How To Redeem Avios for Alaska Airlines Flights to Hawaii

This welcome bonus offer has changed since this was published. Please note that the following examples may not currently apply as they were based on previous offers.

How To Redeem Avios for Alaska Airlines Flights to Hawaii (Introduction)

Hey West Coasters! Are you looking for a way to redeem British Airways Avios and fly Alaska Airlines non-stop to Hawaii? Or maybe you just want to know how to travel hack your way to the beaches in Hawaii for A LOT LESS than paying full retail prices.

Yes, I’m talking to you if you live in or around Vancouver, BC, and our American friends who live near Anchorage, Seattle, Portland, or California.

By the end of this article you’ll learn everything you need to book your Hawaii flights and can focus on more important things like where’s the best beach to kickback and relax? (Hint: pretty much any one). And where’s the best place to get Poke?

There are plenty of ways to earn Avios in Canada for your upcoming Hawaii trip. My favourite of course, is by taking advantage of the welcome bonus offer of points on the American Express Platinum Card.

This welcome bonus offer has changed since this was published. Please note that the following examples may not currently apply as they were based on previous offers.

Once you meet the minimum spend requirement of $3,000 in the first 3 months, you’ll have enough points for 2 round trip tickets for direct flights to any Hawaiian island.

The annual fee on the Card is $699 which comes with a $200 travel credit (bringing the fee down to $499) and airport lounge access for you and up to 2 travel guests to enjoy some complimentary food and a glass of champagne (or three) before your flight at the American Express Centurion Lounge.

I’m going to show you exactly how to make your Platinum Card work for you, saving you money on the retail price of your flight, and getting you airport lounge access.

Learn more about the American Express Platinum Card travel benefits in Canada.

For this example I’ll be pricing out an award trip from Seattle, Washington (SEA) to Maui, Hawaii (OGG) flying the British Airways partner airline, Alaska Airlines.

This route is well documented, and for good reason. Using British Airways Avios to fly Alaska Airlines to Hawaii (any island) represents incredible value! If you’re on the west coast and can get to a major hub you can catch a nonstop flight to any Hawaiian island while only paying a very small amount in taxes.

Let’s get started.

Step 1: Apply for the American Express Platinum Card Canada

The first thing you need to do is apply for the American Express Platinum Card Canada. Upon approval, your brand new Metal Card will arrive in a couple short days.

Step 2: Sign Up for a British Airways Executive Club Account

Next, you’ll need to create a free account with the British Airways Executive Club. This should only take a couple of minutes. We’ll be using this a little later on.

Step 3: Meet the Minimum Spend to Unlock the Welcome Bonus

The next crucial step is to meet the minimum spend requirement of $3,000 in the first 3 months of Card ownership to unlock the 50,000 welcome bonus point offer.

PointsWise Tip
Before you apply, make sure you are comfortable meeting the minimum spend requirement. You shouldn’t have to live beyond your means or pay unnecessary interest to hit this goal.

There are plenty of places in Canada that accept American Express. I use my American Express Card on Amazon.ca, to pay car insurance, for recurring online subscriptions, and in every store I can.

Since you’ll have spent $3,000 on daily purchases you’d be making anyway, you’ll end up with an additional minimum 3,000 points (assuming there were no category spend bonuses on travel (3x the points) or restaurants in Canada (2x the points)).

That will give you a minimum of 53,000 American Express points which is enough to book your two round trip flights to Hawaii following the steps below!

Step 4: Transfer Your American Express Points

Now that you’ve met the minimum spend and received your welcome bonus points, you’ll need to transfer your American Express Membership Reward points (check here for our step by step guide) to British Airways. This is another easy step, but one you’ll want to give yourself enough time to do in advance of booking your flight. It can take up to 5 business days for your points to transfer to your British Airways Executive account, and the transfer will need to be complete before you book your flight.

The exact amount of American Express points you’ll need to transfer to British Airways for two non-stop round trip economy flights to Hawaii from the west coast with Alaska Airlines is 52,000.

Math Time

By consulting the British Airways reward chart, we can see how many points we need for our flights. American Express points transfer to British Airways at a 1:1 ratio so the math is easy.

First, we need to figure out how many miles it takes to get from the west coast (in our case, Seattle, WA) to Hawaii (in our case, Maui). We can use a free travel hacking tool, Flight Connections to do this. By entering our “to” and “from” airports (SEA > OGG), we can see the flight distance is 2,640 miles.

Since Alaska Airlines is a partner of British Airways, we can consult the “Partner” column of the British Airways Reward chart and see our flight falls into “Zone 4”.

From there, we can see that it will cost 13,000 Avios per passenger for a one-way economy flight. Since our example is based on a round trip flight for two passengers, that’s two tickets both ways, so we need to multiply that number by 4:

13,000 x 4 = 52,000 American Express points (British Airways Avios) required.

