Help me minimise spend for HI trip in June '14

[alect]

Have to go to Kuaui, HI in June '14 for a wedding. Taking the whole dang family - so 2 adults and 3 kids (9,5,5).

Currently lowest airfares are pricing out to approx $5,600 total (and that's JQ). Would love to try and avoid all/some of this spend:

• plenty of AAdv miles but AAdv wants to charge me MEL-HNL the same as mainland USA - so an awful use of AA miles, availability aside)
• Nowhere near sufficient QF miles - but it's pricing out about 131k per person as an award
• 180k Citi Rewards miles - but they're quoting me JQ awards @ 180k points per person!!! (is there any good value use of points in this program??) and for cashback I would get .25 cents per point

Not sure if there are other avenues available? Have been watching JQ sales for last 6 months and HI has never come up.. VA neither.

Accomodation in Kuaui I think we have sorted - but happy to stay in Waikiki or similar for a few days beforehand if part of air+hotel package.

Cheers

 

[Shanye2233]

I would jump on cc on ft get some lm then book a syd-maj on ua get off at hnl .
Then i would brg the RH .Thats what I did a year ago and didn't have any issues . The Hilton is nice but the roy Hawaiian is on the water and I stayed in a lani suite it was like a town house inside . Or even do a Brg for the Westin it's also a nice property . Throw in a couple of free nights across the road at the holiday inn one for you and one for it wife.
Then rent a car wih hertz using codes 161184 and 211762 for a free rental . They are auppose to ask for the cert's but rarely do they remember .

Have a great trip !

 

[ashleyn]

I would jump on cc on ft get some lm then book a syd-maj on ua get off at hnl .
Then i would brg the RH .Thats what I did a year ago and didn't have any issues . The Hilton is nice but the roy Hawaiian is on the water and I stayed in a lani suite it was like a town house inside . Or even do a Brg for the Westin it's also a nice property . Throw in a couple of free nights across the road at the holiday inn one for you and one for it wife.
Then rent a car wih hertz using codes 161184 and 211762 for a free rental . They are auppose to ask for the cert's but rarely do they remember .

Have a great trip !

I think we have a winner for the most acronyms used in a single post.

 

[Shanye2233]

Whats a acronym ? The info i provided is exactly what i would do. Or buy loads of xs go to the po load up the L&G and then pay back my cc and use all those points .

Also the HI in HNL is very easy for Brg. Brg stands for best rate gaurantee

 

[alect]

I think we have a winner for the most acronyms used in a single post.

Not even sure i understand most of it. I got brg. not sure what best rate they are going to match/guarantee?

but that is lm and what is this syd-maj flight he speak of on ua?

 

[JohnK]

Way too many acronyms. And if you are going to use an acronym at least capitilise it for clarity.

but that is lm and what is this syd-maj flight he speak of on ua?

LM is Avianca LifeMiles and MAJ is Marshall Islands. I am assuming that SYD-MAJ would require less Avianca Lifemiles than say SYD-HML and you would be able to route via HNL and stopover in HNL. It will mean you still have to do the MAJ trip but if it saves money then it could be worth it.

 

[Shanye2233]

LM is lifemiles and you dont have to go to MAJ get off at HNL.

 

[JohnK]

LM is lifemiles and you dont have to go to MAJ get off at HNL.

And the return?

I can't believe you are offering this type of advice.

 

[Shanye2233]

Its actually good advice. If you check the connection to maj its a overnight connection in hnl. The return is too complex so i would do a simple return hnl-syd .

The holiday inn is across the road from the royal Hawaiian and he can easily do two best rate gaurantee's there to save two nights accomdation . So it's just a simple check in and out the next day and could possibly leave heavy luggage at the royal Hawaiian and also get multiple stay credits at numberous welcome gifts checking in and out of the RH .Then he can do a Brg for the royal giving him a extra 10% off .

 

[ozbeachbabe]

Have to go to Kuaui, HI in June '14 for a wedding. Taking the whole dang family - so 2 adults and 3 kids (9,5,5).

Currently lowest airfares are pricing out to approx $5,600 total (and that's JQ). Would love to try and avoid all/some of this spend:

• plenty of AAdv miles but AAdv wants to charge me MEL-HNL the same as mainland USA - so an awful use of AA miles, availability aside)
• Nowhere near sufficient QF miles - but it's pricing out about 131k per person as an award
• 180k Citi Rewards miles - but they're quoting me JQ awards @ 180k points per person!!! (is there any good value use of points in this program??) and for cashback I would get .25 cents per point

Not sure if there are other avenues available? Have been watching JQ sales for last 6 months and HI has never come up.. VA neither.

Accomodation in Kuaui I think we have sorted - but happy to stay in Waikiki or similar for a few days beforehand if part of air+hotel package.

Cheers

If your Citibank points can be transferred to VA you can do a partner award on HA which AFAIK is still booked in 'T' class. You can't book on the VA website so need to call them.

I have booked a couple of these HNL/BNE & the first time the points were 32,500 plus taxes USD52.54 & the second time still 32.5K however taxes only USD37.00 pp.

What dates will you be looking at in June for the outbound & return filghts?

How many QF ff points do you have exactly - enough for one or two tickets or did you mean insufficient for anyone to travel on an award?

I think you might have left your run too late to get 5 award seats in the June School Holidays. You need to book something asap as it's not going to get any cheaper & the airlines won't have any specials when the planes are full of people paying the usual fares.

Also it's US Summer Holidays all of June/July/August so accommodation rates will be at a premium so I'd secure a hotel or apartment booking quickly - even if it's a cancellable rate so you can still shop around looking for a better deal,