Deep Dive: Oahu on Points

Part 2 of Hawaii on Points

Author: Matthew August 7, 2024

Over the past two weeks we've highlighted the points redemptions and points of interest in Kauai. Now for the second week of our Hawaii trip we head to Honolulu, Oahu, where most tourists go!

Watch our Oahu vlog here or below!

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Top-Level Takeaways

My hope is that this post inspires you to use your points for some aspirational trips in the future. To summarize some key takeaways/learnings

Check back on the flights you've booked: When the flight first released (11 months out) it was 165,000 points per person. I booked it anyways again, to make sure I got business class for the way back. However, after checking back every few weeks, I saw it go down to 135,000 points and immediately rebooked to recoup 60,000 points.
- Two United Polaris Business Class Seats HNL-IAD cost 270,000 points and $11.20. The cash price during time of booking was $6,302 and there are no other direct flights.
Chase points and Hyatts are still powerful: While we may not have gotten a s good of a cpp valuation in Oahu, getting a beachfront property in Waikiki is still solid.
- Hyatt Regency Waikiki Beach (5 nights) cost 115,000 points. The base price was $2,088.85 at the time of booking, estimated value is closer to $3,000 because of resort fee waiver ($49/day), free parking ($55/day - self, $75/day - valet), upgrade to ocean view ($50+/day), and free meals at the club lounge.

Hawaiian Airlines Economy Class - LIH to HNL

Booking

I paid cash for this flight simply because it was cheap enough, and the points weren't worth it. On different carries it was around 7,500 points per person while the flight was only $109. Also, my brother did the Chase Sapphire Reserve hack, and let me use his free travel credits, so in reality, it was all offset besides the $15 for the checked bag.

Ground Experience (LIH)

LIH had no lounge and so we just waited in the open-air terminal until we could go into the A/C gate. We didn't have to go through an agricultural inspection since were were flying inter-island.

Flight Experience (LIH-HNL)

It was a quick 30 minute flight with beautiful aerial views of both islands. We got juice and pretty much were touching down after just settling into our seats.

Hyatt Regency Waikiki Beach

Booking

There are three Hyatts on Waikiki Beach, Hyatt Place, Hyatt Centric, and Hyatt Regency. I picked the Hyatt Regency since it had the beachfront and club lounge. It wasn't even that much more on points anyways. I also did the Globalist perk of doing an advanced points booking, so didn't need to pay up until a few weeks before the trip. Like with the GHK, I booked too late to secure any suite upgrades with my award.

The Experience

Honestly, as former president of my college club's Hawaii Club (although I'm not from Hawaii), I'm not that big of a fan of Hawaii, and neither was Sarah. The Regency though provided a decent home base for parking, food and rest. The ocean view balcony was great since could just stare out to the blue ocean. The club lounge provided a decent breakfast, cookies during the afternoon, and decent hors d'oeuvres in the afternoon. One evening we were able to skip dinner just by eating the spring rolls, wings, and samosas provided. Other perks we received were two reusable water bottles, late checkout, and even participated in a free lei-making class.

Parking

This was kind of a headache, we had free self-parking or valet parking available to us in the building across the street. We obviously opted for self-parking, so we had to navigate 6+ floors of tight garage maneuvering to find parking. On the second night though, the garage was full and so we had to switch over to valet. Each evening it was a toss up to see if we should try to find spots or just go with valet. Overall we only did valet twice.

Dollar Car Rental

Booking

To get around the island you really need a car, so we booked through the Capital One travel portal. Why? Because my Venture X had a $300 travel credit that we fully used plus ~$50. So while it was "free" I consider it prepaid with the annual fee. That effectively makes her Venture X a $95 annual fee, which can get even lower with the 10,000 anniversary points.

The Experience

We got a Dodge and it was good enough.

United Airlines Polaris Business Class - HNL to IAD

Booking

To cap off the vacation, this was the first thing I booked. UA is the only airline that runs a direct route from Honolulu to Washington, D.C. and it only runs once a week on Saturday. I started tracking this flight in the Spring of 2023 and transferred enough points to cover the 165K points cost for when it was first released. Once it got released I booked it right away and then tracked it during the successive weeks to rebook once I saw the 135K price I saw on other flights.

The Ground Experience (HNL)

The unfortunate part about this route is that it is still domestic, so even though this flight is longer than some United European flights, we still didn't receive any lounge access. It was still nice to walk around the gardens and checkout the mediocre Priority Pass lounges.

Flight Experience (HNL-IAD)

I didn't see many videos of this flight and airplane configuration. We had a 1-1-1 business layout, so Sarah and I just sat behind/front of each other. My tray table was broken so I had to eat my meal on my laptop, giving it a middle school throwback. The stewardess was so apologetic and gave us 7,500 miles as compensation. I took that happily as I munched on my mochiko chicken.

This flight was a red-eye, leaving the afternoon in Hawaii time and landing at 6:30am the next day on East Coast time. So right after meal service as completed, I pulled out another Hawaiian amenity kit, brushed my teeth, laid my seat flat, and went to sleep with my eye mask on. I slept for most of the 9 hour flight before waking up to breakfast and landing.

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