AwardWallet may receive compensation from advertising partners when you visit our site, click on a link, when you are approved for a credit card, or when an account is opened. Terms Apply to the offers listed on this page. Enrollment is required for select Amex benefits. The opinions expressed here are our own and have not been reviewed, provided, or approved by any bank advertiser. Here’s our complete list of Advertisers.
Like any skill, booking award flights requires a lot of practice before it becomes second nature. If you've never booked an award flight before — or think you're at risk of missing a step — this post is for you.
Here's a step-by-step guide walking you through the entire process of booking an award flight.
Page Contents
Step 1: Pick a Destination
Choosing a destination is sometimes the most challenging part. For the sake of this example, let's say you want to go from sunny SoCal to Hawaii's pristine beaches — flying from Los Angeles (LAX) to Honolulu (HNL).
Which airlines fly to Honolulu?
Determining which airlines fly between your intended origin and destination (with or without stopping) is important. This information will prove helpful as you decide which program you should book with and whether or not you can leverage any airline partnerships.
Not every U.S. domestic airline flies to the Hawaiian capital, but most do. To gather the complete list of airlines that frequent HNL, you can scope out airline route maps on their respective websites, visit the airport's relevant webpage, or pull up Daniel K. Inouye International Airport's Wikipedia page to see which airlines operate at the airport.
But perhaps the easiest way is to use FlightConnections to see your options.
Either way, you'll find that the following domestic airlines fly from Los Angeles to Honolulu:
- Alaska Airlines
- American Airlines
- Delta Air Lines
- Hawaiian Airlines
- Southwest Airlines
- United Airlines
Step 2: Take Inventory of Your Points and Miles
Next, you need to check your points and miles balances to see which options you can actually book.
In this case, you can reference our guide on the best points and miles for free flights to Hawaii. What's helpful about this specific post is the table showing the frequent flyer programs you can use to book a flight to Hawaii (notice the similarities to the list of airlines that fly into HNL), the “starting at” award price, and which programs you can transfer points from. While it's not an exhaustive list, you can find the same table below.
| Rewards Program | Operating Airline | Economy (Round-Trip) | Business/First (Round-Trip) | Transfer Points From |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Rapid Rewards | Southwest Airlines | 16,000+ | N/A | • Chase Ultimate Rewards • Bilt Rewards • Marriott Bonvoy |
| Delta SkyMiles | Delta Air Lines | 17,000+ | 80,000++ | • American Express Membership Rewards • Marriott Bonvoy |
| United MileagePlus | United Airlines | 20,000+ | 100,000++ | • Bilt Rewards • Chase Ultimate Rewards • Marriott Bonvoy |
| Korean Air SKYPASS | Delta Air Lines | 25,000 | 45,000 | • N/A |
| American Airlines AAdvantage | American Airlines | 25,000+ | 80,000++ | • Citi ThankYou® Rewards • Marriott Bonvoy |
| Alaska Atmos Rewards | Alaska Airlines | 25,000+ | 60,000+ | • Marriott Bonvoy • Bilt Rewards |
| Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer | Alaska Airlines | 26,000 | 101,000 | • American Express Membership Rewards • Brex Cash • Capital One miles • Chase Ultimate Rewards • Citi ThankYou Rewards • Marriott Bonvoy |
| Korean Air SKYPASS | Alaska Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines | 30,000 | 60,000 | • Marriott Bonvoy |
| Qatar Airways Privilege Club | American Airlines, Alaska Airlines | 32,000 | 86,000 | • American Express Membership Rewards • Citi ThankYou® Rewards • Marriott Bonvoy • Bilt Rewards |
| Air France/KLM Flying Blue | Delta Air Lines | 38,000++ | 60,000++ | • American Express Membership Rewards • Bilt Rewards • Brex Cash • Capital One miles • Chase Ultimate Rewards • Citi ThankYou Rewards • Marriott Bonvoy |
| Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer | United Airlines | 41,000 | 86,000 | • American Express Membership Rewards • Brex Cash • Capital One miles • Chase Ultimate Rewards • Citi ThankYou Rewards • Marriott Bonvoy |
| British Airways Club | American Airlines, Alaska Airlines | 44,000 | 110,000 | • American Express Membership Rewards • Bilt Rewards • Capital One miles • Chase Ultimate Rewards • Marriott Bonvoy |
| Turkish Miles & Smiles | United Airlines | 50,000 | 80,000/ 100,000 | • Capital One miles • Citi ThankYou® Rewards • Marriott Bonvoy • Bilt Rewards |
As you scroll through the table, think about what points you have. Are they transferable points, or are they miles associated with one of the frequent flyer programs? This information will provide a helpful baseline when you decide which program to book with.
