Frequent Miler's latest team challenge, Million Mile Madness, is almost done! The last two weeks Greg, Nick, and Stephen competed to earn 1 Million SAS miles by flying 15 airlines. But who completed the challenge with the most Speed, Affordability, and Style?
| Sorry, this deal is no longer available. Do you want to be alerted about new deals as they’re published? Click here to subscribe to Frequent Miler's Instant Posts by email. |
United is offering some terrific prices for fall travel from New York / Newark to Kona, Hawaii — with fares from $330 round trip. These prices are fantastic for long-distance travel to Hawaii. While there is volcanic activity on The Big Island, that is quite a distance from Kona. This could also be a great jumping off point to visit a couple of islands at this price.
The Deal
- Flights from New York / Newark to Kona, Hawaii (The Big Island) from $330 round trip on United
Quick Thoughts
Availability on this deal is pretty stellar in September, with some dates available from October to early December as well. Here’s a look at September and October availability at this price (click the image to go to Google Flights and choose your own dates).
The $330 pricing is pretty widely available, as shown below here.
If you’re looking to visit two islands and save a bit on an inter-island flight, and you can travel light, you might book as two separate one-way tickets. That’s because you’ll notice that some of these cheaper flights include the direct Newark-to-Honolulu flight with a connection on Hawaiian:
If you book as a one-way and only carry on bags, and you miss your flight to Kona for some reason, you might decide to spend a few days in Honolulu before taking a paid flight to Kona to catch your separate one-way home from Kona. Note: do not do this if you book as a round trip as United will cancel your flight back from Kona if you no-show your connection. Also note that the airlines don’t particularly like it when customers do this, so making a habit out of this activity could cause you an issue with United. Still, that’s quite a savings over the direct flight on its own.
Book with points for a great deal
Of course, since these flights are widely available via OTAs, you can also find them via the credit card travel portals. Those with a Chase Sapphire Reserve could pay less than 22,000 Ultimate Rewards round trip. That’s excellent as it beats what you would pay for an award ticket and you aren’t limited to saver award availability.
What’s more, you’ll even earn miles on a ticket this way. The tickets I looked up book into G-class. According to Wheretocredit.com, that should mean they would earn 50% mileage flown with some programs (including Aeroplan and Avianca LiveMiles according to their chart) – which ought to amount to about 5,000 miles on a round trip.
If you are able to earn 5,000 miles in a useful program on top of a cheap ticket to Hawaii that you paid for using points, that’s a pretty nice stack.
Bottom line
If you’re interested in heading to Hawaii this fall, these are some excellent fares. We recently saw these routes on sale for about $350, but this deal continues to drop. At $330 round trip, it’s awfully tempting to take off to paradise.
H/T: The Flight Deal
Want to learn more about miles and points? Subscribe to email updates or check out our podcast on your favorite podcast platform.