But wait…we can do better if we plan ahead…

Sweet Spot
Before you transfer your American Express points, consider waiting for the 30% transfer promotion to get an even better deal on your Hawaii flights. You can save 30% if you time your transfer during the yearly British Airways transfer promotion for Canadians.

That means that your two round trip flights to Hawaii from the west coast that originally cost 52,000 American Express points, will only cost you 36,400 points!

That leaves you an extra 15,600 American Express points to put towards a hotel stay, or anything you’d like, just by planning ahead!

Once you have the points transferred to your British Airways account, you can book your flight at any time, as long as your account remains active. This takes some planning in advance, so hopefully if you are reading this and are thinking about taking that Hawaii trip within the next year, you can plan accordingly.

This is why having a flexible travel rewards Card is so powerful. You’ll be able to transfer your points to several different loyalty programs and leverage them to the maximum extent.

Ideally, you should wait to transfer your points during this time (historically this has been in the fall for Canadians). Once you have the points transferred to your British Airways account, you can book your flight at any time, as long as your account remains active. This takes some planning in advance, so hopefully if you are reading this and are thinking about taking that Hawaii trip within the next year, you can plan accordingly.

Step 5: Check Award Availability

Checking award availability can be a bit of a confusing task for any new travel hacker, but here is what you need to know to find award availability for your Hawaii flight and get it booked! After doing this for the first time, you’ll have the skills to book your first Hawaii trip, as well as many to come!

Check Retail Prices on Google Flights

I’m sure you already have some travel dates in mind, so the first thing I recommend doing is checking Google Flights for your preferred dates. Check out our tips for how to plan award travel with Google Flights.

From there, you can check the retail price of your flight, and if you have flexible travel dates, you may decide to book your flights for a more popular travel time when flight prices are higher, giving you a better points redemption. You can consult the date and price graphs within Google Flights to see how prices vary by date.

Of course more popular travel times mean more demand for award bookings using points, but you just never know what will be available until you check. Your flights will cost the same number of points regardless of what the retail price is in this case, so it’s worth checking and try to get the best redemption possible if you can.

In Google Flights, we are only looking for Alaska Airlines non-stop flights. Alaska flies flies to Hawaii a lot, so you should get search results for most dates. Once you see when Alaska flies, you can pick your preferred flight times. This is another reason to use Google Flights, as I find it easier to navigate as opposed to the airline website.

Available Direct Flight Routes

You can fly Alaska Airlines to any major Hawaiian island, including:

1. Lihue, Kauai (LIH) (excluding direct flights from Anchorage)
2. Honolulu (Waikiki) (HNL)
3. Kahului (Maui) (OGG)
4. Kailua-Kona (The Big Island/Hilo) (KOA)

Non-stop from any of these West Coast airports:

1. Anchorage, AK (ANC)
2. Seattle, WA (SEA)
3. Portland, OR (PDX)
4. Sacramento, CA (SMF)
5. Oakland, East Bay, CA (OAK)
6. San Francisco, CA (SFO)
7. San Jose, CA (SJC)
8. Los Angeles, CA (LAX)
9. San Diego, CA (SAN)

Search Reward Availability on Alaska Airlines

Flexibility is key here. If you have a fixed travel date, be prepared that you might not be able to use points, as those seats might already be taken, especially if you are booking close to your travel date. The farther in advance you can book your trip using points, and the more flexibility you have, the more success you will have.

Visit alaskair.com. For this example, we’ll be booking a round trip flight for two people departing from Seattle, WA and flying to Maui (OGG) departing in May, 2020.

You can follow along with the screenshots below to do your own mock booking:

1. Make sure to select “Use miles”
2. Enter your “To” and “From” airports from the list above.
3. Enter your travel dates.
4. Enter the number of passengers.
5. Click “Find Flights”

The next page will populate a list of available award flights. However, only some of these options will be available to us as we are using our British Airways Avios Miles to book this flight.

Let’s click “View by > Calendar” on the left hand side to bring up the calendar view and make it easier to see our options:

Using British Airways Avios, you are only able to book economy flights to Hawaii that are labelled 15k. This is VERY important. You will NOT be able to book flights with the Alaska award price of 17.5k, 25k, 50k etc. You can ignore those flights as there will be no award space available.

Again, we are only looking for flights at the 15k pricepoint.

Now, it’s also important to note that 15k is the number of points required using Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan. Since we’re using British Airways, we won’t actually be using that number of points – 15k is just the magic number telling us there is award availability. As a reminder, we talked about how many Avios your Hawaii flight will actually cost you, above.

We can see on the calendar, there are quite a few dates in May, 2020 that have award availability. I originally selected my travel dates to be May 1 – May 8, however, I can see that won’t work in this case – it’s a good thing we saw this coming and have flexible travel dates!

