Hawaii Airfare Hard To Get??

[tlev]

I've been reading a couple of threads where people were having a hard time getting airline tickets together for travel to Hawaii. We are planning a trip for Sept. 2006, should I be booking my airfare now? What about Hotels and rental cars? How far in advance do I need to plan?

 

[chris1gill]

Which airline are you using?

If you are using American, go ahead and book your dates now... you can always change your dates if you need to at no additional cost (as long as your routing stays the same)... it is difficult to get a Hawaii FF ticket, but not impossible... just book as soon as the dates are released... you can hold your outbound ticket until your return dates are released... We have an Australian FF routing right now that leaves us in Hawaii for five nights & that was done using American... I did a lot of research before booking this trip!

 

[Jeafl]

We had absolutely no trouble at all. We used our American Airlines frequent flyer miles to get 5 free round trip tickets into Maui and out of Honolulu at the exact times we wanted. We booked 9 months in advance. We also used our FF miles to book our inner-island flights at the same time.

To be on the safe side, book as soon as you know your exact dates.

 

[disykat]

If using Frequent Flier miles, popular flights like Hawaii do require preplanning. We are going next summer and paying airfare - we haven't booked yet.

 

[Kahana-ri]

We didn't having trouble finding airfare when we went in September a few years ago. However, when we went in June this year-and it was outrageously jacked up in price! Even thought we still had to pay a lot, we bought our tickets about six weeks prior to our trip with no problem. September is such a beautiful time of year to visit. Enjoy!

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

I've watched for the past two summers--I went in September last year--and monitored the rates this year to pre-plan when to purchase our tix for next October (we will be able to get 1 FF ticket).

Rates seem to increase betweeen roughly March and the beginning of July (steady increase about a couple hundred on Northwest Airlines--the cheapest airfare we have found). And then sometime in mid-July--they drop again. Both summers--flights were still widely available for purchase for September and later.

 

[dash]

DH and I went in July (it was our second trip to Hawaii). We bought our tickets in May. They were a little more than they were in April and we didn't have as much of a choice, but it wasn't that bad. We flew Continental from the mainland. I think Hawaiian Airlines varies their prices depending upon the time you book the interisland flights.

Which island(s) are you visiting? We enjoyed our stay in Paia very much. Volcanoes National Park, Pu'uhonua o Honaunau, Iolani Palace, Pearl Harbor, and Diamondhead are also highlights. Good luck with your reservations!

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

How bad is inter-island airfare nowadays?

ETA: Just put in fluff dates--looks about $163 is the best I can do...but why in the world is Northwest charging $614 for a 51 minute flight?????? For roughly that I'll be flying from Orlando to Honolulu for crying out loud.

 

[Honu]

How bad is inter-island airfare nowadays?

I got tix from Maui to Kona on Hawaiian Air later this month for under $40 each way. During the high season $160 is about right. Island Air (who fly turbo props ) are usually $20-$40 below Hawaiian and Aloha.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

I can't price next season yet--I was plugging in August dates just to see.

Just signed up for web-specials for Aloha Air is it--tryed for Hawaiian but it isn't working, I'll have to try again.

 

[SHAMIL10]

DH & I are going in 15 days!! I just purchased our airfare Aug 1- for Oct- It was 436 pp rt from STL!! We are flying southwest to Phoenix & ATA to HNL!!



GO CARDS!!

 

[ZachnElli]

Not hard to get, just expensive. We went to Maui the end of June. I bought tickets in March, kept hoping the price would go down, instead the planes got fuller!