If you want to know the tips and tricks on taking a vacation to Hawaii on a budget, read on to find out how I flew my family for only $11.20 for each round-trip ticket!

Planning a trip to Hawaii on a budget is probably one of the easiest ways to vacation on a tropical beach. We took a memorable family vacation to the Big Island, Hawaii, to celebrate my parents’ 60th and 65th birthdays, and it turned out to be one of the best trips we’ve taken.

We loved Hawaii so much that we decided to hop on a plane, take a second trip to Maui from the Big Island, and stay another week!

My brothers and I split our parents’ airfare costs as their birthday presents. We also covered all of the week’s accommodations, which we got for free. Yes, you read that right—we didn’t pay any dollars for our hotel stays.

The only travel costs we forked over were the airfare fees. For a family of three, we spent a total of $33.60 round-trip. That is $11.20 per ticket!

Our two-bedroom ocean-view suite at Mauna Lani Point on the Big Island was worth over $7,000 for the week, and we stayed there for free. When we visited Maui, we stayed at the Wailea Beach Resort, which costs over $1,000 per night. We stayed at a luxury hotel by paying only the hotel fees, which totaled less than $200 for the entire week.

Planning a vacation to Hawaii on a budget for your parents and trying to pay for your own family can be stressful and costly, but I’ll show you how I planned a week’s vacation in Hawaii on a budget.

This post proves how easy it is to plan a family vacation to Hawaii on a budget!

This post may contain affiliate links, which means I’ll receive a small commission if you purchase through my link, at no extra cost to you. Please read the full disclosure here.

How To Travel To Hawaii For Cheap

With the proper planning, I 100% believe a trip to Hawaii (or anywhere else, for that matter) can be cheap! We’re doing it! I know multiple people who have taken trips to Hawaii on a budget or for free, and it’s all thanks to travel hacking!

One thing about me is that I love to travel in luxury for less! It’s one of my favorite hobbies! If you keep reading, I’ll tell you exactly how we did it!

Cheapest Way To Go To Hawaii

When we flew to Hawaii, we used Southwest Airlines. If you don’t mind picking random seats at boarding, then Southwest Airlines is your girl.

For us, flying Southwest has always been the cheapest option. At the time, they had great deals on flights, with a one-way ticket to Hawaii costing around $199.

You can never miss a discount if you sign up for their emails and get discounts sent to your inbox. One tip for flying to Hawaii on a budget is to sign up for Southwest Airlines’ email list and take advantage of their sales to purchase low-cost airfare.

Another tip is to sign up for airline flight monitoring sites, such as Hopper via a phone app or Scott’s Cheap Flights, for a paid monitoring service. There are numerous free and paid versions of websites that can monitor airline prices and alert you when they find the cheapest ones. Another favorite of travelers is Skyscanner, which is worth checking out.

As you can see in the screenshot above, our trip to Hawaii would have cost $ 1,641 for three round-trip tickets from Arizona, which is $547 per person. Checking the same flight on Hawaiian Airlines for three round-trip tickets totaled around $2700! If you don’t mind flying with Southwest Airlines, you can save $ 1,000 off your airfare to Hawaii.

Why We Love Southwest Airlines

• The flights have affordable fares.
• Each passenger is entitled to two free checked bags.
• There are no fees to change or cancel flights (for non-refundable tickets or at least 10 minutes before boarding.
• Anytime Fares are refundable at least ten minutes before departure.
• Easy check-in on your phone app or with EarlyBird Check-In; you get automatic 36-hour advance check-in. It does it for you!

These are just a few of our favorite things about Southwest Airlines. However, Southwest Airlines’ main prize is its Companion Pass, which is not well-known to many people. The Companion Pass is the holy grail of buy-one-get-one-free flights for up to two years!

There is a clever strategy to getting the Companion Pass for nearly two years of BOGO travel. Once you receive the Companion Pass, you can choose one person to fly with you for free (although you still have to pay taxes and fees, totaling approximately $12).

Cheap Hawaii Tickets

So, did we pay $1641 for tickets to Hawaii? Heck no!

For three round-trip tickets to Hawaii, we paid only $33.60 each. I call that a huge win! That is 97% savings!

Each ticket costs $11.20 per person, which is due to Southwest Airlines’ requirement for passengers to pay a one-way flight fee of $5.60 per person. Our tickets were free, and we only had to pay airline fees.

