I got an email from reader Karen, who asks:
I would like to take my family of 6 to Hawaii in the summer of 2016 or 2107. Would like to go first class for this trip. Have about 1 million chase ultimate rewards saved up. 200k American airlines and 140k Starwood points. 5 of us are based on out NY area and 1 out of Boston. Would like to make sure we get true first class/business class lay flat seats.I am finding that United is next to impossible for a saver award on their non stop. It seems American airlines out of LGA connecting seems to be more flexible with saver awards.
First Class to Hawaii
There aren’t a ton of first class options from the Eastern US to Hawaii, and if you want lie-flat seats, the pickings are even slimmer. United offers lie-flat seats to Hawaii from Newark (EWR), Washington DC (IAD) and San Francisco (SFO), and charges 40,000 miles one-way IF you can find saver space, which is rare, especially when you’re looking for 6 seats.
I actually DID find 6 seats on June 7th of next year when I first looked, but looking now I can only find 4 seats on the direct flight
Other dates only have the “Standard Award”, which is 5 people * 90,000 * 2 for a roundtrip = 900,000 miles. Nearly a million miles for one trip! I mean I know that sometimes you have to suck it up and book a Standard Award, but that seems like a LOT!
You do have to be careful searching with United because even when it shows some availability connecting, it’s a “Mixed Cabin” award, where you are in Economy for the leg from Honolulu to California (either LAX or SFO) and then in First for the transcontinental flight.
American and Delta are not much better in availability
So is the trip worth a million miles?
Well, my first reaction would be that no, it would be hard for me to justify 1,000,000 miles for a single trip.
BUT, they’re not my miles! And if that’s something that’s really important to you, then who are we (am I) to say that it’s not “worth” it. As long as you’re comfortable with the alternatives (i.e. the opportunity cost of what else you COULD do with those miles), then I say go for it
Some alternatives
In talking with Karen, she mentioned that she and her husband had gone to Hawaii a few years ago using miles, flying Hawaiian Airlines outbound from JFK and United nonstop coming back, and she was not impressed with the seats in first class on Hawaiian, which is why she was interested in a lie-flat bed.
I can understand that – New York to Honolulu is an 11 hour trip, and you don’t want to arrive at your destination so exhausted and uncomfortable that you waste an entire day recovering. For me at least, it’s less important on the way back, because who cares if you’re tired when you go back to work 🙂
We discussed some alternatives, such as breaking up the trip if you can’t find award availability. Personally, if I could find a lie-flat bed from places like Chicago, Dallas or Houston, I’d be less concerned about the shorter ride from New York.
But I’m curious to see if any of my readers have suggestions about what they might do. Leave a note in the comments
This site is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as thepointsguy.com. This may impact how and where links appear on this site. Responses are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Some or all of the card offers that appear on the website are from advertisers and that compensation may impact on how and where card products appear on the site. Any opinions expressed in this post are my own, and have not been reviewed, approved, or endorsed by my advertising partners and I do not include all card companies, or all available card offers. Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers and other offers and benefits listed on this page. Enrollment may be required for select American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com to learn more. Other links on this page may also pay me a commission - as always, thanks for your support if you use them
User Generated Content Disclosure: Points With a Crew encourages constructive discussions, comments, and questions. Responses are not provided by or commissioned by any bank advertisers. These responses have not been reviewed, approved, or endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the responsibility of the bank advertiser to respond to comments.
Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
Split up the group. With someone living in a separate city, there are at least 3 adults, so it’s not a matter of sending a 4 year old to fly solo with a plane change. An alternative would be to fly the younger members in the back on the same flight.
Ouch. Very ouch.
Strongly recommend that they go elsewhere than Hawaii. It’s nice and all, but out of NYC the Caribbean is so much closer and about the same cost when on the ground. Go to the BVI and have a blast. Or pretty much anywhere for that matter.
I think a piece of all of us would die a little if they paid 90k miles round trip for that.
Agree. When I was searching to just go “somewhere warm“, we ended up with Puerto Rico. In addition to being a cheaper flight, it also has the advantage of not having any airport taxes and fees (other than the 9/11 fee), so it was a lot cheaper dollar wise as well!
My husband and I went to Hawaii this past February. We actually had the trip booked for early December but had to cancel everything the night before Thanksgiving due to a medical issue. Originally we were on the nonstop UA out of EWR in economy with a connecting flight to KOA (Big Island), interisland KOA-OGG (Maui) with return from OGG-HNL connecting to UA Bus/First HNL- EWR.
Upon rebooking, to find award availability, we booked economy EWR-LAX connecting LAX-KOA. We added interisland Hilo-OGG (so we stayed on the Volcanos NP side of the island). We managed to get the same OGG-HNL-EWR return with 2 in Bus/First but still amazed that we found 2 seats.
So I have some questions/suggestions for them.
Are they just planning on staying on Oahu? If so, I, too, would suggest an alternative beach vacation location. There are lots of more beautiful beaches/resorts than Oahu.
Are they planning to go to Maui and/or Kauai? If so, then why not book flights that will take them directly there instead of HNL? The flight TO Hawaii from the east coast is daytime. If they break it up in a western city (LAX, SFO, PHX), they can have 2 flights of reasonable length, get a relaxing meal during the layover and arrive at the island of their choice without dealing with connecting thru HNL after a long flight.
I would recommend BUS/FIRST from HNL to EWR on the return only because this is a red-eye. The flight leaves late, the FAs basically rush the food out ASAP (served all at once on a tray – not like international business class service in courses) and then dim the cabin lights because it’s late and everyone just wants to sleep. We found we arrived home well rested and not tired at all.
If they cannot find enough seats on the UA nonstop, then book a connection on the return and stay in an airport hotel at the layover point, get a good night’s sleep in a real bed, plan for a wonderful breakfast and then fly home in the early afternoon. This again will be 2 flights of reasonable length, with more options for finding awards, esp. in coach, which will be more bearable on flights of around 6 hours. Might be able to find more saver awards in economy, and reasonable paid fares this way, too. Thus saving thousands of miles/points and $$.
Just MHO.
Fly
If it were me, with that many points- I’d look to utilize Southwest, United to get across the country in one or two hops. Also use the Chase travel portal as well. With that many points, if they have the time, they could do a LGA to West coast with one stop. They could even use the one stop and spend a night or two in an 8,000 point Hyatt.
I’d much rather spend 12 days in Hawaii with a weekend in Chicago or Denver than spend an entire two weeks in Hawaii and deplete 1mm points.
She doesn’t specify what her time commitments are, or whether or not she is willing to make multiple stops. But taking Southwest to Phoenix, Houston, Denver, Chicago, etc. seems to be cheaper. And with her time horizon she may be able to pick up the Chase Southwest card or two. Transfer her URs to SW.
Additionally, flying out of NYC gives her the option to look at Jetblue?
I would also split the group up to find what she needs. Then I would use Singapore miles to book the United flights to save about 25% of her miles.
That’s a good point – Continental US to Hawaii is one of the sweet spots of the Singapore award chart.
If you are AA ex plat with SWUs, it might be more economical to buy rev tickets ($300-$500). There seem to be always upgrades available on AA.
..
Thanks for the advice. We will have to split up the family which is not a big deal. We will probably do two weeks one in Kauai and one in Maui. I won’t use the million but will try to find saver awards and have to give on stopping but still hoping to find more international business seats then domestic first class.