OT- How far in advance do I book flight to Hawaii?

[klfrech]

Planning a family trip next summer. I know it's too early to book flights now, but is sooner better than later?

 

[swilshire]

If there is a potential to use frequent flyer miles, do it at 331 days (depending on the airline). If you are purchasing the tickets, it's tough.

For our trip last month, our two older kids were making their own arrangements. All of the special fares expired the day we were leaving home (summers are more expensive). I signed up for every airlines' email updates and started reading flyertalk.com . I saw a post on that site regarding flights from Atlanta (about 200 miles from us) to Honolulu for $354 roundtrip. My daughter ask if they would be any cheaper and I urged her to book immediately, which she did. My son waited until four or five months out to decide he wanted to go and the cheapest fares were around $700. Then he couldn't even get the dates he wanted without paying lots more than that. He wound up paying a lot, then was forced to go five days later than the rest of us and come back two days early even to get what he got. A couple of weeks before we left, I got an email showing available flights for about half what he paid. You just can't win.

We are planning a trip to the British Isles next June and I don't even know how to start to find the best fare.

Sheila

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

We booked at 331 days with skymiles....The cost at that time was about the same as what my family paid though with a different airline.

My rest of my family booked within the last month for a trip in October.

I monitored "seasons" and checked prices frequently in the year or so that we waited to get our tickets as I had expected to buy 3 of our 4 tickets....adn then discovered that skysavers was available.

If you can find prices in the $600s--that is about standard...anything less I would consider a "sale" even though it may not seem like it. Sheila's deal sounds awesome as do her suggestions of signing up with all the airlines.

You may also download ding--and then sign up for Aloha and Hawaiian Airlines.

I know one of them has a sale right now from west coast to Hawaii--so if you got creative and lucky, combined with a ding fare to the west coast you may do okay. Those airlines have various sales throughout the year.

Hazarding a guest--but waiting until January or later for that summer--you may hit very high prices as everyone in cold areas decides to plan a warm exotic vacation.

 

[klfrech]

Thank you for the guidance! Since we won't be using FF miles, you can bet I'll be keeping an eye out for prices.

One more question: package or no package? I've always done Disney planning things on my own separately. Anyone with experience with Hawaii packages? We are planning on visiting Maui as well as the Big Island.

 

[jsmith]

in gonna go counter culture here-the cheapest tickets i have ever gotten to hawaii were purchased 28 days out-and i had to exercise my right to cancel with in 24 hours and rebook cause i had paid 100 more a ticket-fair dropped at midnight-when you go is more important than when you book the tickets-to get the CHEAPEST fares to hawaii go either between the last week of oct and the third week of Nov or between the sunday after thanksgiving and the 15th of december-since people take holiday vacations this is the "low" season for hawaii-hotels should be cheaper then and beaches less crowded. I have paid as little as 324 for round trip none stops from denver in this time frame. cant speak to package vs not since we stay military housing so we never do packages.

 

[klfrech]

I'm a school teacher, so I'm afraid summer is it for me!

 

[Skatermom23]

I just got back last week from Hawaii and I had purchased my airline tickets last October. I watched the prices all the way up till we left and it never came in any lower nor did did match what we paid. So here's a vote for the earlier the better.....

 

[grlpwrd]

May I ask where you'll fly out of?

It also depends on the season and your originating coast/hub. I used to work for Hawaiian Airlines and American Airlines. I know www.hawaiianairlines.com has lots of specials from the West Coast. I live on the East Coast (Virginia) and I have found Northwest Airlines has the best rate for us. It may be easier to book directly (via airline website or sites like expedia.com) or get a travel agent to search for you.

Or you could do the package deal, but price is based on double occupancy. I know Northwest and Hawaiian have vacation packages available even on their websites. Plus, there is Pleasant Hawaiian Holidays and Hawaiian Vacations.

Hope any of this this helps!

 

[klfrech]

Thanks for the tips. We would be flying out of Pittsburgh, Pa. I know I could fly SW to Phoenix, but I'd have to wait until they opened up their schedule. USAir and America West would also get us to HNL via Phoenix.

I've never really seen a good package deal, even to Disney. It's the whole "per person" thing. Why would I pay for a hotel room per person instead of per night? Perhaps someone can shed some light on this for me!

 

[barkley]

i'm booked for a vacation to maui and i despite being pretty adept at booking everything myself sans package deals i could'nt beat the packages hyatt hotels is offering.

i looked at the condo prices, the moderate resorts and all of the less expensive lodging-but with the total i ended up paying through hyatt the higher cost of lodging was balanced out by much lower travel costs (and i live on the west coast-the bargains for flying out of here are not nearly as good as what i could get if i were comeing from the east coast or mid west-kind of the issue some of you have with traveling to florida, we can get great rates to florida which are much lower than the prices you pay living closer).

so i ended up with a package that includes our air fare, lodging, rental car as well as free breakfast every morning for the adults (the kids depending on age are either free or half price).

 

[klfrech]

May I ask when you are going? The Hyatt is a fabulous hotel (stayed on my honeymoon) and am considering it again. How far in advance did you book your package?

 

[snowiit]

Subscribing to this thread.....
Nancy

 

[barkley]

May I ask when you are going? The Hyatt is a fabulous hotel (stayed on my honeymoon) and am considering it again. How far in advance did you book your package?

i'm going in november and just booked last month. they have a bunch of deals going and i think some extend into next summer (and they may have some that are'nt yet showing on the website but you could call the number and find out). i have to say that one of the things that realy appealed to me was even though it's not cheap-the hyatt has a kid's program that would allow myself and dh to have some alone time. the kid's program also has some activities that i know my daughter will realy enjoy vs. my son who will likely want to spend the entire trip on the beach or in the pool- i know that we'll go to the old lahina luau-but one of the kid's club offerings is for the kids to go to the entertainment portion of the hyatt's luau one evening-right up my daughter's alley.

the only upgrades i did to the package was going from the standard sized car to an suv (need the luggage space) and popping for the 'flower lei greetings' (it won't be hawaii to my daughter unless this happens ).