There exist several cost-effective methods of traveling to Hawaii, ranging from inexpensive direct flights to excellent options for using points and miles. But above all of them is this one.
For just 15,000 miles roundtrip, you can reserve economy tickets on United from the mainland to Hawaii using Turkish Airlines miles. The total mileage is only 15,000 miles regardless of whether you’re traveling nonstop from the West Coast or making one or two stops along the way. This is true even if United charges 45,000 miles or more for the same flights. We have good news and bad news, depending on your desire to proceed.
The good news is that it has been much simpler in recent months to locate these United flights that you may buy on Turkish’s website. More significantly, using credit cards such as the Citi Premier® Card, the Bilt Mastercard®, the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card, or the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card to accrue the points required to reserve these flights to Hawaii is extremely simple.
Although these reward rates are unparalleled, it can be challenging to truly pull off this kind of award redemption. Getting the flights you want may require calling, emailing, or doing both due to Turkish’s infamously clumsy IT and difficult-to-navigate website. Although Turkish also offers business class bookings for 25,000 miles roundtrip, these glitches along with infrequent award space make that nearly unfeasible.
This is not something that tourists who are just dabbling in points and miles or the timid should attempt. However, the cost is unquestionably justified for those prepared to make the additional effort. For your guidance during the entire procedure, we have put up this detailed guide.
Reasons to Travel to Hawaii with Turkish Miles
Similar to how Delta SkyMiles may be used to book tickets on over a dozen carriers, Turkish carriers’ miles can be used for more than only booking flights within Turkey. Turkey’s Star Alliance membership enables you to use its miles to reserve tickets on a wide range of airlines, like these Hawaiian flights from United.
The Turkish Airlines award system offers a lot of sweet spots, but the 7,500 one-way or 15,000 round-trip flights to Hawaii might be the sweetest of them all. Compared to Turkey’s website, it’s even lower.
The table indicates that round-trip travel inside North America is 20,000 kilometers. However, domestic Star Alliance award tickets on Turkish Airlines are priced differently, which is why round-trip tickets between the US mainland and Hawaii still cost $7,500.
Here’s the reason: The 7,500-mile one-way fare for an hour-long flight from Newark (EWR) to Buffalo (BUF) is the same as it is for a flight from Newark to anywhere in Hawaii, even though most frequent flyer programs treat Hawaii as a separate region from the continental United States. This is a major benefit for tourists, making using Turkish miles to book flights to Hawaii the best deal possible.
Thankfully, this offer does not require a nonstop flight. No matter where in the United States you are leaving from, if your route calls for a connection—or even two—it is still only 7,500 miles one-way.
You can also go outside of Honolulu (HNL). Travelers can use this sweet spot to reach all major Hawaiian airports, including Kauai (LIH), Kona (KOA), Hilo (ITO), and Maui (OGG), though Honolulu may be the easiest destination.
Step 1: Search the United website for your flights.
To book any award ticket using miles from another airline program, you must first locate the award vacancy. Finding what United refers to as “Saver Awards”—their cheapest tickets available with miles—as well as the secret to obtaining those award seats on partner airlines like Turkish are what you need to focus on. Turkish Airlines will typically only be allowed to book flights on United that are classified as “Saver Awards,” so you’ll need to start your search on United’s website. For the optimal user experience, I would suggest starting using United’s previous advanced search feature.
It will be simpler to do this piece by piece and locate the flights you want, even if you might eventually choose to book roundtrip. Thus, you should search each one-way independently: Begin by searching for flights to Hawaii from the mainland, choose the desired flights, and then start over with a new search for your return journey.
Additionally, keep in mind that you might be viewing unique award space that Turkish Airlines is unable to book if you are linked to your United MileagePlus account. If you are prompted to sign in, simply close the pop-up.
If you’d like, you can filter for nonstop flights and check award pricing over a 30-day calendar. For saving awards, United usually costs about 22,500 or 25,000 miles each way for flights between the lower 48 states and Hawaii. However, because of dynamic pricing, you might find some lower prices from West Coast cities.
Step 2: Configure Turkish
Securing a reservation for this amazing reward bargain to Hawaii only requires half the work. And to be honest, it can be intimidating to book these flights with Turkish Airlines. You will, however, have the best chance of finding seats in Hawaii and returning if you adhere to these detailed recommendations and possess the patience of a saint. The trip is only 15,000 miles.
Register and Sign in with Turkish Miles&Smiles
- Turkish Miles&Smiles frequent flyer accounts are free to open. However, it’s more complicated than other airlines; pay close attention to these instructions.
- To begin with, download the Turkish Airlines mobile app and create a new account. Once you have an account, use it to log in on your desktop or laptop. Compared to registering on Turkish’s website, this is a far more seamless process.
Registering with the mobile app for Turkish Miles and Smiles
Here’s what you should do:
- Install the Turkish Airlines smartphone application.
- Open a new account on your phone by registering. (☰→ Log in → choose at the bottom → Sign up)
- A drop-down menu will need you to select a city. Simply select the nearest city if yours isn’t on the list. You enter a zip code, so in the end, it won’t matter.
In Turkish, your password resembles a PIN more: It can only be six digits long, all numbers (no date of birth, no three consecutive digits, and no more than two repetitions of the same number). - Using the app or the confirmation email, find your membership number.
Return to the Turkish Airlines portal and use your membership number—without the initial “TK”—to log into your new account. - Instead of having to remember your membership number, you can select to have your email address and mobile number serve as log-in choices in your account settings.
