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?
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!!!