Aulani -Airfare and length of stay question.

[Mrs. Ciz]

Nemofans - I just put the Chicago to Big Island to Oahu to San Diego to Chicago trip into the Muti-City tab on kayak.com. Not sure when you want to go. I used dates in mid May 2013 (Monday May 6 to Friday May 17). The price was $697 per person, all legs of the trip and taxes included.

Dates in June and July are still a little high ($ 1126 pp) but should drop in the next month or so.

 

[nemofans]

Really!! I will check that out. Thanks! We are looking to go late May/early June. $1126 per person is high, but still better than what I was getting.

 

[nemofans]

Okay, so I went to Kayak & priced it out. We would like the least amount of connections as possible. There were a few choices to pick from that were about $1000/person, but of course the times weren't the greatest. I guess we can't be too picky, but w/young kids, I am trying my best to plan this w/o them having to be up extra early or stay up really late b/c of these flights.
The 1 that I found that was exactly what I want in terms of connections & times was $2021/person, totaling over $8000 (which is what I have been getting pricing it out myself).

 

[blondietink]

What about looking at one-way tickets? Sometimes if you book separate trips, it will come out cheaper, especially if willing to use separate airlines for each way.

 

[Mrs. Ciz]

Keep checking Nemofans. The flights and prices change all the time. I am still mad at myself I didn't book in mid Feb when I saw exactly what I wanted for $847. I was hoping they would drop another $100 or so and save me $400 total.

I would also be flexible on the times you fly because you little ones are going to get all out of wack with the huge time difference in Hawaii anyway. That time difference messes my whole family up, teens included!

 

[nemofans]

Thanks!
Blondie- I have tried pricing one ways using diff airlines & it drives me crazy how some airlines charge more for flying one way than round trip.

Mrs. Ciz- Yeah, the time diff will affect them. I guess I need to not be as picky & know that we will adjust.

 

[ironpig70]

I see you are in Chicago look at the airports and see which airlines have a hb in Hi and Chicago. I am in Eugene Oregon and Aligent is a direct flight and since they only fly in/out 1 day a week it is very cheap for me to get to Hawaii. Downside is they only do select cities on select days.

 

[lodge]

What about looking at one-way tickets? Sometimes if you book separate trips, it will come out cheaper, especially if willing to use separate airlines for each way.

Expect extra airport delays with one way tix..... one ways flag 'em for increased security checks.

 

[Anal Annie]

Expect extra airport delays with one way tix..... one ways flag 'em for increased security checks.

Then so be it. Flag me! We saved well over $300 to book one-ways for our trip this summer!! That ain't chump change!!

 

[MissMet]

I had read that $600 rt from the east coast was a good rate back when I researched my first trip to Hawaii in 2008. This year we saved over $100 per ticket by flying Friday rather than Sunday. I would never fly two 11 hour flights unless it was for a 2 week (or more) vacation. All that travel time & the time change, you really want to be there two weeks.

Nov 2008 trip, nonstop NY to Honolulu cost $650 each. May 2013 trip, nonstop NY to Honolulu cost $600 each.

I did a week on an island & a week on NCL's Pride of America.

This year we're doing a week with a split stay between Aulani & a resort in Waikiki & then a week on the cruise. This is my husband's first trip to Hawaii, so I wanted him to take in Waikiki nightlife.

 

[Alice Sr.]

Expect extra airport delays with one way tix..... one ways flag 'em for increased security checks.

No kidding, I did not know that. I wondered why I keep getting singled out. I usually book r/t but if I find a good rate out but haven't confirmed the return date yet or if I am hoping the return will drop in price, I will book one way. That security tag is a pain in the ..., I would rather pay more and breeze through security. Thank you for the info.

 

[Anal Annie]

I have been able to get pretty good rates on airfare from the East Coast in the past. 2009 - we flew out of Regan National (Wash DC) to Maui in July. We did a Thursday to Thursday trip and paid...wait for it...$400 per person RT with all taxes included. I could not believe how lucky we got! We went again in 2011 - Richmond, Va to Maui, Sunday to Thursday (12 days), and paid $750 per person RT all taxes included. We are going again this summer July 1- 15. We will be spending a few days in Ca for Disneyland, then 7 days on Kauai, 4 days on Oahu. I found tickets mid February for $847 per person RT taxes included out of Norfolk Va and Dulles International. I should have pulled the trigger, but I usually buy my tickets about 3 months before our travel dates. I've found its so much cheaper 3 months out. Prices have jumped back up to around $1100. I hope they drop back down in April like they usually do. For each trip, I checked the kayak.com website almost daily starting 7 months before our trip. Prices are lowest, by $100 or so, Tuesdays thru Thursdays. AND kayak.com has a multi city flight tab. You can put in any combination you need and it will allow you to price compare. I found ORF to LAX (7/1/13), LAX to LIH (7/5/13), LIH to HNL (7/12/13), HNL to ORF (7/15/13) for $847 per person with taxes this way. Hope this helps.

