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Very good Hawaii business class fares are back – with huge BA tier point potential

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For the first time in a while, there are some exceptionally good business class fares on oneworld alliance airlines to Hawaii out there.

One reason for mentioning these is that they are exceptionally good for British Airways tier point earning.

The current fares are available from starting points across Europe, but not the UK. It is part of a broader oneworld alliance sale to North America.

EDIT: This fare seems to have died at around 7pm on Tuesday. If you are reading this via email on Wednesday, it’s too late – sorry. The article was posted at 11am on Tuesday.

Very good Hawaii business class fares are back

You may be able to book some of these flights on ba.com but americanairlines.co.uk (not the US site) seems to be easier.

You need to travel from September until the end of the booking window. A stay of a week seems necessary.

Here is an example from Amsterdam to Hawaii. This is a 3-stop routing which maximises tier points (click to enlarge):

You’ve got:

  • Amsterdam to Heathrow (BA) – 40 tier points
  • Heathrow to New York JFK (AA) – 140 tier points
  • New York JFK to Pheonix (AA) – 140 tier points
  • Pheonix to Honolulu (AA) – 140 tier points
  • Honolulu to San Francisco (Alaska) – 140 tier points
  • San Francisco to Dallas Fort Worth (AA) – 40 tier points
  • Dallas Fort Worth to Heathrow (AA) – 140 tier points
  • Heathrow to Amsterdam (BA) – 40 tier points

That’s a total of 820 British Airways Executive Club tier points and a big stash of Avios for £1,871 (plus the cost of getting to Amsterdam) – oh yes, and you get a business class holiday in Hawaii too!

If you can find an option to route back via Phoenix and not Dallas Fort Worth, it would trigger an extra 100 tier points taking the routing above to 920 tier points.

It may be possible to find a European starting point where the connection to Heathrow triggers 80 tier points each way and not 40, such as Athens or Helsinki. This would get you to 1,000 tier points.

Have a dig around if interested. Lots of mainland US destinations are reduced as well. Rhys and I are both away this week, hence the relative lack of detailed analysis on this one.


How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (June 2025)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

Get 5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus Card

30,000 Avios and the famous annual Companion Voucher voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express Credit Card

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £15,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold Credit Card

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

50,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital on Tap for limited companies. You earn points worth 0.8 Avios per £1 on the FREE standard card and 1 Avios per £1 on the Pro card. Capital on Tap cards also have no FX fees.

Capital on Tap Visa

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Capital on Tap Pro Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits Read our full review

There is also a British Airways American Express card for small businesses:

British Airways American Express Accelerating Business Card

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

The American Express Business Platinum Card

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The American Express Business Gold Card

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

Comments (98)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • says:

    Fantastic! What else is there to say! Great find.

  • Peter says:

    So instant silver with BA ?

    • Richie says:

      How many eligible flights do you need for BA silver?

      • Rob says:

        4 BA or IB coded cash flights and the BA flights here are AA coded so don’t count.

        (Edit: wrong, see below!)

        • AJA says:

          I think the BA flights count even if they are AA codes

          Eligible flights are defined as those flights marketed or operated by British Airways and those flights marketed and operated by Iberia.

          ‘Marketed’ means the flight will have a BA flight number (in your itinerary or on your ticket).
          ‘Operated’ means the aircraft that you travel on is a British Airways aircraft (including franchises and BACityflyer).
          ‘Marketed and operated by Iberia’ means the flight will have an IB flight number and the aircraft you travel on is an Iberia aircraft (including franchises).

          However, the rest of the flights count for TP but are ineligble towards Silver or Gold Status.

  • Thegasman says:

    Just be aware there’s some very long legs in a short haul seat (admittedly better than Euro J).

    • Chabuddy Geezy says:

      Dallas to Hawaii is lie flat.

      • Thegasman says:

        It is usually but PHX, SFO & LAX are not. DFW flights often more expensive/low availability in I class due to the flat bed premium.

  • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

    Beware that not all AA flights between the the mainland and the islands have flat beds so choose wisely!

  • says:

    So, does anyone know what I am doing wrong? I’m trying to learn how to use ITA Matrix but I never get anywhere!

    In ITA Matrix, I have as follows but this doesn’t work for me?

    Origin: AMS — Destination: HNL

    Routing Codes
    LHR JFK PHX // SFO DFW LHR AMS

    Extension Code
    ALLIANCE ONEWORLD

    Start Date: 10-October
    Duration: 7-10
    Cabin: Business Class or Higher
    Currency: GBP

    • Magic Mike says:

      I don’t have much success with letting Matrix do flexible searches like that. The universe of possible options expands so much that it can’t possibly search them all.

      Be more specific on dates. If that doesn’t work, break it up into a multi-leg itinerary, with only one stop (max) on each leg.

      You can also use +cabin 2 to force it to business class. So the extension code would read “alliance oneworld;+cabin 2”

      • Magic Mike says:

        …Matrix doesn’t seem to find the itinerary Rob pasted in the article, but I did find

        SOF-LHR-JFK-LAX-HNL // HNL-LAX-JFK-LHR-SOF for £2450 out on 12/10 and back on 22/10

        If I’m not mistaken that’s 80+140+140+140+140+140+140+80 = 1000 TPs!

        This is on Matrix doing a simple return search specifying the stops in the routing codes.

    • AJA says:

      you need to put commas between the cities eg LHR, JFK, PHX

  • Paul says:

    You need 4 eligible flights, the above example gives 2 eligible flgihts.
    “Eligible flights are defined as those flights marketed or operated by British Airways and those flights marketed and operated by Iberia.”

  • Smid says:

    Seems to be AA based, and they announced stopping champagne in long haul business class the other day, so it’s not quite as appealing as it used to be.

    Flew a couple of weeks ago, not quite sure they had real champagne on the JFK-SFO transcon at that point either. Only had one glass.

    • R_b says:

      If you’re basing your travel preferences on whether a US airline serves ‘champagne’ or not, then I don’t know what to say.

    • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

      Many traditional method sparkling wines are superior to many ‘official’ champagnes who only get that title because they are made in the Champagne region of France..

      Surely what matters is the taste not what’s on a fancy label?

    • Brian says:

      So you are basing your opinion on the lack of champagne but aren’t able to tell the difference between champagne and non-champagne in any??? Lol

  • Paul says:

    what website is this bookable on?

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