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 a travel partner! 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 start searching for those roundtrip tickets to Hawaii for 15K miles.

Step One

Sign in to your Turkish Airlines Account. Hit the drop-down menu under your name and click on “miles transactions”.

Step Two

The screen that comes up next will look like this and you will want to click on the “book now” button under Star Award Alliance Ticket.

Step Three

Put in the dates you want to fly. I think it is easier to find one-way tickets than a roundtrip. Additionally, you have more luck, if you look at United first and put in flights that show economy saver flights. I picked November 14th as my date to leave Denver.

Step Four

I found two flights that day for 7500 Turkish Miles and the first one is a nonstop flight! Score! Let me tell you, I was so excited!!

Return Flight

Okay, that was lucky – my first time doing this and I found availability. How about a return flight? Can I find that? My first attempt at coming back on the 19th came back empty. I changed to the 21st and Bingo! I found my roundtrip ticket to Hawaii for 15K from Denver!!

Problems Encountered

Business-class seats run for only 12,500 per ticket one-way but they are difficult to find. I need to spend some time figuring that out still.

You can’t just book another person at the same time you book your ticket. This is the message I got when trying to book two. It appears that they have to verify you first before you can book for others.

Not Finding Availability

You may not find availability on the Turkish Airlines site but it may be available. Say what? If you can find a saver seat on United, you should be able to book a ticket on Turkish Airlines.

You will need to call Turkish Airlines to do this and may have to call several times to find a person with the knowledge to do it. The phone number is 1-800-874-8875. Warning: I am told this process is not for the faint of heart but those with determination have prevailed.

Actual Results

I got all the way through the booking process and tried repeatedly to pay for my taxes and fees. It wouldn’t go through. I called an agent and he was not helpful and did not know how to do it. Sometimes you need to HUCA (hang up and call again) until you find one who can do it but I decided to go the email route.

Here is what I did:

1. I wrote an email to 3 different ticketing offices asking for their help. In this email, I gave them my Miles and Smiles number, the route and dates I wanted (after making sure they were United economy saver awards), and the names of who was traveling and asked them to help me book the ticket.  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.
2. I replied that I wanted the tickets and wondered how I should pay for them.
3. 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 was using 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.
4. I was booking for my sister so I had to send a copy of her driver’s license too.
5. They then sent me an email and confirmed that I had the ticket!
6. Because I have elite status, I emailed them again and asked them to link my United Mileage account so I could 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!

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.