonus after the first purchase.
Although Hawaiian partners with several other airlines, the best deals with Hawaiian Miles tend to be on Hawaiian Airlines flights to and from Honolulu.
Just getting started in the world of points and miles? The Chase Sapphire Preferred is the best card for you to start with.
With a bonus of 60,000 points after $4,000 spend in the first 3 months, 5x points on travel booked through the Chase Travel Portal and 3x points on restaurants, streaming services, and online groceries (excluding Target, Walmart, and wholesale clubs), this card truly cannot be beat for getting started!
Editorial Disclaimer: The editorial content is not provided or commissioned by the credit card issuers. Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of the credit card issuers, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the credit card issuers.
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VERY compelling argument for getting these cards. Do these cards ever offer higher bonuses? Do you pay a fee first year?
I have never seen a bigger bonus for these cards. You do pay the fee the first year. I have never seen that waived either.
My wife and I have recently signed up for three combined cards, so we’ll have 107k miles after meeting the spend, plus I have 160k MR I could transfer if needed. You’re right that this is a great program, I’m looking at using it to get my family of 4 to HNL next year.
Quick question, is the 5K point savings only good for round trips? The reason I ask, is I would plan on booking the two one way flights separately so I could book the flight out there on the day it opens up, and then do the same for the return flight. I don’t want to wait 2 weeks to book the round trip, because I’m nervous I wouldn’t be able to get 4 saver seats by then.
Thanks for the great post!
Every deal and discount is bookable one way with Hawaiian Miles, but can you do me a favor and double check that some flights are pricing at 17,500 miles and not 20,000 miles. I don’t have the card any more. Last time I checked, cardholders still got the 17,500 mile price, but I can’t check at the moment.
I believe that using Hawaiian miles on Hawaiian are quoted one-way but must need round trip travel. You are able to mix the classes, I.e. Economy and business but must book round trip to get those quoted mileage fares. If you do not, then you’ll be using a whole lot more miles to redeem.
You can book one way awards for one way prices on Hawaiian flights.
I havent seen 35K for a while (have a HA cc). Lowest i see is 40K nowadays. Are you still able to bring up 35K (or 17.5K one way)?? Thanks.
I don’t have the card any more, so I can’t check at the moment, but this is the first report I have seen of the 20k price not displaying as 17.5k for cardholders. I will investigate.
In the past, when these cards were serviced by FIA international, you couldn’t combine personal and business account miles. In fact, they would open a new HA account for you for the business account. Do you know if this is still the case?
I don’t know whether that is still the case, BUT as noted in this article, you can freely combine the miles between accounts even if they are originally put in separate accounts.
Bummer… i just tried HNL to every west coast destination HA flies to. All of them showed 20K as the least required miles (logged in to Hawaiian Miles account).
I don’t get a 5000 mi discount on either r;t or 2500 discount o/w if I try to book either Fr/t or Fo/w with Y other way …I caalled both cc and airline and noone seems to know the rules.
CAN ANYONE HELP EXPLAIN IF O/W DOABLE AND IF 5000 DISCOUNT ONLY R/T OR O/Ws ok and if a discount exists on F awards as well?
thanking you in advance!
and does one get 2 free checked bags each way with F award?
Yes, first class passengers get two free checked bags, including award passengers.
Yes you can do one ways for 17.5K. I see tons of availability from SFO to HNL when I log in.
I do know that if you log in with your business account, the same flights are 20K. (at least that’s how it use to be when the cards were serviced by FIA.
Still haven’t heard anything re whether the 5000 discount comes off F roundtrip awards as well and whether oneways get half the discount.
No and yes
Thanks!
Hi,
Which miles are best to use for first class from NY area to HNL during December?
I was saving up Hawaiian miles for this trip, but I see they are 80,000 miles for one-way during December, so 640,000 miles for 4 round trip. Is there better rates with other airlines?
Thanks so much for your expert advise!
Looks like your dates only have the high priced award space. The best deal will be with whichever airline has 4 Saver award seats. In early December, most airlines should, especially United. Around Christmas, no airline will have Saver award space.