Aloha! Hawaiian Airlines card is back.
When I was six, my Berkeley hippie parents pulled my brother and me out of school and we drove around Kauai in an orange milk truck for six months, camping. It was one of the best times of my life. Now my cousin lives in Kauai. So I’ve got both memories from before, and motivation to visit now.
In other words, I am always looking for ways to fly to Hawaii for free.
So I was happy to see that the Hawaiian Airlines card is back. It’s now a Mastercard, and is issued by Barclays (Bank of America used to issue Hawaiian Air Visa cards, but BofA lost their contract last year). Both a personal and a business version of the card are available.
Hawaiian miles are a valuable addition to your points and miles toolkit, because Hawaiian Airlines tends to have a decent amount of award space on all of its flights, plus they fly to more mainland destinations than any other carrier.
Award seats on Hawaiian start at 20,000 miles each way from Hawaii to the mainland for coach. If you’ve got the Hawaiian Airlines card, you can also take advantage of reduced price award flights (17,500 miles instead of 20,000 miles). You can only see these reduced price awards if you are a cardholder and you are logged into your account!
Here is a snapshot of some award prices on Hawaiian Airlines:
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You can also redeem Hawaiian miles for flights on American Airlines…
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Jet Blue…
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and Virgin America:
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Here are the terms for the personal card:
- Earn 35,000 bonus miles when you spend $1,000 on purchases in the first 90 days.
- Complimentary checked bag (for primary cardholder).
- One-time 50% off companion discount (must be used within 13 months) for roundtrip coach travel between Hawaii and North America on Hawaiian Airlines.
- Primary Cardholders are eligible to earn a $100 discount off one coach companion ticket for roundtrip travel between Hawaii and North America on each credit card account anniversary.
- 2x miles for spend on Hawaiian Airlines, 1x miles for spend on all other purchases.
- 5,000 bonus miles added to your account each year you make $10,000 or more in purchases with your card.
- $89 annual fee (not waived)
Here are the terms for the business version:
- 35,000 bonus miles with 1st purchase
- One-time 50% off companion discount (must be used within 13 months) for roundtrip coach travel between Hawaii and North America on Hawaiian Airlines.
- 2x miles for spend on Hawaiian Airlines, 1x miles for spend on all other purchases.
- 20,000 bonus miles on your account anniversary with $50K-$99K in annual spend, or 40,000 bonus miles with $100K or more in annual spend.
- $89 annual fee (not waived)
This is the time of year that I start to dream heavily about Hawaii. Since I just made some space in my wallet for a fresh round of credit cards, I am considering applying for one of these.
Hi,
Can you humor me? Is there a way to use these points to get to Hawaii from Boston? Is that where American and JetBlue would factor in? Sorry for such a newbie question but so far I have only used SouthWest, Air Tran and Delta for free flights.
Michelle – You can use 35,000 Hawaiian Air miles to redeem for an award on Jet Blue worth $260-$300. Or you can use the miles on American or Virgin.
Check out this page for more info:
http://www.hawaiianairlines.com/HawaiianMiles/Pages/use-on-partner-airlines.aspx
In order to use your HawaiianMiles for other airlines flight awards, you do need to call the HawaiianMiles Service Center at 1-877-HA-MILES (426-4537) Mon-Fri 8-4 P.M. HST.
Hope that helps!
Have already cycled through two cards apiece for husband and I through Bank of Hawaii and Bank of America. Took a free trip last year and heading out for another one in Feb.
Here is my question. We have let go of all four cards. Do you have any idea how long you must wait to get another one after terminating them? Or do you think that might not even be a factor since it is a different bank?
Anne – Since it’s a totally different bank, you should be good to go! You can start the process all over again.
ooooh, intriguing! A colleague who lives on Hawaii recently told me she found RT fares from mainland-HI on American for 35K, I wonder if they recently went up. I’ve also seen interisland mileage fares for as low as 5K on Hawaiian (usually the early AM/late evening time options)