# Kauai and AA frequent flyer miles for Christmas 2011



## Cathyb (Jan 30, 2011)

Has anyone been lucky enough to get American Airlines ffmiles from LAX (or elsewhere) to LIH (Lihue, Kauai) for December 23-28, 2011?

We have been calling daily all week and being told they are not loaded yet even though the 330/331 day out timeframe is now.  Online it shows 12/25 available for 45,000/pp one way for Anytime miles  and nothing available for the cheaper one!

Tuggers - Other than calling alot, any other suggestions?  We are tempted to just keep checking for the cheaper and hoping the 'cost' drops down after a while.

Our return trip is a week after New Year's (and kids back in school) so I am guessing will be less difficult to pick up the 22,500 or 17,500 one way/pp charge.

The interesting thing is if we were flying Kauai to LAX, we could go for 17,500 miles Christmas week.  How about that for discrimination for us Californians!


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## CapriciousC (Jan 30, 2011)

Have you tried looking at Honolulu?  I know it's not your final destination, but over the years we've found that sometimes you have to get a bit creative with American, particularly when your dates are fixed.  My husband has about 4 million miles lifetime with them, and generally goes in looking at various options until he finds one that works for us.  We're going to Maui and Kauai this summer, and ended up booking round trip Savannah to Honolulu with AA miles, then purchasing inter-island flights on Hawaiian.  It wasn't our first choice, but it was the only way to get there in the time frame we wanted without enduring multiple 8 hour layovers.  

Hope you can find what you're looking for!


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## Kauai Kid (Jan 30, 2011)

AA recently changed their schedule and we can't get into Lihue mid afternoon no matter what time we leave Texas even going through Honolulu.

They have great connections into Maui but not Lihue.

Good luck.

Sterling


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## yeereid (Jan 30, 2011)

With FF miles, you literally have to check online everyday!  Flight availability changes daily and it may even be helpful to search for just one ticket vs two (better chances) and purchasing the second ticket.  

We're going to Kauai in late March and due to the change in AA's flight times as Sterling mentioned, we chose to fly into Honolulu and are taking a Hawaiian interisland flight in order to arrive in Lihue at a decent time.  Who wants to arrive in Hawaii at night?  American has reduced their flights to Hawaii.  We had to purchase first class interisland one way in order to get a good connection but it beats sitting in the airport for several hours.

Going to Kona in October and am using FF miles but again, am flying in via Maui (connecting with Hawaiian) but flying out direct from Kona.  We had no choice but to take the overnight flight back, which I prefer not to do.


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## Kauai Kid (Jan 30, 2011)

yeereid said:


> With FF miles, you literally have to check online everyday!  Flight availability changes daily and it may even be helpful to search for just one ticket vs two (better chances) and purchasing the second ticket.
> 
> We're going to Kauai in late March and due to the change in AA's flight times as Sterling mentioned, we chose to fly into Honolulu and are taking a Hawaiian interisland flight in order to arrive in Lihue at a decent time.  Who wants to arrive in Hawaii at night?  American has reduced their flights to Hawaii.  We had to purchase first class interisland one way in order to get a good connection but it beats sitting in the airport for several hours.
> 
> Going to Kona in October and am using FF miles but again, am flying in via Maui (connecting with Hawaiian) but flying out direct from Kona.  We had no choice but to take the overnight flight back, which I prefer not to do.



I didn't realize there were any flights to the mainland that were not overnight.  I'll have to check.  Thanks.  Sterling


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## Cathyb (Jan 30, 2011)

*Can we use AA ffmiles on Hawaiian Air from San Diego?*



Cathyb said:


> Has anyone been lucky enough to get American Airlines ffmiles from LAX (or elsewhere) to LIH (Lihue, Kauai) for December 23-28, 2011?
> 
> We have been calling daily all week and being told they are not loaded yet even though the 330/331 day out timeframe is now.  Online it shows 12/25 available for 45,000/pp one way for Anytime miles  and nothing available for the cheaper one!
> 
> ...



Thanks to everyone -- another question:  Trying to be creative  --will American Airlines allow us to use our ffmiles for a San Diego/Honolulu/Lihue flight?  I looked at the AAdvantage site and didn't quite understand it.  Hawaiian is a 'partner' but is it only for overseas to the Japan areas and not U.S.?


