In the Star Alliance, Singapore offers first class awards for 60,000 miles, while Alitalia s award c

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When it comes to redeeming miles for vacation, for many people, Hawaii is the dream destination . Perhaps that s why Hawaii is also one of the hardest award tickets to redeem. When booking an award to Hawaii, or any other popular vacation destination, it helps to have points in one or more of the three flexible point transfer programs American Express Membership best cruise line for family travel Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards, and the Starwood Preferred Guest program because you can use those points for travel on a variety of airlines, or to top up your frequent flyer program of choice. To maximize your transfer options, it s important to know which partners offer the best deals on award flights to Hawaii as well as inter-island service.
It used to be that most flights to Hawaii from the mainland arrived in Honolulu, and travelers to other destinations were expected to change planes best cruise line for family travel there and board a short island hopper best cruise line for family travel flight. Today, most of the larger islands (Hawaii, Maui, Kauai, and of course Oahu) can be reached by non-stop service from the mainland. Nevertheless, it s sometimes easier to piece together a trip arriving on one island and transferring to another. You can do this by booking an award on an airline that has a code share with inter-island operators best cruise line for family travel such as Hawaiian and Island Air, or by booking a separate award between islands. As hard as it is to find award space to Hawaii, best cruise line for family travel it s actually very easy to find award seats on flights best cruise line for family travel within the islands. In fact, it s rare that I find inter-island flights without the award seats I request, and even when that is the case, there s usually another best cruise line for family travel flight best cruise line for family travel with availability within hours.
In most North American frequent flier program award charts, Hawaii is in its own zone, with a unique best cruise line for family travel number of miles required to book tickets there. So the mileage needed to book an award on a particular flight can vary greatly depending on which program you use. In contrast, Hawaii tends to be lumped in with the rest of the United States for the purpose of booking tickets to award zones outside of North America. So if a program offers both a stopover and an open-jaw, best cruise line for family travel you can often add a free, one-way flight to Hawaii before or after an international trip.
Another best cruise line for family travel factor to consider is that travelers from the West Coast and Alaska are within 3,000 miles of the islands, or about half as far as travelers from the East Coast. Thus, those closer to Hawaii best cruise line for family travel can take advantage of distance best cruise line for family travel based frequent best cruise line for family travel flyer programs like British Airways .
There are three options among Starwood transfer partners that can get you a round-trip ticket to Hawaii for just 30,000 miles, or just 25,000 Starwood points with the 5,000 point bonus for redeeming 20,000 points : Alitalia, GOL, and Flying Blue (Air France/KLM). All three of these programs are partnered with Delta, and Flying Blue is also an Alaska best cruise line for family travel Airlines partner. In the Star Alliance, Asiana has the lowest priced awards at 35,000 miles.
In OneWorld, American offers off-peak awards for 35,000 miles from January 12 to March 8, and from August 22 to December 15. Interestingly, a round-trip award need only begin during the off-peak time period, and can return outside of it and still be only 35,000 miles. Otherwise, most of the other OneWorld options (and ANA in the Star Alliance) best cruise line for family travel are distance based, which can make sense for those traveling from the West Coast, such as the 25,000 mile round-trip award on British Airways using flights best cruise line for family travel on American, US Airways, or Alaska.
In the Star Alliance, Singapore offers first class awards for 60,000 miles, while Alitalia s award chart is still the best for Delta awards, also at 60,000 miles. American is the best OneWorld option at 75,000 miles for first class on two-class aircraft. Finally, you can book first class on an American three-class aircraft for 80,000 US Airways miles rather than 95,000 American miles, and you can use 75,000 Asiana miles for three-class United Airlines flights rather than 90,000 United miles.
Those redeeming Membership Rewards will also find great deals when they transfer best cruise line for family travel their points to Virgin America, best cruise line for family travel which offers round-trip awards best cruise line for family travel on Hawaiian Airlines for a mere 20,000 best cruise line for family travel miles from the West Coast, and only 35,000 miles from the East Coast. This is even better than the 25,000 mile round-trip award from British Airways for flights from the West Coast on American or Alaska.
Since Singapore and Alitalia are also Membership Rewards transfer partners, they still represent some the best deals to Hawaii at just 30,000 miles round trip, with Flying Blue close behind at 35,000 best cruise line for family travel miles. With OneWorld carriers, Membership Rewards points can only be used for distance-based best cruise line for family travel awards on BA, Iberia, and Asia miles. The only other option for awards using American flights is to redeem 45,000 Hawaiian miles.
