Maximising the free stopover from PER to YVR/SEA/similar with a stopover in HNL

[jm1]

Hi there,

I'm currently planning a trip from perth to Vancouver, Canada. We want to stop in Hawaii on the way.

My original plan was an AA redemption of PER-SYD-HNL or PER-BNE-HNL for 65k points in business. The PER-SYD/BNE leg is Qantas; the SYD/BNE to HNL leg is Hawaiian Airlines. From HNL I plan to visit a couple of other islands, so would likely book a cash ticket from OGG or LIH to YVR.

I've been researching whether it's possible to instead use HNL as a stopover and another city on the mainland as my final destination using AAdvantage's free stopover. It doesn't appear that flying to YVR would be possible with this, but potentially SEA is.

Looking at the MileValue article 'The Five Cardinal Rules of American Airlines Awards' - it seems to fit within the rules, but I could be wrong. ExpertFlyer has a HA flight from Perth to Seattle. MPM is 11,678 (+25% extra allowed = 14,597) and total distance of PER-SYD-HNL-SEA is 9,784.

Is anyone able to help validate whether this is a valid routing at 65k points? And if so, how do I go about booking it? All searches on the AA website end up showing this as two separate flights. If this does turn out to be a valid routing I'm aware I'd have to fly back to HNL from either OGG or LIH. Whilst a bit inconvenient, I don't see a way around this.

If it's not a valid routing, any other suggestions to maximise the free stopover?

Thanks
Josh

 

[MEL_Traveller]

If I understand your post correctly, you're looking to put a stopover in your award? AA awards don't allow stopovers (as per rule #1 of the article you referenced). So if you are planning a couple days in HNL it will either be a separate award ticket, or a cash ticket.

 

[jm1]

If I understand your post correctly, you're looking to put a stopover in your award? AA awards don't allow stopovers (as per rule #1 of the article you referenced). So if you are planning a couple days in HNL it will either be a separate award ticket, or a cash ticket.

Ah yep, I've since discovered that all of the articles I was reading were pre 2014 (before AA stopped stopovers at a 'gateway city'). Confused me. Thanks!