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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.
Step 1: Pick a Destination
Choosing a destination is sometimes the most challenging part. To save us some time, we'll make the call.
Let's say we 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 webpage, or pull up Daniel K. Inouye International Airport's Wikipedia page. You also can visit Flight Connections to see your options.
After doing some research, you'll find that the following domestic airlines fly into Honolulu:
- Alaska Airlines
- American Airlines
- Delta Air Lines
- Hawaiian Airlines
- Southwest Airlines
- United Airlines
Step 2: Take Inventory of Your Points and Miles
Fairly regularly, we'll update our post 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Turkish Miles & Smiles | United Airlines | 20,000 | 30,000/ 40,000 | • Capital One miles • Citi ThankYou® Rewards • Marriott Bonvoy • Bilt Rewards |
| Southwest Rapid Rewards | Southwest Airlines | 12,500+ | N/A | • Chase Ultimate Rewards • Marriott Bonvoy |
| Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer | Alaska Airlines | 26,000-28,000 | 95,000–106,000 | • American Express Membership Rewards • Brex Cash • Capital One miles • Chase Ultimate Rewards • Citi ThankYou Rewards • Marriott Bonvoy |
| Korean Air SKYPASS | Delta Air Lines | 25,000 | 45,000 | • N/A |
| British Airways Executive Club | American Airlines, Alaska Airlines | 40,000(+) | 100,000(+) | • American Express Membership Rewards • Bilt Rewards • Capital One miles • Chase Ultimate Rewards • Marriott Bonvoy |
| Korean Air SKYPASS | Alaska Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines | 30,000 | 60,000 | • Marriott Bonvoy |
| Air France/KLM Flying Blue | Delta Air Lines | 35,000 | 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 | 39,000 | 78,000 | • American Express Membership Rewards • Brex Cash • Capital One miles • Chase Ultimate Rewards • Citi ThankYou Rewards • Marriott Bonvoy |
| Hawaiian Airlines HawaiianMiles | Hawaiian Airlines | 40,000(+) | 80,000(+) | • American Express Membership Rewards • Bilt Rewards • Marriott Bonvoy |
| United MileagePlus | United Airlines | 20,000+ | 80,000++ | • Bilt Rewards • Chase Ultimate Rewards • Marriott Bonvoy |
| American Airlines AAdvantage | American Airlines | 25,000+ | 80,000++ | • Bilt Rewards • Marriott Bonvoy |
| Delta SkyMiles | Delta Air Lines | 17,000+ | 80,000++ | • American Express Membership Rewards • Marriott Bonvoy |
| Alaska Mileage Plan | Alaska Airlines | 20,000+ | 40,000+ | • Marriott Bonvoy |
| Qatar Airways Privilege Club | American Airlines, Alaska Airlines | 32,000 | 86,000 | • American Express Membership Rewards • Citi ThankYou® Rewards • Marriott Bonvoy |
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 that you can transfer these points to.
Continuing with our example, we'll keep it simple and say we've got a balance of 30,000 Amex Membership Rewards — more than enough to book our roundtrip ticket between LAX and HNL.
Step 3: Find a Redemption
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 February 2024. Generally, the more flexible your dates are, the better your chance of finding cheaper award fares, more availability, and more reasonable flight times.
In our example, I've got a balance of 30,000 American Express Membership Rewards — so what can I do with those?
With Membership Rewards, I can transfer these 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.
Here's where an award search tool will come in handy.
Use an award search tool to make your search easier
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, 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 February 6–10, 2024, 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 | 17,000 SkyMiles |
| Air Canada Aeroplan | United Airlines | 26,000 Aeroplan points |
| Iberia Plus (Avios) | American Airlines | 26,000 Avios |
| Avianca LifeMiles | United Airlines | 30,000 LifeMiles |
| Air France/KLM Flying Blue | Delta Air Lines | 35,000 Flying Blue Miles |
| Hawaiian Airlines HawaiianMiles | Hawaiian Airlines | 40,000 HawaiianMiles |
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.”
In this case, we're safe. The 17,000-SkyMiles itinerary for the February 6–10 trip is available to book.
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, which means you'll need to transfer exactly 17,000 Amex points to Delta. The best part? I'll only use about half of my original 30,000 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.
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.
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.
My biggest reservation/concern with locating, and transferring miles to purchase a award tickets is the
Possibility that between the time I locate award availability and time needed to transfer points the award availability may disappear. Perhaps could address in a future post your suggestions, insight and “knowledge” how to maximize the process of locating, transferring points and successful making a award reservation.
Thanks
Hello, you don’t actually say HOW to pool/transfer points. Do I call each credit card company and transfer to another and then call to book with airline or?
Sorry accidentally hit reply. The above comment was toward OP.
The policies are going to differ by program. We dig into all of that in this post: https://awardwallet.com/blog/rewards-programs-allow-combine-points-miles-free/
The policies are going to differ by program. We dig into all of that in this post: https://awardwallet.com/blog/rewards-programs-allow-combine-points-miles-free/
Just getting into the travel hacks game. Ran a blog search for “beginners”. This popped up; and it is exactly what I was looking for. Bookmarking for future reference. Thank you for writing these “how-to’s” for those of us who are just starting to try to figure everything out!
Great to hear Lauren, if you have any questions don’t hesitate to reach out.
The date on top says June 28, 2019. All of the comments come from 2017. What the post updated in some way? Is all of the info in it current?
Yes, we constantly update our posts and all information is current.
Very comprehensible indeed. Yet it takes so much time and planning that often it is a lot easier to buy rather competitive airfare than use award tickets. Sad but true.
