Aulani transportation question

[KarenB]

Just got the 2011 points chart in the mail today and thinking wwaayyyyy ahead. But what airport would you fly into? My "big idea" would be to fly from the east coast to LAX or SNA, stay at VGC a few days then head to Aulani for a week. Do the same for the return trip.

Karen

 

[Chuck S]

Aulani is on Oahu, so Honolulu airport. And as there are no direct flights from SNA to Honolulu (change in Salt Lake, Phoenix or San Francisco) I would use LAX for the California stops.

 

[KarenB]

Aulani is on Oahu, so Honolulu airport. And as there are no direct flights from SNA to Honolulu (change in Salt Lake, Phoenix or San Francisco) I would use LAX for the California stops.

Thank you! Good to know

 

[DisWitt]

HNL is the Honolulu airport code for booking. There ARE direct flights from SNA (Orange County) to HNL on Continental and sometimes Hawaiian Airlines. But you'll be cheaper to fly from LAX to HNL. If you're going to/from LAX (and from HNL to/from Aulani) and not planning on renting a car, look into a limo. The price is about $100 for each trip which beats lots of the van services if you have 3+ people.

Also, if you're not tied to VGC, you can often get really good hotel deals ($100/night) and direct flights from SFO (San Francisco) and SAN (San Diego) to HNL. You'll need to save your points for Aulani!

BTW, you're not thinking too far ahead, we're planning our big trip for right after the resort opens... that's why it's our home resort. I had been waiting for Aulani for about 3 years. A guide once asked me, "If you could vacation anywhere in the world, where would it be?" I answered, Hawaii. "Then," he said, "when we open a resort in Hawaii, you should by there." Thus, we bought on the spot in July.

 

[reesefamily22]

I can't wait for it to open. It looks fabulous

 

[Lost in Neverland]

HNL is the Honolulu airport code for booking. There ARE direct flights from SNA (Orange County) to HNL on Continental and sometimes Hawaiian Airlines. But you'll be cheaper to fly from LAX to HNL. If you're going to/from LAX (and from HNL to/from Aulani) and not planning on renting a car, look into a limo. The price is about $100 for each trip which beats lots of the van services if you have 3+ people.

Also, if you're not tied to VGC, you can often get really good hotel deals ($100/night) and direct flights from SFO (San Francisco) and SAN (San Diego) to HNL. You'll need to save your points for Aulani!

BTW, you're not thinking too far ahead, we're planning our big trip for right after the resort opens... that's why it's our home resort. I had been waiting for Aulani for about 3 years. A guide once asked me, "If you could vacation anywhere in the world, where would it be?" I answered, Hawaii. "Then," he said, "when we open a resort in Hawaii, you should by there." Thus, we bought on the spot in July.

Thanks for the info on flights. We were just doing the same thing with planning a trip for early 2012. The airfare from NC is unreal but the idea of flying to San Fran or LA then connecting on Hawaiian Airlines was something we did not think of. For a family of 4 US Air from Charlotte is running about $2800.00.

 

[Disney Princess]

You could also price shop for home to Southern CA and pick the airport that works best for that leg, then price shop for CA to Hawaii. So, you could go home to SNA, LAX to HNL, HNL to LAX, then SNA to home. This doesn't work unless you are stopping in CA for a day or two. Otherwise, it makes no sense. However, since you mentioned stopping in CA for both legs, it could work. Don't forget to check Long Beach (LGB) if you are going to Disneyland. It might have good fares. Right now, that is the cheapest airport for us to use for a trip to DLR.

You could also do LA/San Diego one way, then stop in San Francisco the other way. The way our flights have been, buying "round trip" doesn't save anything over buying one leg at a time. As long as you are planning the stops, do one on the way to Hawaii and one on the way home.

So many fun options to think about!!

 

[MinnieGirl33]

Any word if airport transfers will be available? We expect to rent a car but...

 

[DisWitt]

No word on Aulani offering airport transfers (yet), but you can usually find a Hawaii limo company for $100 from the airport to Ko Olina pretty easy.

As for $700/person RT for HNL to Charlotte, I think that's pretty good considering that we usually pay $450 LAX-HNL RT. From Charlotte, I'd say to keep looking at American Airlines because they have a good option of Charlotte-to-DFW-to-LAX-to-HNL that's probably reasonable. If you can get a swinging deal and the schedule works for you, JetBlue does Charlotte to LGB... but you have to go through NYC or BOS (ugh!).

** big caveat - I don't know of any airlines that have published schedules or fares for ANYTHING at 9/2011 or after yet. Best to wait for "real" fares to be published before looking at too much and trying to extrapolate.