Taking it a step further, if you have a credit card that erases travel expenses or reimburses you for fees of a specific airline, then you can get those airline fees waived, making the airplane tickets completely free and saving you more money.

Cheapest Islands In Hawaii

Six major islands in Hawaii are the main tourist destinations: Maui, O’ahu, Lanai, Kauai, Molokai, and the Big Island. Southwest Airlines only flies to four of these six islands, each with unique characteristics.

Knowing which island is the most expensive and which is the cheapest to fly to can help you plan a budget-friendly family vacation. When researching flights and deciding which island to visit, Maui proved to be the most expensive from our home airport.

Least Expensive Hawaiian Island

The least expensive Hawaiian island is a toss between the Big Island and Oahu. These two are the most affordable of the Hawaiian islands to visit.

After researching both islands, we decided to go to the Big Island instead. Combining the prices of the hotels, airplane fares, food, and activities, the Big Island made sense for us to get a quality, affordable luxury vacation.

Most Affordable Hawaiian Island

Big Island also had the cheapest deals from Southwest Airlines during their promo days. What also drew me to the Big Island was that it is home to two of the most active volcanoes in the world. One of these volcanoes is the tallest mountain on Earth, at roughly 32,969 feet tall – and you can drive up the volcano to see it above the clouds!

Kailua-Kona on the Big Island also offers the amazing experience of the Manta Ray Night Snorkel, where you get on a catamaran at night and go snorkeling with Manta Rays. Talk about a bucket list adventure!

Airports On The Big Island Of Hawaii Map

Big Island has two major international airports – Kona and Hilo. Check out the map below to see where they are located.

How To Travel Hawaii On A Budget

It took me about a year to plan how I would get this Hawaiian vacation for free. My goal was to take my small family of 3 to Hawaii for a fraction of the cost by getting my flight or hotel for free. And I did it all while taking advantage of my regular monthly spending.

Yes, my monthly grocery haul covered the cost of my Hawaiian trip!

I discovered this strategy in 2020 while preparing to furnish my newly built home. I’m always looking to maximize my spending potential, and I stumbled into the wonderful world of points and miles. Since learning about this amazing life hack, I’ve taken my family on free or low-cost trips to various destinations.

Thousands of people have been doing this for decades. They have been so successful that I wanted to give it a try. I started planning, researching, and learning about this amazing life hack, and now I want to share this mom hack with you. And honestly, if I could do it, and it works out with your finances, you can do it!

Everyday Spending

Instead of using hard cash to travel to Hawaii, I paid for my vacation using points and miles! I didn’t do anything special with my spending other than my regular monthly expenses, such as paying for groceries and travel hacking using credit card bonuses.

I spend my money on usual items. Categories include monthly bills that I can temporarily switch to a credit card, groceries, eating out at restaurants, buying school supplies for my daughter, purchasing essential household items, paying off large bills, and more.

I pay for everything on a credit card instead of a debit card. Just doing this earns me enough points to take multiple free vacations. Points are worth significantly more than cash back on credit cards.

My Hawaii Vacation Strategy

Step-by-step on how I earned a 2-week stay in Hawaii on a budget:

1. Get your finances and credit score right
2. Budget your income
   • Before applying for a credit card reward, check whether you can meet the card’s minimum spending requirement.
   • For example, a card may require you to spend $3000 over three months to receive 80,000 reward points. That is only $1000 per month, which is doable for most people with a family.
   • How much are your monthly groceries? How much is gas? If you already spend at least $ 1,000 per month on groceries, food, gas, house essentials, etc., then it will be easy to meet that minimum spending by simply doing your everyday shopping.
3. Research the credit cards you need to earn the points.
   • Once you have determined which card you will use, apply for it and get approved.
4. Once you receive your card in the mail and activate it, spend all your everyday money on that credit card to earn points.
   • Sometimes, cards give you a bonus multiplier if you use them on specific categories. Instead of earning 1x per dollar spent, you can earn 3x if the category is groceries.
5. Once you hit the minimum spending, you earn reward points, which you can use for free or low-cost travel!

Buying Groceries Helped Me Get To Hawaii

So when I say buying groceries and feeding my family helped me fly to Hawaii for nearly free, I’m being truthful because my regular spending helped me earn points for free vacations.

