I am fortunate to live somewhat close to the West Coast, although to get to Hawaii I have to go through Seattle, Portland, Oakland, or some other west coast airport.

Still, Alaska Airlines offers great award availability generally for 20,000 miles each way.  A quick check on awards for February 2016 for Boise to Maui shows plenty of 20,000 Saver awards.

I could purchase a round-trip ticket, Boise to Maui, in February 2016 for $648.

The question is whether or not it is a good value to use my Alaska Airline miles rather than paying revenue.  To determine the cost per mile, simply divide the round-trip cost ($648) by the number of miles it would take (40,000) then multiply by 100.  This will give you the Cents per Mile.

$648 / 40,000 * 100 = 1.62

I value Alaska Airline miles at 1.90 cents so this would be a borderline bad redemption.  However, $648 is a lot of money and if you have the AS miles to spare then perhaps it is worthwhile.

Companion Voucher

But… there is an even more cost effective way to get to Hawaii (or anywhere that Alaska Airlines flies).  If you have the Bank of America Alaska Airlines Visa credit card you will receive a Companion Voucher upon card approval and then again on your card anniversary.

If you purchase one revenue ticket then you can use your Companion Voucher to purchase a second ticket for $99 + taxes.  Both seats are in Coach.

To find the taxes on a ticket just select a flight and continue the check-out process to see the flight details and taxes.

For this round-trip ticket, the taxes total $64.60.  Adding the $99 fee for using the Companion Voucher and the total cost for the 2nd ticket would be $163.60!

• Ticket #1: $647.00
• Ticket #2: $163.60

Average cost per ticket: $405.30

It makes even less sense, now, to use your AS miles because you would only be getting 1.01 cents per mile.

You can use the Companion Voucher on any flight but it must be entirely on Alaska Airlines and it is for coach class only.  To maximize the value you would want to pick an expensive ticket.

Bottom Line

You can use your Alaska Airline miles for a round-trip ticket to Hawaii, but if you have the Companion Voucher via the Bank of America Alaska Airlines credit card then it is a much better value to pay for the tickets and save your miles for another time.