The trends I notice which will not be helpful to you now, is taht the best prices are generally offered in January but not necesarily to travel in January...

I bought tickets from Houston to Lihue in October for our trip in June for about $900 rt...the same tickets are $1250. LAX to LIH in June is running over $1000 rt. As long as oil prices stay up, so will airline tickets...

If you don't already get them, sign up for Alaska Air's emails. We flew RT from San Jose CA to Kona for $298. Bought the tickets 12/30/11 for travel in Feb 2012.

I agree about signing up with the airline newsletters/frequent flyer programs. I am with Hawaiian Air and get notices about flights out of Seattle quite often.

There are also travel sites - which offer updates on the various fares/routes. Check around - and one of the other big name sites may be a good starting point.

General guidelines suggest 6 weeks out is an optimal time. Unless you are traveling over the Christmas holiday. In that case, I'd be buying about 6 months out, if not earlier.

October is low season. You can afford to monitor prices and get an idea of what the market will bear.

I think the key is to check every day. For several weeks I was finding $1208 - $1248 for the AA flights I wanted (Nashville to Lihue). It suddenly dropped to $1089 -- and I grabbed it.

October is low season? Oh, well, I guess, we'll risk it. We're thinking of October too.

Sign up for alerts from kayak.com as well........

If you get an Alaska Airlines credit card, you'll be awarded an annual $99 companion fare ticket. So if the fare for one is $1,000, you'll both fly for $1,099 (plus tax). Good enough deal for us last year that we flew first class for little more than the price of two coach seats.

Thanks everyone. Great advice on the airline emails. I will be signing up for those and checking prices regularly.

Dayenu... October in Kauai is beautiful and worth the risk.

I don't have the Alaskan credit card, I have debated it though. I wasn't too excited about paying an annual fee. May be worth it in the long run though.

Charlotte, I agree, October in Hawaii is so much better then October at work

Just bought two round trip tickets from SF bay area to Lihue, Kauai, $800 all in.
Our first trip.

We are leaving on May 20 and returning on June 1, so 12 day stay.

Found fare on Kayak and booked through Alaska Airlines.

YIPEE !!!!!

Okay, so I have been watching airfare on every website out there trying to get the best deal. I have known plenty of people who have flown for $400-500 per person round trip to Kauai from Seattle, some for even less than that. That is the price-range I am looking for. I paid about $600 per ticket two years ago when we went and that is about what I am finding they are going for right now. Am I delusional to think I am going to find lower this year? I still have 6 months so I don't want to get too excited and miss a good deal, but I don't want them to jump to $800 per person and get stuck paying that!

Songdoc, do you remember how close you were to your travel date when it dropped?

The best time to buy flights for anywhere is 3-4 months before your trip. Our last trip to Kauai was May 2011 and I bought our tickets in February 2011.
Another example: we went to Paris in October 2008 so I bought our tickets in June 2008.

I would keep a watch on the ticket prices but for a trip in October I wouldn't buy tickets until June/early July. When June/July arrives and you are comfortable with the ticket price then buy them and don't look back!

Topping after reading Islandaze's Mar 7 post.
Glad I read it. I have an Alaska cr card and do qualify for the once a year $99 companion ticket. Up until now I thought this was just for flights througout the continental United States. Evidently not. I just looked at the restrictions and unless I'm missing something the ticket is good for any Alaska Air route.

I don't generally find airfares goiing down these days and I am not the type of person who can wait 6 weeks b4 leaving - would freak me out if I didn't have my tix in hand. If that doesn't bother you then wait. Checking daily is a good idea. If you are looking for a pkg deal (hotel, air and car or not car) try costco.com. I have purchased several pkg deals with them and have saved several hundred $ by doing that. Very good hotels too. Just booked with them for January 2013 at the Hyatt in waikiki for a few days and saved a lot. Best of luck in finding a good airfare......

Bo, we used the Alaska Air $99 companion ticket to fly SFO-LIH last October, and intend to do so again this year.

sf7307,
If we can manage to get seats this way from LAX to Kona early June of next year , it'll certainly help us. We're a family of 5--Grandma (that's me), my daughter and son-in-law, and my 2 grandsons, ages 10 and 12 by the time we have our Big Island vacation. Wondering if companion tickets are capacity controlled as are ff tickets. We're going to try to handle everything now with ff tickets except for an Alaska purchase with the $99 companion ticket. I have enough ff miles on Alaska Air for at least 3 seats, on United for at least 3, on American for 1, on Delta for 2. Hopefully we can work something out where at worst case scenario there will be 3 of us on one flight and 2 on another. Not ideal, but we'd be happy to have with it with air fares being what they are these days. Can't remember exactly when ff seats are released. Will have to look it up. I seem to remember something about 330 days before the flight. Well, I'll be holding good thoughts.

Louistraveler5, do you mind if I ask what you paid for your May, 2011 flight? We are traveling from Tampa to Kauai mid May, and we choose that time b/c it's the off season. Looking at flights from Tampa right now, and it's $950-$1000+ RT. This is the same price as when I looked months ago.

I've had good luck getting good prices from the east coast around August for trips in late October/early November. That would coincide with the "low season" posters are referring to.

Hibiscus, United is showing $750 to Lihue on May 1, 2, 3 , 7 and 8. On the 13th it's around 800 and then every day in may after that is 900 or 1000. So apparently the off-season ends mid-May? Perhaps lots of students start traveling towards the end of May, and parents off to graduations etc.

Generally in the off-season, 45 days before travel is the best time to find a good fare.
How many nights are you staying and what's the earliest date that you can leave Tampa?

2011 prices have NO bearing on prices in 2013.

Thanks. I realize that 2011 doesn't equate to 2013 prices, I was looking at trends. Our dates are May 11th to May 18th.

farecompare.com and farereport.com are a couple sites that give average airfares from your destination.

There may be better sites but these should give you an idea