Flights to Hawaii

[julmops]

Hi all,
Looking at flights from LAX to Honolulu in early 2015 ...
Is $630 return per person a good deal? This is with Delta or Hawaiian.
Any chance of a sale later in the year?
This is common thing in Europe but not sure in the US...
Thanks a million in advance for your advice !

 

[bbn1122]

I can tell you if it was NY/NJ to Hawaii at this price is great!

It maybe a little early to book. I would think prices could be a little lower. I think when I checked two years ago I also checked out stopping off in Ca for a few days and then continuing on Hawaii , I believe airfare was around $450.

I am sure will hear from other. I signed up for price alerts from Travelosity and Trip advisor, as well as Hawaiian airlines and Alaskan Airways to Hawaii.

Good luck

 

[DisSarahK]

That is more than I am paying roundtrip for a Seattle-area flight to Honolulu at the end of March. I think it is too early to book.

 

[SuperRob]

Not sure if Alaska flies out of LAX to Honolulu or not, but they have a low-price guarantee. You can get the price adjusted if it ever drops below what you paid. Pair that with a service like Yapta.com, and you don't have to worry if you're booking to early.

 

[Daddio]

If using Delta, try not to book further out than 6 months less a day. That seems to be the line between what they'd like to get and what the market dictates.

~ David

 

[Dean]

That seems high to me. I would think you could get it down to close to $400 inclusive from the west coast. Sometimes looking at secondary airports can be helpful such as San Jose, Oakland, Seattle, Bellingham, and San Diego. Alaska Air and HI airlines are often some of the better choices. Another situation that affects prices and choices is where you're flying in to. With the price of inter island nowadays it may be cheaper and better to pay a little more to fly into one island and out of another if visiting more than one. You can also have one stopover built in to a ticket but you can't do open jaw (arrive one and leave from another) and have a stopover both on the same ticket normally. You list your location as the UK so it may be that you're traveling to HI with a stop in between, so the layover option might be very helpful for you.

 

[SuperRob]

Sometimes looking at secondary airports can be helpful such as San Jose, Oakland, Seattle, Bellingham, and San Diego.

Trying very hard not to take umbrage to SeaTac being called a "secondary" airport.

There are a lot of direct flights out of Seattle to Hawaii, mostly on Alaska or Hawaiian. I got an Alaska credit card specifically because they also have the only non-stop to Orlando from Seattle, so we figured we'd use them a lot, and the price guarantee has already saved us a fair bit of money.

Something else to consider is a site like AirfareWatchdog.com. Great site for finding deals on flights, although it works best when you don't have a specific travel plan in mind yet.

 

[julmops]

Hi all,
Thanks for the replies so far.
Let me give you a bit more background.
We will fly from the UK to Los Angeles and stay in LA for a week and the ABD "Backstage Magic".
After that, we want to fly to HNL for Aulani and then back to LA to catch the flight back to London that same day.
So any other airports than LAX won't work for us in this instance.
My possible choices are Delta, United, AA and Hawaiian.
I'm up for Hawaiian or Delta as they are partnering with Virgin Atlantic who flies us to LA and back so miles for me
I've registered to Hawaiian newsletter and will keep on checking prices until I'm happy with them...
Quite keen to try their new Comfort class at least one way ...
Will see.
Thanks all once again!

 

[Dean]

Trying very hard not to take umbrage to SeaTac being called a "secondary" airport.

It is for HI, I actually copied this from an article on the subject when I was looking around for recent prices.

Hi all,
Thanks for the replies so far.
Let me give you a bit more background.
We will fly from the UK to Los Angeles and stay in LA for a week and the ABD "Backstage Magic".
After that, we want to fly to HNL for Aulani and then back to LA to catch the flight back to London that same day.
So any other airports than LAX won't work for us in this instance.
My possible choices are Delta, United, AA and Hawaiian.
I'm up for Hawaiian or Delta as they are partnering with Virgin Atlantic who flies us to LA and back so miles for me
I've registered to Hawaiian newsletter and will keep on checking prices until I'm happy with them...
Quite keen to try their new Comfort class at least one way ...
Will see.
Thanks all once again!

Can't you just get one ticket to HI with a 1 week stopover in CA?

 

[Anal Annie]

Airfare prices are way UP this year over what they were last year so I thought that $630 price was sounding pretty average. I just booked one-way LAX to HNL as the remaining leg for our trip this August on Hawaiian Airline and regular coach seats were running around $475 pp at at the time - and it has since gone up about $100 pp. Now there are a couple of other flights that day that are only running about $50 more but the one WE booked has gone up by $100. (We actually booked their new "comfort class" which was $60 more pp than the reg. coach price. So now that the price has gone up $100 the reg. coach fare is now $43 more than what we paid for the "extra comfort" seats.)

I read somewhere recently (on a Hawaiian tourism website) that many airlines have cut back on the number of flights they're offering to / from Hawaii so there are fewer seats available which is creating more supply / demand pricing.