Sadly outside the US miles earning without flying is really hard! Hope you make an international series too to unlock the less-known deals outside the US.
I think two things which add value to points / miles are flexibility and having alternative.
Flexibility allows you to redeem more easily for your favourite destination whereas having alternative allows you to have some plan B if something go wrong.
This is even more true for families travelling together on high season.
Great article, but unfortunately for economy class traveler (leisure travel) from Europe reward flights are really hard to achieve, unless flying is part of your everyday business.
Hi,
Any thoughts/suggestions on booking a business/first class trip to Hawaii, or is that essentially impossible?
Be flexible, but it certainly isn’t impossible: https://awardwallet.com/blog/the-best-points-and-miles-to-use-for-free-flights-to-hawaii/
It is very interesting to see just how many alternative ways to get to just one destination using points and miles. I tend to transfer my Membership Rewards to the same place, but this shows the value of keeping them until you need them for maximum flexibility. The article is also a very interesting demonstration of the use of pooling points from various sources.
I’m loving this new series Howie. Sometimes blogs tend to assume you’ve earned a lot of miles and redeemed a lot of them for flights and already know what to do. Many people don’t. Would love to see a follow up article on how to use points for stays/food/experiences once you’re there. Getting there and back is only half the challenge in my opinion.
Very good info. I am starting to plan an around-the-world trip, mostly southern hemisphere, and need to start planning.
very informative. the best travel guide. thanks
This is a comprehensive overview that should be helpful for a lot of people. I think a good follow-up blog article could examine when is it better to use points/miles vs buying a ticket. For example, an Alaska Airlines sale to Hawaii combined with the free companion ticket (excluding taxes and fees) from the Bank of America credit card could make for an incredible deal.
Wish I had seen this when I first started it would have saved me some time, money, and precious pionts
For those outside the US these rewards are not available 🙁
It is unfortunate. The US rewards/loyalty currency market is the most lucrative.
Yeah, that is very true!
Extremely informative article! Thx so much! What a treat to find applicable and helpful info all in one place! Mahalo!
This is awesome for beginners! It definitely is less complicated than it seems
One of the most helpful posts ever on a points and miles blog. Thank you!
This is such a great post and almost makes this miles and point hobby seem easy! I wish I had a reference like this when I had started out. I will be sharing this with skeptical family and friends.
Great things to consider. Does anyone else to their bookings through a partner airline? I tend to stick to American or United. Maybe it’s just fear of trying something new.
All the time, especially when there is a better value to be had.
Any one know the best way to book award travel LAX to Peru??
Delta and Alaska have some of the best rates at 35k round-trip in economy. United is at 40k as is AA.
According to Alaska website you can’t book directly thru them to get to Peru. Lima or more specifically CUZ.. either way the don’t have flights on their site.
you should be able to redeem with LAN.
This is an excellent post for those getting into points and miles. I will be sharing it with friends and relatives, who keep asking me for details. This explains the basics better than I ever could.
Interesting, I have yet to book an award flight but good to see the process so thoroughly explained
I tried to book an Award on LH with M&M – but the System always says “no Space on your Dates” – are there certain Route that don’t work?
What happens if you call M&M to book the same flights. I wouldn’t be surprised with limitations on the website.
They say “no” – but offer connecting flights..Like I tried FRA-LAX…they said “no”, but were trying to put me on FRA-NYC (LH) and NYC-LAX (on United)..
Award availability is limited, keep that in mind. FRA-LAX is a route with limited availability compared to NY.
Wow! This is a very informative article! I really appreciate the visual help.
Agreed! Great work
Many noob mileage collectors overlook that 2nd critical aspect of spending miles efficiently.
Thank you for this series. Trying to figure out how to do reward flights is so difficult. I hope you do continue this series to move onto the intermediate and advanced techniques of successfully booking award flights to various international destinations.
Solid piece. Wish I had this when I was starting out.
The link http://www.openflight.org/ is a typo. It should be http://www.openflights.org/.
Thanks, Jeff, got that fixed.
Research, research, research is key in this game. I wouldn’t know half as much about miles/ points redemptions without great blogs like this.
This is a good workflow.
Note, I think you meant OpenFlights instead of OpenFlight.
excellent advice for those just starting to enjoy the benefits of this hobby
Since comments seem to be turned off on the ‘importance of travel goals’ post, I’ll say it here: I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been asked by someone interested in getting into travel-hacking, “which card should I get?”. And the only way I can ever answer that is by replying with my own question: “where do you want to go?” I always tell newbies: one needs to start with a destination, and then figure out what the best pints currencies will be to get there.
Comments aren’t turned off (at least they don’t look like it from here) — but thanks for sharing; this is the exact question we always ask.
Weird. I’ve looked at the page several times and there is no “Reply” area showing…
There’s so much to consider, thanks for the smart grids and visual look at this. Most of us here have scratched down fifteen pages of notes when deciding how to book, where to book and which accounts work for us in any given scenario. This will be a big time saver.
Thanks! This is an awesome post I’ll definitely do some research on this for my next redemption.
This is one of your most informative posts, thank you!
Planning and research is key to getting the best trip experience and the best bang for your buck/points. Don’t burn those points or your hard earned $$ until you comparison shop….
Yup! Nothing worse than finding out you overpaid later..
This is such an awesome post! It just happens that I am planning a trip next spring to Hawaii. I’m bouncing back and forth between United and American. I’m looking for nonstop really but well, can’t be picky. But I’m unsure about all the transferring to SPG, etc. I think I might be looking at UR and book American, since they discount. I do admit I am curious about Hawaiian airlines.
This is exactly what I am looking for. Thanks for the writing!