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One of the best aspects of the American Airlines AAdvantage® program is the number of airlines you can book with AAdvantage® miles. And while this list of 20 airlines has long included Hawaiian Airlines, something that was notably absent from that partnership was the ability to book Hawaiian award flights outside of Hawaii. But thankfully, that's now changed; you're cleared to book flights across Hawaiian's entire network through AA.
Here's what you need to know about this new development — and if it's worth considering booking Hawaiian flights to Hawaii through AAdvantage.
You Can Now Redeem AAdvantage Miles for Flights Across Hawaiian Airlines’ Network
For quite some time, it's been possible to use American Airlines miles to book Hawaiian Airlines flights from Hawaii to places like Japan, Tahiti, and New Zealand — or even fly between islands. But it's been several years since you could fly from the U.S. mainland to/from Hawaii on Hawaiian using AA miles. Now, those redemptions have returned.
Effective immediately, you can book flights across the entirety of Hawaiian's network with AA miles. It's a big deal if you're sitting on some AAdvantage miles and want to fly Hawaiian to Hawaii instead of American Airlines or Alaska Airlines. The number of destinations you can book includes obvious gateways like Los Angeles (LAX) and even less obvious ones such as New York (JFK) and Boston (BOS).
And to make it easy, American Airlines is maintaining its Hawaiian Airlines partner award chart. Flights between Hawaii and the U.S. mainland cost 22,500 miles in economy and 55,000 miles in Hawaiian Airlines first class. We'll cover whether or not that's a good deal momentarily.
Should You Redeem AAdvantage Miles for Hawaiian Airlines Flights to Hawaii?
It goes without saying that there are so many ways to fly to Hawaii using points and miles. And if we had to rank all of your choices, using AAdvantage miles for Hawaiian Airlines flights would not be among the top-value options. And that's largely because Hawaiian Airlines flights are usually cheap to the point of making your miles worth very little. For example, Hawaiian Airlines will sell you a ticket between Los Angeles and Honolulu (HNL) for as little as $109.
If you don't want to spend the cash, you can redeem 22,500 AAdvantage miles and pay $5.60 in taxes and fees.
While there's a benefit to saving money on airfare so you can spend more while you're on the islands, you'll have to settle for an abysmal 0.46¢ per mile. Even when valued conservatively, AA miles are worth a lot more than that.
And the same holds true even on longer flights with less carrier competition. New York (JFK) direct to Honolulu (HNL) will run you 35,000 AA miles and $5.60 in taxes and fees — or cost you an average of $399. That amounts to just 1.12¢ per mile, which is better but well short of fantastic.
The primary exception is for flights in Hawaiian's premium cabins. Revenue tickets for lie-flat seats cost a lot more than general economy, and the mileage rate is rather reasonable. For instance, you can fly between Phoenix (PHX) and Honolulu (HNL) for 55,000 miles plus $5.60…
…which might be more digestible than paying $886 out of pocket.
On this redemption, you'll unlock 1.56¢ per AA mile, which is much better than the two economy redemptions we touched on earlier. But, it's not going to land on our best uses of American Airlines AAdvantage miles.
Final Thoughts
We're always happy to see new ways to redeem points and miles — even if they don't present more-than-compelling value. The opportunity to cash in AAdvantage miles for Hawaiian Airlines flights to/from won't offer you outsized value, but that doesn't detract from the fact that these are practical redemptions. It's hard to argue against saving money on airfare by redeeming miles so you can spend more while you're actually on vacation.
And it's also nice to see American Airlines' partnership with Hawaiian evolving. This was largely expected given the recent Hawaiian and Alaska Airlines merger, plus the general expectation that Hawaiian will join the Oneworld alliance in 2026. Now, if only American Airlines would let you earn Loyalty Points on flights with a Hawaiian Airlines flight number…
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