One of my favorite sweet spots in Points Banking is using Korean Air to fly round trip economy to Hawaii from the Continental US for only 25,000 points and $11 in taxes. In my opinion, its the most attainable and best deal there is.
The great news is there is a credit card sign up bonus that offers 50,000 points. Enough for two round trips to Hawaii and only $22 in taxes.
Which card gets you those two round trips? The Chase Sapphire Preferred card.
The Sapphire Preferred is one of the best personal credit cards in the market. It offers:
- 50,000 bonus Ultimate Rewards after spending $4,000 in the first three months
- 5,000 bonus Ultimate Rewards for adding an authorized user
- 2 Ultimate Rewards per dollar on travel and dining purchases
- 1 Ultimate Reward per dollar on all other purchases
- no annual fee the first year and $95 thereafter
For This Card And Other Great Travel Credit Card Offers, Go To My Credit Card Page
Chase Ultimate Rewards Points are most valuable when transferred to partner Airlines, such as Korean Air.
Please don’t waste your hard earned Chase Ultimate Reward Points for gift cards or booking through the Chase Travel Portal. Ultimately, it’s your choice but those points are much more valuable when used properly. As you will see with this sweet spot example, Chase Ultimate Rewards Points have more value with 11 Airlines and hotel transfer partners.
Some other ways to get transferable Chase Ultimate Rewards Points is from the Chase Sapphire Reserve and Chase Ink Preferred cards. Both offer a decent sign up bonus, but also come with annual fees upfront. For beginners, the Chase Sapphire Preferred is the way to go.
Another way to get get Korean Air Miles is to transfer from Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG). Through the SPG personal and business credit cards, points transfer to Korean Air at a ratio of 1:1 with a 25% bonus when transferred at intervals of 20,000 points.
Now that we figured out how to get the points, let’s see how we can book the flights.
How to book flights to Hawaii with Korean air
Here are step by step instructions of how to book flights to Hawaii with Korean air.
Keep in mind for Korean Air bookings to Hawaii:
- You can only book Korean awards for yourself or immediate family members, with proof of relationships.
- Korean awards are the same price roundtrip or one way, so you have to book roundtrip (although an open jaw and stopover is allowed.) Delta awards can be booked one way (and then you can return home with another type of miles.)
Benefits to booking Korean awards to Hawaii:
- Korean awards cost fewer miles than Delta awards
- Korean awards have no change or cancellation fees if your plans change
- Korean awards of Delta flights to Hawaii do not have fuel surcharges, so both types of awards will just have identical taxes of $11 roundtrip
- Korean offers a stopover on roundtrip awards to Hawaii; Delta doesn’t
- Korean miles are easy to get
First Step: Availability
The first step is to find availability on Delta’s website.
This search engine can be found on Delta’s homepage.
You need to find space in Delta’s lowest economy award seats. Be sure to only search Delta flights, not their partner airlines.
Since I am helping a client get to Honolulu, Hawaii from New York, this serves as a great example.
In my search, I was able to find availability October 26 to November 1. For JFK to HNL, the lowest award price is 50,000 Delta miles round-trip per person.
The total here shows the round-trip cost for one passenger at 50,000 and $11.20.
Now that we know what flights have availability, we can go to Korean Air and search for these exact same flights for a cheaper price.
Second Step: Booking via Korean Air
On the Korean Air website you’ll have to login to your Korean Air loyalty account. Its free to create one and takes 2 minutes. Click here to create your free korrean Air account. Once you’re logged in, click the redeem miles option. Then select the SkyTeam Award link.
Be sure to click the SkyTeam Award when searching. The search won’t work if you don’t click the SkyTeam Award Link.
Next, select the same airports and dates that you previously searched on Delta’s website. For this example, I used JFK to HNL for October 26 to November 1.
You may also notice at the bottom it says you can select up to 9 passengers. One of the biggest drawbacks of Korean Air is that you can only book for approved family members. For example, to add my wife to our family plan, I would have to send Korean Air a copy of our marriage license.
Note: There is a work-around if you wanted to go with a friend or partner that isn’t an immediate family member. You can each book a separate ticket and then call Delta after to have your seats moved next to each other.
.
As you see, the total for one passenger is 25,000 Miles and $11.20 for a round trip from New York to Hawaii.
Now that you see the flights you want, click continue and fill out your information to make the booking complete. Simple.
For those who want a little more luxury, there is the option of using 45,000 Korean air miles per person to book a business class round trip to Hawaii. This is still a great deal compared to 80,000 miles per person round trip with Delta. With the Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card, the 50,000 points sign up bonus would give you a business class round trip to Hawaii for $11 in taxes. Still an amazing deal.
When you have the Chase Ultimate Rewards Points in your account, transfer them over to Korean Air for free at a 1:1 ratio. This can easily be done online in your chase account.
Same Plane Different Price
You may be wondering, how is the same exact flight a different price? Well, for whatever reason, Korrean Air decided to offer a lower points price (half the points price) than Delta. This is a perfect example of why its important to know how to use your miles and points to get the maximum value. Sweet spot redemptions like these are great opportunities to maximize your miles.
If this flight were to be paid with cash, it would cost $908 per person round trip. By getting the Chase Sapphire Preferred card and using this sweet spot redemption, you are saving ~$1800 for two people.
Save big with Points Banking and make sure you get the most value out of your hard earned miles and points.
Not sure if you are using the right points for the right flight, just ask:
Get a Free Credit Card Consultation Today Click Here
Bottom Line
As you see, all it takes is the Chase Sapphire Preferred card sign up bonus (and/or other Chase cards) of 50,000 chase Ultimate Rewards Points to get two economy round trips to Hawaii. For a round trip in business class, it’s only 45,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards Points.
If paid full price with delta, this flight can cost upwards of $908 per person.
Be sure to go first to Delta and find availability. Searching availability on the Korean Air website is difficult since they don’t show you other dates that might have availability. Instead, the award search just errors out.
For This Card And Other Great Travel Credit Card Offers, Go To My Credit Card Page
Have you ever used this Korean Air sweet spot to Hawaii?
Seriously dude? You are blowing my mind with your magic. WTF!! I went to Hawaii 4 years ago and paid $1k fir a round-trip.
Beautiful post! Thank you!!!
Thanks for the great info! I found the award flights on the Delta website that I would like, but when I search on Korean Air’s website SLC is not listed. Does this mean that I can’t book these award flights?
great hacks!
This site is absolutely fabulous!