Reasonable Airfare to Hawaii?

[AKLFan3]

I am trying to plan a trip to Aulani in December, but the cheapest airfare I can find from Michigan is $850! Is there a certain time of year where airfare from the midwest is cheaper to Hawaii? I hope $800+ airfare is not typical. In your opinion, what is a reasonable flight price to Hawaii? TIA

 

[axfather]

as the times of travel are so unknown...but Hawaii can be different as it is hard to arrive on the same day of travel without leaving your home airport at a decent hour....so when I travel to Hawaii I bid what I think is fair on Priceline...the times are always OK and the price is always good...good luck,

 

[dianeschlicht]

$800 is typical from Minnesota. I would think you are trying to book it a little too soon just yet. We find we get the best deals about 4-5 months out.

When in December is your trip? If it's early in the month, you should be able to get a better deal, but the closer you get to the holidays, the more difficult that will be.

 

[AKLFan3]

When in December is your trip? If it's early in the month, you should be able to get a better deal, but the closer you get to the holidays, the more difficult that will be.

We haven't booked a date yet. I searched from December 1st through December 25th for a 6 night trip since we will only go if we can find a decent price between those dates.

Thanks for the information. I'll try searching 5 months in advance and if we find a price we are willing to pay for, I will just have to hope we can get an ocean view studio.

 

[Brian Noble]

but the cheapest airfare I can find from Michigan is $850! Is there a certain time of year where airfare from the midwest is cheaper to Hawaii? I hope $800+ airfare is not typical.

$750-$800 seems pretty common for DTW-HNL for this upcoming May. (My wife has a conference there---tough to be her.) I've been using Farecast (travel.bing.com) daily to watch the route. I caught a *one day* sale *yesterday*, that only American was running, for $530. Today, the lowest fare is back to $750, which is more or less where it has been for months.

And, I'm guessing May is lower demand for HI from Michigan than December.

 

[ChiSoxKeith]

Try looking at fares from LAX. You could break the trip up with say an overnight stay at DLR. I've seen some fares for about $500 from LAX to HNL in September.

 

[AKLFan3]

Try looking at fares from LAX. You could break the trip up with say an overnight stay at DLR. I've seen some fares for about $500 from LAX to HNL in September.

That's a good suggestion! However, I just checked two separate trips from DTW to LAX then LAX to HNL and the cost is almost $1000. But I will just keep checking throughout the year. Aulani may be just one of these trips that I have to save up for. I'm used to spending only $200 or so to fly to Orlando.

 

[nolanboys]

I was just pricing out flights to Hawaii the other day. Guess maybe we won't take all the kids. Thought maybe I could find cheaper airfare if I broke it up and found the same thing you did. The price was then $1000 a ticket! Part of the reason we bought into DVC is because we can usually find very reasonable flights to Orlando. So much for Hawaii...maybe some day.

 

[rcchello]

I read that airfares to HI are almost never low because all the extra seats are all taken up by frequent flier awards.

I have also heard that there are some cheap fares from LAS to HNL (Las Vegas to Honolulu). Hawaiian Airlines uses that airport, so sometimes Delta or them have cheaper fares.

 

[Starr W.]

That's a good suggestion! However, I just checked two separate trips from DTW to LAX then LAX to HNL and the cost is almost $1000. But I will just keep checking throughout the year. Aulani may be just one of these trips that I have to save up for. I'm used to spending only $200 or so to fly to Orlando.

We flew to HI last summer from DTW, when I looking for tickets, some of the best prices came up with US Air through Phoenix and they had some of the better flight times(not too short or too long layovers). American also had some decent fares.

In the end, we decided to use our NWA/DL miles and upgraded to 1st class on DL

We took the kids for 17 days and they want to go back again this summer(Pearl Harbor and Volcano Nat. Park are the driving factors).


PS-I saw that deal Brian got on American, via Airfarewatchdog on twitter.

 

[paeskie]

My sister lives in Hawaii, and the fares are always $800-$1000 round trip. We live in North Carolina, and flights always are two legs through Phoenix or Denver or someplace.

 

[Pakey]

I'm going to Maui in 5 weeks and I'm paying that much from California. This will be our 5th trip to Hawaii and the only great deal I've ever found was flying out of Ontario airport in S Cal. I've never gotten a bargain flying out of Los Angeles or San Francisco.

 

[littlestar]

Sometimes flying in on a different day of the week than a weekend helps. Also, sometimes pricing a package to Hawaii with a hotel included is cheaper than buying the airfare separately. So definitely check Travelocity, Expedia, etc., with a hotel included. You might be surprised what pops up.

We booked a package through Travelocity that included a hotel in Waikiki for around $800 from Indy to HNL and didn't even use the hotel (just got back a week ago). We used our Wyndham points and stayed in Wyndham's timeshare at Waikiki and liked our condo so well that nobody ever stayed all night in the hotel room.

 

[taaren]

If you can find fares frm the West coast for under $500, snag it. Fortunately my mom works for the airlines so when I was doing my B.A. in Michigan it was easy to come home, but in the last few years standby travel has been a nightmare w all the mergers so we often buy confirmed seats anyways. $800 from Mich is pretty average, particularly during Dec. Off times are anytime kids are in school, then the residents outnumber the tourists ... if there's a school vacation on we are outnumbered 2-4 visitors for every resident. So planes are pretty full. Plus w the Canadian dollar so strong there's a ton of foreigners taking up seats and keeping prices high for the airlines.

 

[axfather]

you could use a freq. flyer award to west coast and then see about a cheaper flight from west coast.

 

[wink13]

I've been following airfare from Omaha to HNL and they have been running $675-$850. The flight we really wanted was on United as it could get us back in 1 day. I went to Unitedvacations.com and found if I booked the flight and rental car package it was $590/person. The same flight without a car on united.com was showing $843/person.

You might give the vacation packages a try. The hotel package was also cheaper than the flight only also but we want to stay at Aulani so thought the rental would be better.

Good Luck!

 

[dianeschlicht]

I agree that vacation packages (especially from airlines) are often a good way to go. Last time, we got a package for 2 nights in Honolulu that included air for about $550. We used the 2 nights on the end of our trip and spent 2 plus weeks on the outer islands before coming back to Oahu and then flying out.

 

[SoCalDCLfan]

I've been following airfare from Omaha to HNL and they have been running $675-$850. The flight we really wanted was on United as it could get us back in 1 day. I went to Unitedvacations.com and found if I booked the flight and rental car package it was $590/person. The same flight without a car on united.com was showing $843/person.

You might give the vacation packages a try. The hotel package was also cheaper than the flight only also but we want to stay at Aulani so thought the rental would be better.

Good Luck!

Wow! Thanks for the great tip! This is going to save us a lot of money.

 

[castle1]

I am trying to plan a trip to Aulani in December, but the cheapest airfare I can find from Michigan is $850! Is there a certain time of year where airfare from the midwest is cheaper to Hawaii? I hope $800+ airfare is not typical. In your opinion, what is a reasonable flight price to Hawaii? TIA

I think you are going to find that $750+ is a typical fare from Michigan, unless you can snag a super sale. Just sign up for sale alerts from airline websites, like AA.com and others. Good Luck!!

 

[crisi]

We watched for a long time from Minneapolis. Because we wanted to island hop, that made it more expensive. We ended up with about $1000 per person in airfare. But that's Minneapolis to Kona to Maui to Minneapolis.