Now that Delta and most airlines have raised their mileage requirements for travel to Hawaii, (75K for first class, 35K for economy) are seats easier to get. We have always managed to get award seats for our three trips, 6 tickets twice and 2 FC and 3 coach the last trip, but I did have to travel midweek the last time and call at midnight 331 days out. I also gave up on flying into Maui but was able to fly out from Maui. I am planning our next late summer trip for 2006. My husband is being deployed to Iraq but he should be home by then.

I would say seats are HARDER to get. I think they have less seats available per flight. More people are flying these days. I was able to book 4 Delta award tickets for spring break 1 year out. However, summer is peak travel season to Hawaii. Keep calling you get a different story everytime you call!

We flew Delta (4 people) FC to Hawaii using miles this July-- no problem booking the seats last September. By contrast, Northwest and Continental were impossible. The only negative is that Delta uses a relatively uncomfortable first-class seat in its Hawaii-service 767-400: doesn't recline too much, and in lieu of a legrest there is a footrest to use, which is attached to the seat in front of you. Now, everything is relative and I expect we would have been less comfortable in coach, but Delta seems to have stretched the definition of FC on this run even more than other airlines. I know the domestic airlines jam as many first class seats as they can on their Hawaii runs (we flew FC on American a couple of years ago-- basically like a domestic business class), but this was rather less than I expected for my 75K miles per seat!

We booked through a site recommended to us by here_today_gone_tomaui. It is:
discounthawaiicarrental.com

Belle

When I book my flights using frequent flyer miles, I always call at midnight 331 days out. I know that they do encourage FF mile users to book via their web site but I have been reluctant to do this because I am concerned that it won't be as efficient and I won't get the flights. I have always been successful with my approach. Does anyone book on line instead of calling?

Always book on-line - I hate calling airlines and getting after being on hold forever, I get someone who does not speak English and is probably outsourced to some other country. Does not matter which airline.

I also think tickets area harder to get - many people have accumulated lots of miles and are trying to use them before rules tighten further or airline goes belly up

I am not sure that the inventory is all in 331 days ahead. I always book on line for ticket purchases but I am a little reluctant to miss an opportunity for award seats to Hawaii.

Question,please?

How can you book 331 days out when the return flight is not available yet?

I have only called the agent because I cannot get the dates I want and cannot hold the reservation for long - online is only 24 hours. Therefore, I put the reservation on hold for 10 days by calling the agent, then call back each day to find the return date I want that is available. Once the return date is avail, I will ticket. This is on Continental.

Hanalei, You are absolutely correct! The same is true of Delta. They hold the outbound and extend the hold time, the last time they extended it for 17 days with a call from me at 10 days to extend it again. For the return, I got up at midnight and returned from Maui. I find its easier to book a flight into HNL and return from Maui than flying into OGG first. We stay at the Hale Koa in HNL for a couple of days. There is plenty to enjoy there and the beach is great.

I booked 4 coach tickets to Hawaii next spring by calling 331 days out and holding them until the return became available. I did not have trouble getting them, but it has been tough to get tickets for highly desirable places during the school holidays unless you call 331 days out. I never seem to have enough pts for FC....

Airline award seats are not released en masse, they come in dribs and drabs depending on their load management software.
I had Delta seats from approx ten months out (actually using CO miles but I got codeshare flights), all was OK until about eight weeks before when Delta changed our return itinerary to one involving a long unwanted layover etc. At that point I got fed up so I checked American (had just enough there too) and got two award tickets for the desired dates with no problem - a couple of months out, so just goes to show - never give up