flights to Aulani

[Mduff]

Not sure where to post this but on Thursday we can book Aulani for August! I've started looking at airfare from NY and I'm wondering if $856 round trip is a good price or if I can do better if I wait. There are 4 of us flying so I'm trying to get as cheap as possible!

 

[Anal Annie]

I personallly think that sounds pretty fair / average from the east coast for summer airfare to Oahu. Is that on Hawaiian? One stop? Non-stop? I can tell you that for our trip last August we paid over $1,200 pp HOWEVER we stopped in LA to spend a few days at DL and then we island hopped to Maui for a few nights and flew back to DC from Maui. We used Alaska Air DC to LA and Maui to home and Hawaiian for the LA to HNL & island hop. Those changes in the itinerary added to the cost. A straight round trip is usually cheaper. I have heard of some people lucking into fares below $800 but it's always a lucky find if they do.

With gas prices falling it is hard to say if the airlines will ever cut their fares or not. It's a crap shoot. From what I've seen on the news about it lately it didn't sound like they were considering it…which SUCKS. They really should. Maybe public opinion will eventually sway them into it?!

Good luck - Aulani is AMAZING!!

 

[Mduff]

Thanks!! Your trip sounds like it was busy! I'm looking forward to reading your trip report Yeah, that price is on Hawaiian....one stop going from JFK to HNL and we get there at 5am! And a direct flight home overnight. I wish the airlines would credit you if their fares drop - I always hate playing the "wait" game and even after booking airfares I always check to see if they went down, which sometimes results in me kicking myself.

My concern is if the fares do dip down far, will I be able to get 4 seats on the same flight? I have seen fares this year in the 600s but I don't know if my stress level could take waiting until fares potentially go down.

 

[Girimama33]

Hawaiian will give you a credit if the fare drops, but will not refund.

DH and I purchased our flights for March 2015 for $99.00 through Hawaiian. We did this by each getting a Hawaiian Airlines credit card. We pay it off every month. They give you 35,000 miles if you spend $1000.00 in 3 months. DH and I both were able to secure flights for 35,000 points, but the flights were typically 40,000 when we would look.
The annual fee is $89.00 and we each were charged $10 for the flight. We only had to pay the full fee for our daughter.

 

[aclov]

We went in June 2013 our flights were a little over $900 each. Flying there was one stop in Phoenix flying back direct to Chicago. Depends when you go on the prices, summer is higher.

 

[tikilyn]

I booked San Antonio to Honolulu for June 2015 on US Airways for 761 per person (3046.00 for 2adults and 2children. That includes all taxes. It was the cheapest I could find and I'm not willing to play the waiting game to long. Always, in my case the prices will climb and not get cheaper (just my luck). We will also have to drive 5 hrs to San Antonio and book a hotel room for the night.

 

[Anal Annie]

Thanks!! Your trip sounds like it was busy! I'm looking forward to reading your trip report Yeah, that price is on Hawaiian....one stop going from JFK to HNL and we get there at 5am! And a direct flight home overnight. I wish the airlines would credit you if their fares drop - I always hate playing the "wait" game and even after booking airfares I always check to see if they went down, which sometimes results in me kicking myself.

My concern is if the fares do dip down far, will I be able to get 4 seats on the same flight? I have seen fares this year in the 600s but I don't know if my stress level could take waiting until fares potentially go down.

I almost always book our flights as soon as possible after I've secured whatever reservations we have planned and I also continue to monitor the prices. Honestly, in most cases I've "done good" by booking early. When we did our European / Med DCL trip in 2011 I booked in January for August - I was literally looking online daily and just happened to wake up to a sale (we were using credit card miles and I NEEDED the price to be under a certain amount in order to cover 2 out of the 3 of us with miles). There it was, just a few dollars under my bottom line so I snagged it. And within 3 days it had shot up to several hundred more than what I paid AND IT STAYED THERE. This past year was actually the 2nd time I had booked these flights for CA and Aulani (we had to cancel at the last minute the year before) and it was all definitely much higher for this year than for 2013.

I think if you see airfare round trip to Hawaii for in the $600's it is probably in the "off season" not summer. Most families travel there over the summer because of the length of time it takes to go so they go when the kids are out of school. I often see round trip fares to / from CA & HNL in the $400's. But you still have to GET TO CA from the east coast so if you can find a fare in the $300's for that then you'd be able to find a reasonable combo. But August is tough. When in August? I think the demand drops significantly by mid-August.

