You are off to Hawaii after all (so in theory you should be pretty stoked) and the airlines know this. So first class fares are exorbitant. For our trip to Maui in October, we found relatively cheap coach fares (~$800 each) with a stop in San Francisco on the way there and the direct flight home.
Andaz Maui |
Upgrading coach tickets to first class using miles used to be a decent use of miles. But now it is so easy to earn a massive amount of miles that it's far better "value" wise to book an award ticket in a premium cabin. Obviously this reduces the cash outlay as well.
One exception I've found is Hawaii.
- Our cash fare cost $800 per ticket
- Had we purchased a first class fare for the outbound (coach home) the fare would have been ~$1,800
- Basically United is selling the first class upgrade for ~$1,000
Cash upgrade |
Since the upgrade doesn't mean a ton to me, I figured I'd check to see if there was availability using miles. It is 8+ hours in the air so I'm willing to "pay something" for an increase in comfort.
Mileage upgrade |
There were a couple of seats available (I took the screenshot after I upgraded one of us) for 25,000 miles each way. We are sitting on a boatload of United miles so this was a pretty easy decision. The inbound redeye is pretty uncomfortable either way so we'll both take our chances on the back of the bus.
While I wouldn't pay $1,000 cash each for the upgrade, the fact that 25,000 miles is "buying" $1,000 in cash value is pretty good ($.04/mile). I would imagine this is the way United sells the majority of it's upgrades prior to departure. Hawaii is also a good use of a United Regional Premier Upgrade (RPU) if you are sitting on any of those.