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## DeniseM (Jan 30, 2011)

Kauai Kid said:


> I didn't realize there were any flights to the mainland that were not overnight.  I'll have to check.  Thanks.  Sterling



There are many, many flights from CA to Hawaii that are during the day.  You would probably have to overnight in CA, or take a red-eye from CA to Texas.

We leave CA around 9 a.m. and are in our timeshare by 3:00.


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## slabeaume (Jan 30, 2011)

Cathyb said:


> Thanks to everyone -- another question:  Trying to be creative  --will American Airlines allow us to use our ffmiles for a San Diego/Honolulu/Lihue flight?  I looked at the AAdvantage site and didn't quite understand it.  Hawaiian is a 'partner' but is it only for overseas to the Japan areas and not U.S.?



Unless it's recently changed, No, American does not let you go on interisland flights as part of your award travel.  

Also, AA's website says the 17,500 mile awards to/FROM Hawaii are only offered Off-peak dates:
Hawaii: Jan. 12 - Mar. 8; Aug. 22 - Dec. 15

I would imagine if they had it for 22,000 miles, someone was on the computer all night waiting for it to be loaded and took it.  I can see online that award tickets are loaded up through the 27th as of now.  Availability does change frequently, though, so keep checking.  Just don't count on the 35,000 mile rt award.

According to the Hawaiian Airline site: Redeem: AAdvantage members can redeem their AAdvantage miles for tickets on all Hawaiian Airlines flights. Contact American Airlines to make arrangements.


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## MuranoJo (Jan 30, 2011)

DeniseM said:


> There are many, many flights from CA to Hawaii that are during the day.  You would probably have to overnight in CA, or take a red-eye from CA to Texas.
> 
> We leave CA around 9 a.m. and are in our timeshare by 3:00.



I believe Kauai Kid was asking about return flights from HI  --I have the same question.  I thought all the flights from HI to the mainland (CA for us) were overnight, but perhaps not, depending on what you're willing to pay.  Or, maybe they're just very limited using FF miles.


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## sparty (Jan 30, 2011)

Cathyb said:


> Has anyone been lucky enough to get American Airlines ffmiles from LAX (or elsewhere) to LIH (Lihue, Kauai) for December 23-28, 2011?
> 
> We have been calling daily all week and being told they are not loaded yet even though the 330/331 day out timeframe is now.  Online it shows 12/25 available for 45,000/pp one way for Anytime miles  and nothing available for the cheaper one!
> 
> ...



Not sure this helps but this year (Dec 2010) on AA FF we (4 FF RT tickets) did:
LAX to LIH on Dec 15 ( 4 PM flight)
OGG to DFW on Jan 1 ( 6 PM flight)

LIH to OGG was via Island Air - very nice flight (don't let props scare you)


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## MuranoJo (Jan 30, 2011)

DeniseM said:


> There are many, many flights from CA to Hawaii that are during the day.  You would probably have to overnight in CA, or take a red-eye from CA to Texas.
> 
> We leave CA around 9 a.m. and are in our timeshare by 3:00.



I believe Kauai Kid was asking about return flights from HI  --I have the same question.  I thought all the flights from HI to the mainland (CA for us) were overnight, but perhaps not, depending on what you're willing to pay.  Or, maybe they're just very limited using FF miles.


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## DebBrown (Jan 30, 2011)

All I see is AA31 LAX-HNL for 12/25 with 2 seats.

I've been using ExpertFlyer to get our seats to Buenos Aires for the same time frame so it wasn't any trouble to check your routes.

Deb


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## yeereid (Jan 30, 2011)

muranojo said:


> I believe Kauai Kid was asking about return flights from HI  --I have the same question.  I thought all the flights from HI to the mainland (CA for us) were overnight, but perhaps not, depending on what you're willing to pay.  Or, maybe they're just very limited using FF miles.



We go to Hawaii (island varies) at least once a year and usually take a direct flight home to CA and it never has been overnight.  The flight usually lands at LAX between 9pm and midnight.  This will be our first overnight.  The only benefit of taking an evening/overnight flight is that we will have the entire last day to enjoy.  We are pretty loyal to AA for the miles but are sad to see that they have reduced their number of direct flights to each island.


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## MuranoJo (Jan 31, 2011)

Interesting.  Thanks, I'll investigate more.  Hate those overnighters. Seeing your arrival is between 9 pm and midnight and the fact we have another leg to get home from CA, maybe that explains it.