I cannot stress the last one enough. Pay off those dang credit cards each month! If that is not you or you don’t meet the criteria above, then this post will not benefit you.

In fact, it will probably put you more into debt.

Get your finances and credit in proper order, and then return to this post to learn how to travel hack your way to free vacations.

Hawaii On The Cheap

There are numerous ways to get a free vacation to Hawaii. I only share what worked for my family and me, my experience, and how I did it. Feel free to use my strategy or research another way.

When you first get into this game of points and miles, they say to stick to one travel rewards company and then venture off to all the other ones as you advance. It is highly recommended that you stick with Chase Ultimate Rewards using the Chase Sapphire Family first. The Sapphire cards are the key to earning reward points with Chase.

Opening two Sapphire cards and meeting their minimum spending requirements netted us 140,000 reward points! That‘s four round-trip flights to Hawaii for less than $50!

Fly to Big Island Hawaii with BOGO Flights

I covered up the personal details for you know, privacy reasons, but here is our exact flight when we flew to Big Island, Hawaii. As you can see, one ticket was about 29,597 points and $11.20 round-trip.

While waiting to go on vacation, my partner earned the Southwest Companion Pass, which, as I mentioned earlier in this post, allows you to get “buy one, get one free” flights for one or two years.

We received points back because I’m flying for free due to his Companion Pass. They returned 29,597 points to our account that we can use for future travel.

So, how much did it exactly cost us for three plane tickets to fly to the Big Island, Hawaii? Our three tickets to Hawaii ended up at only 59,194 points and less than $35 round-trip.

Exact Cards I Used to Fly to Big Island Hawaii

That’s it! The Southwest card is optional, but we got it because it offered a promotion for the Companion Pass. This offer is no longer available, but I would still consider it if you plan to fly more than four people to Hawaii: the more points you earn, the more free flights you can get.

Now is a great time to get the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card, as they have just increased their bonus points to 100,000.* Typically, they are around 50,000 to 60,000, so 100k is the highest I’ve seen!

These cards offer great benefits, but do come with annual fees. Click on the links above to see the criteria for each card.

*Note: This offer is valid as of April 2025.

Southwest Companion Pass

Take your vacation to Hawaii on a budget to the next level with the Southwest Companion Pass. Like I mentioned above, we used our Southwest Companion Pass to get a free ticket (paid only taxes and fees) to Hawaii.

To get even more value, there is a secret strategy that most travel hackers use to maximize their travel for two years. It wasn’t immediately clear to me when I first learned about it, but I’ve compiled all the information I know about the Southwest Companion Pass in this basic guide, which you can download for free!

In this free guide, the topics I’ve included to talk about are:

• What the Southwest Companion Pass is
• The ins and outs of the pass
• How to maximize its value and earn it for 2 years’ worth of BOGO free travel
• The strategy that most travel hackers use
• Exactly how to earn the Companion pass with exact dates
• and more tips and tricks!

As another tip, Southwest occasionally releases additional ways to earn the Companion Pass throughout the year. Be on the lookout for those deals by checking their website or signing up for their rewards program.

However, I will warn you that most of the time, these random deals that Southwest releases throughout the year of the Companion Pass have time limitations on how long you can use them. Sometimes, they only offer it for 6 months to a year (if you’re lucky), so be sure to read the terms and conditions.

The strategy I show you in my guide allows you to keep the pass for nearly 2 years. I just wanted to mention the random deals that Southwest offers so that you know you have options and there are other ways to obtain the pass.

Hawaii On A Budget

I used to wonder how people could travel to such amazing places so frequently. The great news is that with the proper strategy and planning, it is so attainable! Travel hacking became a fun hobby for me because I love traveling in luxury for less!

You can play the game, too, as long as you are responsible with your finances, pay off your credit cards in full so you don’t go back into debt, and leverage your everyday habits.

Ultimately, by immersing myself in this hobby, I’ve learned that experiencing the beauty of the world doesn’t have to come with a hefty price tag. With a bit of creativity and planning, it’s entirely possible to explore breathtaking places without breaking the bank.

Take time for vacations, whether it’s a weekend road trip or a low-cost adventure abroad, as it offers more than just an escape; it provides a chance to recharge, gain perspective, and connect with what truly matters. The memories made, the cultures discovered, and the peace found in nature’s wonders are priceless rewards that far outweigh the cost. Aloha!

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