Hawaiian Airlines is the first carrier in the USA to come up with this plan. You can now use your spare miles from Hawaiian to pay for mail-in COVID testing from Vault. And the good news is that the cost is actually reasonable.
Vault is an approved (trusted) test partner for the state of Hawaii. Many of you have found their saliva test kit to be the best option for now. Anyone with a USA address and 14,000 Hawaiian Miles can qualify for this offer.
Hawaiian says this is available only for a limited time. That got us asking how long the test kit is valid. According to Vault, the shelf life is 2 years. So if you are planning a Hawaii vacation between now and next summer even, you might want to buy now. This could be the perfect gift for Hanukkah or Christmas.
So is this a good use of miles? Yes! The best conversion rate possible is generally 1 cent per mile. And this offer hits that goal. The cash price on the Hawaiian Airlines website is $143 ($150 on the Vault website). Using 14,000 HawaiianMiles is a good deal.
Vault said that their “at-home supervised saliva COVID test provides a safe, convenient, and reliable result delivered pre-travel. We are excited to work with Hawaiian Airlines who continues to innovate on behalf of their customers making travel easier and safer for everyone.” — Vault Health CEO, Jason Feldman.
The Vault test kit is available for travelers of all ages including children. Obtaining tests for children is important, as it is required for all arrivals aged 5 and above. And other options for children have been limited. Vault mails a self-collection kit for a saliva sample. The testing is done with a Vault supervisor in a video call. It is then shipped UPS overnight to their lab. Results are said to be available within 24 hours of receipt of the sample.
“We remain dedicated to making testing for our guests as convenient and accessible as possible, so we’re incredibly pleased to extend our partnership with Vault Health to allow our HawaiianMiles members to purchase their at-home test kit with miles.” — Avi Mannis, Hawaiian Airlines.
In order to access the pay with miles test, you must first log in to your HawaiianMiles account.
Does this provide a good alternative for you?
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Can medical insurance (medicare, HMSA) be used to purchase the test from HA?
After hearing the Great News that you can test with Vault using Hawaiian Miles, when attempting to order a kit, we discovered that Vault doesn’t offer testing in our state (New Mexico). Be careful and before you get excited about using Vault under any circumstances, check!!! BTW, when I did check yesterday (11/16), the HA test had gone down to $111. AND the great Costco/AZOVA offer – there are three states that AZOVA doesn’t test in – NEVADA, MARYLAND and one I cant’ remember. So always do your homework well in advance!!!
I’m sure there are many visitors that have experience using the Vault Covid test. I’m traveling to Hawaii Saturday 11/21/20. My flight leaves at 8:40am Saturday morning. According to Vault we need to have the test to UPS by 10:00am. That doesn’t give us much time to get the test done after 8:40am Wednesday morning, then get it to UPS by 10:00am. How long does the online “Zoom” collection appointment take? Also, do the results Vault send s back have the time that we took the test on the form?
I would appreciate any guidance or sharing of your experience that you might offer.
Mahalo,
TJ
Hi TJ.
We’ve had others question the 10 am time that it needs to get to Vault. UPS overnight certainly does not require that early a pickup/dropoff for next day service (not even from Hawaii). Maybe others can help out with their experience.
Aloha.
Aloha kakou,
HA site has been updated to now include VAULT under the “Redeem Miles” with Non Flight Partners. Customer service just responded to me and added the link.
Malama pono.
Aloha,
Evie
Hi Evie.
Great. Thanks for letting us know.
Aloha.
Aloha, Good news, it would be Great if DELTA and ALASKA would follow suit!
WE Canceled our Annual December Trip for this year. Too many Covid Cases
are coming to light,plus so Many Negative comments about the Tourists.
We are hoping for next year.
Aloha! Can you please tell me if I can order the test via Hawaiian Air/Vault if I’m actually flying Southwest?! Just a curiosity inquiry! Mahalo, Liz
Hi Elizabeth.
Good question. We don’t know whether when using the HawaiianMiles payment method, there is some way for it to only work for Hawaiian flights or not. And, since the test has a two-year shelf life, it doesn’t seem likely it would be so controlled. Does anyone know?
Aloha.
Yes, you can order through Hawaiian even though you’re not flying that airline. One of my friends just did that last Friday. I was very surprised that he was able to do that, but for now you can. They may change it when they catch on though. The Vault test is $119.00 through Hawaiian. If you go directly through Vault it’s $149.00. We are flying Hawaiian and also used Vault. Our friend got the same pricing as we did.
Aloha,
TJ
Thanks for this info. I looked at the websites and there is no place to pay for the test with HA miles. Do you have a link for this?
Hi Evie.
It is a redemption offer that must be done by logging in to your Hawaiian Miles account. Thanks for pointing that out and we updated the post.
Aloha.
Aloha Kakou and thanks for the info. I had logged onto my HA account before posting this, thinking that was where I had to be to redeem miles…but, I searched and searched and couldn’t find any link? I again logged on before responding again now, and went through the entire site, and still am at odds to find a place to redeem miles for testing.
Any insight would be most helpful.
Mahalo nui loa. Malama pono. Malama ‘aina. Malama Kaua’i!
Evie
Hi Evie.
Sorry to hear that. That was the information we received from the airline. I’d suggest chatting, calling, or contacting Hawaiian via social media to inquire. If you don’t mind, please let us know. Thanks.
Aloha.
Although the information provided is viable for some travelers, please remember COVID 19 tests are free with many kinds of insurance! Don’t waste your miles or your money, use your health insurance!
Forgive me if you read this on a previous post . . . I just returned to the islands after 6 weeks on the mainland. I used Vault for my test, which I highly recommend. I took my test Thursday noon, marked it for Hawaii travel (this gets priority processing as the Vault zoom assistant explained), dropped it at UPS, received a notification they received it Friday morning (8:00am) and I had my results that afternoon at 2:45pm. So, I had results in about 24 hours, including UPS delivery to them!
Hi Marci.
Thanks for helping with that information.
Aloha.
My sister in Portland used Vault two weeks ago. Worked great. No issues.
Hawaiian should be offering free Covid test to encourage travel. This is only a good deal for Hawaiian Airlines.
I agree but hotels and car rental agencies should contribute too. I contacted Vault as I am traveling on a Wednesday and would be taking the test on Sunday. They told me find a UPS that will pick up prior to 10 AM on Monday or the results would not get back in time. This shouldn’t be so hard. Apparently all UPS drop offs are not alike.
Jan, we flew into Hawaii on Tuesday this week, and did our tests on Saturday. UPS said they would pick up air that Saturday for a Monday a.m. delivery; however, weekend pickups by UPS are notoriously unreliable (as told to us by The UPS Store agent). Ours wasn’t picked up until Monday afternoon, and delivered to Vault in Tuesday morning. While we sweated a few bullets that we may not receive the results in time, Vault came through and had our results the same day, by the time we connected through HNL and landed in Kona on the Big Island. Vault’s website has a table that shows based on the day they receive your test when they will have the results to you.
A pro tip for all using Vault with Hawaii, on your Vault envelope you have to write “STAT HAWAII” on the front and back so they know to expedite it.
Vault is not available for Oregon travelers.
My sister in Portland used Vault two weeks ago. Worked great. No issues.