Article: Epic Premium Economy Deal to Hawaii (via LA) for Under $2k

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Did you know that you could fly MEL-SYD-LAX-HNL on AA flight numbers (flights operated by Qantas and/or American Airlines), flying Business on MEL-SYD, Premium Economy on SYD-LAX and Economy on LAX-HNL, for under $2,000 return?

The main catch is that you unfortunately can't stop over in Los Angeles for more than 24 hours.

This airfare won't be for everyone, but it's a nice status credit earner and less than half the cost of flying SYD-LAX in Premium Economy on a standalone ticket.

 
Strange, when I search in ITA Matrix (using month view), I don‘t see the headline price in the initial result but you click through and there it is. Even if I restrict the search to C:AA+ it still seems to hide the fare until you click through. A whole new meaning to “hidden city” fares? 😀

I see that the LAX-HNL legs book as “Y” (full economy), so a OWE might be in luck with an upgrade at the gate. Unfortunately, I believe AA have wound back some the perks offered to OWE travelling in coach?
 
I recently noticed that one way tickets from SYD-LAX-HNL using the same flights price consistently around ~$1,200 AUD. Pretty remarkable considering the same QF flight booked as SYD-LAX alone easily quotes double that.

I wouldn't recommend making a habit of using it as a cheap way to get to LA given most airlines' policies re: hidden city ticketing, but in theory...
 
Did you know that you could fly MEL-SYD-LAX-HNL on AA flight numbers (flights operated by Qantas and/or American Airlines), flying Business on MEL-SYD, Premium Economy on SYD-LAX and Economy on LAX-HNL, for under $2,000 return?

The main catch is that you unfortunately can't stop over in Los Angeles for more than 24 hours.

This airfare won't be for everyone, but it's a nice status credit earner and less than half the cost of flying SYD-LAX in Premium Economy on a standalone ticket.

Would these status credits count towards Qantas lifetime status?
 
I wouldn't recommend making a habit of using it as a cheap way to get to LA given most airlines' policies re: hidden city ticketing, but in theory...
Quite, and my reference to “hidden city” earlier was a joke and obviously would not work on a return trip! Recipe for disaster…
 
Interesting. When did they resume?

Previously AA had been intending to resume the route in late October 22, was my understanding.
It was announced in June that they will resume from Oct (so not actually restarted right now but obviously you can buy tix for dates ~Oct onwards including this deal).

They had to suspend the route due to lack of aircraft but that log jam is working its way free.
 
Just thought I would point out that the deal isn't just for major cities on the East coast like SYD or MEL. Indeed I'm seeing these prices as far away as HBA:

Screen Shot 2022-08-09 at 18.28.03.png

Unfortunately, those flying ex-HBA must suffer with QF J service up to SYD. Oh the humanity! 😂

-RooFlyer88
 
This is a good deal for status credits.... not looking at booking immediately - but maybe in a month or so. Is it likely this deal will stay around for abit ?
 
This is a good deal for status credits.... not looking at booking immediately - but maybe in a month or so. Is it likely this deal will stay around for abit ?

It has been there for at least a year already and appears to be a year-round fare. ;)

No guarantees though, airfares can change at any time.
 
thanks - its a great deal and something that I would consider as a good status run - Flying to Bali or New Caledonia used to be good ideas - do they still exist ?
 
thanks - its a great deal and something that I would consider as a good status run - Flying to Bali or New Caledonia used to be good ideas - do they still exist ?

They're not the good value that they used to be.

Have a look at this thread for status run discussion:

 
Saw this article this morning for just the LAX-HNL leg in First (aka domestic business) for US$550 each way.

Books into I fare bucket so should be 7200 pts and 100 SC each way.
 
That is about $7.88/ SC. Doesn't seem very good value to me or am I missing something.
 
That is about $7.88/ SC. Doesn't seem very good value to me or am I missing something.
Are you referring to my post? It wasn’t meant to be an equally epic deal (nor epic journey!). More of a by way of comparison, although LL seemed to think it was a reasonable fare.

It could be tagged to a QF/JQ return trip to HNL and then get someone to the mainland probably still cheaper than current airfares.
 
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just had a look at these airfares & they seem to be few and far between... Anyone know any dates can still get this for approx $2K?
 

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