As some of you may have read in my other thread, I have been trying to book my first award flight with newly acquired UR points from my wife and I's Chase SP cards. We collectively had 80,000+ UR points and was excited to use them for our 20 year anniversary trip next summer to Hawaii. I am excited to announce I successfully booked 2 r/t tickets from PDX-HNL for 50k BA Avios. After months of reading how to and about others booking award flights, I started the process by simply looking on airlines I could use my Chase UR points on. Living in Seattle and wanting to fly to Hawaii, Alaska, United, and AA made the most sense. I had read about BA offering tremendous value to fly from the west coast to Hawaii for 25k Avios r/t and considering the other airlines were charging 40K+ for the same flight, I really wanted to see if I could get the Avios deal. After some trial and error and help from Wandering Aramean, I learned to get the 25k Avios deal to Hawaii, the flights had to be non stop and the lowest level. So I started checking the airlines listed above and the only one I could find that traveled non-stop from SEA-HNL was AS. I was flexible in my travel time and began looking from July 1-August 30 and was finding nothing. I started to get worried that the Avios deal may be impossible and started considering booking the flight on a different airline and spending the additional points. But a post from Wandering Aramean shook me out of my narrow minded box of SEA-HNL and reminded me I had two other airports within a 2.5 hour drive that AS also flew out of. BLI is north of Seattle approximately one hour and PDX is south approx 2.5. BLI is a small airport and while it offered more availabilty then SEA, PDX had alot more options. Utilizing Expertflyer, I began hunting for flights and in no time, found a direct flight from PDX-HNL. I loaded my UR portal and was ready to transfer the points once the BA agent confirmed the flight availability. I called the 1800 # and in a matter of minutes, confirmed two r/t tickets from PDX-HNL for 50k Avios. The points transfered immediately and I got the tickets!! For kicks and giggles, I checked Expertflyer again and the seats were gone! For those that remember your first booking or other noobs like me, the entire process is quite intoxicating and for those like me with an obsessive personality, addicting!! From looking for the best cards, getting creative with meeting spending requirements, to finding the best deals on flights, this has been alot of fun and very informative. Thanks to everyone on this board for all your help.
Have a great trip! And I agree that PDX is likely to be easier/better than BLI for a variety of reasons.
Congrats and best wishes on your journey! Even for most of us who have booked many award flights, there is still a thrill and a rush when we successfully use points to take our dream trip. Enjoy....
Transferred Chase UR points at 1:1 to BA Avios. Then booked flights on AS through BA (they're partners). PDX-HNL is 25k Avios o/w - AS has to have super saver award availability. Congrats on the booking. I can't think of a better reason to go to Hawaii!
It's 25k Avios r/t, not o/w if flying from the West Coast on super saver. BLI, SEA, PDX, SFO, LAX, are some of the airports that qualify for the 25k rate. One of the things I learned early on is the flights have to be direct for the 25k rate. No connections or the fare goes up. I actually decided to take the two teen age boys so....booked two more!! They will be flying out of BLI-HNL and took 5 minutes on the phone with BA. You can't beat 100k points for four r/t tix from the west coast to Hawaii. I have read mixed reviews on BA's CSR's but I am 2 for 2 for very helpful and kind reps.
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