The Best Ways to Fly to Hawaii on Points

Hawaii is one of the most popular destinations for North American travellers. This is not at all surprising, given that the group of islands has plenty to offer in terms of nature and beautiful accommodations. It also offers a relatively safe and familiar environment as part of the United States.

As a popular destination, there are many different route options and award redemptions that travellers can use to get from Canada and the United States to the islands, and it’s not always clear which is the best choice.

To help you sort through these options, this guide breaks down the best-value ways for you to redeem your miles or points for flights to the Aloha State.

Air Canada and United Airlines Through Aeroplan

Air Canada operates four routes to Hawaii, mostly through its West Coast hub in Vancouver (YVR).

At present, the carrier operates the following Hawaii routes:

• Toronto (YYZ)–Honolulu (HNL)
• Vancouver (YVR)–Honolulu (HNL)
• Vancouver (YVR)–Kahului, Maui (OGG)
• Vancouver (YVR)–Kailua, Kona (KOA)

Among the four routes, only Vancouver–Honolulu is a year-round service; the rest are seasonal. However, as we’ll touch on below, Air Canada’s coverage is supplemented by United Airlines’ Hawaii flights, which are also redeemable through Aeroplan.

With Aeroplan, flights to Hawaii from Canada and the mainland US fall under the “Within North America” chart.

In theory, an Air Canada flight between Toronto and Honolulu, falling under the 2,751+ miles distance band on the chart, should cost 17,500–25,000 points in economy and 35,000–70,000 points in business class.

Meanwhile, Air Canada flights from Vancouver to Hawaii should all fall within the 1,501–2,750 miles distance band, giving them a points range cost of 12,000–17,500 points in economy and 25,000–60,000 points in business class.

In some cases, you can find flights within these ranges; however, as you search for these routes, you may see that award pricing sometimes greatly exceeds the upper limit of Air Canada’s dynamically priced points ranges, especially during popular travel seasons.

For instance, in past searches, we’ve seen Air Canada mixed-cabin awards going for as many as 170,000 points or more.

An alternative to Aeroplan’s dynamic pricing on its Air Canada flights is to look for flights with partner airlines, which come with a fixed price, as shown in the partner airline band of the…