Fly Inter-Island For Free

If you plan ahead, there’s a way to fly inter-island for little or nothing. I do it all the time. And this doesn’t require a HawaiianAirlines branded credit card (which isn’t a bad way either). This method is easy for you regular Hawaii visitors, locals, and those planning a trip in the future.

Here’s the trick: HawaiianMiles Shopping Site

Using it will help reduce or eliminate the cost of inter-island flights. Even if you don’t accrue enough miles for a round trip, you can still use miles one way and pay for the other direction.

Tip: Most useful when you can get a reasonable fare in one direction (use cash) but can’t in the other (use miles).

Accruing HawaiianMiles is very easy for us bargain hunters, and one trip to their website will give you all the information you need to be able to come back through their portal to make other purchases that result in free miles. The hardest part for me is remembering to go there for all possible online purchases. Writing this may help me remember.

Examples of ways to quickly accrue Hawaiian Miles (there are tons of choices nationwide)

Aqua Resorts – 5 miles per $ spent (not all locations)
Entertainment book – 17 miles per $ spent
Aston Hotels 500 miles per night
Entertainment book – 17 miles per $ spent
Macy’s or Nordstrom – 5 miles per $ spent
New York Times – 1500 miles
Prince Resorts – 250 miles per night
Safeway.com – 700 miles
Wall Street Journal – 16 miles per $ spent

The cost of flying inter-island hasn’t gotten any cheaper lately

With no real competition, pricing is controlled by the major player, Hawaiian Airlines. As a result, it can can cost you as much as $204 each way, plus tax to fly between two neighbor islands, or $138 to fly between Oahu and a neighbor island.

Here’s a recent update I wrote on how to mitigate the high cost of inter-island flights.

Plan ahead to fly free

It’s possible to fly between neighbor islands (or between Oahu and a neighbor island) for as little as 7,500 Hawaiian miles. The most I’ve paid is 8,500 miles. That can be a great value when the cost to purchase a ticket is high.

As a rule of thumb, I try to achieve a value of as much over 1 cent per mile as possible.  So, for example, if I get a $170 ticket for 8,500 miles, that’s equivalent to 2 cents per mile. Conversely, the lower the value, the less likely I am to use miles.

Note: tax is charged on mileage tickets.

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