Taking your family to Hawaii is often thought of as a once-in-a-lifetime trip. If you’ve been following MileValue, you know that we strive to make those once-in-a-lifetime trips happen early and often.

Few things sound more appealing than a relaxing vacation after how high the anxiety levels have been during the past year. For those looking for a domestic trip, Hawaii might be a logical choice even though safety measures are still in place to travel there.

To avoid a 10-day quarantine upon arrival, visitors need to present a proper negative COVID-19 test. With that, you can head straight to the beach on most islands.

While planning a trip, though, you’ll notice that all major domestic carriers fly from the mainland to Hawaii.

My last trip was February 2020. My wife and I returned home from an awesome week-long stay at Scrub Island Resort in the British Virgin Islands not knowing that it would be our last trip for a long time. We had tons of trips all over the world planned for 2020 that we would slowly begin cancelling one-by-one: 3 weeks in South Africa, a trip to Chile and Argentina, a few trips to Europe, and tons of domestic trips as well.

Like many of you, we’ve been pretty cooped up for the last year or so.

If you’re anything like us, nearly every moment of this pandemic has been spent dreaming of travel. Especially as we try to avoid nauseating headlines like “Corona” being on the rise for baby names. With U.S. residents barred from entering Europe for the foreseeable future, now is the time to focus on feasible travel.

In this three-part series, we are looking at the basics of the cheapest domestic awards.

A note from Sarah Page: In case you don't catch the byline, this was written by MileValue founder Scott Grimmer. We're happy to feature a post by our old friend and coworker! Thanks for your time and valuable insight, Scott.

Update 8/19: This offer is expected to drop on September 4, 2019, according to Doctor of Credit.

Barclays issues a Hawaiian Airlines co-branded credit card called the Hawaiian Airlines World Elite MasterCard that comes with 60,000 miles for spending $2,000 within 90 days of account opening.

Southwest held a meeting in Honolulu yesterday that revealed approximate dates Southwest flights will go on sale and commence service. We also learned that Southwest will keep its awesome two free checked bags/free flight change policies for flights between Hawaii and the mainland.

Executive Vice President; Chief Revenue Officer Andy Watterson told the Beat of Hawaii that the announcement of flights will come by October at the latest, and service would "begin possibly just weeks thereafter".

I tweeted this deal first from @MileValueAlerts. Follow @MileValueAlerts on Twitter and follow these directions to get a text message every time I tweet from that account. I tweet from @MileValueAlerts only a few times a month because it is designed to be used only for the best and most limited-time deals–like mistake fares–so that you aren’t bombarded by text messages.

American Airlines and United are in a fare ware right now, both offering cheap roundtrip economy fares to Hawaii.

I tweeted this deal first from @MileValueAlerts. Follow @MileValueAlerts on Twitter and follow these directions to get a text message every time I tweet from that account. I tweet from @MileValueAlerts rarely because it is designed to be used only for the best and most limited-time deals–like mistake fares–so that you aren’t bombarded by text messages.

Alaska Airline is offering a dirt cheap roundtrip economy fare to Hawaii, starting at $363 from Newark to Maui, Kona, Honolulu, and Lihue. Available travel dates span all the way from April 2018 through February of 2019.

British Airways Avios are fantastic for short, direct, economy flights on American Airlines and Alaska Airlines because the number of Avios needed for an award is determined only by the distance and cabin of each flight.

One sweet spot with Avios that I've noted over and over is that flights from the west coast to Hawaii are 12,500 Avios + $5.60 in taxes each way.

From where do American Airlines and Alaska Airlines fly to in Hawaii?
How can you book these flights with Avios?
How can you get Avios?

American and Alaska all fly to the four major