Deal has expired, view more Hawaiian Airlines deals by clicking here.
Update 3/28/19: Deal is available again and valid until 4/10/19.
The Offer
- Hawaiian Airlines is allowing members to redeem miles for Hawaiian airline gift cards. Rate is 10,000 points for a $100 gift card
The Fine Print
- Offer valid while supplies last.
- Limit 5 Gift Cards per member.
- Allow 4-6 weeks delivery time for gift card(s) to arrive.
- Hawaiian Airlines Gift Cards are only redeemable online at HawaiianAirlines.com and are non-refundable and fully transferable
- . Gift Cards may not be used for Preferred Seats, Extra Comfort Seats, Hawaiian Airlines Vacations Packages, Bag Fees, or In-Flight Purchases.
- For more information regarding our Hawaiian Airlines Gift Cards please visit our FAQs or our terms and conditions.
Our Verdict
Not exactly crazy value given you’re only getting 1¢ per point. They can’t be resold either so not exactly a cash out option either. I think you’d almost always get better value redeeming the miles for flights, but maybe readers can correct me on that one?
Hat tip to reader Abey
In most cases doesn’t seem worth it. Maybe if you’re a Pualani Platinum (PP) consider it, since they get double miles on flights. For example, the cheapest flight from Hawaii to Sydney (about 10k miles RT) is about $800. If PP member transfers 80k miles and buys the ticket, they’ll get 20k miles back. This makes their 60k miles worth about 1.33 cpm. A non PP would only get about 1.14 cpm in this situation, with cheap airfare at that.
I know others have noted that award availability from east coast isn’t good, but I just upgraded my flight in April from HNL to BOS to first class for 25k, which seems like a steal to me (the cash upgrade price was ~$1450). Maybe it’s because the BOS/HNL route is so new (it starts next week), but I was pleasantly surprised.
Thank you for posting Justin, that is indeed an excellent deal.
do you know if it’s just certain fare classes or any economy ticket will do?
Thanks.
I purchased the tickets during a promotion Hawaiian Airlines ran in September when the nonstop BOS/HNL route was announced; our basic economy tickets were ~$625 roundtrip with taxes. I figured there wouldn’t be any upgrade availability for this fare class, but asked via chat yesterday and was told 25k. I called the reservations line, and had them hold two seats while I transferred in Amex MR points and booked the upgrade in just a few minutes.
This is some great DP, TVM.
Happy to help, hope you are able to score a similar upgrade!
Did Hawaiian deduct the miles at the time you got the upgrade or are they deducted when you fly? I know Amex is instant but is there time for Marriott transfers?
They were deducted when booking, so I used amex for instant transfer.
HA always has great deals when new routes are introduced. Unfortunately they are very short lived. Check the restrictions on their gift cards as well. You can’t use them for baggage fees, lounges, in-flight amenities and many other things.
The only outsized value I could imagine with this is if you use it in combination with the 50% off companion ticket, since you can’t use that with a reward redemption. So let’s say you find LAX-HNL RT for $358 (I’m looking at one right now in November), plus 50% companion @ $179= $537 for 2 RT coach – $500 HA gift cards=$37? I’d take that haha
You have to pay with the Hawaii Airlines credit card for the 50% off companion ticket to apply. If you’re paying with another credit card or gift cards then you can’t use the companion fare discount that comes with HA cc. Their companion fare is very restrictive unlike Alaska’s.
Good info.
Hawaiian miles are low value for anything other than business from HI to Asia or Australia/New Zealand, so IMO 1 cent/mile is roughly break even with redeeming miles on the west coast routes, especially with elite earning bonus on the cash ticket. I held onto enough miles for a couple of long haul business tickets and bought some gift cards with the rest.
you don’t see value inter-island? Unless you like flying before 7am, a lot of routes are 1.3-1.6+cpp
For me, almost all of that is work, and I can use Visa Infinite discount if I’m traveling with my wife for a weekend. But you’re right that there’s value there for others whose situations differ, although I think it’s mostly the HNL-Big Island routes where the cash fares are consistently high.
Sorry, visa infinite discount?
Is Hawaiian airlines bookable under Visa infinite $100 discount?
My recollection is that Hawaiian charges a ton of miles for inter-island flights. But their credit card has a plausible sign-up bonus. If you want to use miles/points to pay for almost all of your Hawaiian vacation — and you need an inter-island flight — cashing in the miles for the gift card and they buying that flight might be a good deal compared to redeeming the miles for a flight award.
Your recollection is sometimes right.
Cant say what tier of flight you are using but cheapest is 7500 miles or $90, which makes a mile redemption much better imo. Higher cost rewards are not good.
Maybe better at the top?
First class is good at the 15k reward
I live on the islands. Inter-island flights always start at 7500 (as they also do via AA or UA). You usually get better than 1cpp on any route, unless you want to fly like HNL-OGG or HNL-LIH at 5 a.m (even then, $69.99). Otherwise, points redemptions are always better, like KOA-LIH, $125 or 7500. A 50k card bonus is worth more than $600 for me(of course more if I ever checked a bag).
Might be a good option for people with a few thousand miles from some random flights that aren’t nearly enough for a flight redemption. Instead of expiring can convert into a gift card…
At least one scenario where this is better came to mind- Rewards are a set 35k-40k points for west coast to the islands. If the price of flights drops like following the recent volcano this giftcard option would be better.
Yes, redeeming miles for flights is almost universally better value, except in some cases when you buy flight with these gift cards i am guessing you will earn some miles on them too?
Also, their HNL-JFK flight is never available for 40k in biz… absolutely NEVER. 80k miles one is no fun at all.