I’ve highlighted the dates with award availability:

Now that we know what dates have award availability, lets click on our desired dates for our departing flight and return flights. Our selection will be highlighted in blue. Then we can click “Continue”.

The following page shows us a list of flights for our chosen date. As you’ll see, not every flight on that date is priced at 15k. So we need to a select a flight time that is priced at 15k AND nonstop. Nonstop flights are listed first by default.

If there are no available nonstop flights priced at 15k, that won’t work for our purposes either, because you’ll have to pay additional Avios for that extra flight segment, which wouldn’t be convenient or good value. There are enough nonstop flights to Hawaii that you should be able to find one – again, assuming you have flexible travel dates.

You may have to do several searches to find what you’re looking for. This is where it helps to keep good notes to keep track of what’s available, and what’s not.

After searching a few dates, I found a flight I like:

• Departure: May 4, 2020
• Flight 801
• Departing: 8:20am from Seattle (SEA)
• Arriving: 11:40am in Maui (OGG)

The other flights priced at 15k arrived at 9:15pm local time in Maui which is an awkward time to arrive. With our chosen flight, we’ll arrive at the hotel right at check-in time and have the whole day to explore the beautiful island!

For our return flight on May 13, 2020, we have 3 options for departure: 11:20am, 1:40pm, or 10:15pm which is an overnight flight. I’ll choose the 11:20am flight. That puts us in Seattle at 8:05pm local time, and allows us to miss rush hour traffic for the drive home.

Award availability can come and go quickly, so if you see flights that make sense for you, I urge you to book your flights before someone else does. Flights at popular times can book up a year in advance. And if you’re thinking about spending Christmas in Hawaii this year on points, you’re probably too late to book it, so start planning way in advance – like Christmas the following year. If you didn’t find what you were looking for, it’s always worth checking back another time in case some more award space becomes available.

Great! Now that we’ve confirmed our flight details, make sure to write them down, as we’ll need them for the next step. You’ll need the:

• Departure airport
• Arrival airport
• Departing and return dates
• Flight times
• Flight numbers

Now that you’ve found award availability, the hard part is done! You can relax and start to get excited about your upcoming trip, because the last step is easy. This is all going to come together really quickly now. Let’s book this thing and make it official.

Step 6: Phone and BOOK Your Flights!

Now that you’ve confirmed award availability on Alaska Airlines website, you’ll need to phone British Airways Executive Club with your flight information. (Yep, it’s 2020 and we’re still using the phone to book our flights…)

Even though you’ll be flying Alaska Airlines, you’ll be using British Airways Avios to book your flight. The British Airways Executive Club account you created back in step 2 is going to come in handy now. By now, you should have the required Avios points in your account, and confirmed award availability. If you’ve done all that, then booking by phone is easy.

Just make sure you have everything you need ahead of time:

1. Your flight information from Google Flights
   1. Departing airport
   2. Arriving airport
   3. Travel dates
   4. Airline(s)
2. Your credit Card (preferably your American Express Platinum Card to earn 3x travel reward points, or your best travel rewards card) to pay for the associated taxes, fees and carrier charges, which should be extremely reasonable, at approximately $30 CAD total for two round trip flights.

Call the British Airways Executive Club Phone Number:

Canada: 1-800-452-1201

Hours of Operation: 7:30am to 8pm daily, eastern time

Press 1 then 2 to book

Booking over the phone is straightforward, just tell the booking agent where you’re going from and to, as well as your departure date and they will find the flights in their system based on the information you’ve given them.

If you’ve pieced together your travel itinerary correctly, and there is award availability (the phone rep can confirm this), then you’ll be asked to provide your credit card (your best travel rewards Card) to charge the associated taxes and fees.

Remember to try and use a travel rewards Card with a travel spending bonus, such as the Amex Platinum where you’ll earn 3x the points on travel.

If you’re facing a long hold time, just hang up and phone back. I’ve found hold times to be hit or miss.

After the rep has confirmed everything with you, your trip is BOOKED! You’ll receive an email shortly after with your travel itinerary.

If you make a mistake, or decide you no longer want this plane ticket, you’ll have up to 24 hours to cancel your booking. Just call British Airways Executive Club and speak to a representative to have them cancel your booking and process a refund for the related charges.

Congratulations! That’s it – you’ve booked your round trip flights to Hawaii using British Airways Avios and can start looking forward to your trip!

Cost Breakdown: How Much Did We Save?

People often get frustrated with using points because of the restrictions, and endless roadblocks to actually book a trip. So I hope this step-by-step guide has helped you be able to book your dream Hawaii trip for a lot less than retail, and made the process worthwhile – especially with your newfound airport lounge access.

