Use American’s new mileage search from their home page (Don’t click on advanced search) for flights between the US mainland and Hawaii and you can find Business/First Class Web Specials for just 28K-30K miles each way instead of the normal 40K-100K miles.
The new AA award search is an absolute dumpster fire. It’s slow, requires lots of extra clicks, and it’s impossible to sort flights from low to high for premium cabins. You’ll need to keep clicking load more to view all of the flights and the lowest prices for your date. But if you fight through it, you can find some great web specials with it for premium cabins.
Unfortunately the backdoor link for the old AA award search doesn’t have premium cabin web special pricing.
You can’t change the dates of Web Specials, but you can get a refund of your miles for a cost of $150 for the first passenger and $25 per additional passenger.
- Use a card like Sapphire Preferred to earn 2 or Ink Preferred or Sapphire Reserve to earn 3 Chase points per dollar spent and get free travel/medical insurance, trip insurance, luggage insurance, trip/luggage delay protection, and more!
- You can currently earn 70K miles on the Citi AA Business card and 50K miles on the Citi AA Executive card.
After searching one-way for a route, click on “Calendar” and then switch from show all classes to “First Class” to view first class pricing for a month at a time.
For example this works from LA, NYC, and most other US cities to/from Honolulu:
There’s even availability to other Hawaiian islands, such as Maui:
These fares are available going to and from Hawaii.
There are lots of other AA web special bargains, post what deals you find!
Want to read more about Hawaii?
My love of Hawaii began 13 years ago when I posted and grabbed a deal paying just $87 for airfare and hotel. Since then I’ve been lucky enough to spend several months between the stunning islands, which each offer a unique and wonderful experience. You can’t go wrong with any of them, there are just 2 things is to be careful of.
1. Don’t get stuck in Honolulu. I’ve heard from too many people who spent an entire week and never left the city limits. That’s just a shame, they may as well have gone to Miami Beach. While I prefer The Big Island, Kauai, and Maui to Oahu, there is still plenty to see and experience on Oahu as long as you leave Honolulu behind.
2. Don’t try to “do” several islands in a week. If you just have 4-7 days of vacation then you should stick to one island. There will be plenty to do to keep you busy and it will allow for some time to relax. There’s no need to add the stress of interisland travel just for the sake of “doing” another island. With 9 days or more to play with, it does make sense to experience more than 1 island.
As for which island is best, read on and decide for yourself! If you ask 5 people you’ll probably get 6 different answers 😀
DansMeals: Hawaii For The Kosher Traveler:
- Part 1: General Info And The Island Of Oahu
- Part 2: The Big Island of Hawaii
- Part 3: Maui
- Part 4: Kauai
Trip reports and posts on Hawaii:
- Trip Notes: The Final United 747 Flight And 2 Days In Maui (2018)
- Trip Notes: Maui No Ka ‘Oi (2014)
- Trip Notes Kauai: Heaven On Earth (2014)
- The Hawaiian Islands. (2011)
- Traveling To Hawaii…With A 5 Month Old (2011)
- View From The Room (2011)
- Pearl Harbor…70 Years (2011)
- Shaloha! (2011)
- Hawaii Trip Notes: Kauai (2009)
- Hawaii Trip Notes: Oahu (2009)
DDF forum threads:
- Hawaii Master Thread: General Questions And Which Island To Visit?
- Big Island Of Hawaii Master Thread
- Kauai Master Thread
- Lanai, Molokai, and Niihau, Hawaii Master Thread
- Maui Master Thread
- Oahu Master Thread
- Links to trip reports from other DDF members.
HT: Davidthebest, via DDF and TPG
Join the 96.4K people who follow @DansDeals on Twitter and you’ll get a tweet when a deal is posted on DansDeals.com! Click here to learn how to setup text message alerts (and choose which hours of the night not to bother you) and you’ll be the first to know about every deal!
Anyway to take this deal if you have Chase Rewards or it is exclusive to AA.com?
Just for AA miles.
Wow I did not realize that AA had updated the award search. Its horrible. However I was able to sort all classes from low to high in the “sort by” drop down menu. Even the premium cabins. You arent able to do that?
Also how can you see now what the official “low” pricing is now that there are all these “web specials” regarding booking AA through BA? Until now I always checked AA first for availability and then went to BA to book. But now it seems easier to just go straight to BA bc I dont even know what is low pricing for partners vs just AA site! Its all mixed together its not sorted out by category (on the top) like it used to be…
Nope, do tell how.
Its wierd, it seems to work on some routes and not others. NYC-OGG on 1/27 in your example doesnt sort. NYC-DTW for 1/27 does sort even in first
BOOKED LATE FEB
Shaloha!
Could I book my Sister and her Husband a ticket from my account?
Sure
I always thought that doing so is a quick way for acct shutdown
Not unless you’re selling them.
If one of the pax last name matches the one on the account, there’s no issue at all? TIA
There’s no issue either way if you’re not selling them.
If you let a broker touch the account, then you’re toast.
How can they know if its a broker who booked it?
Because they’re good at what they do.
Nice! Some routes are on 32B Flagship first!
Any examples you can share?
Discounted because they stole them from us. Individuals who did not violate AA TOS and received sign up bonuses from Citi have had their accounts locked – thousands (with some estimates easily over 10,000 people). Hundreds of people have their accounts closed with all future travel canceled.
Christmas/family get togethers in hawaii ruined because AA canceled accounts and all future flights – with no recourse.
So sure, feel happy those of you that snap these up – and know that our families’ travels were ruined by AA.
Think carefully as you give business to AA. They reserve the right to forfeit your miles, plans and accounts with no recourse even when it is clear there was not violation of their TOS.
Thanks Dan and AA! Connecting to LIH for 3.5K WN then back to LAX for 11K WN!!
Nice!
You suggest using sapphire preferred but why not business ink preferred?
Read the post again?