For instance, if you only have American Express Membership Rewards, you'll want to focus on the programs to which you can transfer these points.
Continuing with our example, we'll keep it simple and say we've got a balance of 45,000 Amex Membership Rewards — more than enough to book our round-trip ticket between LAX and HNL. That is, if there's availability.
Step 3: Check Award Pricing and Availability
Now that we know our mileage balance, the next step is looking for a redemption. It's time to put the miles to good use!
Briefly adding to our example trip specifics, we'll plan to fly in April 2026. Generally, the more flexible your dates are, the better your chance of finding cheaper award fares, more availability, and more reasonable flight times.
In this example, we're assuming you have a balance of 45,000 American Express Membership Rewards — so what can you do with those? You can transfer Amex points to the following airline loyalty programs:
Many of those airline loyalty programs can be used for flights to Hawaii — which is both a positive and a negative. On the plus side, you can compare prices across carriers to get the best award fare. On the negative side, very few people have the time or patience to run award searches through over a dozen programs.
Related: Ultimate Guide to Amex Transfer Partners: Best Redemptions for Each Airline and Hotel Partner
Use an award search tool to make your search easier
Here's where an award search tool will come in handy. Utilizing an award search tool will make your life easier as you search for the best deal. There are lots of tools out there, which means the competition is high — and some of these are free.
When using a tool like Point.me, Seats.Aero, Roame.travel, AwardLogic, or PointsYeah, you'll get to plug your trip details in and select the credit card point currencies you have. When the results roll in, you'll see itineraries that are bookable with the points you have — an absolute time-saver.
Revisiting our example, we conducted a few searches across award tools for LAX to HNL flights for our April 21–28, 2026, trip. Here's what we found:
| Transfer Amex points at a 1:1 ratio to: | To fly on: | At this round-trip price: |
|---|---|---|
| Delta SkyMiles | Delta Air Lines | 21,600 SkyMiles |
| Air Canada Aeroplan | United Airlines | 30,000 Aeroplan points |
| Avianca LifeMiles | United Airlines | 30,000 LifeMiles |
| Air France/KLM Flying Blue | Delta Air Lines | 39,000 Flying Blue miles |
| Qantas Frequent Flyer | American Airlines | 45,200 Qantas points |
That first Delta SkyMiles option looks pretty good. We'll pick that one since it's the cheapest.
Step 4: Book the Flight
Let's go ahead and navigate to the Delta website to confirm that the itinerary is available. Especially if you use an award search tool, this is a quality assurance step to ensure you don't end up transferring points to an airline loyalty program for an award that might have disappeared. You want to ensure the seats are actually available at the price you want to pay before moving points to an airline program.
On Delta's page, make sure to check “Shop with Miles.”
Confirm award availability with the airline
In this case, we're safe. The 21,600-SkyMiles itinerary for the April 21–28 trip is available to book.
You might notice at the bottom of the screen that Delta offers cheaper rates for card members. And that's one big reason to consider a Delta SkyMiles credit card (with an annual fee). On Delta-operated itineraries, you can save 15% on the miles cost of an award ticket thanks to the TakeOff 15 discount.