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## DeniseM (Jan 31, 2011)

muranojo said:


> I believe Kauai Kid was asking about return flights from HI  --I have the same question.  I thought all the flights from HI to the mainland (CA for us) were overnight, but perhaps not, depending on what you're willing to pay.  Or, maybe they're just very limited using FF miles.



Nope - we leave Kauai around 9:00 a.m.  We have NEVER taken a red eye to or from Hawaii, and don't intend to!


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## Stefa (Jan 31, 2011)

muranojo said:


> Interesting.  Thanks, I'll investigate more.  Hate those overnighters. Seeing your arrival is between 9 pm and midnight and the fact we have another leg to get home from CA, maybe that explains it.



I fly out of Minneapolis and have seen a few itineraries that did not involve a redeye on the return.


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## barefootnAR (Jan 31, 2011)

20 plus trips from Maui,a few other trips from other Hawaii islands..nothing but redeyes to our area, DFW, then a long layover for a short hop to Texarkana or Shreveport. We always arrive in Dallas around 5 am. Even if we have connections through HLN or LAX it's still a 6 am arrival at DFW.   Makes a long travel day.


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## elaine (Jan 31, 2011)

I have watched AA award tickets for the past few months to HAwaii and have noticed that most avail. is HNL, decent for OGG, if done way in advance, good avail on red-eye from KOA-LAX and very litle avail. to/from Kauai. So, you might cosider holding Hnl for 5 days to have some back-up while you trying for Kauai.


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## MuranoJo (Feb 1, 2011)

DeniseM said:


> Nope - we leave Kauai around 9:00 a.m.  We have NEVER taken a red eye to or from Hawaii, and don't intend to!



Denise,
My guess is these daytime flights home are somewhat limited for those using FF miles.  Most of our trips to HI have been using FF miles.  Even when we took the extended family and paid 'real' fares, we ended up coming home on the redeye (but we booked the cheapest fare we could get).

When I booked for our upcoming Sept. trip, only redeye returns were available for FF.

Used to be a bit softened when I had the Red Carpet Club membership paid by the company for all the business travel, for the 4 or so hours' layover in CA.  But they've taken that away too.


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## Cathyb (Feb 1, 2011)

*Got my ffmile flight to Kaua in Xmas weeki!!!*



Cathyb said:


> Has anyone been lucky enough to get American Airlines ffmiles from LAX (or elsewhere) to LIH (Lihue, Kauai) for December 23-28, 2011?
> 
> We have been calling daily all week and being told they are not loaded yet even though the 330/331 day out timeframe is now.  Online it shows 12/25 available for 45,000/pp one way for Anytime miles  and nothing available for the cheaper one!
> 
> ...



After many hours (sometimes at 3AM)  of trying to work the system, we did latch onto an Hawaiian Airline flight from San Diego to Lihue with a Honolulu stop using American Airline ffmiles. 

Saved a bundle of ffmiles -- for 12/26 only the 45,000pp/one way was available with American; however they were able to get us the Hawaiian Air for 22,500 plus 5,000 interisland charge for total of 27,500pp/one way. We even get a free lunch!

There was originally one scary glitch -- they had a wrong first name spelling for me -- don't know how the telephone reservationist made the error.  At first when we called back, the new person was afraid we would lose my reservation while making the correction; but fortunately it did not happen.

After over ten years of being my own travel agent -- this was by far the most difficult and trying process ever.  With rising HOA fees and now airlines making you work so hard to use your ffmiles -- is it all worth it?     Just kidding (I think).


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## MuranoJo (Feb 1, 2011)

Congrats, Cathy!  But I think it's worth it to burn off those miles in case they get harder and harder to use.


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## Cathyb (Feb 2, 2011)

*Elaine/DeniseM-question for you*



elaine said:


> I have watched AA award tickets for the past few months to HAwaii and have noticed that most avail. is HNL, decent for OGG, if done way in advance, good avail on red-eye from KOA-LAX and very litle avail. to/from Kauai. So, you might cosider holding Hnl for 5 days to have some back-up while you trying for Kauai.



Elaine:  For my return trip around Jan. 6--7, are you saying Honolulu to San Diego I should grab and hold and work on the interislalnd Lihue to Oahu after that?

