Flights from Florida to Hawaii and back with a stop in California--advice please!
 

I'm somewhat befuddled trying to figure out a flight plan from Florida and back that incorporates CA. We are going to Oahu then Maui (11 days). We would like to work in a one week stop in California on the way to Hawaii.

We've considered flying into LAX (or in the proximity of) and driving the coast to San Fran and leaving for Hawaii from the San Fran area. We want the kids to see that part of the coast.

Have I lost my perspective (or my mind)?

Jayne..where in Florida and I assume travel for this summer?

The way fare structures are setup by US airlines make this kind of itinerary very expensive. Most of the best fare classes do not allow stopover, and if you need one, that would put you in a different class, and therefore cost potentially a lot more.

There are a few things you can investigate. For example, you may use miles (if you have enough) for a r/t from Florida to Cali., and then buy a r/t from Cali to Hawaii. Or simply buy two tickets - while you'll never find any real cheap Hawaiian fares, you may be able to fly FL to CA r/t for about $200 with 14-day advance or with certain low-fare airlines like Airtran or Southwest, or America West. That way, you additional cost for adding the West Coast trip can be less than $200.

Flying a discount airline to Cali makes a lot of sense, especially if you want to fly into LA, and then out of SF. [Keep in mind though, that Southwest doesn't fly from SFO. You must go to Oakland or San Jose.]

But you still need to consider the additional cost of returning a rental car at a different location. Overall, it may be cheaper to just rent and return the car from LAX.

Just some key things you should think about first.

We live in central FL so we can leave from Tampa, Orlando or Miami in July.

rkk--that's pretty much my conclusion. We have a few Southwest flight coupons so it makes the most sense.

What do you think of Hawaii air?

One option would be to book it as two round trips: FL to LAX and SFO to HI. You could drive LA to SF and use southwest coupons to fly back from Northern California to LAX.

I have found that it seems to be much cheaper to fly to Hawaii from San Francisco than it is from Los Angeles. I hear it's closer too. I recently booked a flight from LA and it was $600 vs. my nephew who just booked out of SFO and his ticket was less than $400.

I would recommend flying to LA then driving up to San Francisco (you'll love the scenery along the Central Coast) then go to Hawaii from San Fran.

Hawaiian Airlines is fine. I've flown them, United and Delta. Unless you're in first class, they're all pretty much the same.

I agree that Southwest is the best option to and from California. You can buy a roundtrip ticket to fly into LA and returining from San Jose to Florida. Drive up the coast and leave out of San Jose for Hawaii buying a second roundtrip ticket. American has some good deals to Hawaii from San Jose. On the return, switching from American to Southwest in San Jose is a breeze since they are in the same terminal I wouldn't advise driving all the way up to SF as it would require you to backtrack about 1.5 hrs. to San Jose. Also, the most scenic part of the coast is between LA and Monterey Bay Area. North of Monterey along highway 1 the scenery is not nearly as nice.

Delta will do exactly as you need for about $750 per person. Fly TPA-LAX, drive up the coast for a week, fly SFO-HNL, stay for 11 days and finally return HNL-TPA. I don't think you could do any better splitting the fares, unless you have Southwest coupons for the whole family.

Thank you for the great suggestions. It's interesting that flights out of LAX to HI are higher than out of SF. I would have thought it would be the opposite. However, we may have to fly out of LA to HI, otherwise, we'd be flying over July 4th when the prices are definitely higher and more hectic.

As of this moment, we've decided to fly Southwest into the LA area and connect with a round-trip flight to HI the next day. We'll spend the last week driving up the coast from LA and leave from Oakland.

I will watch the fares out of LA vs. San Fran. Although to do it in the other order we'd have to bump our reservations to avoid the 4th. I don't think I have the energy--we've gone from cancelling Italy, to booking an Alasken cruise and, finally the whole family is excited about this itinerary.

Just curious--is now about the right time to start shopping flight prices? It didn't look like the European market was going to drop until next month.

Thanks everyone.

AA, I think I'm going to have to look into that one. Thanks.

We live in Silicon Valley and our closest airport is San Jose Airport.

However, when flying to Hawaii, we have almost always gone to Oakland Airport. Aloha Airlines has numerous flights out of Oakland, even direct ones to Maui.

On the car rental, there are rental agencies that will allow you to pick up and drop off north-south California without a drop off fee. The agencies keep changing, but the last one that I got with no drop off fee was Avis. So, check into that aspect as well.

Happy planning! This is the best choice of the three: Italy, Alaska, or California! Just my HO! :)

Southwest will do one-way tickets for the same price as one leg on a round trip. And be sure to check with Pleasant Holidays for LAX or SFO to Hawaii flights. They have excellent deals that include a rental car as well. In researching flights for my parents I have found SWA (and now Song) to LAX, then LAX to OGG, back to LAX and home for less than a round trip ticket from Florida to Maui.

