When this program first started a few years ago, we were excited to see a new opportunity to earn Hawaiian Miles. If you’re Hawaii-centric, like we are, these come in very handy for things like:
- Inter-Island and Mainland flights
- Mileage upgrades to Extra Comfort premium economy and business/first class
We aren’t sure what happened to the program, but today we received an email invitation to join it once again. Hawaiian Airlines partnered with a company called SSI and created a program, Opinions Take Flight, in which members earn award miles by taking part in surveys.
350 Hawaiian Miles in exchange for your first survey?
The press release indicated that the initial reward for signing up was 350 Hawaiian Miles. Not bad – that’s worth $3.50 in an honest evaluation of what miles are worth nowadays – one cent each.
Although we had signed up for the program when it launched five years ago, we needed to start the process again today. The signup itself was simple and straightforward this time, whereas last time, it included a series of many questions including some quite personal. As we later learned, this initial survey was used in part to determine how many miles we’d receive for future surveys.
Today’s first survey took a total of about 5 minutes, which is equivalent to $14/hour. Fair enough, we weren’t expecting to get rich on this. Questions started with what kind of insurance policies we had, what kind of bank accounts, and about home ownership.
Did we get our 350 miles? Other gotchas and what you told us.
To be honest, we aren’t sure after completing the questions the screen below appeared, without ever even acknowledging we had completed the survey. When we checked our account profile there was no history of having completed the 350 mile survey at all. For sure, it wasn’t worth it proceeding after that, for either the 30 miles or the 5 miles in the event we didn’t qualify. Spending nearly a half hour for 30 miles is equivalent to earning sixty cents per hour.
Read Chuck shared his thoughts with us: “I too tried “Opinions Take Flight” and had similar experiences, and frankly, worse. Surveys often took far longer than predicted, and very very often I was booted out of the survey as it was “not for me.” Okay, but in the run-up to each survey, I am always asked a series of questions about features of my assets, interests, jobs, health, medical conditions, etc., which lead me to suspect that I am being profiled to accumulate personal information (medical history, etc., etc.) in far more detail than is being disclosed… 5+ hours all told, in order to collect far fewer than 300 points. That’s like 60 cents an hour, isn’t it? This has been an unsatisfactory experience, and I wouldn’t recommend it to others.”
Gio told us: “The 350 miles was about all that was worth it for me, I noticed that once you hit the 350 miles that it lowers the miles down to 60 or 50 miles per survey. The only problem with that for me was that the surveys increased in time it took. The 350 mile survey was a 15min survey and then the 60mile survey said that it would take 30mins. I think it is worth it to get the 350 miles however I probably wont be taking any more. Interesting reading about your experience with it. Thanks for the share!”
In the end, we aren’t likely to keep going with this. What about you?
Note that Award miles will be directly deposited into your Hawaiian Miles account and can then be redeemed for air travel, car rentals, hotel stays, and shopping. We’ll see if the 350 promised miles ever show up and will let you know.
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Sue H. says
No way would I bother with a survey. It’s not worth my time. They never are.
Richard C says
Aloha BOH Bro’s
If Hawaiian gave points for posting on BOH I’d be flying first class to Kona instead of cattle car SW. 😂
Beat of Hawaii says
Hi Richard.
With nearly 300 comments to date, we’re following you.
Aloha.
Jill T says
Cannot open survey!
Marissa R says
I will fly on Hawaiian airlines to Honolulu Oahu and again to Kahului Maui someday🥰🤙❤🌺🌴
MJ says
Hi Jeff and Rob,
Thanks for bringing this up. As someone who has worked with data mining people I would never answer an unsolicited survey again. If you just provided a service for me then fine, but these hooks are mostly scams if you value your time. I mark them as spam and reply STOP to unsolicited texts.
Aloha
Beat of Hawaii says
Hi MJ.
Thanks. We did not like the questions asked.
Aloha.
Nancy S says
Most of the time you take time to complete the survey and then after you have finished they tell you that you did not qualify for the points. I no longer take their surveys.
Robert B. says
I justgot another survey request, but found I couldn’ t log in to even respond. The, concerned why my log doesn t work, I tried to update my password. as requested. Using the update code, I still can’t log in. Don’ t know my freq. miles, make any usage requests,etc. Frankly I’ve wasted far too much time on Hawaiian or their d___ survey thanit’s worth. I do have an upcoming mainland flight booked. Used many in past. They need some website IT workL
cristina K says
You gotta have your I smell a hustle detector out at all times these days. That is quite a hustle.
Beat of Hawaii says
Hi Christina.
Hustle detector. Thanks, that’s a new term for us.
Aloha.
kiawe says
I tried these surveys as well when they first came out. After the initial survey, I often reached the ‘We have enough responses, thanks!’ or ‘Sorry, you don’t qualify’ that gave me no miles. Considering how niele some of the questions were, the reward wasn’t worth it. The only reason I might participate would be to keep my Hawaiian Miles active if I hadn’t added any to my account recently. Since I flew to the mainland on HA only a couple of months ago, no thanks.
Jill T says
Love to do survey for miles! I think that this is a great way to earn the much needed miles for some of us that do not have other means to earn like from credit cards etc.
BARBARA M says
Do let us know! There are so much junk out there these days – will be curious.
DebraM says
Aloha Rob and Jeff. So interesting that you would post about this as I saw the email this morning and was going to do it after work. Now I don’t have to waste my time. Thanks for the heads up! I would rather have a cold beer with some macadamia nuts and watch TV or read my book.
Beat of Hawaii says
Hi Debra.
Thanks Maybe someone else will have a better experience than we did. If so, we’d like to hear about it.
Aloha.
lynn c says
cant open start survey
Erin M says
Once I have a flight coming up I start taking the surveys but overall I don’t think it’s really worth your time. The payout is too low and as you said, some of the surveys are incredibly long. I also love when you complete one but for some reason get an error and are not credited.
PAMM says
Hi guys!
I too did the same thing and found that the questions were about my professional life, income, expenses and insurance.
Even though I completely filled out the survey it let me know that it didn’t go through. Asked me to do another survey.
Now after completing two surveys, nothing.
I’m not doing anything else.
Mahalo for being there and confirming that I’m not in need of a mental health provider..at least not for doing that bunch of nonsense. Lol
Aloha and blessings always
Beat of Hawaii says
Hi Pam.
Thank you. We appreciate your confirming we weren’t the only ones to have a less than stellar experience.
Aloha.
Mas M says
I tried it and filled out a few surveys only to end up with a response that they had enough responses each time, and mine were not needed so I got no points. It was a waste of my time and I basically gave up free information about myself to whoever was marketing the survey. They fot something, and I got nothing every time. Never again.
Susan says
I liked the surveys. And I always like the opportunity to earn more miles. We’ve been going to KAUAI every year from Sacramento since 1998 and ALWAYS fly Hawaiian. Thank you for your OUTSTANDING service. We appreciate you. Aloha. Susan
LANI says
My time is worth more than the current compensation for completing these surveys. I’m at Gold level with Hawaiian Miles and collect miles from traveling and the Hawaiian Miles credit card. I love the credit card, since I just paid our property taxes using the credit card.
John says
I’m with Lani….any large bill I can put on my Hawaiian Miles card and then paying it off before any interest is accrued is the way to go!