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6 thoughts on “Free Upgrades On Flights To Hawaii | 10 Hacks That Work”

  1. I had to pay extra for preferred seating on a Hawaiian Air narrow body Air Bus from Long Beach to Kahului. I chose 15A and believed the preferred fee was because it was a window seat. When I got to my seat, not only was there NO window, but there was also a frame piece that protruded 3 inches towards my seat giving me less seat room than normal. I complained to HA and asked for a refund of the Preferred Seating fee, but haven’t heard back for 2 weeks now. I changed my seat for my return flight, to another preferred seat, and I got bumped down to Zone 4, from Zone 3 which I was in going to Maui, and my previous flight in February. Retalition?

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  2. Aloha BOH!

    A couple of tricks I do is search all outbound islands to the mainland to get a base price, then call and ask the HA staff what 25k pt upgrades are available, that will dictate what I fly. Interisland flights are cheap and plentiful, so I don’t care where I leave from.

    Also, I’ve done the cash upgrade before when it was just $250, but they raised it to $325 Mon now, but always only paid the money and got upgraded. I use expertflyer to see seat load when bidding.

    Lastly, you can find cheaper returning flights from the mainland to HNL that might have a layover on your island, without overpaying going directly…

    Mahalo Nui,

    KK

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  3. We bid on 1st class Hawaiin Airlines to Maui last year for $150 each for two of us. We were upgraded. It was awesome

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  4. Here’s a novel idea: how about getting your flight attendants little gifts *without* expecting something in return?

    By the way, the dude in that video with the Starbucks cards…. what an insufferable, smarmy creep.

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    1. I got boxes of chocolates for the flight attendants for my trip to Phoenix and I didn’t want or expect anything from them. It made my day to see how appreciative they were.

  5. We bought coach tickets on Alaska to travel to Kaua’i for our wedding. I called often starting months ahead to see if I could upgrade to first class but they kept saying it wasn’t likely to ever happen. About 3 weeks before travel I called and was told upgrades were available for about $140 each. Amazing!

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