Inter-Island flights -- planning and reservations?
Sep 27th, 2000, 09:24 AM
#1
Guest
Posts: n/a
Inter-Island flights -- planning and reservations?
My husband and I will be travelling from Oahu to Maui on Thanksgiving Day (Nov. 23) and returning 5 days later (the 28th). I'm still confused about arranging our inter-island flights. Are there ways to get cheap deals? Is one airline better than the others? Do we need to make reservations in advance? Are the ATM coupons the way to go? What is we buy tickets and make reservations but miss our flights (we will be flying in from the mainland on the 23rd, what if our plane is late)? Can we just catch the next flight without penalty? Are the flights likely to fill up, or are they empty so we could just wing it when we arrive? I've looked on message boards and the local airline web sites, and I can't find any real answers. Thanks for any help!
Sep 27th, 2000, 11:01 AM
#2
Guest
Posts: n/a
Hi Kristy. For our upcoming trip in October, we were able to make reservations for an interisland flight (from Maui to Kauai) on Hawaiian Airlines' website (http://www.hawaiianair.com/), without actually purchasing the tickets yet, because the advice I got was just to buy the ATM coupons at the airport because supposedly it's a lot cheaper that way than paying full price through the airline (I think when I checked the savings was around $40 per ticket). You can reserve the flights through Hawaiian online without even having to put in a credit card number.
I have also heard about coupon books good for 6 flights that you can buy, but since there were only two of us and we were only buying one interisland flight (our flights into Maui and out of Kauai were included in our tickets), the coupon book was not worth it for us.
When I originally checked, the full-price tickets on Aloha were cheaper than Hawaiian, but we booked with Hawaiian because we're going the ATM coupon route. I think you can also get the coupons from travel agents once you're there, so if for some reason the ATMs aren't working or something I figure we'll do it that way. I'm not too worried about it because we will be on Maui for 5 days before we need to catch our interisland flight, so I figure there will be plenty of time to take care of it once we're there. But if you have to catch an interisland flight immediately upon arrival, you may want to purchase yours in advance and have them mail them to you so they're in-hand before you leave. You can purchase these directly in advance from several different travel agents in Hawaii; many of them have websites or 800 numbers. I have not tried any of them so I can't vouch for them personally but if you do a search you should be able to find several. One I found when I was doing research several months ago is http://www.travel-hawaii.com/, and they seem to have a good reputation, but again, I haven't used them. You can probably find other recommendations on other boards as well such as Frommer's (www.frommers.com).
In terms of reservations, we were told to reserve in advance because the flights do fill up. However, there are so many flights every day that if you miss one you just take the next available one and I don't think it's any big deal (someone said that the interisland flights on the islands are like buses to the locals).
Good luck. Hope you post a trip report when you get back.
I have also heard about coupon books good for 6 flights that you can buy, but since there were only two of us and we were only buying one interisland flight (our flights into Maui and out of Kauai were included in our tickets), the coupon book was not worth it for us.
When I originally checked, the full-price tickets on Aloha were cheaper than Hawaiian, but we booked with Hawaiian because we're going the ATM coupon route. I think you can also get the coupons from travel agents once you're there, so if for some reason the ATMs aren't working or something I figure we'll do it that way. I'm not too worried about it because we will be on Maui for 5 days before we need to catch our interisland flight, so I figure there will be plenty of time to take care of it once we're there. But if you have to catch an interisland flight immediately upon arrival, you may want to purchase yours in advance and have them mail them to you so they're in-hand before you leave. You can purchase these directly in advance from several different travel agents in Hawaii; many of them have websites or 800 numbers. I have not tried any of them so I can't vouch for them personally but if you do a search you should be able to find several. One I found when I was doing research several months ago is http://www.travel-hawaii.com/, and they seem to have a good reputation, but again, I haven't used them. You can probably find other recommendations on other boards as well such as Frommer's (www.frommers.com).
In terms of reservations, we were told to reserve in advance because the flights do fill up. However, there are so many flights every day that if you miss one you just take the next available one and I don't think it's any big deal (someone said that the interisland flights on the islands are like buses to the locals).
Good luck. Hope you post a trip report when you get back.