I would set a fare alert for it & watch it like a hawk.

 

[Anal Annie]

Not sure if Alaska flies out of LAX to Honolulu or not, but they have a low-price guarantee. You can get the price adjusted if it ever drops below what you paid. Pair that with a service like Yapta.com, and you don't have to worry if you're booking to early.

I priced Alaska out of LAX because we're using them for some of our other flights and they don't offer any DIRECT flights between LAX and HNL. They either go through SEA or PDX or SJC so a 5 1/2 hr. flight turns into 9 hours at BEST. Now they ARE cheaper tho for all that extra time…but I was only interested in DIRECT flights. I have no desire to spend an extra 4 hours getting there in order to save $50.

 

[tinibee]

I used kayak.com to keep an eye on prices and got the best deal for our upcoming trip through united from NRT to SEA stay for two weeks, then to LAX for a week. From LAX to HNL for a week then return to Tokyo. We bought ours about 7 months in advance and have watched the prices steadily increase since then. United had a child airfare too. Every penny counts!

 

[julmops]

Thanks all ! I've had a look at Alaska but as said previously, there are no direct flight between LAX and HNL ...
Kayak is my place of choice to keep an eye on all airlines at the same time but I also go to the respective websites as well. You wouldn't believe the amount of time I'm spending on this
Almost as much as checking availability for upgrades on Virgin Atlantic (I have enough miles to upgrade our international travel) but they are scarce at the moment so I need to keep on checking ...
I wish I could have so much determination and will power for the rest

 

[Halloweenqueen]

Good thing I found this thread. After reading everyone's experience I checked the rate of our purchased airfare and couldn't find our flights! We booked them last June and they never contacted us about the change! The airline had changed our non stops to ridiculous transfers with 3 plus layovers. No way! First agent wasn't helpful, but I tried again and got us back on non stops.

I will be watching these flights from now on!

 

[summabreeze85]

SWA employee here...not much help w Delta and Hawaiian flights but hopefully in 2016 SOUTHWEST will be your cheap option to Hawaii! Just be prepared with things to do on your flight. Our planes aren't even equipped with cabin TVs.
You got a deal on your flight...the only way to get flights cheaper is when the crazy sales pop up and your dates/times/layovers are EXTREMELY flexible.

 

[julmops]

SWA employee here...not much help w Delta and Hawaiian flights but hopefully in 2016 SOUTHWEST will be your cheap option to Hawaii! Just be prepared with things to do on your flight. Our planes aren't even equipped with cabin TVs.
You got a deal on your flight...the only way to get flights cheaper is when the crazy sales pop up and your dates/times/layovers are EXTREMELY flexible.

Thanks for your input, much appreciated.
I tend to avoid low-cost airlines as much as I can in Europe, mostly due to the fact that I live very close to Heathrow and the likes of Easyjet and Ryanair fly from smaller or farther airports.
So once I include my train and/or coach fare to those airports, I'm better off flying with the full service airlines like BA.
Having said that, I would definitely consider Southwest if they were flying to my destination ...

 

[CailinFig]

Hi all, Looking at flights from LAX to Honolulu in early 2015 ... Is $630 return per person a good deal? This is with Delta or Hawaiian. Any chance of a sale later in the year? This is common thing in Europe but not sure in the US... Thanks a million in advance for your advice !

Which months are you looking at? Hawaiian will most likely have sales but it'll depend how flexible you are and how long you want to wait. I bought RT tickets from LAX to HNL for $380 booking 3 months out.

This is the first year I noticed their spring sale (we usually don't vacation in the spring). But for the past several years I know they release their fall sales in the summer pretty reliably.

 

[julmops]

Which months are you looking at? Hawaiian will most likely have sales but it'll depend how flexible you are and how long you want to wait. I bought RT tickets from LAX to HNL for $380 booking 3 months out.

This is the first year I noticed their spring sale (we usually don't vacation in the spring). But for the past several years I know they release their fall sales in the summer pretty reliably.

Unfortunately I can't be flexible ... I need a way out on Jan 31st and back on Feb 7th ...

 

[CailinFig]

Unfortunately I can't be flexible ... I need a way out on Jan 31st and back on Feb 7th ...

$600+ for late jan/early feb seems expensive to me for LAX-HNL....that's more of a rate I'd be expecting to pay for other times of the year...

If it were me, I'd wait....but I'd watch those fares like a hawk. If you see it go to mid/high 400s-500....I'd bite. That's just based on my experience flying with Hawaiian Airlines and your travel dates being in jan/feb! Good luck!

 

[CailinFig]

Just as another point of reference I bought my parents RT tickets using Hawaiian Airlines from LAX-OGG for Oct 2013 in Jan 2013 and those were $440 at the time. I know fuel prices are up and Maui is another island, but just to give you a frame of reference. I'd consider $400-500 during fall or non-peak winter times a price I'd buy tickets at from LAX.