Airfare from East Coast

[TikiMan0228]

Hi,

I would love to take the family in the near future. We would have enough DVC points to go a full week but the airfare for 5 is going to be outrageous. Can anyone give me an idea of a good deal on airfare from either JFK, Newark, Philly? Thanks!!

 

[buffettgirl]

subscribe to fare alerts through airfarewatchdog. I routinely see fares in the 500s, round trip, from Boston, so it would be similar from your locations. You just have to be patient and it helps if you can go mid week to mid week. I tend to see the best rates about 3-4 months ahead.

 

[kdonnel]

We have always gone in early April. From Atlanta that time of year is $1100 average and $800 as a good deal.

 

[Soccerluvinmama]

Here is what you need to do.... You and your spouse should sign up for the Bank of America Alaska Airlines Visa. When you have this Visa you also get a $99 companion pass each and every year (it's actually $122 with taxes). So, you will only have to pay full price for 3 tickets. And with the Visa, you get a free checked bag for up to 8 people on the same reservation. Here is the link so you can check it out: https://www.applyonlinenow.com/USCCapp/Ctl/entry?sc=VACOKR#b

And, if you decide to go this route, and plan on going back to Hawaii in the future, it's only 80,000 miles round trip, and you get 30,000 miles just for signing up. So, in the future you could easily pay full price for two tickets, purchase two tickets with your companion vouchers, and pick the other one up on miles!

Good luck!

 

[newdeal]

drive to Toronto and fly from there

 

[buffettgirl]

drive to Toronto and fly from there

?? Why would they drive like 8 hours or more to Toronto?

I guess if they were going to drive 8 hours they could go somewhere closer to the west coast.

 

[badiggio]

Flying from Ottawa Canada,we've always used United with a connection in either Washington or Chicago.from here it was easily the fastest and cheapest ,usually in the 700 Canadian range.I found for us the best prices came around the 3-4 month from travel range.

 

[jerseygal]

Hi,

I would love to take the family in the near future. We would have enough DVC points to go a full week but the airfare for 5 is going to be outrageous. Can anyone give me an idea of a good deal on airfare from either JFK, Newark, Philly? Thanks!!

We were at Aulani, May of '14 and LOVED IT! We flew from Newark, non stop, United, booked 7 months in advance and got approximately $750 round trip, upgraded to the more leg room seats, which I think was about $89-100 more. We did like a 8:30AM flight from Newark, got to enjoy the late afternoon/early evening Hawaii time first day and then our last day took like an 8:30PM flight non stop to Newark from Honolulu. Worked out GREAT, enjoyed an entire last day at the resort. They have a great lounge to shower and change at Aulani for those with late flights. I would book early as I monitored the flights throughout the seven months and they never came down, only went up significantly! ENJOY beautiful Aulani! Look into Hawaiian Airlines, don't know if they fly to Honolulu, maybe just Maui, don't know, someone mentioned that we spoke to that they flew from NY.

 

[happymommy]

Follow folks like The Points Guy, subscribe to Flyertalk (free message forum, similar to the Disboards).

I agree to get credit cards with good sign up bonuses.

I use my SPG Amex for nearly all purchases. Just finalized our return flights for next summer (but we are staying at the Marriott Ko Olina Beach Club right next to Aulani). DD and I flying over First Class June 17, then two weeks later DH and DS are also flying First to join us. All returning July 17th in First through DFW (so lie flat seats). Originating in DC. I scored big time, spent roughly 100,000 miles per ticket, which is hard to find these days for free first class flights! We usually go for 2 weeks, but it's so far that last year I said I'm splitting our 2 br villa up (paying a nominal lockoff fee) to use it for 4 weeks. We'll have to book 2 extra nights, there or maybe Aulani, but being flexible with that return date made a free flight possible (it was 125,000 miles on the Saturday, but 67,000 miles if we stayed 2 more nights for the return flight. We got going over seats for 40,000).

This is my kids' 9th trip back to Hawaii, and we've never paid for a ticket. Half the time we do coach, but that sucks so bad coming home! Still, free is better, since our tickets would cost $3,000 each round trip for next summer!

SPG can transfer to AA, but we've used Amex membership rewards points to transfer to Delta. No way we were going to score first class with them, though, and coach would have cost the same miles as we used.

I booked our flights going over 11 months out, and just now booked the return flight 10 months out. Some decent award seats do pop up closer to travel time, but getting several on one flight is very hard!

You can also look at breaking up your trip - fly to Arizona or California, spend a day or two, then book a cheaper flight to and from there. Southwest often has decent fares to the West Coast. Coming home, I have friends that did that, stopping in California for a few days to break up the LONG flight home. It would help with the time change too! We never have jet lag going over, but coming home I can't get anyone to get up in the morning!

