*This post may contain affiliate links, please see my disclosure
We’re back again with some awesome free travel tips for the sophisticated! Paying for travel is so 2012! So let’s jump into another “how to travel for free” adventure!
As always, you can find the best rewards cards on my Travel Credit Cards page.
Couples Love Hawaii
Science has proven that if you are in a relationship, you and your significant other will WANT to go to Hawaii at some point. Science has also proven that Hawaii is CRAZY EXPENSIVE to get to and from.
And ever since I wrote my post about how I got free tickets to Hawaii for me and 6 family members, I’ve gotten tons of emails from people hoping to get their free dream vacation to Hawaii.
I have responded to many of these emails, and have found that different circumstances call for different methods of accumulating and using credit card rewards points to make these trips happen. Many of you who have emailed are couples wanting to get away from the world for a week, which I totally understand.
So I wanted to make it easy out there for ANY couple who wants a fun trip to the “Aloha State” FOR FREE.
5 Ways To Get To Hawaii With Credit Card Rewards
There is not one-size-fits-all for free travel with credit card rewards, so I decided to show you 5 WAYS to fly to and from Hawaii on credit card rewards! READY??
1. CapitalOne® Venture® Rewards Card
This one is super simple. The Capital One® Venture® Card gives you $400+ in free travel, REGARDLESS OF WHAT AIRLINE YOU BUY FROM! So you can purchase the tickets on this card, and erase that purchase using your bonus points. EASY!
Check out the latest offer on the Capital One® Venture® Card
This card offers a GENEROUS welcome bonus after meeting the minimum spend. Grab two of these, and you should have enough for (2) roundtrip tickets.
Then you just need to find the cheapest flights to Hawaii you can, purchase them, and then erase them after they post to your account.
Here’s an example I found when looking at Alaska Airlines from Seattle to Hawaii. As you can see, each way is just under $250, which would which would pretty much be covered by your bonus points (just over $900 total for 2 tickets)! YEAAAAAH!!
2. American Airlines Credit Card
This one is also pretty simple. You just pick up two American Airlines Credit cards with a 50,000 miles bonus (or more), meet the minimum spend to get the bonus, and then book flights.
A quick look on aa.com shows me that a trip to Hawaii is about 40,000 miles from the west coast (20,000 each way). Two of these cards should net you more than enough miles to get yourself two tickets to Hawaii!
Note: American Airlines has a few different bonus offers, check out the latest airline card offers HERE
3. Barclaycard Hawaiian Airlines World Elite MasterCard
It doesn’t get much simpler than getting a pair of Hawaiian Airlines World Elite MasterCards and using the miles for two easy tickets on Hawaiian Airlines. It’s only 20,000 miles each way. So for 80,000 total miles, you can get (2) roundtrip tickets on the signature airlines of Hawaii!
Which means you just need to drop $4,000 in 90 days on two of these cards to get your two free roundtrip flights. Oh, and they’ve got some sweet perks, including a “Complimentary Koloa Breeze Rum Punch Cocktail.” Can’t beat that!
Note: The Barclaycard Hawaiian Airlines Credit Card has a $0 fee for the first year, then $99 after that.
4. The British Airways Avios Trick
I have discussed this trick at length in a few previous posts, and this is the method we used to get our free 7 tickets to Hawaii. It’s super simple.
With the current Chase British Airways credit card offers, you can grab 2 and get over 100,000 Avios miles. Then you can use those miles to book roundtrip ticket to Hawaii!
They key here is to use your Avios miles on Alaska Airlines or American Airlines using their “Super Saver” rewards flights to get your tickets. From the west coast, this is only 26,000 for a round trip ticket. For other areas, check out this calculator to see how many miles it would be.
Your flight on Alaska or AA MUST BE a nonstop flight at the lowest available fare of 20k miles each way (see example below). Flexibility is key in booking these. Be able to travel during the week or during off-peak seasons will help you find these tickets and be on your way to Hawaii!
Find the best offers on airline cards HERE
Note: The British Airways Credit Card has a $95 non-waivable fee. This is well worth it when you consider the possible $500+ ticket price, but just want you to be aware of this.
5. KoreanAir Skypass Miles
This little-known trick is a great way to get free tickets to Hawaii using your Korean Air Skypass points.
The great thing is you can book economy tickets to Hawaii using your Skypass points starting as low as 25,000 miles through Delta Airlines. They are part of the same network, so find the lowest available award seats on Delta, and then call the Skypass rewards number on your card to book.
Simply signing up for (2) of the Skypass cards and grabbing the bonus will let you book 2 tickets to Hawaii!
Get Yourself To Hawaii, There’s No Excuse!
This is only a sample of the ways to get a free trip to Hawaii. There are tons of other credit card rewards and tricks to get you the miles needed to get out there. Now you have no excuse for not taking that couples getaway to the romantic Hawaiian islands with your sweety.
SO GET TO IT!
Start by checking out the Top Travel Rewards Cards and plan your next vacation!
If you have any questions or have a specific circumstance that needs some consulting for free travel, don’t hesitate to reach out to me using my contact page. I love this stuff!
Hawaii is on my list but there are sooooooooooooooo many other places to go first!!!!! One of these days =)
Wait, what is above Hawaii on your list?