DeniseM: Hawaiian Air is interesting on our SAN/LIH.  AA did the initial ffmile assignment.  We have TWO HA confirmation numbers -- one for the flight and one for our seat assignment which AA could not do for us. 

Is this normal????


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## slabeaume (Feb 3, 2011)

Cathyb said:


> Elaine:  For my return trip around Jan. 6--7, are you saying Honolulu to San Diego I should grab and hold and work on the interislalnd Lihue to Oahu after that?
> 
> DeniseM: Hawaiian Air is interesting on our SAN/LIH.  AA did the initial ffmile assignment.  We have TWO HA confirmation numbers -- one for the flight and one for our seat assignment which AA could not do for us.
> 
> Is this normal????




In my experience using partner airlines and seating, AA has their confirmation number for you in case you need to contact them about flight changes and the other airline will have their own confirmation number for you.  But I had to call the partner airline and they were able to give me my confirmation number for their airline, and assign me seats, AA couldn't do it. 

I don't know if that's what they meant by 2 confirmation numbers (theirs and the partners) or perhaps it's 2 confirmations for the 2 different award tickets.


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## slabeaume (Feb 3, 2011)

muranojo said:


> Denise,
> My guess is these daytime flights home are somewhat limited for those using FF miles.  Most of our trips to HI have been using FF miles.  Even when we took the extended family and paid 'real' fares, we ended up coming home on the redeye (but we booked the cheapest fare we could get).
> 
> When I booked for our upcoming Sept. trip, only redeye returns were available for FF.
> ...



Denise---do you fly AA with FF miles?  Have you come across the latest inconvenience with them?  If you have a single layover of more then 4 hours, you have to use another award ticket!  So for our trips now, we can no longer take the non-stop STL-LAX because it gets us there 5 hours before the LAX-LIH flight leaves.  We have to go STL-DFW-LAX, which means we have to leave STL earlier and have 2 less then 4 hour layovers (one in DFW and then LAX) which combined end up being more then the 5 hour layover with the non-stop STL-LAX flight in order to use the 1 award ticket!


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## elaine (Feb 3, 2011)

I would definite hold a HNL for your return---you can hold for 5 days. If, in those 5 days, you get a Kauai flight--just cancel the other. If you don't get the flight, you can rebook HNL and hold for 5 more days, if still available. If they no longer have availability for the 2nd 5 day hold, you really need to think about keeping the HNL flight (bird in hand theory). You can only hold via telephone. But it is worth $20 pp if you get the flights you need. The 6/7th should be easier to get than your outbound, IMHO.
I once booked 5 seats to OGG, not thinking we would use them.  But, by the next week, there was NOTHING available for 5 persons--so, we wound up going to Maui and then taking Interisland flight to KOA. I was so glad I had held those OGG tickets.
Also--what interisland flights are only 5K miles? Is that with AA on Hawaii Air?  This might make me rethink our trip next year.


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## Cathyb (Feb 3, 2011)

*Elaine*



elaine said:


> I would definite hold a HNL for your return---you can hold for 5 days. If, in those 5 days, you get a Kauai flight--just cancel the other. If you don't get the flight, you can rebook HNL and hold for 5 more days, if still available. If they no longer have availability for the 2nd 5 day hold, you really need to think about keeping the HNL flight (bird in hand theory). You can only hold via telephone. But it is worth $20 pp if you get the flights you need. The 6/7th should be easier to get than your outbound, IMHO.
> I once booked 5 seats to OGG, not thinking we would use them.  But, by the next week, there was NOTHING available for 5 persons--so, we wound up going to Maui and then taking Interisland flight to KOA. I was so glad I had held those OGG tickets.
> Also--what interisland flights are only 5K miles? TIs that with AA on Hawaii Air?  This might make me rethink our trip next year.



Thank you for your info!  Re your question:  While making the Hawaiian Airline  reservations with AA rep, she told us 22,500 AA miles plus 5,000 for inter-island to Lihue so am guessing it is a 'package deal' but not sure.


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## rschallig (Feb 4, 2011)

slabeaume said:


> According to the Hawaiian Airline site: Redeem: AAdvantage members can redeem their AAdvantage miles for tickets on all Hawaiian Airlines flights. Contact American Airlines to make arrangements.



Thanks for this info! I will look into this. I had no idea that this was an option. Another valuable tip from TUG.
Bob


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