February 28, 2022
Roundtrip Ticket to Hawaii for 15K Miles
Pam
There is one way to book a trip to Hawaii that is unbelievably cheap and also quite hard to find. Are you up to it? What if I told you that you could get a roundtrip ticket to Hawaii for 15k miles? Are you willing to put in the work to make it happen? It all takes place by booking a United flight on Turkish Airlines. They are both a part of the Star Alliance, which makes this possible. You have to book with Turkish Miles, though.
Luckily, the Capital One Venture Cards and the Citi ThankYou Cards have Turkish Airlines as travel partners! So your first step is to get the Capital One Venture X Card, the Capital One Venture Card, or the Citi Premier Card, and collect those Turkish Miles. Then you’ll be ready to search for round-trip tickets to Hawaii for 15K miles.
I have not been able to book on the Turkish site so this is how I get around that.
Step One
Look on United Airlines for a “saver award” from the airport you are departing from to Hawaii. I am looking at Denver to Maui.
Step Two
Write all the information from the “details.”
Step Three
Use that info to draft an email to Turkish ticketing offices. I usually send 3-4 letters because they won’t all reply. Here is a sample of the letter I would write:
Dear Turkish Airlines,
I’m trying to book a Star Alliance booking and am hoping that you can help me. I tried to do it online but did not have success. Here is what I am trying to do, and would like to confirm the cost in miles and fees for economy class seats.
Denver – Kahuli DEN-OGG on 2/44/2023
Segments:
1) UA 233 14FEB DEN-SFO
2) UA 1749 14FEB SFO-OGG
PASSENGERS: JANE DOE AND JOHN DOE TURKISH MILES AND SMILES NUMBER:
I really appreciate your help in this matter.
Sincerely, Jane Doe (Miles and Smiles number)
Step Four
Send email to several ticketing offices asking for their help.
I sent it to NYC, Dallas, and Houston. NYC and Houston responded that day, with NYC responding within hours. NYC sent me an email that said: Hello Pamela, Kindly be advised each passenger will be required to pay USD11.20 and 15000PTS. You may find the reservation below. The reservation had the exact flights that I had found.
Scroll down here to find the info on the US offices.
Step Five
Once I heard from an office that there was availability, I did the following:
- I replied that I wanted the tickets and wondered how to pay for them.
- They sent me 2 forms to fill out and return to them. One was a form allowing them to deduct 30,000 miles from my account. The other was information about the credit card I used to pay the taxes and fees. I also had to send them copies of my driver’s license and the credit card I was using to pay the $22.40 in taxes and fees.
- I was booking a ticket for my sister, so I had to send a copy of her driver’s license too.
- They then sent me an email and confirmed that I had the ticket!
- Because I have elite status, I emailed them again and asked them to link my United Mileage account to get my economy plus seat. They did it quickly, and now my sister and I have economy plus seats for 15,000 Turkish Miles and $11.20. I cannot overemphasize how quick and prompt the NYC ticketing office was with every request!
15K Turkish miles and $11.20 in taxes and fees got us to Maui from Denver.
Bottom Line
The very best redemption to Hawaii has got to be using Turkish Miles to fly a United flight for 15,000 miles roundtrip. A roundtrip ticket to Hawaii for 15K miles – unbelievable! It took a little work to get it done, but it will be easier the next time I do it. I heartily recommend the email route. Want a PDF to save to your computer that explains it all and a sample email I sent them? Click here to get that delivered to your email.
P.S. This year (2023), I am not having as much luck doing this – let me know if you are successful!
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Hi there! Thank you so much for your post it’s very helpful! I am currently trying to book a Hawaii trip through Turkish air but I’m having a hard time distinguishing if a united flight is a saver seat and of course Google is no help! Can you shed any insight? I’ve checked the united site and filtered by mileage rewards and found lots of options but I don’t know if they qualify as a saver seat? They don’t come up when I search on Turkish air. I am trying to fly from the East coast (VA) so most flights have a stop!
I found no availability flying from Newark to OGG no matter what dates I put in. The flight was available on United.
I found no availability from Newark to OGG no matter what day I put in.
This last year I was able to do it twice. I have tried to duplicate it for two trips coming up and have had no luck. I am wondering if it is harder to do now – we will have to ask our readers!
Could you not just transfer the points from your city thank you and book online? Or do you have to have Turkish do it?
Turkish is hard – impossible to book online. You have to work through Turkish on the phone or through email.
So did you transfer the Cap One miles to Turkish air first? Or contacted them and they took the directly out of your Cap One account? Thanks!
No, they have to be in Turkish Air. But NEVER transfer until you have found the flights – they are one-way transfers! Once in Turkish, they stay in Turkish!
[…] how do you get that good of a value? I simply followed the steps on this blog post. It did require me to call Turkish airlines to get my tickets booked, and while it took calling a […]
It looks like just a one way (not round trip) was booked for 15,000. I ask because they are telling me the same thing when I contact them
We booked roundtrip for 15K. I am having a harder time finding it this year.
Can you use points for minor tickets too?? I want to fly my and my husband and 2 children using my points. Is this possible?
It is definitely possible. We had a reader do it here; https://travelhackingmom.com/friday-family-vacation-to-oahu/