This means those with the Delta SkyMiles® Gold American Express Card, for example, will redeem 18,200 miles for this round-trip ticket instead of 21,600 miles.
- Earn 70,000 Bonus Miles after you spend $3,000 or more in purchases with your new Card within the first 6 months of Card Membership and an additional 20,000 bonus miles after you make an additional $2,000 in purchases on the Card within your first 6 months, starting from the date that your account is opened. Offer Ends 04/01/2026.
- Enjoy a $0 introductory Annual Fee for the first year, then $150.
- Delta SkyMiles® Gold American Express Card Members get 15% off when using miles to book Award Travel on Delta flights through delta.com and the Fly Delta app. Discount not applicable to partner-operated flights or to taxes and fees.
- $200 Delta Flight Credit: After you spend $10,000 in purchases on your Card in a calendar year, you can receive a $200 Delta Flight Credit to use toward future travel.
- When you use your Delta SkyMiles® Gold American Express Card, you can earn: 2X miles on Delta Purchases, 2X miles at restaurants, 2X miles at U.S. supermarkets, 1X miles on all other eligible purchases. Every mile you earn brings you closer to the places you want to go. Turn them into your next trip, use them for seat upgrades, and more.
- Enjoy your first checked bag free on Delta flights and save up to $70 per person on a round-trip Delta flight.
- Receive Zone 5 Priority Boarding on Delta flights; board early, stow your carry-on bag and settle in sooner.
- $100 Delta Stays Credit: Get up to $100 back per year as a statement credit after using your Delta SkyMiles® Gold American Express Card to book prepaid hotels or vacation rentals through Delta Stays on delta.com.
- Want even more flexibility? Take up to $50 off the cost of your flight for every 5,000 miles you redeem with Pay with Miles when you book on delta.com.
- Receive a 20% savings in the form of a statement credit on eligible Delta in-flight purchases after using your Card.
- No Foreign Transaction Fees. Enjoy international travel without additional fees on purchases made abroad.
- With Send & Split®, you can send money and split your Card purchases with any other Venmo or PayPal user, directly from the Amex App. Enroll today.
- Apply with confidence. Know if you're approved for a Card with no impact to your credit score. If you're approved and you choose to accept this Card, your credit score may be impacted.
- Terms Apply.
- 2X miles per dollar spent on purchases made directly with Delta
- 2X miles per dollar spent at U.S. supermarkets
- 2X miles per dollar at restaurants worldwide, plus takeout and delivery in the U.S.
- 1X miles on all other eligible purchases
Transfer points
The next step is transferring your American Express Membership Rewards to Delta SkyMiles. For the exact steps on transferring, we've assembled a handy guide: How to transfer Amex points.
You can transfer Membership Rewards to Delta SkyMiles at a 1:1 ratio in increments of 1,000. If you're starting from a zero-mile balance, you'll need to transfer 22,000 Amex points to Delta — or less if you have a Delta credit card that's eligible for the aforementioned award discount.
The best part, though? I'll only use less than half of my original 45,000 Membership Rewards balance.
For most airline partners, transfers occur instantly. If you've already logged in to your SkyMiles account, you might need to log out and log back in to see the new balance. And from there, you'll go through the steps to book the flight.
Enter your details and confirm your trip
Add your details like normal, use a travel rewards card to pay the taxes and fees, and wait for the confirmation to show up in your inbox. In most cases, it's that simple.
Final Thoughts
Booking award flights might take some practice until it becomes second nature, but it's a skill worth learning if you want to use points and miles to meet your travel goals.
The number of ways you can book a flight may seem overwhelming, but using an award search tool can make the process much easier and save you a lot of time. If you follow these steps, you'll be well on your way to booking your own award flight.
For rates and fees of the cards mentioned in this post, please visit the following links: Delta SkyMiles® Gold American Express Card (Rates & Fees)
The comments on this page are not provided, reviewed, or otherwise approved by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