You should then be able to use your login credentials to log in from any web browser. Let’s go ahead and schedule the flights.
Use The Star Award Search Tool
- You can see the “Award ticket – Buy a ticket with Miles” check box on the Turkish Airlines homepage. Please click that if you are logged in.
- You’ll need to go to the Star Alliance reward search tool because you’ll be looking for flights from United to Hawaii. To complete the information about the flight you discovered looking through United earlier, be sure you click the “Star Award Ticket.”
Step 3: Try Booking Your Tickets Online for Hawaii
- Check if Turkish Miles&Smiles will allow you to book these tickets online by entering the origin, destination, and travel dates where you found discounted availability with United. You can just reserve your first ticket for yourself and then reserve other tickets separately, so it’s not a big obstacle. However, you will need to look for just one passenger initially.
- It will only cost 7,500 miles + $5.60 in taxes and fees each way, or 15,000 miles plus $11.20 roundtrip, if everything goes according to plan and you can discover flights that can be booked online through Turkish Miles&Smiles. That is an amazing offer.
- It was almost impossible to find these United flights on Turkish’s website for years. The flights just wouldn’t show up online, or you might only see a connection when nonstops should be available, even if you located flights on United.com that should be bookable via Turkish.
- Thankfully, that’s significantly better now. Currently, when you search Turkish internet, you should be able to see the same flights in most cases. Still, the procedure is far from ideal.
- Even though you can see the flights you want, you might not be able to make an online reservation for them. When attempting to book these United redemptions using Turkish, we frequently encounter the following error.
- However, persevere! You still have hope since you can still purchase those flights! To book your tickets to Hawaii for as little as 15,000 miles roundtrip, consider contacting a Turkish Airlines agent by phone or email.
Step 4: Make a reservation by phone or email if necessary
It’s possible that Turkish won’t have the flights you wish to purchase online unless you’re extremely lucky. It doesn’t mean, however, that you should give up.
Try calling Turkish Airlines at 1-800-874-8875 to have them finish the booking over the phone for awards that aren’t available for online booking. However, a word of caution: Turkish customer service is sometimes lacking, so be prepared for unhelpful or challenging representatives. You might find that emailing is preferable for this reason.
Giving the agent just the origin and destination of your email or call is not something you should do. Most likely, they’ll return nothing at all or the same result as your internet search.
Give the agent the flight information you discovered with availability instead, one segment at a time. Consider this flight on February 20 from Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP) to Honolulu (HNL) via Chicago-O’Hare (ORD).
Step 5: Convert Your Points to Turkish
It’s time to transfer credit card points and get ready to book once you’ve confirmed that you can make travel reservations.
Turkish Airlines accepts point transfers from Citi ThankYou, Bilt Rewards, and Capital One Venture at a 1:1 ratio. While there may be differences in the timing of the transfers, most Capital One miles and Bilt Rewards transfers convert to Turkish instantly, or very nearly so. Citi ThankYou points, meanwhile, usually transfer in a day or two.
Step 6: Book Hawaiian Airlines Flights!
Make your flight reservations online, over the phone, or via email as soon as you see that the transfer has been completed and that you have the miles in your Turkish account. If you’ve received a record locator number after putting the flights on hold, you should be able to swiftly finish the transaction over the phone by using this number.
Celebrate when you receive your airline tickets! You have just purchased tickets for 7,500 miles each way, or 15,000 miles total, to paradise.
Turkish Award Ticket Change and Cancellation Fees
The award ticket change and cancellation policy of Turkish Airlines has been revised. There is a $70 cost to receive your miles back if you modify or cancel before check-in. If you fail to show up for your flight after check-in, there is a $150 fine. After paying the cost, miles will be redeposited into your account if you decide to change or cancel over the phone.
Ways to Get Miles on Turkish Airlines
- Even though you can accrue Turkish miles by traveling on Turkish Airlines or other Star Alliance carriers, it’s not necessary to do so to accrue a significant amount of points. It’s really simple to accrue enough Turkish miles for flights to Hawaii because you can transfer points earned with credit cards such as the Capital One Venture X or the Citi Premier® Card.
- The benefits of the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card are indescribable. With access to Capital One Lounges and Priority Pass lounges, a $300 yearly travel credit, a credit for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck, excellent travel and rental vehicle insurance protection, and more, this is the bank’s first premium card. Although there is an annual cost of $395, the advantages often exceed that amount.
- Currently, you may earn 75,000 Venture Miles after spending $4,000 within the first three months, which is the finest part. You will receive a minimum of 83,000 Venture Miles if you use the Venture X Card since you will receive at least twice as many miles for every dollar you spend. That’s sufficient to reserve round-trip economy tickets on Turkish Airlines for a family of five to Hawaii.
- Do not wish to pay a hefty yearly fee? With good reason, the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card has been a longtime favorite among travelers. It’s undoubtedly among the top credit cards for travel for first-time users. In exchange for a $95 yearly charge, you receive a credit that may be used to pay for TSA PreCheck or Global Entry, in addition to earning double points on every transaction.
- Similar to the Venture X, you can now earn four round-trip tickets to Hawaii when you use Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles to book Capital One’s welcome incentive of 75,000 miles after spending $4,000 on purchases within three months of starting your account.
- Earning points that can be converted to Turkish miles is also made possible with the Citi Premier® Card. When you plan trips with the card, you’ll receive three times as many points at restaurants, supermarkets, and gas stations. Additionally, after spending $4,000 within the first three months, there is a bonus of 60,000 points.