Skip to content

Fly Your Entire Family to Hawaii in Delta One Lie-Flat Seats With Saver Award Tickets

Oct. 15, 2018
4 min read
Oahu-Hawaii-Coastline-Crop
Fly Your Entire Family to Hawaii in Delta One Lie-Flat Seats With Saver Award Tickets
The cards we feature here are from partners who compensate us when you are approved through our site, and this may impact how or where these products appear. We don’t cover all available credit cards, but our analysis, reviews, and opinions are entirely from our editorial team. Terms apply to the offers listed on this page. Please view our advertising policy and product review methodology for more information.
New

Quick summary

Here's something you don't see often: saver level space on a coveted Delta lie-flat seat to one of the most awe-inspiring places on Earth. Oh, and something else you rarely see: enough of those seats to fly your whole family there during summer break. Presumably in an attempt to draw more attention to Delta's upcoming nonstop service between Detroit (DTW) and Honolulu (HNL), the carrier is offering as many as eight business class seats at saver level on each flight. Now "saver level" is a bit of a tricky concept when using Delta SkyMiles as they no longer have a published award chart, but it is still an important distinction when booking with partners, which is the better deal we will get to in a minute.

Looks like a family vacation for Summer 2019 is in your future...

As a reminder, the Detroit-Honolulu route will be served with Boeing 767-300ER aircraft equipped with 25 fully lie-flat seats in Delta One, 29 seats Delta Comfort+ and 171 seats in the Main Cabin. The onboard experience includes access to Wi-Fi, free personal in-flight seatback entertainment screens and power ports at every seat. At 4,475 miles one-way, that's a whole lot of flight time to enjoy the product.

Virgin Atlantic is charging just 37,500 miles for a one-way award on Delta's nonstop between Detroit and Honolulu

While the award search engine on Delta.com shows one-way business class pricing at anywhere between 55,000 and 102,500 SkyMiles from late June 2019 onward, there's a better way to book.

Compared to Delta.com's award pricing (shown here), Virgin Atlantic is the clear winner

You can book Delta One seats via Virgin Atlantic Flying Club, and even if you've never flown Virgin Atlantic, you can still take advantage. Simply head over to Virgin Atlantic, create a free account, and search for the date or dates that would work for you using their five-week date search. Once you've found the ideal match, you can transfer American Express Membership Rewards, Citi ThankYou points and Chase Ultimate Rewards points to Virgin Atlantic's program. You can even mix and match, transferring a bundle from one program and a bundle from another to reach the amount you need to book the tickets. We've created a step-by-step guide to booking Delta seats via Virgin Atlantic right here.

Note that when searching for Honolulu as a destination on the Virgin Atlantic site, it may not pop-up automatically. If that happens, click on the purple circle in the search field and select the airport manually.

9 hours and 43 minutes aboard a Boeing 767-300 with a Delta One lie-flat seat (for the whole family!)

Virgin Atlantic is pricing out these lie-flat seats at 37,500 miles one-way, with up to eight seats available on each flight. That's a veritable steal considering the ~10 hours you'll spend onboard, and Detroit is a pretty easy airport to reach within the Delta network. Once you're in Hawaii, take a look at our guides below to make the most of your trip.

Daily Newsletter
Reward your inbox with the TPG Daily newsletter
Join over 700,000 readers for breaking news, in-depth guides and exclusive deals from TPG’s experts
Peering down from a ridge hike in Oahu, Hawaii (Photo by Darren Murph / The Points Guy)

If you're looking to boost your available points across any of the aforementioned credit card currencies, be sure to check out our guide to the best travel rewards credit cards for families.

H/T: View from the Wing

Featured image by Oahu, Hawaii Coastline (Photo by Darren Murph / The Points Guy)