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United’s new routes mean more flights to Hawaii for 7,500 miles

  • Joseph Hostetler

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    Come summer 2021, those wanting to head to Hawaii for cheap will have a few more options to get there, as United Airlines will launch new routes to the islands.

    You probably already know that it’s possible to fly from anywhere in the mainland U.S. to Hawaii on United Airlines for the following prices:

    That’s insanely cheap. And while you may not have any Turkish miles lying around, you can transfer Citi ThankYou points directly to Turkish at 1:1 ratio. If you’re unfamiliar with this award sweet spot, check out Meghan’s guide to Turkish Airlines miles and my post on six things to watch out for when booking a Turkish award flight to Hawaii.

    In short, you can use Turkish Airlines miles to book flights to Hawaii on their partner, United Airlines. Turkish miles are easy to earn with many of the best travel credit cards, too. The biggest roadblock is the number of available award seats. In my experience, this isn’t too big of an issue if you’re after regular old coach seats. But business class is the real steal, however those are significantly harder to find.

    That’s why it’s so exciting to hear that United will launch potentially a total of 450+ more business class seats (and thousands more coach seats) each week between Hawaii and a couple of their eastern hubs.

    More flights to Maui means easier-to-score awards. (Photo by Joseph Hostetler/Million Mile Secrets)

    Two new routes to Hawaii = tons more award seats

    United doesn’t say exactly when, but sometime next summer they will launch two new routes to Hawaii:

    These flights will both operate four times per week, meaning you’ve got eight more chances each week to book an award flight between the Continental U.S. and Hawaii.

    Image courtesy of Great Circle Mapper.

    We don’t know exactly what the business class cabins will look like. However, we do know which planes United is using. These planes have varying seat maps, but let’s look at a few anyway, just to get an idea. For the flight between Newark and Maui, United will fly a 767-300ER. That seat map could look like this:

    This United aircraft has United’s older, less spacious Polaris class seats — although they are still lie-flat. Image courtesy of Seat Guru.

    And for the flight between Chicago and Kona, United will fly a 787-8. That seat map could look like this:

    This United 787 features the carrier’s new Polaris class seats. Image courtesy of Seat Guru.

    Look at all those lie-flat seats — and in United’s Polaris business class, too! Round-trip tickets could easily cost $1,700+ each. Booking it for 25,000 Turkish miles means you’d get a value of more than 6 cents each.

    Try to book a flight on an aircraft like the 787 or a retrofitted 767, these feature United’s new Polaris class which offer much more space and privacy.

    It would be a joy to have another 16 total flights between the mainland and Hawaii in United Polaris — especially for those of us with Turkish miles.

    How to earn Turkish Airlines miles

    Turkish Airlines miles aren’t too difficult to accrue. Apart from flying or booking hotels with sites like Rocketmiles, you can transfer Citi ThankYou points at a 1:1 ratio. You can earn ThankYou points by opening and spending on select Citi credit cards, such as:

    The information for the Citi Prestige has been collected independently by Million Mile Secrets. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.

    Another simple option is to transfer Marriott points to Turkish Airlines at a 3:1 ratio (3 Marriott points = 1 Citi ThankYou point). And when you transfer your points in increments of 60,000, you’ll receive a bonus 5,000 miles. In other words, 60,000 Marriott points = 25,000 Turkish Airlines miles.

    Several Marriott credit cards have welcome offers high enough to earn a round-trip business class flight to Hawaii, including:

    If you don’t have a way of booking these new flights with Turkish miles, you can book with programs like Singapore Krisflyer which charges 17,500 miles for a one-way flight in economy from the mainland to the U.S. Unfortunately, United itself charges a whopping 22,500 miles for the same flight.

    Bottom Line

    If you’re interested in taking these upcoming flights for free, you should start accruing the miles you need now. You can subscribe to our newsletter to stay up to date on the best credit card bonuses and limited-time offers so you can get the most free travel for the smallest amount of effort.

    Editorial Note: We're the Million Mile Secrets team. And we're proud of our content, opinions and analysis, and of our reader's comments. These haven’t been reviewed, approved or endorsed by any of the airlines, hotels, or credit card issuers which we often write about. And that’s just how we like it! :)