Hawaiian Reward seats

[CPMaverick]

That is so but I am seeing dates with points and clicking through the flights come up.

Like I said it is only a problem for services that don't operate every day.

I'm not talking about availability, I'm talking about operating. If there are no flights at all available to even check during part of the month, the AA site award search seems to break.

 

[albyd]

On the AA site or HA site? As far as I can tell you need an account on the HA site.

I just checked some availability with Velocity, and it seems only the lowest awards on the HA chart ("super saver" for economy awards) will be available for Velocity members.

The problem with the AA site on routes that don't operate every day, is it tends to error out. The monthly chart shows '0K' miles but if you click on a date it fails.

I’ve been checking AA site. Interesting about what’s actually made available to VA members.

Earning VA points is about as easy as QF points nowadays. Similarly seems to be getting harder to redeem them particularly as VA don’t fly to many places outside Australia. Glad they have the SQ conversion link despite the hefty haircut.

 

[WeeWillyWonka]

I’ve been checking AA site. Interesting about what’s actually made available to VA members.

Earning VA points is about as easy as QF points nowadays. Similarly seems to be getting harder to redeem them particularly as VA don’t fly to many places outside Australia. Glad they have the SQ conversion link despite the hefty haircut.

did you end up getting your J reward seats? I've been looking at early/mid Nov and can only find economy available on aa.com.

 

[albyd]

I ended up getting 4 J reward seats from SYD to HNL.

Consistently couldn’t find anything but Y for the return leg. Ended up paying cash for full fare economy (Amex allowed me to use all my travel credits over the phone which dramatically helped defray the cost. I upgraded these seats to Premium for a small additional cost on Hawaiian site.

Sounds like I made the right decision as there doesn’t seem to be any J reward seat availability for the return leg.

Surprised Nov has no availability. I’m not surprised early October had no availability as it’s school holidays.

 

[mlob]

Something of interest. Others might be able to verify. We fly J class with reward seats. Last year I helped another friend and her family of to get a Y return award. They were seated in premium seats on both legs. Anyone else had this experience?

 

[WeeWillyWonka]

I ended up getting 4 J reward seats from SYD to HNL.

Consistently couldn’t find anything but Y for the return leg. Ended up paying cash for full fare economy (Amex allowed me to use all my travel credits over the phone which dramatically helped defray the cost. I upgraded these seats to Premium for a small additional cost on Hawaiian site.

Sounds like I made the right decision as there doesn’t seem to be any J reward seat availability for the return leg.

Surprised Nov has no availability..

What was the cash difference for the upgrade if you don't mind me asking?

Perhaps I've either a) left my search too late for J in Nov or they are yet to release further seats then.

 

[albyd]

From memory it was $US125 for the upgrade which I felt was reasonable.

I recall the seats from HA weren’t released to VA until a few weeks after the usual release date after HA’s members got first dibs.

 

[mlob]

Anyone having any luck Brisbane Honolulu in J recently? We just returned from a trip in April return J, booked June last year. We are keen to do all over again next April. Ive started ringing up at 330 days out and getting very mixed information about availability. One agent told me there has been no availability at all out of Brisbane, only Sydney. Another is only seeing economy no J anywhere. Anyone had any recent luck?

 

[deva22]

Anyone having any luck Brisbane Honolulu in J recently? We just returned from a trip in April return J, booked June last year. We are keen to do all over again next April. Ive started ringing up at 330 days out and getting very mixed information about availability. One agent told me there has been no availability at all out of Brisbane, only Sydney. Another is only seeing economy no J anywhere. Anyone had any recent luck?

Your best bet is to the use the AAdvantage booking system to check for reward seat availability. They are a non-alliance partner of HA and in theory (according to many accounts) have the same access to award inventory as Velocity.

 

[PhilandJosh]

Your best bet is to the use the AAdvantage booking system to check for reward seat availability. They are a non-alliance partner of HA and in theory (according to many accounts) have the same access to award inventory as Velocity.

They are available out of Brisbane... we got 1 out of bris and booked one in economy for early Jan (really hoping another comes up closer to the day) and snagged 2 returns Honolulu-Brisbane for mid February! Done at around the 11m out! As someone else mentioned monitor aa.com but be aware that sometimes there are ‘phantom’ seats (or less likely not avail to virgin) so ring to confirm before transferring points if you are transferring to velocity from another program eg. Amex rewards

 

[mlob]

Thankyou. I did check out AAdvantage and disturbingly showing no business seats beyond November. :-(

 

[albyd]

My family are flying in October school holidays. Managed to snag 4 J outbound from SYD but no availability coming back. Assuming someone was faster than us or they realized it was school holidays & chose not to release any seats.

 

[WeeWillyWonka]

Gave up trying to find award seats direct from Australia - left it too late but not all plans can be made a year out. Found plenty of award flights to Fiji and then on to Honolulu using Qantas points.

 

[WeeWillyWonka]

Right, I'm planning early a year in advance, I want to be in Hawaii for thanksgiving 2019. Don't mind if I have to fly out of Brisbane or Sydney (I'm in Melbourne so I'll need a domestic connection regardless). To confirm, do you search for J availability via aa.com and then call Virgin to confirm and make the booking?

 

[Mattg]

Right, I'm planning early a year in advance, I want to be in Hawaii for thanksgiving 2019. Don't mind if I have to fly out of Brisbane or Sydney (I'm in Melbourne so I'll need a domestic connection regardless). To confirm, do you search for J availability via aa.com and then call Virgin to confirm and make the booking?

Yes.

If you can't find anything ex SYD or BNE, also check for flights via AKL.

 

[WeeWillyWonka]

If you can't find anything ex SYD or BNE, also check for flights via AKL.

Also via aa.com?

 

[Mattg]

Also via aa.com?

You would have to fly VA to AKL and then HA AKL-HNL. You can find the HA AKL-HNL flights on AA.com, and the VA flights in the usual way.

 

[WeeWillyWonka]

You would have to fly VA to AKL and then HA AKL-HNL. You can find the HA AKL-HNL flights on AA.com, and the VA flights in the usual way.

Right - thanks.

I've just done a similar thing and flew VA to Nadi, then from NAN-HNL flying Fiji Airways (booked using Qantas points). Only issue with that was NAN-HNL-NAN only allowed 1 checked bag (at 32kg) but 2 carry on (at 7kg each). VA from MEL-NAN allowed 2 x 32kg.

 

[tizey]

You would have to fly VA to AKL and then HA AKL-HNL. You can find the HA AKL-HNL flights on AA.com, and the VA flights in the usual way.

I found when attempting booking MEL-AKL-HNL, I could not get a booking on VA for MEL-AKL and then on to HNL. No matter what the operator(s) did, it would not find the HA availability if going from MEL. Did add in the HNL-KOA leg without issue, which I feel is more important to us as that way were protectedif delayed into HNL.

 

[deva22]

I found when attempting booking MEL-AKL-HNL, I could not get a booking on VA for MEL-AKL and then on to HNL. No matter what the operator(s) did, it would not find the HA availability if going from MEL. Did add in the HNL-KOA leg without issue, which I feel is more important to us as that way were protectedif delayed into HNL.

Can't be done on points booking, as HA and VA are on different award charts, and you can't mix charts on the same booking.