The Complete Guide to Redeeming Hawaiian Airlines Miles

Alex CramerJanuary 23, 2020
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While HawaiianMiles are a great way to pay for your travel to one of the most beautiful vacation destinations on earth, they can be used for so much more than flying from your home to Honolulu. Whether you want to use miles to secure a first class upgrade for your trip to Maui or would rather put them toward a hotel room and a rental car, this is everything you need to know about how to redeem your Hawaiian Airlines Miles.

» Learn more: Hawaiian Airlines HawaiianMiles: The complete guide

Fly Hawaiian Airlines

The most straightforward way to redeem your HawaiianMiles is to use them to pay for Hawaiian Airline flights. There are no blackout dates for HawaiianMiles, and you can use them to buy or upgrade to any seat in the plane.

The airline also provides simple and easy-to-understand award charts to show you exactly how many miles you need for flights. For example, a round-trip, economy class ticket from the East Coast to Hawaii starts at 52,500 miles.

Coincidentally, the welcome bonus for the Hawaiian Airlines® World Elite Mastercard® can cover this trip: Limited Time Offer: Earn 60,000 bonus miles after spending $2,000 on purchases in the first 90 days.

Hawaiian Airlines offers exclusive discounts to Premier Club, Pualani Gold and Platinum members and those with a Hawaiian Airlines® World Elite Mastercard®. If you belong to one of these groups, a round-trip ticket from the West Coast to Hawaii that would normally cost 40,000 miles would be discounted to 35,000 miles.

» Learn more: Guide to Booking Award Flights With Hawaiian Airlines

Fly a partner airline

HawaiianMiles can also be redeemed for flights with a partner airline, including Japan Airlines, JetBlue, Korean Air, Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Australia. Hawaiian Airlines also provides an award chart for their partner airlines that you can consult while planning your trip.

For example, you can cash in 90,000 HawaiianMiles for a round-trip economy class ticket on Japan Airlines between the U.S. and Japan. Or spend 125,000 miles for an Upper Class ticket on Virgin Atlantic between the U.K. and the East Coast.

Using your HawaiianMiles on partner airlines requires you to call the Hawaiian Airlines service center. There are also several other restrictions to consider: Miles can be redeemed only for round-trip tickets, and they cannot be used on partner codeshare flights.

Book a hotel

If your flight is taken care of but you’d like some help booking your hotel, HawaiianMiles can be redeemed for hotels far off the islands. The Hawaiian Airlines hotel booking portal has over 300,000 different properties all over the world and at every price level. So if you’ve had your fill of mai tais and white sand beaches, you can use your miles at a number of high-end resorts all over the world.

Hawaiian Airlines also allows you to combine cash and miles when paying for your hotel, so even if you can’t get your entire stay with miles, you can at least use them for a discount. Rates start at 1,000 miles and cash.

Other ways to redeem miles

Finally, HawaiianMiles can be redeemed in several ways that have nothing to do with flying. You can use your miles to purchase gift certificates for either Avis or Budget. A $50 gift certificate will you cost you 10,000 miles, which isn’t the best redemption rate — but at least you know that you can get into a set of wheels if you need them.

Likewise, you can redeem your miles for gift cards from a number of restaurants and retailers, including 76 Gas Stations, Zippy’s Restaurants and Foodland. You can even get a pair of Maui Jim sunglasses for 25,000 miles, though it’s worth noting that the lowest priced one-way award ticket from the West Coast to Hawaii can be had for just 20,000 miles or 17,500 for discounted awards.

The bottom line

While the best value for your HawaiianMiles will almost always be booking flights on Hawiian Airlines, you do have other options. Depending on your needs, it's good to know every option available.

How to Maximize Your Rewards

You want a travel credit card that prioritizes what’s important to you. Here are our picks for the best travel credit cards of 2021, including those best for:

Planning a trip? Check out these articles for more inspiration and advice: 5 reasons to get the Hawaiian Airlines World Elite Mastercard The cheapest ways to fly to Hawaii using points and miles Find the best travel credit card for you

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