East Coasters- any tips for the flight logistics?

[pangyal]

I know our intended Aulani trip is a year away, but of course I am already planning . We are in Toronto with a seven year old and the longest he has flown has been a very dull three and a half hours to the Caribbean a few times. I'd like to break up the flight on both sides if possible, but not sure about the most cost effective way to do this. As far as I can tell, there are no direct flights from Toronto anyway, so I'm thinking we might go to Disneyland either before or after and experience that, but I'm stuck on the other leg. Does anyone who travels from Canada and/or the east coast have any suggestions for how to not spend a fortune on the flight (which airlines do you use) and whether you stay at an airport hotel to break up the journey or do something else to make it manageable?

 

[mommy2eee]

I know our intended Aulani trip is a year away, but of course I am already planning . We are in Toronto with a seven year old and the longest he has flown has been a very dull three and a half hours to the Caribbean a few times. I'd like to break up the flight on both sides if possible, but not sure about the most cost effective way to do this. As far as I can tell, there are no direct flights from Toronto anyway, so I'm thinking we might go to Disneyland either before or after and experience that, but I'm stuck on the other leg. Does anyone who travels from Canada and/or the east coast have any suggestions for how to not spend a fortune on the flight (which airlines do you use) and whether you stay at an airport hotel to break up the journey or do something else to make it manageable?

Hi
We are from just outside Toronto and are going to Aulani in April. This will be for my daughters wish trip through Children's Wish (she has a life threatening illness). So our trip was booked for us as....Air Canada from Toronto to Vancouver (4 hour layover) and the Vancouver to Honolulu on Air Canada Rouge. There are direct flights from Toronto to Hon on Air Canada Rouge (10.5 hours!). I'm not looking forward to the long flights...but am glad for the layover to stretch out legs, get food etc. I know there is onboard entertainment for $$
I can let you know more when we come back.
Whereabouts are you folks?

 

[alohamom]

When are you looking at going and for how long? I have been seeing some fantastic prices on WestJet and Air Canada Rouge from Toronto to Honolulu for the up coming year. We have been going to Hawaii for many years with our kids and the prices in the last little while have been some of the cheapest I have ever seen. We paid 550/CND/per person for this summer on the Air Canada Rouge route that mommy2eee mentioned above, that is probably the lowest we have ever paid and again, we have been going to Hawaii since the mid 90s. Right now, it is honestly cheaper to fly from yyz to hnl with the the little stops the airline does than to go through California BUT I do know that Virgin Airlines have begun adding routes from California to Hawaii that are cheap. They are however priced in USD so you are going to pay more due to the horrible exchange of the dollar right now. Check out the ITA matrix https://matrix.itasoftware.com/ for your dates or use the flexible dates calendar to give you an idea. I am just looking at flights to hnl for my niece in Sept and United has direct flights for 611/CND including taxes

 

[OKW Lover]

Just a suggestion for a stopover on the way going or coming back, Seattle. A very interesting city with the Space Needle, Chuilly Gardens (glass blown sculptures like you'll never believe), Pikes Market and a monorail.

 

[pangyal]

Just a suggestion for a stopover on the way going or coming back, Seattle. A very interesting city with the Space Needle, Chuilly Gardens (glass blown sculptures like you'll never believe), Pikes Market and a monorail.

This is a great idea as we'd love to visit Seattle, albeit would likely add more time than we can afford. We can only really take fourteen days total including all stopovers and travel, and would like to have at least ten days at Aulani and two full days at DLR.

Hi
We are from just outside Toronto and are going to Aulani in April. This will be for my daughters wish trip through Children's Wish (she has a life threatening illness). So our trip was booked for us as....Air Canada from Toronto to Vancouver (4 hour layover) and the Vancouver to Honolulu on Air Canada Rouge. There are direct flights from Toronto to Hon on Air Canada Rouge (10.5 hours!). I'm not looking forward to the long flights...but am glad for the layover to stretch out legs, get food etc. I know there is onboard entertainment for $$
I can let you know more when we come back.
Whereabouts are you folks?

Oh goodness, I sincerely hope your daughter beats this horrible illness! I'm so very sorry you have to go through this. How old is she?

We are right in midtown Toronto .

When are you looking at going and for how long? I have been seeing some fantastic prices on WestJet and Air Canada Rouge from Toronto to Honolulu for the up coming year. We have been going to Hawaii for many years with our kids and the prices in the last little while have been some of the cheapest I have ever seen. We paid 550/CND/per person for this summer on the Air Canada Rouge route that mommy2eee mentioned above, that is probably the lowest we have ever paid and again, we have been going to Hawaii since the mid 90s. Right now, it is honestly cheaper to fly from yyz to hnl with the the little stops the airline does than to go through California BUT I do know that Virgin Airlines have begun adding routes from California to Hawaii that are cheap. They are however priced in USD so you are going to pay more due to the horrible exchange of the dollar right now. Check out the ITA matrix https://matrix.itasoftware.com/ for your dates or use the flexible dates calendar to give you an idea. I am just looking at flights to hnl for my niece in Sept and United has direct flights for 611/CND including taxes

We are looking at next February for the last two weeks of the month. That amount is less than half of what I've priced, omg!!! I'm torn between Westjet to YVR and then maybe Hawaiian (only because I've heard good things about them, not because I know anything about anything, lol), or Rouge to YVR, stopover for a night at an airport hotel, then Rouge again...do they run their larger jets on that route? The MCO route can be somewhat uncomfortable and that's under three hours. I'm just trying to figure out how to help the little one, all of us adults are fine with the long hauls. Plus he can't sleep on planes so we are kind of shafted no matter what if we do an overnight or a late night, which is another reason I'm thinking of having the flight span two days...