I love the Barclay card! It covered all my hotel expenses for FinCon13, plus some! 🙂
Well done! What about FinCon14? I’m still mapping out my flight and hotel strategy. Any tips?
Hawaii has been on our radar for awhile, but we just did Cancun in January so we got our quota of beach vacations in for the year! Hopefully these great deals will be around when we’re ready to go!
Wait, there’s a quota?! I totally missed the memo 😉
We’re heading to Maui in November for 10 days. Probably the longest vacation I’ve ever taken as an adult, so it should be nice. Well…it being free also helps the enjoyment factor 🙂
My wife thanks you for the tips! Science is never wrong…my wife always talks about our Hawaii trip from 5 years ago. We loved it. It’s tougher going since we’re on the east coast…I kind of dread long flights nowadays. Now that we have a baby, it’s even harder, but we’ll make it back there one day!
Hah! Science wins again! And don’t fret about traveling with a baby. Tons of ways to help them sleep/enjoy the flights and vacation, IMO. We’ll be traveling with a 3-year-old and 11 month old. Not worried 🙂
We’ve done the Hawaii trip once and it is expensive to get to and pay for while you are there. We did Oahu and the Big Island while we were there. It’s definitely worth the trip though, especially if you can get there cheaply.
I hear you. Hawaii is CRAZY pricey with gas/food stuff and touristy things. We’re doing free flights, free rental cars, and have a friend who lives there for things like snorkeling and surfing 🙂 The cost will mostly be food and other activities, which should be less than $1000 per family. And we can offset with statement credits from Chase (hopefully) 🙂
I couldn’t imagine that I can travel free to Hawaii! I love looking pictures in Hawaii, especially their beaches and foods!
We did the Barclaycard World Arrival (x2) earlier this year and got that sweet $400+ bonus.
I don’t need both cards and the fee kind of makes me feel icky. So I will probably cancel soon.
Is that what you do, cancel one rewards card once you’re done with it and move on to the next? Thanks!
@jacob Do you cancel rewards cards once you’ve spent the points, or how do you do it? I don’t want to have a bunch of opened cards but I’m not sure what the strategy to do it is
I keep them open, but try to downgrade the card to a no-fee card before the annual fee kicks in. If they won’t budge, I see if they’ll give a bonus for staying on and paying the fee (and make sure it’s worth it), or I just cancel and don’t pay anything.
I am currently working toward the Hawaiian airlines bonus. I hope to get it soon and then will be on my way. Now I just need to get my wife part of the game!
Dude seriously! Having a free travel partner in this game is HUGE! 🙂
I enjoyed this article! One question and one additional option:
Q: Any clue the availability on Hawaiian Airlines using either options 1 or 3 from the East coast? In all my travel rewards research I’ve never looked into Hawaiian.
Option 6: Chase Ultimate Rewards just added Singapore Airlines as a transfer partner and their chart is 35,000 round-trip to Hawaii. The nice thing is that this opens up the entire United Airlines network since they are Star Alliance partners.
You’ll want to check out this map for Hawaiian hubs: http://www.hawaiianairlines.com/publishingimages/routemaps/map-lg.png?d=201404230852
I don’t have a Hawaiian account, so not sure about awards availability from the East coast (can’t look at point flights without logging in), but I hear it’s pretty darn good compared to Alaska/AA. I mean, they only fly to Hawaii, so every flight ends up there 🙂
And yes, Chase seems like the way to go for Hawaii, with all the transfer options. Starwood also transfers to AA/Alaska at 20k points = 25k miles
Thanks for the tips! I’m almost done with my first three months with my Chase Sapphire, and I should be getting the bonus points any time now. I never would have thought of transferring Ultimate Rewards points to something like Korean Air though.
Glad to help! 🙂
Great tips. This post could help a lot of couples including me and my hub, who are planning to take a vacation. Thanks a lot!
I had no idea about the Barclay card Hawaiian card will definitely look into that. Love them credit card rewards!
Using the Hawaiian Airlines World Elite MasterCard, can you still book flights for 17,500 miles one-way? My wife and I signed up for this card and we each have our 35,000 bonus miles and are ready to book our flights. But I don’t see how to reduce the miles needed from 20k to 17.5k on the hawaiian airlines website.
I got some additional info from The Points Guy:
“once your Hawaiian Airlines World Elite MasterCard card is linked to your HawaiianMiles number, and you log on to the Hawaiian Airlines site, you’re automatically recognized as a cardholder and shown discounted award rates. What a regular HawaiianMiles member sees as a 20,000-mile award, a cardholder will see as a 17,500-mile award, and 35,000-mile roundtrips instead of 40,000 miles”
I recommend calling Hawaiian airlines and ensure your card is linked to your Hawaiian Airline account number, and confirm with them that you can book a RT flight for 35,000 miles.
Read more: http://thepointsguy.com/2014/03/hawaiian-airlines-series-award-availability-on-hawaiian-airlines/#ixzz3a2nM7wjT
Thanks! Unbeknownst to be, Barclaycard assigned me a new Hawaiian Airlines Mileage Plan number. Problem solved. I see now that I can book flights at the 17,500 level.
Sweet, make it happen! Have fun in Hawaii 🙂
Thanks!! I’m sure we will. I appreciate all that you’re doing here and I suspect many others do as well. Keep it up!
Thanks Sam!