Comments on Frugal Travel Guy: Hawaiian Airlines and Virgin Atlantic

Availability on VS is currently nonexistent. Folk...

2012-01-21T19:55:08.404-05:00

Availability on VS is currently nonexistent. Folks are burning their CO miles before the CO/VS relationship goes away. IIRC, HA allows for a HA flight to connect with a partner award. Accordingly, find VS availability ex LAS/LAX and then call HA to book it. Rick has my contact info if you need help with this.

How did you get both cards? When I go to the site,...

2012-01-19T11:00:23.199-05:00

How did you get both cards? When I go to the site, one is marked for Hawaiian residents and one for nonresidents. Thanks

I also tried to fly HA intraisland using VS miles ...

2012-01-19T09:06:26.870-05:00

I also tried to fly HA intraisland using VS miles without success. Tried different dates on 3 different routes. HA site showed flights to be wide open but VS said that HA would not release seats. During last attempt, VS stated must book at least 7 days in advance.

@Andrew: I didn't see any award availability o...

2012-01-18T21:33:42.713-05:00

@Andrew: I didn't see any award availability on the VS website in the limited searching I did. I did find award availability between JFK and HKG, CPT, DEL, etc. I wouldn't expect HA to have access to award availability that VS isn't even showing.

@Anon: Actually, that may be an upgrade as I think some of them would be benefitted by being in school. HA phone agents rank right up there with Lucky's recent story of his US agent.

I think Hawaiian hires schoolgirls to work their p...

2012-01-18T20:12:08.095-05:00

I think Hawaiian hires schoolgirls to work their phones. Probably just try again.

According to their schedule you can fly direct fro...

2012-01-18T19:13:24.594-05:00

According to their schedule you can fly direct from MCO to Manchester or Glasgow. Also LAS goes to one of those. Those appear to be the only non-London directs. Perhaps that is what is meant by the rest of the world that they service? I would hope not.

Hi Dan, Thanks for your comment. I did double che...

2012-01-18T16:37:20.702-05:00

Hi Dan,

Thanks for your comment. I did double check to make sure I could purchase the ticket. It is roughly $2500 in economy on the Virgin Atlantic website from Sydney to JFK via LHR and HKG. So it is a purchase-able ticket just not purchase-able with award redemption. Seems like false advertising to me.

Andrew

@Andrew: There have been reports on FT in the HA V...

2012-01-18T16:15:30.415-05:00

@Andrew: There have been reports on FT in the HA Visa thread of success redeeming HA miles for VS flights. That said, have you checked for availability online prior to calling the HA agent? The first step in finding award seats would be to search the VS site for award availability prior to calling HA.

@Skoropi: The Hawaiian site shows more availability than VS or any other partners have access to. Try searching the CO website for a more accurate picture of availability made available to partners.

I had a similar problem. Tried to use 6000 Virgin...

2012-01-18T11:27:30.276-05:00

I had a similar problem. Tried to use 6000 Virgin miles to book a round trip Hawaii inter-island flight. No award space available in either class for 3 different dates. Hawaiian site showed plenty of availability, but VA agent said none were available for their use.

Andrew, The first thing I would find out is if yo...

2012-01-18T11:07:18.922-05:00

Andrew,

The first thing I would find out is if you can buy a ticket on VS from SYD to JFK(example). If not I doubt you can redeem the award.

This has come up recently with people using AA miles on Etihad. If they don't sell tickets between your origin and destination there is no way to book it as one award ticket. You have to book two separate award tickets.

Dan