 

[jlwhitney]

We are going in sept from Florida. Stopping at Disneyland for 4 nights , 3 park days. I suggest 3 park days at least if you are going to make the stop since 2 will be very tight.

 

[mommy2eee]

Oh goodness, I sincerely hope your daughter beats this horrible illness! I'm so very sorry you have to go through this. How old is she?

We are right in midtown Toronto .



We are looking at next February for the last two weeks of the month. That amount is less than half of what I've priced, omg!!! I'm torn between Westjet to YVR and then maybe Hawaiian (only because I've heard good things about them, not because I know anything about anything, lol), or Rouge to YVR, stopover for a night at an airport hotel, then Rouge again...do they run their larger jets on that route? The MCO route can be somewhat uncomfortable and that's under three hours. I'm just trying to figure out how to help the little one, all of us adults are fine with the long hauls. Plus he can't sleep on planes so we are kind of shafted no matter what if we do an overnight or a late night, which is another reason I'm thinking of having the flight span two days...

Thank you! She is 9.5 years old and has Aplastic Anemia. We live out in Burlington.
I can let you know after we come back about our flight experiences. Coming back AC leaves at 10:20pm Hawaii time and gets into Vancouver 7am. Hoping to get some rest on that leg...going to tire everyone out during the day!
We are looking forward to swimming with dolphins (part of her wish!), surfing lessons, Pearl Harbor (hubby's wish!!) and some awesome food!

 

[alohamom]

I must admit, the flight to Hawaii is long and it is wicked coming home. The worst was when my son was 1 and he cried all the way to Maui (literally ALL THE WAY) We have done what you are thinking of, stopping in California on the way and it does break it up very nicely. You can easily fly from Toronto to Los Angeles and then book Hawaiian, Virgin, United, Delta or others into Honolulu and it wont necessarily cost much more if you watch, wait and be ready to book when sales come up. Subscribe to http://beatofhawaii.com/ They have some great updates about travel to Hawaii mostly from mainland USA

Keep in mind, if you do stop you are going to have luggage charges for any bags that go under for 4 legs of flying rather than 2...

 

[nkereina]

Ever flown out of Buffalo? We just booked our flights from Buffalo for September. It's on Delta, and we have a layover in Atlanta both going and coming home. The Atlanta-Honolulu leg will be long, but it was the most affordable option and was also a perfect time for us. We looked at flights out of Toronto and it was cheaper, but would require a hotel stay for us.

 

[pangyal]

Thanks so much for all of the great advice! Definitely a lot of good new options to think about now

 

[living20057]

Thank you! She is 9.5 years old and has Aplastic Anemia. We live out in Burlington.
I can let you know after we come back about our flight experiences. Coming back AC leaves at 10:20pm Hawaii time and gets into Vancouver 7am. Hoping to get some rest on that leg...going to tire everyone out during the day!
We are looking forward to swimming with dolphins (part of her wish!), surfing lessons, Pearl Harbor (hubby's wish!!) and some awesome food!

The dolphin will be super fun! I loved doing that.

 

[BuffaloJim]

Ever flown out of Buffalo? We just booked our flights from Buffalo for September. It's on Delta, and we have a layover in Atlanta both going and coming home. The Atlanta-Honolulu leg will be long, but it was the most affordable option and was also a perfect time for us. We looked at flights out of Toronto and it was cheaper, but would require a hotel stay for us.

Funny you would say that. We're planning on Aulani in 2019 (I plan ahead), and I'm almost certainly going fly out of Toronto. YYZ is a lot cheaper than BUF, and I don't mind paying for the hotel. But there will be six of us and more expensive flights add up fast.

 

[nkereina]

Funny you would say that. We're planning on Aulani in 2019 (I plan ahead), and I'm almost certainly going fly out of Toronto. YYZ is a lot cheaper than BUF, and I don't mind paying for the hotel. But there will be six of us and more expensive flights add up fast.

For 6 people, it definitely makes sense. There's only 2 of us. Our flights out of Buffalo for this September were about $980pp round trip. Flights out of Toronto were about $700pp round trip. Both with one layover. It would have saved us about $560 total, but we needed to also factor in two nights in an airport hotel (going and coming back) as well as the gas. There's some savings there but we opted for the convenience. But with 6 people, the savings is much greater!

 

[blondietink]

I would agree that the flight going to Hawaii is easier to handle than the flight coming home. Most of the flight coming back to the east coast are overnight flights and are a killer. Ours leaves Honolulu at around 5 pm and gets into Dallas around 6 am. then change planes, hop on a flight to Pittsburgh and drive 4 hours to home. It is practically impossible to sleep on a plane the way the seats are jammed together nowadays. Next time we just might try to go through LAX or Las Vegas and stay a few days just to get used to the time change and no sleep overnight.

 

[Vernie822]

We are flying from Pittsburgh the day after our wedding. Not wanting to get up early or be on a plane forever, we decided to purchase round trip tickets from PIT to LAX via Southwest (bonus as these were FREE with SW points!)

We will fly PIT - LAX on Sunday 9/4
Spend the night at a Marriott near LAX to break up the travel
Fly LAX to Hawaii on 9/5 getting there around noon Hawaii time
Fly Hawaii to LAX on Weds 9/14
Spend time at Disneyland
Fly LAX - PIT on Saturday 9/17

Win win since we planned to stop at Disneyland on the way back anyways, we were more worried about breaking up the trip on the way there because we didn't want an early flight after our wedding. But anyways, Southwest is a great option if you have it!