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. (Update: You can now book online, but availability is still scarce!)

 

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:

 

 

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.

 

 

Step Five

Once  I heard from an office that there was availability, I did the following:

1. I replied that I wanted the tickets and wondered how to pay for them.
2. 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.
3. I was booking a ticket for my sister, so I had to send a copy of her driver’s license too.
4. They then sent me an email and confirmed that I had the ticket!
5. 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!

 

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!