United to Hawaii in Feb
 

I have been checking rates and hoping they go down. Are there any 'codes' available to me that would make for a cheaper fare? We have 100,000 FF miles with Capital One but that does not even get one ticket. Is there anything I'm missing ? We will be leaving from Ohio. Thank you.

Flights on United to Hawaii for Feb (or March, when we go) are much more expensive for 2013 than usual. Typically, we can get tickets from Seattle to Lihue for $600-800 each. This year they've been above $1100 each since the seats were first released for sale. In my experience in past years, the best prices were 10-11 months in advance or about two months in advance if they have a sale. We ended up deciding to fly Alaska as their fares are more reasonable and we could get a companion ticket for $99 by getting the Alaska credit card. Hawaiian Air also has reasonably priced tickets.

Good luck.

Don't know about Alaskan, but I always earn a few miles on Hawaiian on inter-island flights. Kathie, does Alaskan earn miles for UA Mileage Plus?

No, Carol, Alaska does not. But we got two first class tickets on Alaska for about 1.5 times the price of a United economy ticket and we got non-stop rather than connecting though SFO.

When I last checked a couple of years ago, United didn't give miles for Hawaiian Air flights from the mainland, only for inter-island flights.

I don't care about earning those few miles as much as getting a good fare, and we've been very lucky with the Alaska credit card companion tickets. Two years in a row, once October and once September, nonstop from the Bay Area (albeit not SFO) (once to Lihue and once to Kahului) both for approximately $700 R/T for two in coach (something like $580 for one + $99 for the companion, plus of course whatever annual fee we pay for the card).

I usually pay about $800-900 for my September ORD-HNL trip. This time I'm going end of August to about Labor Day and paid just over $700; and I'm upgraded.

What dates and from where in OH? Random search show plenty of $900 fares from CLE on UA departing Mon-Thur, a bit higher on Fri and Sun, with Sat the highest.

I used to get those kinds of fares regularly, but this year seems different. The fares started high and have just stayed there. Also, before the merger, We got upgraded on our flights to/from Hawaii 3 out of 4 times. This year (right at the time of the merger) - no upgrades. To ensure first class seats, it was easy to fly Alaska and not have to connect at SFO.

Like sf, we got a great deal on alaska air. We booked end of Dec 2011 for Feb 2012 flight. Non stop San Jose to Kona for $300 each, no need to have or use their credit card.

rk, are you using Clev to Honolulu? I might try that. We want to go to Kauai and then Big Island. It would be 86.00 from Honolulu to Kauai on Hawaiian Air so that would be a little cheaper.
I tried Alaska Air and found it cheaper but from Cleveland it is like 27-28 hrs!