You just reminded me that I never finished the last 2 days of my trip report (last 2 days on Maui). It wasn't such a busy, busy trip really - it was 2 weeks long so it was spread out. We wished we had 1 more night for DL but due to consequences of having to cancel the trip from the previous year we had fewer points to work with (the whole cancelation thing is explained in the trip report). We spent a full week at Aulani tho which was great. Lots of down time.

 

[Sur]

We booked HNL to OAK for $400, and waited for Southwest to open up to NY...$220 booking on opening day. $620 pp. Try booking multiple airlines separately.

 

[lawgator]

I've been looking at airfares to HNL for quite awhile now and while not a mind stopping bargain, your fare does seem reasonable. I have seen much higher. I feel really lucky that we were already able to snag 2 outbound one-way United Airlines frequent flier tickets a few days ago for a Nov. 25, 2015 departure from Orlando to Houston and then to HNL at their economy "saver" rate of 45,000 miles for both. Now hoping we can get return tickets that are economy saver if and when that window opens up because one-way flights are expensive and I only have 45,000 miles remaining in my account. I did notice Allegiant offers daily one-way fares to LAX. and then could book a flight from LAX to Florida, but would rather not if I can avoid it.

 

[happymommy]

When you say "direct" do you mean nonstop going home?

If so, that is a good price.

We go back to Oahu (own at the Marriott Ko Olina, and used to live there) every other year from Maryland, so always have one stop (I won't do more than one). We always use miles, but less than $900 is decent.

That being said, you may find sales closer. I just booked our summer flights for early June even though I've had our weeks booked for quite a while. It's getting harder and harder to book with miles, and costing more and more. Still, with a family of four, free tickets beat all.

PS: I'd follow The Points Guy - you never know if you can score any free tickets buy sign up bonuses or whatnot (we use Amex Membership Rewards for transfers usually).

 

[Mduff]

Yeah, the flight home is nonstop Looking at Delta fares now, they're at $872 each but both to HI and home are one stops. (guess this is how I survive stuck home with the flu over Christmas break! ). I have the Delta Skymiles card but not enough miles for flights to HI.

Thanks for the tip on the Points Guy..hadn't heard of him...I'll follow him to see if there are any deals I don't know about!

 

[Sir William]

Not sure where to post this but on Thursday we can book Aulani for August! I've started looking at airfare from NY and I'm wondering if $856 round trip is a good price or if I can do better if I wait. There are 4 of us flying so I'm trying to get as cheap as possible!

We are going in late June. When I priced airfares from DC about a month ago it was nearly $900 roundtrip for either a direct or 1-stop flight. When I priced a few days ago a direct flight was $1200+ for a direct flight and almost $1000 with 1 stop.

Waiting is increasingly risky, especially if you have more than 2 people. Once you hit 45 days out you seldom see a reduction in price. You might see a sale a week or two before if the flights aren't full (however, there never seem to be a sale on flights to places I need to go).

 

[AZMermaid]

I'm just coming from Phoenix, but for June 2015 I paid $536 pp for Hawaiian Air non-stop. I bought about 8-9 months ahead. The price hung there a few weeks but now is over $600 again.

 

[jillmc40]

I think that sounds pretty good. I am in Hawaii right now and did the non stop from jfk. Hawaiian is a great airline and worth it if it is a little bit more than other airline. We paid 1350 each at Christmas season.

 

[mkunichi]

$856 is not a bad price for JFK-HNL. $6xx would be a great price and $7xx would be good. I assume you're tied into flying on particular days and don't have flexibility on which days you're flying? If so then it can sometimes be hard to actually get the "great" prices because the flights that you want may be sold out in that fare bucket.

A 5am arrival sounds painful. Actually, its less the arrival time and more the flight itself that sounds painful. When does that flight depart and where from? It sounds like it might depart at the even more ungodly 2am!

As a comparison, how much would it be to fly nonstop both ways?

We booked HNL to OAK for $400, and waited for Southwest to open up to NY...$220 booking on opening day. $620 pp. Try booking multiple airlines separately.

You can get great prices this way but it's *slightly& riskier because if your incoming flight is late the airline for your next leg isn't obligated to reaccomodate you as a displaced passenger. They will generally do so but you won't receive the priority you usually would if you were traveling on one airline. As a result most people will book longer connections to play it on the safe side. Of course, this means you

Were you able to check your luggage through NYC-OAK-HNL?