Would have been a good deal snagging that $847 fare. Although we preferred to use either BWI or Dulles we ended up booking out of National which was our last choice - but over $300 cheaper to go out of there than the others. I booked soon after we booked VGC and Aulani. We are also spending 4 nights at DL first but as far as I could tell that is what caused our prices to go up so much more than just flying direct to HNL. I couldn't find any cheap one-ways between LAX and HNL so ended up paying $272 for that leg alone. A friend of mine in So. CA who goes to Hawaii every summer told me to book that leg first bcuz there are so many CA peeps who go to Hawaii every summer those flights tend to fill up. Her experience is that once the prices start going up they're up to stay. She said she piddled around on booking theirs last summer and ended up paying something like $950 rt from LAX!! We are doing the straight traditional 2 weeks Sat. to Sun. - but I DID check to see if there was much difference to fly mid-week & didn't see a whole lot of fluctuation on the prices. There's another website I used too that shows just about every combination you can put together (ITA Matrix - http://matrix.itasoftware.com). I checked daily, multiple times per day for several weeks before I booked. I also checked coming back home from Maui with different transfer cities (SF, Oakland, Phoenix, Salt Lake, SD, Vegas, you name it...Seattle was the cheapest for us to get back with only 1 stop). Every day it was going UP higher & higher. When I finally found this itinerary at $1,073 pp I booked it. Within a couple of days one of our flights (1st choice of time) went up by $208. That flight has since settled back down a bit to only being $59 higher but it only dropped back in the past week... I really didn't want to switch airports but I also didn't want to pay $1,430 (which is what Dulles was running for what we wanted). I did not want to play airline roulette with waiting to see what the prices were going to be in May for August. The way they were going up scared me. You have better nerves than me. I'm not a gambler but I couldn't find anything close to that $847.

If you use Kayak.com you can also set up a fare alert with the site and they will send you an email if the flights you are looking at go down.

FYI you cannot set up "multi-city" alerts on Kayak. To search "multi-city" you have to go in & check it every day manually. The alerts on Kayak are only available for one-ways or round trips.

 

[MelissathePooh]

We booked about 3 weeks ago on Alaskan Air. June 1 - June 9 from MCO to SAN to HNL with good flight times and rountrip for $757 per person. Cracks me up to fly from Orlando to Honolulu via San Diego on Alaskan Air! We are driving down to Orlando over Memorial weekend. I have to fly home and back down, but dh and the kids will stay.

Our friends found a flight about 2 weeks ago for the same June dates from Atlanta to HNL with 2 stops round trip for $629 per person. Nonstop from Atlanta was running aroun $1100 pp.

 

[Anal Annie]

We booked about 3 weeks ago on Alaskan Air. June 1 - June 9 from MCO to SAN to HNL with good flight times and rountrip for $757 per person. Cracks me up to fly from Orlando to Honolulu via San Diego on Alaskan Air! We are driving down to Orlando over Memorial weekend. I have to fly home and back down, but dh and the kids will stay.

Our friends found a flight about 2 weeks ago for the same June dates from Atlanta to HNL with 2 stops round trip for $629 per person. Nonstop from Atlanta was running aroun $1100 pp.

Alaska Air is who we ultimately ended up booking for our flight from DC to LAX and then home from Maui with only 1 stop (Seattle). I have never used them but they are rated very well so figured worth a shot (esp. since I refuse to include unnecessary transfers & stops & they offered good flights that met my criteria). I noticed that on the return flight from Maui to DC (if money was no object) that the Alaska Air FIRST CLASS seat was cheaper than United's Economy cabin price by at least $100. That's absurd!! If I wasn't trying to fly as cheaply as possible I would've been all over that one!!

 

[Alice Sr.]

I reserved Aulani 10/22-29 today and booked Chicago to HNL non-stop both ways for $766 r/t. Glad that's over. I paid more than that for my DD flight to WDW last October for the F & W Fest and it wasn't non-stop. Kind of feel like I got a deal here.

Thanks everyone for the good info.

 

[Anal Annie]

I reserved Aulani 10/22-29 today and booked Chicago to HNL non-stop both ways for $766 r/t. Glad that's over. I paid more than that for my DD flight to WDW last October for the F & W Fest and it wasn't non-stop. Kind of feel like I got a deal here.

Thanks everyone for the good info.

Sounds like ya done good! Congrats!

 

[mckymomma13]

We are booked for Sept and booked our flight a month ago, flying from NYC to HNL nonstop for $659 on Hawaiin Airlines. A few day later price went up.

 

[joeabate]

I reserved Aulani 10/22-29 today and booked Chicago to HNL non-stop both ways for $766 r/t. Glad that's over. I paid more than that for my DD flight to WDW last October for the F & W Fest and it wasn't non-stop. Kind of feel like I got a deal here.

Thanks everyone for the good info.

We also just booked 10/22 - 30th. We are flying from NY to visit our daughter first. Flying San Francisco to Honolulu and then Honolulu to NY for $525 each on Hawaiian Air.

It's our second trip to Aulani. Was just there in January and loved it!

 

[Alice Sr.]

We also just booked 10/22 - 30th. We are flying from NY to visit our daughter first. Flying San Francisco to Honolulu and then Honolulu to NY for $525 each on Hawaiian Air.

It's our second trip to Aulani. Was just there in January and loved it!

I did panic after the previous poster mentioned Hawaiian Air as I did not think to check their fares/schedules. They do not fly non-stop out of Chicago, the fare was a little less but not enough to make up for the longer route time so I
feel better. How was the weather in January? I like it hot so I'm concerned it won't be warm enough for me to be comfortable hanging on the beach or some of the water activities I want to plan.

 

[huhwhat]

just returned fron AUlani...I paid $375 r/t (yup) N/S from JFK to Hnl.....I went for a week ...the airfare was so cheap it didnt bother me to take a shorter trip