Jayne,
Flights to Hawaii are definitely not any higher from the LA area vs. the Bay area. They're almost identical and it just depends on whether you happen upon a fare sale. I've never paid over $400 to fly to HNL and only slightly above that when I wanted a nonstop back from KOA. Which island are you planning to fly into?

Thanks again for more great advice. I have just started looking at the domestic market so I needed a benchmark. $400 sounds like a reasonable price. And you're right--it just depends on when you hit the web--I got a rountrip to Seattle from Tampa one night when I couldn't sleep. Around 2a.m. the price dropped from over $300 to $150.

Hey--you all are so good--any chance that you know of anyone who'd like to rent a couple of villas in Italy in July? We're taking a bath on deposits and some lucky soul is going to get a Rome apt. for half price.

I agree that San Jose International Airport is going to have the cheapest fares to Hawaii compared to either Oakland or San Francisco. In fact, on the local news they were mentioning how flying from San Jose is almost always cheaper than either SFO or OAK on competitive routes, like Hawaii and NYC.

$400 is a great price to Hawaii from the west coast. I don't think that will be possible in the summer. The best time to check fares is Tuesday night/Wednesday morning at midnight. That is when the airlines post their sale fares.

American has nonstops to both Honolulu and Maui from San Jose.

Well, I'm off on my third trip to the San Jose Airport this week and I'm not looking forward to it.

It's still under construction and the traffic pattern keeps changing. Hotels in the area are taking a huge bath and it's not just the economic downturn. Rates for the Doubletree is at $35 a night on Priceline. That's because, even though it's the closest hotel to the airport, there is NO WAY to get to the Doubletree. The exit for the Doubletree and other nearby hotels is completely blocked off with construction and has been for months.

I've driven in and out of many airports in the States, San Jose Airport is a nightmare at the moment.

Jayne, please plan your trip through Oakland or San Francisco. Avoid San Jose. BTW, Abi/Franklinn/Treck/Robinsen/etc. are all the same person who constantly bashes San Francisco and promotes San Jose. This is VERY poor advice and VERY misleading. And needlessly so.

Now, he's going to continue to ruin the thread by coming in under a different name, falsely state that the rest of us who don't agree with him are all one person - accusing others of what he himself is doing just to confuse the issue - and continue to try to guide you away from San Francisco/Oakland.

Save this thread by emailing it to yourself (there's a way to do this at the bottom of this thread), because it will either be closed down or deleted entirely by Fodors. An outright statement from you on choice of airport will help the rest of us focus our suggestions. Generally, Fodorites are wonderfully selfless and give generously of themselves.

Have a great trip! Sounds like it's going to be fun!

We don't care where we fly in and out to HI; either San Fran or LA area. We'll probably be using SW coupons to and from FL anyway. We're most concerned about price and schedule. Seems like every airport is under construction anyway.

We're staying at the Four Seasons--although it may sound silly I'm not sure exactly where it is on the island; this is our kick-back-and- relax part of our vacation and you can depend on their consistently good service and accommodations.

Would you recommend a day-trip to Hana from here; or would it make more sense to plan an overnight visit?

Four Seasons Maui is in Wailea, the southern part of the eastern part of the island. Great beaches. Great hotels. Great weather (dry). Hana can be done as a day trip, but leave very early. If you wish to experience Hana, stay for a couple days. That's relaxing.

Jayne,

Sorry to see that easytraveler, the persisent multiple name poster is trying to highjack your thread. It is just like him to accuse other fodorites of being the same person when they do not agree with him. Just disregard his nonsense and you will be fine. He seems to have some vendetta against San Jose and will say anything to keep people from either visiting or flying into San Jose.

As other poster have correctly pointed out, the cheapest fares out of northern California to Hawaii, etc will be from San Jose. For one thing, being that Southwest does not fly into San Francisco it's fares tend to be higher. San Francisco Airport is also one of the worst airports due to delays from fog.

Oakland would be an acceptable alternative, but in my expereince I have been able to find better fares out of San Jose as well as more convenient flight times. Altso, with your limited time, I would suggest not driving all the way up to SF anyway. The coast from San Simeon up to Monterey is definitely the most breathtaking part of highway 1.

So far we've booked flights to and from FL to CA with Southwest. We frequently fly them so we had three coupons--can't beat that. Now I'm watching fares to HI. We've booked 4 nights at Cow Hollow Motor Inn based on recommendations here. The suites were all reserved but the location will be great with the kids and no car.

We arrive in Burbank at noon and the plan is to drive to Santa Barbara the first day. Then one night in Cambria and one in Monterey and them on to SF.

Never thought about the fog delaying our flight out of SF. We've been there several times but never in the summer when it's at its worst (I laughed when I was looking up some info about weather--several ads for lawyers specializing in "fog litigation popped up!)We got caught in an awful fog leaving the Queen Mary in Long Beach several years ago. I was sure that we were going to drive into the water--NEVER want to get into that situation again.

We've been up and down the coast on several trips but have never taken the kids and definitely want them to see SF. We could easily fly out of SJ or Oakland.