Unreal deal alert: Nonstop flights to Hawaii from 20k miles round-trip

Oct. 29, 2019

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6 min read

Unreal deal alert: Nonstop flights to Hawaii from 20k miles round-trip

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Is Hawaii in your fall and winter travel plans? If not -- well, it should be. That's because we're seeing unreal deals from around the U.S., such as Dallas (DFW), Chicago (ORD) and the New York area (EWR and JFK) to Hawaii starting at 10,000 AAdvantage miles one-way or 20,000 miles plus taxes and fees return. Even better, some flights are nonstop.

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The deals from Dallas were first discovered by Greg at Frequent Miler. Upon further research, we were able to find more deals from around the U.S. to several major airports in Hawaii. Make sure to do your own research to find the best deals closest to your home airport, especially if you're near a major American hub.

Here are some booking tips:

Best availability is found November – December 2019, but make sure to check beyond those dates.
There are likely other routes we haven’t spotted at these price levels, and the prices can change at any moment.
Taxes/fees start at about $11 round-trip.
You can put an American Airlines award on hold for five days, though personally, we’d book now and ask questions later.

At current TPG valuations, 20,000 American Airlines miles are worth just $240, which is rare for a flight to Hawaii, especially from the East Coast.

To search, head to American and enter your origin and destination cities. Scroll through the calendar function to find dates and prices that work for you. Finally, click through to book directly with the airline.

Airline: American
Routes: Major routes served by American
Cost: 10,000+ miles one-way, 20,000 miles round-trip
Dates: November – December 2019

Here are a few examples of what you can book:

Los Angeles (LAX) to Kauai (LIH) for 20,000 miles + $11.20 round-trip nonstop:

Dallas (DFW) to Kauai (LIH) for 20,000 miles + $11.20 round-trip:

Los Angeles (LAX) to Kauai (LIH) for 20,000 miles + $11.20 round-trip:

Long Beach (LGB) to Honolulu (HNL) for 20,000 miles + $86.20 round-trip:

Chicago (ORD) to Maui (OGG) for 21,000 miles + $11.20 round-trip:

Philadelphia (PHL) to Honolulu (HNL) for 21,500 miles + $11.20 round-trip:

Newark (EWR) to Kona (KOA) for 28,500 miles + $86.20 round-trip (returns to JFK):

Book directly with American Airlines

To book these awards, head to American Airlines’ website and pay the taxes and fees with a card that is good for airfare purchases, such as The Platinum Card® from American Express (5x on flights booked directly with airlines or American Express Travel), Chase Sapphire Reserve, American Express® Gold Card, Citi Premier® Card, Citi Prestige® Card (5x on airfare) or the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card (2x on all travel purchases).

Check out this post for more on maximizing airfare purchases.

The information for the Citi Prestige card has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.

How AA Economy Web Specials work

In late 2018, American Airlines rolled out a new mileage discount program called Economy Web Specials which offers AAdvantage members a chance to book economy flights for as little as 5,000 miles each way. Although American started with just six obscure routes, it expanded to 11 routes in early November and up to 39 routes in mid-December — including flights to Hawaii, Mexico, the Caribbean, South America and Europe (some of which are still available). Now, you never know what you will find on the Web Special tab.

I’d recommend reading through all of the details in this post about how Economy Web Specials works. However, as a quick briefer:

These awards don’t have all of the American Airlines Basic Economy limitations.
Executive Platinum elites get upgrades as they can on other domestic economy awards
Where the American website says “Economy Web Specials cannot be changed once ticketed.” This isn’t defined but may mean that travelers can’t use Same Day Flight Changes to switch to another award flight on the same day.
You can cancel and reinstate your miles according to the same terms as any other AAdvantage award. A redeposit fee of $150 for the first passenger and $25 per additional passenger applies for everyone but AAdvantage Executive Platinum elites.

If these awards leave your AAdvantage account depleted, here are some ways to replenish your account:

CitiBusiness® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® Mastercard®: 65,000 American Airlines AAdvantage® bonus miles after spending $4,000 in purchases within the first 4 months of account opening. Plus, 2x miles on a wide variety of eligible expenses.
Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard®: 50,000 miles after spending $5,000 on purchases in the first three months.
American Airlines AAdvantage MileUp℠ Card: 10,000 miles and a $50 statement credit for spending $500 on purchases in three months — with no annual fee
Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite Mastercard®: 50,000 miles after spending $2,500 on purchases in the first three months of account opening.

The information for the Citi AAdvantage Platinum card and CitiBusiness AAdvantage Platinum card has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.

Featured image by Getty Images

Editorial disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, airline or hotel chain, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.