Cheap flights to HNL

[PaulW]

It could still take quite a while for Southwest to break Hawaiian's monopoly and get prices down. $100 one way ITO-HNL is not a rarity anymore (I remember when it was $29, not that long ago).

In the meantime, can anyone share tips for getting cheap(er) interisland flights? I have some:

- get your hands on Hawaiian miles. This can be done by getting their credit card (60,000 miles) or getting visiting friends and family who happen to be flying on Hawaiian to sign up to their FF program (has worked for me a number of times). If you're flying to the mainland or abroad, see if the HA flights aren't much more expensive, the miles they can provide are valuable. Interisland flights can then cost you only 7500 miles one-way.

- get your hands on American Airlines miles. They are also 7500 miles for a one-way but the 7500 price seems to be applied more often than Hawaiian. I still had some AA miles from a while ago and was pleasantly surprised to see that they are actually more valuable than Hawaiian miles for interisland travel.

Any other ideas? Didn't there used to be books of 10 tickets you could buy at a discount?

thanks

[terracore]

https://www.hawaiianairlines.com/our-ser...ose-a-plan

[PaulW]

Thanks! Not much of a bargain though.

[leilanidude]

I have not paid for a Hawaiian trip in a few years due to the credit card. Maybe 10+ round trips to HNL from ITO plus a couple of mainland trips. I also utilize American air miles due to the easy upgrades.

[terracore]

You can also turn to retail arbitrage (link below). Most people do it for the money they earn but you can also do it for the accumulation of airline miles. The simple explanation is you buy $7500 worth of stuff at Walmart (or wherever) with your mileage card and sell same stuff on Amazon or ebay at a higher price. So in the end you get the profit from the resale plus the free airline ticket for the miles. There are some items that Walmart is always out of because people are taking advantage of the resale opportunity afforded somebody who is willing to brave Walmart and sell to somebody else who is unwilling to step foot in one.

If you are clever you can find things to arbitrage that have huge markups. I used to buy a product from Germany that cost me about $5/each after shipping and I would resell on eBay in the USA for almost $30/each.

For a long time the US mint allowed people to buy coins at cost with free shipping using credit cards. One guy got millions of miles from buying dollar coins for a dollar each purchased on his credit card. He would then just deposit the coins at his bank and payoff his credit card bill. Rinse and repeat.

ETA: https://bootstrappingecommerce.com/retail-arbitrage/

[PaulW]

Now that is a great idea, especially for retirees.

[Obie]

Go to work for an airline and fly free !