The American Express Platinum Card is the travel hacking tool you need to make your Hawaii trip possible, and this guide aims to be the user-manual for how to actually use your travel reward points.

Math Time

According to Google Flights, the average price for two round trip economy flights to Hawaii departing from Seattle is $1,256.

We value the American Express welcome bonus points at 1 cent per point.

The Annual fee is $699 – the $200 travel credit = $499 for 50,000 points.

The other 2,000 points we need we’ll get by meeting the minimum spend requirement for a total of 52,000 points.

So with that in mind, let’s take a look at our savings for two economy round-trip flights from the west coast to Hawaii using Alaska Airlines. First, is our savings when using our welcome bonus points.

Retail prices fluctuate for flights all the time, so we’ve broken down the savings based on high, medium and low retail prices below:

Savings with the American Express Platinum Card Canada

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And this is how much we’ll save when we wait to transfer our American Express points to British Airways during the yearly 30% transfer bonus promotion for Canadians:

Savings with the American Express Platinum Card Canada + British Airways Transfer Bonus Promotion

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Based on our valuation, and depending on the retail price of your flight, you can save anywhere between $267 and $1,300+ using your American Express Platinum Card! And don’t forget, not only will you be saving on the retail portion of your flight, you and up to two guests will also enjoy airport lounge access together.

I’m confident that once you book your next Hawaii trip this way, it will change the way you travel going forward. There is no need to pay full retail for flights ever again!

Bonus: Tips for Your Trip

Get Complimentary Food and Alcohol with Airport Lounge Access

Before your flight to Hawaii, you’ll enjoy complimentary access to American Express Centurion and Priority Pass airport lounges thanks to your American Express Platinum Card Canada upon your departure. That means plenty of complimentary food and drinks (alcoholic and non-alcoholic) for you and up to two travel guests.

These lounges are available at any of the airports Alaska Airlines flies direct to Hawaii from. If you’re like me, you can even lounge hop, as there are several airport lounges within each airport that you’ll have access to. However, unfortunately, there are no available airport lounges waiting for you on the Hawaii side.

• Learn more about American Express Centurion Lounges.
• See what’s included with your complimentary Priority Pass Prestige membership when you become an American Express Platinum Cardmember and gain access to 1,300+ airport lounges worldwide (a $429 USD/year value).
• Find a lounge, get directions, reviews, and hours of operation, and download the LoungeBuddy app. And if you’re looking to purchase a one-time lounge pass, use code nk3kU58inj at checkout and we’ll both receive a $10 LoungeBuddy credit!

Earn 100 Bonus Alaska Miles With Prepaid Parking

You can earn 100 bonus Alaska Miles when you prepay for parking at SeaTacPark, located close to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Make your reservation now. Don’t forget to add your Alaska Mileage Plan number to your reservation.

Score The Exit Row at No Extra Cost

Unlike other airlines (*cough* WestJet *cough*), Alaska Airlines doesn’t charge additional fees to sit in the roomier exit row or change your preferred seat, which is a great perk.

I’ve been lucky enough to score the exit row the last 4 times in a row flying Alaska, which certainly makes the 5.5 hour ride to Hawaii a lot more comfortable.

Here are my tips for success:

1. Make sure you’ve downloaded the Alaska Airlines app right after you’ve booked your flight so you don’t forget later. Get logged in and add your trip details right away.
2. The system will have automatically assigned you a seat, but you can change that at no extra cost. The exit row likely won’t be available at this point, but that’s ok, just choose the next best seat for now.
3. Don’t make the mistake of choosing the row directly ahead of or behind the exit rows. The extra room in the exit row comes from those rows, making them some of the least desirable seats on the plane. I prefer a window seat, but you choose what you like.
4. Set an alarm for about 26 hours before your flight. You won’t actually be able to check into your flight until 24 hours before hand, but I’ve noticed the exit rows become available a couple hours before check-in is available.
5. If you’re lucky like I’ve been, you’ll see the exit row become available and you can change your seat selection to sit there instead and enjoy the extra leg room!

Pay for your Trip with Referrals

Now that you’re an expert on how to use British Avios for Alaska Airlines flights to Hawaii, why not refer some friends or family to the Amex Platinum Card and earn yourself some referral points?

When you become a Platinum Cardmember, you’ll earn 15,000 American Express points for each approved referral up to a maximum of 225,000 points per year (15 referrals). That is a very generous referral program that will get you travelling smarter, so next time someone asks about your metal Platinum Card, tell them how it helped get you to Hawaii! Learn more about the American Express referral program.

Apply Now!

That about wraps it up for how to get to Hawaii using your American Express points, so if you haven’t done so already, make sure to apply for the American Express Platinum Card Canada and start planning your dream Hawaii trip!

If you found this guide helpful, or have a question about how to book your trip, leave a comment below.

Mahalo, Britt