It's no surprise these days that airfares are very high, but I was hoping my husband and I could get from Baltimore to Maui in January without spending $1,100 to $1,400 (per person) round trip. I have checked every single day since we booked our accommodations in April, both directly with the airlines and through other services like Travelocity, Orbitz, etc., and just can't seem to catch a break. Am I missing something obvious? Or should we resign ourselves to paying an outrageous amount of money for transportation? Thanks in advance for any insight anyone can offer.

when in January? That MIGHT make a difference. I checked from BWI AND IAD and prices are that high. Usually I'd suggest you check BWI to HNL and a local flight to OGG but those prices are no better.

Our travel dates are January 14-28. I did check flying into Honolulu and also using Dulles or National, but as you say, it doesn't help. I've checked fares for one segment of the trip at a time, which Travelocity and other sites suggest, and using lower-fare carriers like Southwest for part of the trip. No matter how I do it, it still adds up to a ton of cash. Some people have told us to wait until right after Christmas or New Year to book, but in my mind that's taking a huge risk. I don't think I have the stomach to wait until the last minute like that! Anyway, thanks for your reply, mztery.

Have you tried purchasing one-way tickets using www.kayak.com. That is what I did last year for a February flight to Maui. I would wait. Kids are back in school during January 14-28. One way tickets are a good way to go, because if the weather is bad on the way over and you miss your flight, you still have your ticket back.

I would wait a few weeks - at these prices I would guess they won't go UP much for the next few weeks at least....

Thank you both, I appreciate your thoughts. I did check Kayak, Wally, but I don't remember now if I tried looking at one-way fares--I'll certainly give it a try!

BWI - PDX, Continental, your dates, $468.75 pprt

PDX - OGG, Alaska Air, your dates, $492.49 pprt

Representative of best I could find checking several airlines and routes.

Your dates are high season Saturdays. Saturdays and high season make travel quite a bit more expensive than otherwise. You could save up to several hundred dollars each by flying during the week.

Alaska Airlines, DCA-xSEA-OGG and v.v., 1/14 - <b>1/29</b>, $869 all in. Around $100 more to come back on the Saturday (1/28).

Or get an Alaska Airlines (Bank of America) Visa, a bunch of bonus miles, AND the $100 companion certificate. Buy one ticket (even first class if you like) and the second ticket is $100.

While I can't give you a better way to get good rates for your flights, I can offer a bit of advice from someone who has traveled to Maui several times from the Midwest. We used to go Sat-Sat for a week. Monday going to back work was a killer. We now go Sat-Fri and 13 days. Since you're coming back on an overnight you're actually getting in on Saturday. That leaves Sunday to get rested and ready for work on Monday.

Thank you all for your helpful advice. I will post again when I make our reservations.

Well, after six months of checking (literally) every day for decent airfares, I finally booked our reservations for $900 (including tax) per person, round trip--still expensive, but far better than I'd thought we'd do, based on my research. I went through Travelocity, and some of the flights are on United and some on USAir. Also, I had to settle for two stops rather than one, but there are no long layovers and we still arrive at perfectly reasonable times on both ends. So it pays to be persistent, but I never would have thought it would take so long to find a "reasonable" fare.

Thanks again to all who offered advice! Aloha . . .

This is my NIGHTMARE type of trip - two carriers, bought through a 3rd party with two connections....
Don't be surprised when you come back and report in Feb that US air lost your bag but wont help, or that you were stuck on an airport overnight when the connection was late.

And FYI I just checked orbitz - for your dates US Air is offering a straight up fare of $937 with just one change each direction.

Mztery, I understand your concerns but our trip from Baltimore to Maui worked out just fine (I'm writing this from Maui). We'd all prefer just one connection, but it was no big deal and everything went quite smoothly. And the $900 per person fare was the best available when I booked, which was on October 19--I simply didn't have the time to post that information until November 13. Also, it turns out that United and USAir are in the process of merging, so we're not actually on two different carriers--and our bags arrived at the same time we did. I'll post again if we have any problems on our return trip.

United and USAir are two separate airlines. Not merging, no plans to merge. They just belong to the same alliance.

I apologize, rkkwan; I meant to say that United and Continental are merging (http://hub.united.com/News/CompanyOp...se-merger.aspx). It's getting harder to read one's itinerary these days, with statements like "Blah-Blah Flight XXX Operated by Blah-Blah Airlines Doing Business as Blah-Blah, but check in with Blah-Blah" . . . it's enough to drive you bonkers!

Regardless, we had no problems, and I still believe that the difference in airlines on a single trip doesn't matter. You can just as easily miss a connecting flight or have your bags lost when you travel on a single airline all the way. You're at their mercy, no matter what.