The first class Hawaiian awards from the West Coast are a great deal at 50,000 miles. Next are the Singapore and Alitalia first class awards at 60,000 miles. Hawaiian best cruise line for family travel awards on American best cruise line for family travel or US Airways are expensive at 90,000 miles each, so most travelers will be better off with distance-based award using BA, Iberia, and Asia miles.
Singapore still looks good for United Airlines flights at 40,000 miles in coach, as opposed to 45,000 when booked through United. However, United does have a partnership with inter-island carriers if you need to book one ticket with a connection. To book American, US Airways, best cruise line for family travel and Alaska flights with Ultimate Rewards points, the British Airways distance-based chart is your only choice. best cruise line for family travel Korean best cruise line for family travel SkyPass transfers are the lowest price for SkyTeam best cruise line for family travel awards at 35,000 miles, but Virgin Atlantic best cruise line for family travel s program will be much easier to deal with for only 40,000 miles. Virgin Atlantic is also an option for awards on Hawaiian at 40,000 miles.
best cruise line for family travel The 60,000 best cruise line for family travel mile award from Singapore will work on United two-class flights, or you can go to 80,000 miles for first class on three-class aircraft. These options are always better than transferring miles to United. First class Virgin Atlantic awards are 75,000 miles on Delta, and 80,000 miles on Hawaiian. British Airways distance-based chart is your only choice for flights on American, US Airways, and Alaska flights.
Here, United miles really shine, as you can use just 6,000 miles (12,000 in first class) for a one-way ticket on any inter-island flight, even with connections. Frankly, this is a great use of small balances of Ultimate Rewards points or leftover United miles. Just be aware that Hawaiian and other inter-island carriers charge their own additional baggage fees when your ticket is not attached to your flight from the mainland.
Disclaimer: The responses best cruise line for family travel below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. best cruise line for family travel Responses have not been reviewed, best cruise line for family travel approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or best cruise line for family travel questions are answered.
how can the virgin america be the best transfer partner from amex points, when you need 2 amex points per 1 elevate mile so they might be smoking something when they say 20000 elevate miles from west coast is cheaper than united or american when you need to transfer 40000 amex points for that, or 70000 amex points(35000 elevate) from the east coast. by the way, i have yet to find how to fly from east coast-ish (cleveland ohio) for 35000 elevate miles on virgin america by using partners. i cannot seem to find cleveland a city in their FROM places.
Maybe the entire post is striked best cruise line for family travel out because in my opinion this post is unrealistic at least for most readers. I find interesting that bloggers best cruise line for family travel post about redeeming miles for the lowest award level as it is very easy to do so. It is JUST 30,000 miles round trip . Well, you should add that it may be JUST 30,000 miles IF: 1) you are totally flexible on dates; 2) you are redeeming only 1 ticket; 3) you do not care for crazy and long connections with unrealistic layovers. If any of the above does not match your profile best cruise line for family travel you better prepare yourself to use way more than 30,000 best cruise line for family travel miles.
If you are a family with kids trying to redeem miles to go to Hawaii it is almost impossible to redeem only 30,000 miles to get there. For example, we just returned from an amazing trip to Hawaii (Oahu and Kauai) and
for a family of 4 traveling in June (when kids are out of school) there was no way to get any option for 30,000. I burned 72,500 Skypesos per person to get there. I can tell that we were kind of flexible best cruise line for family travel on dates but had to be in either June, July or August since kids were out of school, we needed 4 tickets on the same flights best cruise line for family travel and there was no way we would be spending sometimes 10 hours in an airport to get a connection to our destination.
Just a comment regarding Inter-island flights. Our entire trip was ticketed by Delta and included one inter-island flight with Hawaiian best cruise line for family travel (all on the same ticket and award). I was told by Delta that my Medallion status best cruise line for family travel benefits would apply for all flights including the Hawaiian. Well, when I checked-in in Honolulu to go to Kauai I was charged for all our luggage and the Hawaiian lady was very rude and said they had nothing to do with Delta. I contacted Delta and was told I had to pay for luggage fees on Hawaiian. Also on
the 25 minute flight from Honolulu to Kauai on an almost empty plane I asked the FA if I could move to the exit row seat so I could have a better view since I wanted to take some pictures. She said exit rows seats are only for elite members and I could not seat there. What a “great” customer service!!!!
I booked 2 flights using BA Avios from LA to Haw