Even if you get a decent credit card (or two), rack up some miles, scoring one or two free seats helps a lot! The annual fee for them in my case is more than worth it!

Some airlines fly nonstop - United from New Jersey I think? I know they do from Dulles. Hawaiian has one - many folks love them, but we flew them in first from Korea to Hawaii two years ago, then from Hawaii to Las Vegas, and those both were unbearable. Still, if you get a good fare, nonstop is nice! We always do a stop though.

I'd start looking at airfare now and research your options - I think Philly may have a nonstop but not sure - we're closest to BWI but I had to choose Reagan National since it's worth it to get award seats (and not fun though, 5:30am flight ugh, she & I are getting a hotel room the night before since I don't trust traffic in DC even at 3am!).

 

[scrappydew]

We flew out of Philadelphia for about $2600 for the four of us, I think.

 

[happymommy]

That's a good fare!

 

[newdeal]

?? Why would they drive like 8 hours or more to Toronto?

I guess if they were going to drive 8 hours they could go somewhere closer to the west coast.

might save them $2000 look at flight prices...can fly for about $600 Canadian round trip which is about $450 american round trip or so per person

 

[alldiz]

Subscribing
I'm also flying from east coast...NY July 2017. I just started pricing and we want to stop in Disneyland on the way.
Expedia shows approx $1250 Pp
Jfk to LA
LA to Honolulu
Honolulu to Jfk nonstop this was Hawaiian air....NY to LA numerous airline choices.
Choices are United and Hawaiin airlines to Hawaii....
Any opinions which economy comfort class is better ?
Thanks
Kerri

 

[buffettgirl]

just watch the fares. Daily if you have to. You're going to easily find $500 round trip flights and even easier $600 round trip flights.

 

[helenk]

I just booked for my April trip. I am leaving Saturday April 1st and returning Sunday April 9th. Flying American Airlines from Philadelphia with a stop in Phoenix going to and from Honolulu. It was cheaper if I left on Sunday April the 2nd but my daughter is flying in from Beijing. She leave on a Sunday but gets there on Saturday so I adjusted my trip. Any way the cost was $1050, I just looked at it today and it is up to $1149. Some of the flights were cheaper but I wanted to coordinate arrival time and departure time with my daughters and I only wanted 1 stop. Some of the flights that were cheaper were 2 stops. I had budgeted for $1000, $50 over was okay with me. I used my American Airline credit card to book so I get 1 free checked bag.

 

[happymommy]

The last few years you won't likely find coach for $500 or even $600 from the East Coast in the summer. It's usually twice that.

 

[buffettgirl]

Don't know. I find them just about every single month. I flew from HNL to Boston this summer and I think we paid 589.

And my girlfriends saw $519 in August but weren't able to get the time off from work.

 

[happymommy]

Awesome. I stand corrected totally!

 

[Amw1064]

I watched tickets from Florida for almost 9 months and never found anything under $1000 summer of 2015. This summer I spent $1200 each from Tampa to Honolulu.

 

[psimon]

We were at Aulani, May of '14 and LOVED IT! We flew from Newark, non stop, United, booked 7 months in advance and got approximately $750 round trip, upgraded to the more leg room seats, which I think was about $89-100 more. We did like a 8:30AM flight from Newark, got to enjoy the late afternoon/early evening Hawaii time first day and then our last day took like an 8:30PM flight non stop to Newark from Honolulu. Worked out GREAT, enjoyed an entire last day at the resort. They have a great lounge to shower and change at Aulani for those with late flights. I would book early as I monitored the flights throughout the seven months and they never came down, only went up significantly! ENJOY beautiful Aulani! Look into Hawaiian Airlines, don't know if they fly to Honolulu, maybe just Maui, don't know, someone mentioned that we spoke to that they flew from NY.

I took the same flights from Newark in 2014. Those United flights are great. Sadly, I am looking for next June (with very specific dates, trying to squeeze in a trip between college semesters for my kids) and right now I am looking at $1069 for non-stop out of Newark and a one-stop (SFO) on the return. If I made it nonstop both ways its around $1300/pp x my group of 5 !! It is about $70 cheaper pp on Hawaiian out of JFK, but coming from South Jersey, I'm not sure it's worth it. Flying from Philly is almost $200 more pp and neither flight is non-stop.

I am worried about booking air now, having to wait till my 7 month window before I can book Aulani... so unless a bargain shows up, I am holding off..... If only Southwest flew to HNL!

---Paul in Southern NJ