Flying to Aulani from Maryland

[Maria_Ohana]

Has anyone flown from Maryland to Aulani thru Southwest? It's the cheapest flights, but with the distance and perhaps 1-2 layover I'm worried about being so uncomfortable. We have flown to Oahu prior to COVID but with United Airlines.

 

[Imurhuckleberry]

flying is such a personal and varied experience it's impossible to say. Things like how tall/big are you, what do you like to do on a plane, can you sit for a long time or do you need to stretch and move every 4-5 hours?

personally, I would not fly southworst for more than 2 hours anywhere for any price. but that doesn't make it right or wrong for you

We fly direct from EWR because we value direct flights and our time over the addt'l cost

 

[Maria_Ohana]

flying is such a personal and varied experience it's impossible to say. Things like how tall/big are you, what do you like to do on a plane, can you sit for a long time or do you need to stretch and move every 4-5 hours?

personally, I would not fly southworst for more than 2 hours anywhere for any price. but that doesn't make it right or wrong for you

We fly direct from EWR because we value direct flights and our time over the addt'l cost

I agree. Thank you.

 

[Psymonds]

Has anyone flown from Maryland to Aulani thru Southwest? It's the cheapest flights, but with the distance and perhaps 1-2 layover I'm worried about being so uncomfortable. We have flown to Oahu prior to COVID but with United Airlines.

it's your personal preference, and the experience will only really vary on larger, legacy carriers that fly larger equipment.

Only legacy carriers and Aloha really fly wide bodies to the islands, and generally only to Oahu. If you're stopping in LA or the Bay Area, most of the flights (AK, WN etc) are 737 or other single aisle aircraft, with basically only meals being the difference. Longer flights will generally be the wide body because they're beyond the rated range of the 737s. it's the same flight for us from SFO to LIH or HNL as it is SFO to MCO.

 

[Anal Annie]

We're going in 2 weeks from MD out of BWI. We've been several times before - while our preferred airline to FL is SW our preference for Hawai'i is either Hawaiian or Alaska airlines. Neither of those offered good overall flight durations for this trip and I refuse to spend any longer than necessary to get there. Plus at the time that I booked in Dec. SW was NOT the cheapest. I ended up booking on Delta (one of our least favs) because the price was right ($708 pp for really good overall flight duration times and only 1 transfer in Atlanta). I was looking to book using credit card miles so my bottom line was very tight and Delta met that requirement. I do think that depending on the dates SW may offer only 1 transfer thru Las Vegas or maybe San Diego. I would book one of those routes if the price was right.

 

[Maria_Ohana]

Thank you. Round trip for less than $1k is awesome. I’d have to start pricing out other airlines. Previously flew UA and I didn’t like it at all.

 

[Anal Annie]

Thank you. Round trip for less than $1k is awesome. I’d have to start pricing out other airlines. Previously flew UA and I didn’t like it at all.

I set up flight price alerts for a couple of different dates to / from and on multiple sites - I mainly relied on Kayak and our credit card travel site (Capital One). I also booked a couple of extra nights @ Aulani to give me wiggle room for flight deals & I canceled off a couple of nights once I secured our flights. Capital One had a price prediction scale that I checked regularly too. Prices fluctated a lot & had gone up to almost $1K then dropped dramatically one day & when it hit $708 I was happy with that - it did drop to upper $6's briefly after I booked but I wasn't going to lose sleep over a $30 difference bcuz I think we got a fair price. I also went for the "main cabin" fare which allowed us to pick seats in advance so it was a few dollars more. Delta seats are TIGHT and they changed our schedule a couple of times which annoyed me enormously (but I called when they did because I wasn't happy with their changes and they rebooked us on better flights since it was THEIR changes).

Like I said in my other post, Hawaiian or Alaska are choice to fly to Hawai'i but when there's a bottom line to hit you do what you have to. We live in upper Montg. Co. so because where we live it's about 50 minutes to BWI, DCA or Dulles for us so I checked all 3 airports with BWI being our fav. Got lucky on that one. We've had to start using DCA to FL bcuz BWI is too much $$. Good luck - don't be in a rush to book if you've got time to watch - get familiar with the fares before you book!!

 

[wiihoo888]

All good info! We’re planning on making the same trek next year and are looking at Southwest as well. It’s a one hour layover in Vegas on the flight back, and that gave us some pause. My husband requires an extra seat, so we actually have that on our side with Southwest. Just not sure about the legroom, transfers, and actually getting food on that trip home

 

[Hubie]

We're going in 2 weeks from MD out of BWI. We've been several times before - while our preferred airline to FL is SW our preference for Hawai'i is either Hawaiian or Alaska airlines. Neither of those offered good overall flight durations for this trip and I refuse to spend any longer than necessary to get there. Plus at the time that I booked in Dec. SW was NOT the cheapest. I ended up booking on Delta (one of our least favs) because the price was right ($708 pp for really good overall flight duration times and only 1 transfer in Atlanta). I was looking to book using credit card miles so my bottom line was very tight and Delta met that requirement. I do think that depending on the dates SW may offer only 1 transfer thru Las Vegas or may be San Diego. I would book one of those routes if the price was right.

That's a great price for this year all the way from MD. We paid $846 RT to Delta to fly from MSN through DTW and then onto HNL for a couple of days prior to our Oahu to Sydney DCL Cruise. We also still have to book a flight from SYD back to HNL before we fly back home after staying at Aulani for 5 nights.