Looking for help with airfare to Hawaii? and other ??

[ctc917]

My family and I were thinking of taking a trip to Hawaii and I was wondering if anyone that vacationed there anytime from end of June to mid August flying from New England could share what you paid for Airfare? what airlines you flew with? and when did you book it? How was the weather at that time of year too? did you wish you traveled to Hawaii another time of year?

Thanks
ctc917

 

[planningjollyholiday]

Sorry can't help, but I just wanted to say you should post this question on the DVC boards. A lot of them own at Aulani and may be able to help with your airfare question.

 

[ctc917]

Thanks I'll try that too...

 

[HeatherC]

I would suggest also pricing out flights to CA and then separate flights on to Hawaii.

Haven't been since our honeymoon in 1995, but have been toying with the idea of taking the kids sometime.

What I would probably do is use Southwest to fly to CA free on points and then separate flightsto HI.

Have fun planning!

 

[Gracie09]

I would suggest also pricing out flights to CA and then separate flights on to Hawaii. Haven't been since our honeymoon in 1995, but have been toying with the idea of taking the kids sometime. What I would probably do is use Southwest to fly to CA free on points and then separate flightsto HI. Have fun planning!

If you do this make sure you know the draw backs. You have to get your luggage from your first flight and recheck it for your second and go through security again. If something happens with your first flight that causes you to miss your second flight you're pretty much sol and neither airline has to so anything to help you get to your final destination.

 

[HeatherC]

Sorry...I should have been more specific. We would do this with a stopover in CA for a night or two so luggage wouldn't be a problem. For our family of five, it could save us a TON of money even paying for a hotel one night.

We flew from BOS to HI straight thru via a stop in Dallas. Never again for us. It was way too long...over 16 hours. So next time we would stop.

 

[crisi]

If you do this make sure you know the draw backs. You have to get your luggage from your first flight and recheck it for your second and go through security again. If something happens with your first flight that causes you to miss your second flight you're pretty much sol and neither airline has to so anything to help you get to your final destination.

You are best off putting a day between flights - or more - which can add significantly to costs since now you have a hotel room. But since airfare from the Twin Cities when we went was $1200 a person, and I could have flown out of Portland or LAX for $450, we could have gotten a $400 flight into Portland or LAX, saved $300 a ticket x 4 - or $1200 for the vacation - and even after spending $600 on hotel rooms and extra meals done fine - our issue was that we didn't have the two extra days of vacation.

 

[alohamom]

early june is a great time to go as you are getting ahead of the wedding/honeymoon crowd and some schools are not out yet. From a price point of view, May and Sept/Oct are the best times to go. We have done the overnight in Cali many times and it is our prefered way to travel to Hawaii. You can get a super cheap overnight on Priceline ont he way there at LAX area hotels like the Sheraton etc if you are only just sleeping over and then stay a day or two on your way home to cut the jet lag down a bit. I am seeing a steady flight cost between 800-1100 per person out of Buffalo for the last little while as we are planning to go in late August. you can sign up for "watcher" notifications from sites like Hotwire, Airfare Watchdog, Travelocity etc but it is best to go into the many travel sites on a regular basis yourself and see what you can find. good luck and happy travels

 

[Green Tea]

Sign up at beatofhawaii.com. The list will send the best deals found. I've seen crazy low fares from the west coast and reasonable ones from the east. The west are far more common!

Whenever we've gone we pay just around $1000 pp from the east coast, though now that I know about Beat of Hawsii, I won't pay that much again!

 

[DisneyAndRedSox]

We are going to Aulani next month and live in Central Mass. We ended up booking out of Laguardia in NYC. I am dreading it (DH really didn't consult me on it ), but it was a pretty good deal compared to Boston. I think it was about $700 a person going to Honolulu through Dallas.

We booked a hotel in NYC at the airport that includes keeping our car in a garage, it really isn't that much more than parking our at Boston for 9 days.

 

[Mrs. Ciz]

We have flown to Hawaii 3 times over the past six years in June/July from the East Coast. We live in Virginia and can fly from 5 different airports (RIC, ORF, DCA, IAD, BWI) pretty easily. I always check all 5 to get the best deal.

June 2009: Flew from DCA to Maui, traveled on Thursdays, bought tickets in early May for $420 r/t.

July 2011: Flew from RIC to Maui, traveled on Friday and Tuesday, bought tickets in early May for $750 r/t.

June 2013: Needed multi city tickets so we could stay a few days each at Disneyland, on Kauai and on Oahu. Flew from BWI to LAX, LAX to Kauai, Kauai to Oahu, Oahu to BWI. I found tickets for $850 in mid February, but didn't buy then because previously we'd always seen the lowest prices in early May. I was sure they would drop in price. Nope! They just went up, up, up. We paid $1100 per ticket. Totally blew my vacation budget!

Good luck with your flights. If you find something good, jump on it. I checked the Kayak.com website daily. They have a special tab to search for multi city tickets.

 

[AllesonWonderland]

I'm on the lookout myself! (Looking to fly from Kansas City, Wichita, Dallas, Tulsa...somewhere in the middle of the country) Had a relative that offered to gift us miles, but when the dates were first made available I hesitated to ask because it felt like a lot. Turns out they didn't care, but now all the award travel is gone. (Except for first class for a bazillion miles.)

Anyway, I'm liking this site to watch prices: http://www.itasoftware.com/ Lots of different ways to search, and you can even do a bunch of airports within a radius. I'm also signed up for alerts from fare compare, airfarewatchdog, etc. Thanks, Green Tea, for the beatofhawaii tip--signing up there next!

Seeing that Mrs. Ciz snagged good prices so close to travel dates is reassuring, though I might be scared to wait.

We're going in June to celebrate our 20th. First time there! Good luck with your search, here's hoping we both find good prices!

 

[KCmike]

I would like to do this for my 25th wedding anniversary. I have been trying to research the airfare lately and best time to go to Hawaii. Loving this thread.

 

[Pakey]

I'm no help since I live in CA but I recently went to Hawaii twice within 9 months, buying airfare close to each other timewise. Flying to Maui was twice as much as flying to Oahu. There are a lot more flights going to Oahu than there are to the other islands so that could make a big difference in airfare costs.

I've been to Hawaii in February, March, April, May, June, September, October, November. I've been to Oahu twice, Hawaii once and Maui 5 times. The weather has been pretty consistent. Except for avoiding the big Japanese holidays (there are a lot of tourists from Japan) I haven't found crowds to be that different either. I've been there for spring break and Thanksgiving and I couldn't tell a difference from my other vacations there. It's just a great place to go anytime.

 

[bearzabout]

Sign up for travelocity or any other automatic notification services so you know when flight prices drop. You can set up multiple departure airports and get emails each time the price drops by a predetermined amount. A friend was able to book Chicago-Hnl for $600 round trip in August last year.

Be ready to book if you see prices drop. They may only go down for a day or less.

I go in August - September. I can get hot. I always make sure to have AC that time of year. If there is only a window AC in the living room, the bedrooms can get hot. Anytime is a good time to go, but we like the months outside of winter since it is less windy and the oceans are calmer. It is easier to snorkel.

 

[minnie10]

We flew to Honolulu at the end of May 2012. We flew with Southwest points(DH and myself both signed up for Credit Card 50,000 points deal). We flew from Birmingham to Los Angeles. The cost for 4 of us from LAX to Honolulu was $1600 total...I have started researching the same trip timeframe today and it looks like it will cost us about $2400 this trip unless I can find a deal. Again, that will be with using points to get us to LAX.