 

[Anal Annie]

I've been looking at airfares to HNL for quite awhile now and while not a mind stopping bargain, your fare does seem reasonable. I have seen much higher. I feel really lucky that we were already able to snag 2 outbound one-way United Airlines frequent flier tickets a few days ago for a Nov. 25, 2015 departure from Orlando to Houston and then to HNL at their economy "saver" rate of 45,000 miles for both. Now hoping we can get return tickets that are economy saver if and when that window opens up because one-way flights are expensive and I only have 45,000 miles remaining in my account. I did notice Allegiant offers daily one-way fares to LAX. and then could book a flight from LAX to Florida, but would rather not if I can avoid it.

Allegiant consistently offers rock bottom cheap flights from the west coast to HNL. I considered them BRIEFLY because they were literally half the price of everybody else but I wasn't satisfied with all the reviews I read on flyertalk and other forums etc… They also charge more for all your luggage so you have to add in extra for that. Another thing was they also didn't always fly the route every day - so if something comes up and the flight is canceled for some reason there's not a lot of options to get on another one. I read some reviews last year where they canceled a flight then didn't have another one on the route for a couple of days and they were basically like just "sorry folks". I was not willing to risk that sort of behavior on such a big deal kind of trip.

 

[Anal Annie]

$856 is not a bad price for JFK-HNL. $6xx would be a great price and $7xx would be good. I assume you're tied into flying on particular days and don't have flexibility on which days you're flying? If so then it can sometimes be hard to actually get the "great" prices because the flights that you want may be sold out in that fare bucket.

A 5am arrival sounds painful. Actually, its less the arrival time and more the flight itself that sounds painful. When does that flight depart and where from? It sounds like it might depart at the even more ungodly 2am!

As a comparison, how much would it be to fly nonstop both ways?


You can get great prices this way but it's *slightly& riskier because if your incoming flight is late the airline for your next leg isn't obligated to reaccomodate you as a displaced passenger. They will generally do so but you won't receive the priority you usually would if you were traveling on one airline. As a result most people will book longer connections to play it on the safe side. Of course, this means you

Were you able to check your luggage through NYC-OAK-HNL?

That's a big point to consider. Luggage checking all the way thru with different airlines is a big deal - esp. if you have tight connections. That's why I wanted one airline on our return trip and didn't want to mix more than one. It didn't matter when we went over because we stopped in LA for a few nights. But coming home I didn't want to deal with retrieving our luggage and getting it re-checked on another airline etc.

 

[Sir William]

That's a big point to consider. Luggage checking all the way thru with different airlines is a big deal - esp. if you have tight connections. That's why I wanted one airline on our return trip and didn't want to mix more than one. It didn't matter when we went over because we stopped in LA for a few nights. But coming home I didn't want to deal with retrieving our luggage and getting it re-checked on another airline etc.

Very true. If you have all your flights on a single booking, then the originating airline can usually check your luggage through to your final destination, even if you're flying on different carriers. For security reasons if you have separate bookings you will be required to retrieve your checked luggage and check it in with the next airline. This means you need additional time between flights to do all of this, as well as go through security again.

I'd rather pay the few extra dollars to have all my flights on the same booking and check my bags through: less stress, less wasted time waiting, and fewer things to worry about. Of course, if you can get everything into a carry-on bag, all you have to worry about is making the next flight as you make your way through the terminal(s) with kids and luggage in tow.

 

[Mduff]

Trying to decide between Delta now ($772 using miles to pay down fare), which is a connection flight both ways and gets us to HI at 2:30pm, or Hawaiian ($852 or $812 depending on which days we go) which gets us in a 5am! Hawaiian connects on the way to HI but is a direct flight to NY to go home.

Thanks for all the input! Makes me realize I'm not jumping the gun to book these fares once my Aulani stay is all booked

 

[Mduff]

$856 is not a bad price for JFK-HNL. $6xx would be a great price and $7xx would be good. I assume you're tied into flying on particular days and don't have flexibility on which days you're flying? If so then it can sometimes be hard to actually get the "great" prices because the flights that you want may be sold out in that fare bucket.

A 5am arrival sounds painful. Actually, its less the arrival time and more the flight itself that sounds painful. When does that flight depart and where from? It sounds like it might depart at the even more ungodly 2am!

That 5am arrival leaves NY at 9:40pm so hopefully we'll be sleeping on the flight Connection is in Vegas between midnight and 1am