How many points will I need for an Alaskan Airline flight to Maui from Sacramento?

[ciscogizmo1]

I will be going next summer. We want to do the non-stop fly to flight to Maui. Does anyone have experience is being able to get 4 tickets via miles? Should I book departure flight the day it opens and the return flight once it opens? Any secrets would be greatly appreciated. We have some miles in our accounts but not enough for a flight. I was planning on transferring miles as well from starwood. Is it best to transfer to one account and book all the flights from one account? I'm familiar with Hawaiian airlines but this is the first time booking on points with Alaskan Airlines

 

[Pedro]

I will be going next summer. We want to do the non-stop fly to flight to Maui. Does anyone have experience is being able to get 4 tickets via miles? Should I book departure flight the day it opens and the return flight once it opens? Any secrets would be greatly appreciated. We have some miles in our accounts but not enough for a flight. I was planning on transferring miles as well from starwood. Is it best to transfer to one account and book all the flights from one account? I'm familiar with Hawaiian airlines but this is the first time booking on points with Alaskan Airlines

The key is to be able to get the 4 tickets on the same flight. I usually do that when we fly to Maui (although in AA), and I book the outbound fight as soon as it is available (330 days out) and then the return flight when it becomes available later. It helps if you have a little bit of flexibility on the travel dates.

 

[rickandcindy23]

Alaska Airlines' credit card through Bank of America offers a companion fare for about $120 RT. The card saves a lot of money. Check Alaska's website for details. We maintain two cards, one for each of us, and we fly 2X per year.

 

[ciscogizmo1]

Thanks... Hopefully someone will have experience with booking 4 flights. I see right now this summer they are 20k to 30k one way. I have tons of points with starwood that I don't need to purchase a flight with cash. I'm wondering if I should do two flights through sacramento and the other through Oakland. Wondering also if I should book all the flights under one mileage account? Can you transfer miles between accounts? With Hawaiian Airlines you can transfer between accounts for free? Is that the same with Alaskan airlines?

 

[california-bighorn]

Sometimes it can take as much as 40k points one way. You just have to keep checking for the best bang for your miles. Alaska does not have a points transfer program like Hawaiian.

 

[oneohana]

Alaska Airlines' credit card through Bank of America offers a companion fare for about $120 RT. The card saves a lot of money. Check Alaska's website for details. We maintain two cards, one for each of us, and we fly 2X per year.

Hi Cindy,

Do they route you through Seattle?

The reason I ask, is that a few years ago when we had the credit card they made us go through Seattle from LAX.

 

[ciscogizmo1]

Sometimes it can take as much as 40k points one way. You just have to keep checking for the best bang for your miles. Alaska does not have a points transfer program like Hawaiian.

Thank you... 40k would be a lot for one way. Definitively not worth it. I guess we'll stick with Hawaiian airlines. I know I can get 4 award tickets for 35k each. I did find expertflyer.com and joined their free trial. For Alaskan Airlines for 330 days out it looks like they released two free award tickets. So I'm wondering if they release in phases... We could split up and travel separately ....

 

[Chrispee]

In my experience, you should be able to do it for 40k points round trip if you're a little flexible about your dates and diligent about checking the website. I would definitely grab any direct flight at 20k as Alaska does not penalize you for booking one way.

FYI if you see a 20k flight that you want with only 2 seats left showing, you can actually book on two computers simultaneously and grab 4 seats at that mileage level. I tried it out last year and it worked for me.

 

[rickandcindy23]

Hi Cindy,

Do they route you through Seattle?

The reason I ask, is that a few years ago when we had the credit card they made us go through Seattle from LAX.

We do get routed through Seattle because we live in Denver. We spend the night in a hotel both coming and going. The trip is too long for us otherwise. We take Rick's stepmom, and she is 86. But I need the layover too.

 

[ciscogizmo1]

In my experience, you should be able to do it for 40k points round trip if you're a little flexible about your dates and diligent about checking the website. I would definitely grab any direct flight at 20k as Alaska does not penalize you for booking one way.

FYI if you see a 20k flight that you want with only 2 seats left showing, you can actually book on two computers simultaneously and grab 4 seats at that mileage level. I tried it out last year and it worked for me.

.

So by simultaneously, you mean you hit the submit button at the same time.

Did you use the same mileage account for both set of flights?

The reason I ask is that dh has the most miles in his account about 33k. The rest of us of 7K each. But it would cost about $300 to transfer to his account. Starwood would transfer the miles to his mileage account. It might be worth it to use Alaskan.

We had a voucher with Alaskan due to a delayed flight. I noticed when I booked the voucher on separate computers it charged me more for each extra voucher. I had four separate ones. But I remember did two at a time and then, the other two but the 2nd set cost me a little more.

 

[mylifenomadic]

I will be going next summer. We want to do the non-stop fly to flight to Maui. Does anyone have experience is being able to get 4 tickets via miles? Should I book departure flight the day it opens and the return flight once it opens? Any secrets would be greatly appreciated. We have some miles in our accounts but not enough for a flight. I was planning on transferring miles as well from starwood. Is it best to transfer to one account and book all the flights from one account? I'm familiar with Hawaiian airlines but this is the first time booking on points with Alaskan Airlines

The cheapest way for you would be to transfer the Starwood points to British Airways and use those for a flight on Alaska, as they are partners. Since British Airways is distance-based, and a non-stop from the bay area to Hawaii is between 2,000 and 3,000 miles, it would only cost you 25,000 British Airways miles round-trip, which is significantly less than using Alaska, Delta, or American miles for the flights. Because of the bonus of transferring points from Starwood, this would be equivalent to 20,000 Starwood points per round-trip ticket.

Since Alaska flights aren't bookable on British Airways' website, you would have to call, but you should be able to convince the agent to waive the phone booking fee since it's not possible to book Alaska awards online.

For checking availability, the best way is to use the aa.com site, and search for 4 seats using miles. Any non-stop AS flight in the results will be bookable with British Airways. If you are flexible with the return date, I would book each one-way separately, but if you are not flexible on the return date, wait until your return date is available and book it together as a round-trip.