Air Canada has announced a series of route additions and resumptions from major Canadian cities to Hawaii as of the Winter 2022 travel season.
Hawaii promises to be one of the most popular destinations among Canadians for their first leisure trips upon receiving the COVID-19 vaccine, and Air Canada’s route additions are well-timed to serve the burgeoning demand for travel to Hawaii that we can expect to see later this year.
Air Canada’s New Hawaii Routes
Reflecting a shift in post-pandemic aviation demand from business travel to leisure travel, Air Canada will not only be restoring their pre-pandemic direct routes to Hawaii as of Winter 2022, they’ll also be adding entirely new nonstop services on three new routes: Toronto–Maui, Montreal–Honolulu, and Calgary–Honolulu routes.
Toronto–Maui will be operated with the following schedule, starting December 18, 2021:
- AC531 Toronto to Maui, departing 5:10pm and arriving 10:14pm, Saturdays
- AC530 Maui to Toronto, departing 11:55pm and arriving 1:27pm the next day, Saturdays
Montreal–Honolulu will be operated with the following schedule, starting December 12, 2021:
- AC521 Montreal to Honolulu, departing 1:30pm and arriving 7:54pm, Wednesdays and Saturdays
- AC520 Honolulu to Montreal, departing 9:30pm and arriving 12:02pm the next day, Wednesdays and Saturdays
Calgary–Honolulu will be operated with the following schedule, starting December 18, 2021:
- AC529 Calgary to Honolulu, departing 2:50pm and arriving 7:20pm, Tuesdays/Thursdays/Saturdays
- AC528 Honolulu to Calgary, departing 10:45pm and arriving 8:20am the next day, Tuesdays/Thursdays/Saturdays
In addition, Air Canada will also be resuming their full pre-pandemic Hawaii services:
- Toronto to Honolulu, Mondays/Fridays/Sundays, as of December 17
- Calgary to Maui, Mondays/Wednesdays/Fridays/Sundays, as of December 17
- Vancouver to Honolulu, up to daily, as of September 14
- Vancouver to Maui, up to daily, as of September 10
- Vancouver to Kona, Thursdays/Fridays/Sundays, as of December 19
All services from Toronto and Montreal, as well as the Vancouver–Honolulu and Vancouver–Maui services in the peak winter travel season, will be served by Air Canada’s Boeing 787 Dreamliners featuring lie-flat seats in business class and a separate premium economy cabin. The remaining Hawaii routes will be served by the Boeing 737 MAX with standard recliner seats in business class.
Redeem Aeroplan Points on the New Hawaii Routes
Air Canada’s new Hawaii routes also introduce new opportunities to redeem Aeroplan points for direct flights to Hawaii. The new services have already been loaded into the schedule, so you can go ahead and start the trip planning process if you’re eyeing a Hawaii getaway in late 2021 or early 2022.
Under the dynamic pricing model, however, you’ll be faced with either a great deal or a poor deal depending on your chosen class of service.
In economy class, direct flights on the new Toronto–Maui and Montreal–Honolulu routes are available for as little as 30,800 Aeroplan points round-trip, with preferred pricing in play.
That’s below the published range for Air Canada flights on the Flight Reward Chart, and clocks in quite reliably at a decent redemption value of around 2 cents per point (cpp).
On the other hand, the premium economy and business class flights to Hawaii seem to be among the most consistently overpriced flight rewards across the entire Air Canada route network when compared against the published ranges in the Flight Reward Chart.
This very much reflects the “underlying economics” of these direct flights from the East Coast to Hawaii: Air Canada knows that affluent leisure travellers are more than willing to pay the cash premium for these direct lie-flat seats, and so not only are the Aeroplan awards priced incredibly high, but there’s also rarely any eUpgrade availability either.
This was historically the case on the Toronto–Honolulu seasonal service, and it’s no surprise that we’re observing the same on the new Toronto–Maui and Montreal–Honolulu services too.
If you’re looking for lie-flat seats from the East Coast to Hawaii at a discount, then you’ll probably have to make do with a layover in Vancouver; the shorter Dreamliner flights between Vancouver and Honolulu or Maui have plenty of eUpgrade availability.
Use the Air Canada Buddy Pass on the New Hawaii Routes
The Air Canada Buddy Pass can be redeemed on any Air Canada economy class round-trip flight within North America, including Hawaii. If you’ve earned or plan to earn a Buddy Pass, you’ll be able to redeem it on one of Air Canada’s new Hawaii services to book the second passenger for a $0 base fare.
Economy class round-trips on Toronto–Maui and Montreal–Honolulu begin in the high $600s and rise to as high as $1,200+ over peak travel season.
If you’re looking to book one of these direct flights for a Hawaii trip around the end of the year, you can incur significant savings by using a Buddy Pass to unlock four-figure savings for the second passenger.
Even the shorter direct flights from Calgary to Maui or Honolulu can reach the same sky-high cash prices, making a Buddy Pass redemption very attractive.
Indeed, as exciting as it is that we’ve been able to convert our Air Canada Buddy Passes into 30,000 Aeroplan points, flying to Hawaii is perhaps one of the best examples of how using the Buddy Pass for its originally intended purpose can be a better deal. After all, the same set of flights would cost you 70,000+ Aeroplan points if you wanted to book with points!
Conclusion
Hawaii will naturally be one of the most popular destinations for our first post-pandemic trips once Canadians are vaccinated and our travel restrictions are relaxed, as the islands’ leadership have already indicated that they plans to drop the testing and quarantine requirements for vaccinated travellers around the July 4 holiday.
In recognition of this, Air Canada has ramped up their Hawaii services for the Winter 2022 travel season, restoring no less than five previous routes while adding three new ones, including the first direct flight to Hawaii out of Montreal.
No matter where in Canada you’re based, you’ll find the best deals if you’re happy to travel in economy class – whether it’s through redeeming a very modest sum of Aeroplan points or applying an Air Canada Buddy Pass to a cash fare.
On the other hand, if you’d like to kick off your Hawaii trip with lie-flat seats in Air Canada’s Signature Class cabins, then your best bet will be to connect onto one of the ample Hawaii-bound services out of Vancouver, where eUpgrade space tends to be plentiful.
Wow! Business is such a rip off. Used to be 80,000 return under the old program. Now they want 365,000.. even with my 50% off priority reward applied that’s 182,500. More then double and they don’t have any availability for the Latitude attitude (eUpgrade). Sad.