Qantas and Hawaiian Airlines are both currently offering some very good sale fares on lie-flat Business class from Australia to Honolulu in March.
Qantas Business Class Sale to Honolulu
Qantas is currently offering Business class from Sydney or Brisbane to Honolulu from $2,500 return. This price is available if you depart Australia between 3 and 24 March, 2020. Business class flights from Melbourne to Honolulu are available during these dates for $2,600 return.
These prices are only available on flights QF103 and QF104. These services are running on numerous dates throughout March in addition to QF3 and QF4, Qantas’ regular Airbus A330 flights between Sydney and Honolulu. The extra QF103/104 flights appear to be running in place of Jetstar’s regular Sydney-Honolulu flights, which are being temporarily suspended during March. (Jetstar will still fly from Melbourne to Honolulu during this period.)
Flights QF103 and QF104 are operating several days per week during March, and will be operated by Qantas Boeing 747-400s. This does mean that you’ll get Qantas’ older SkyBed Business class seats (and not the Business Suites found on Qantas’ A330s). But aviation enthusiasts will appreciate the opportunity to fly in the upper deck or the nose of the “queen of the skies”!
Qantas is not selling Premium Economy on these extra Sydney-Honolulu flights during March.
You’ll earn 18,000 Qantas points and 280 status credits for a return Business class trip from Sydney to Honolulu. However, you’ll earn more if you fly from Brisbane or Melbourne to Honolulu – 20,800 points and 360 status credits for a return trip – as the flights are via Sydney.
The Qantas Business class sale to Honolulu ends on 14 February 2020. You can book on the Qantas website.
Hawaiian Airlines Business Class Sale to Honolulu
Not to be outdone, Hawaiian Airlines has matched Qantas’ cheap Business class fares on its non-stop flights from Brisbane to Honolulu. You can fly Hawaiian Airlines’ A330 Business class from Brisbane to Honolulu in March for $2,510 return.
Here’s an example of a fare we found on the Hawaiian Airlines website:
Hawaiian Airlines is a partner of Virgin Australia. Normally, you would be able to earn Velocity points and status credits for Hawaiian Airlines flights. However, for some reason it appears that these particular fares are booking into “D” fare class, which Hawaiian normally uses for award bookings. “D” class fare are ineligible to earn Velocity points and status credits.
The upshot is that, any flights with “D” class availability between Brisbane and Honolulu during March can also be booked using Velocity points (as this is an award booking fare bucket). If you’d like to redeem Velocity points for a reward seat on Hawaiian Airlines, you can do so by calling the Velocity Frequent Flyer contact centre. A return Business class reward from Brisbane to Honolulu would cost 130,000 Velocity points + $225.12 taxes.
Hawaiian’s sale has almost identical conditions to the Qantas sale. You’ll just need to depart Australia between 3-24 March 2020 (you can return later than this), and this sale ends on 14 February 2020 (or until sold out). You can book on the Hawaiian Airlines website.
Join the discussion on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum: SYD/BNE-HNL in QF/HA J for ~$2.5k return
