Cheap East Coast-Hawaii fares

[LoneStar]

There's an unadvertised fare war going on today among the airlines resulting in some $300 to $350 roundtrip airfares from the East Coast to Hawaii -- mostly HNL and OGG. Unfortunately, most of the fares seem to be for September travel, but I've seen some posted through January. Those interested should go to Travelocity, type in their home airport and HNL, check "flexible dates" and see what pops up.

[thereuare]

Lonestar, this comes at a good time for me, but ultimately i need to go to LIH.

Knowing very little about Hawaii, are there any other options to get from HNL/OGG to LIH besides flying? Are there local carriers (that wouldn't be seen on Travelocity) with better fares than the major airlines in order to go inter-island?

My dates are flexible and the best option i was currently viewing was Hotwire where i could get a one stop from NYC to LIH for $815 'all-in' and also have a window of when the flights would depart (but no layover control); traditional fares started at about $100 more per tix.

[TravelGuy]

Do you have any United frequent flyer miles? You can get an intra-island round trip for just 5,000.

[LoneStar]

Yes, the United ff redemption is the best interisland deal -- it's the one I've been using (especially since the other airlines recently raised it to 10,000).

If you don't have that, you either have to fly direct or pay the inter-island fare. To Maui and, to some extent, Kona, flying direct can be a money-saving option, as the "add on" fare from the mainland (especially on nonstop flights) can be less than $100 more expensive than buying a ticket to Honolulu. To Kauai, however, I've rarely found any deals since there are few mainland flights. It's almost always cheaper to buy your ticket to HNL and then shop for a good interisland fare (of course, every rule has an exception in this business!).

As far as local carriers go, there are a couple. They fly very small prop planes and tend to come and go in the business. Except to a small island like Molakai, they represent a tiny portion of the interisland seats. Off the top of my head, I can't remember their names. You're not talking about a massive savings, though, especially if you plan ahead. Maybe 20 bucks each way, tops.

[thereuare]

Thanks for the info, both of you.

I think the bulk of our FF miles are on CO/NW... i'll continue to search, but it looks like the $815 fare might be my best bet, and is fairly close to piecing together the flights using the above deal.

I'll keep everyone updated, but please pass along any future NYC/LIH (or other HI) deals.

[thereuare]

Actually just checked and my wife has 70K FF mile on AA... that is 5K each, each way or RT? (shows how out of the loop i am in regards to FF miles)

[TravelGuy]

It looks like 10K each per r/t on AA according to their partner award chart.

[thereuare]

Looking at that chart, does it seem worthwhile to use 35K to fly to Hawaii? (i didn't know my wife had these miles, and had forgotten about my own CO/NW miles)

I always figure a flight from NYC to most US destinations could be had for ~$300 or less... so given this is $800+ to Hawaii, it seems like it may be a good deal to use points since the flight is more than two continental US roundtrips ($600) but uses less than two US trips via FF miles. Then again, i don't think that continental US is where the 'value' in FF trips is had. :)

[djohannw]

HNL-LIH is about $150, or can be even as low as $115 roundtrip if you travel through 9/15 on Aloha. EWR-HNL on AA runs at $359 on AA, WAS-HNL $319 on DL and NW.

OGG-LIH is about $145, and fares from EWR or WAS are the same as mentioned above. From PHL, OGG is $386 on CO. Finally a through-fare on UA from EWR to LIH will run at about $469 with UA. All fares are plus tax. Availability is spotty and will most likely require a specialist (read: Travel agent or experienced flyertalker...;-)) to get that booked.

Btw: If you go with NW (e.g. from IAD/DCA) you can register for their double miles promo yielding quite a chunk of miles. And if you have a certificate from Northwest (PD964 or PD929) you can apply that to that fares as well bringin down the cost considerably...check your junk mail for those.

Greetings - Dirk

[bqredsox24]

thank YOU for posting that! If only I could get away in September...have my sights set on January....

[bqredsox24]

i just checked Delta for January

found flights starting at 609 (saturday to saturday)

I know they are in Chp11...so just book with a credit card

[rennwerkes]

Was just checking if there were any good deals from Honolulu to the West Coast but thought I'd share some current interisland air info.

There's a fare war going on now between the interisland carriers so you can find one way flights for as low as $19!