I'm jealous. How are you all doing it?
 

Ok, I would love to go to Hawaii this year for my 10 yr anniversary. I notice so many people on this board are going to Hawaii. I've looked at prices for the fall either October or November and they are high. Airfare alone can cost $700-$800. What am I doing wrong? I would love to go to Maui for my anniversary, but don't want to go into debt for it. Any advice? How do you all do it?

The last time we went (about 3 years ago) we had been saving airline points for quite a while. We flew out there on points and stayed at a B%B on a coffee plantation in the mountains in Kona. We had a kitchenette and made most of our own meals. We weren't really interested in the resort experience, and found that reasonably-priced restaurants had excellent food.

On our last trip, FF points, Hyatt points and staying at a friend's house in Poipu helped a lot. On our next trip we plan to stay in cottage rentals on the north shore and south shore of Kauai, use FF points, drive a compact (convertibles are nice, but $$$) and eat in to save $$. The Aston Islander on Kauai has very reasonable rates as well. On Maui, there are many reasonable and nice places stay in Kihei and Napili. There are several condos in Napili for around $150.00 - $200.00 a night. Another way to save $$ is to rent condos directly from the owners at places like cyberrentals and vrbo.com. If you are flying from the west coast, flying on Suntrips can be a good way of saving $$. I have flown on them several times and it is usually the cheapest way to go. Many posters here use priceline and luxurylink auctions, however I have not done this yet. Good luck.

I'm flying from the mid-west (10 hour flight) and only have 52,000 Northwest frequent flyer miles. I believe I need 70,000 for 2 free tickets to Hawaii. Darn! Close but no cigars. I would love to stay in a condo property. This way we can save on meals.

We also used FF miles the last time we went. Saved lots of money by staying in a condo with a kitchen (ours was a timeshare trade but there are many nice condos that you can get for a week for around $100-125 per night, maybe less).

We've never booked a package but you can often get package deals that include hotels and car rental for just a little more than the price of stand alone airfare. Search Orbitz, Expedia, etc.

Do lots of research in travel books (you can do this cheaply by using your local library) and on the web. You'll find good ideas for nice vacations that don't cost a lot.

And remember, once you get to Hawaii some of the best things to do are free. Beaches, hiking, just taking in the fabulous views. Resort hop for free, maybe stop for a drink (not cheap at resorts though but a nice way to soak up some luxury atmosphere for a small price). Often hotels and shopping centers have free hula shows (or again for just the price of a drink at the hotel bar).

Go for it and have a great anniversary.

I make it a BIG priority for one thing. I'm also willing to go into debt for short periods of time. I use a low interest credit card and then pay it off as soon as possible. What's the difference in that and doing a timeshare - or buying a car, for that matter? Priorities...
I'm putting my next trip (for our 20th anniversary) at a cost of about $6000. on a 3.9% card and making a plan to pay it off within six months. When it's paid off, I'll start planning my next trip to Hawaii.

Have you checked packaged from companies like Pleasant Hawaiian? (Airfare/condo/car) I've always found those prices to be much better than putting it together myself.

There was a thread on the europe board not that long ago asking how people manage to travel and what most people said is that its really easy to do. You just need to make travel a priority vs other things in life. For instance, get a smaller car vs an SUV snd keep it a couple of years longer. If you make those kinds of choices its easy to have the money to travel regularly.

been to hawaii twice (oahu and kauai) with all 5 (our three kids and spouse) with ff miles. we flew american as usair honored them for two years. and, this june we are going united as usair honores them this year. again, with ff miles. my son moved there for a two year commitment. even had enough to bring him and fiance home at christmas. i use my credit card for everything, even paying college tuition and you knoew much $ that is, or mega points towards ff seats.

nytraveler, you are so right! I always say *you can have everything you want if you don't want EVERYTHING!*;-)

Marry a workaholic who travels all the time on business, gets lots of hotel and airline rewards and is still willing to fly somewhere and stay in a hotel on vacation!

We found that the biggest way to save money was a condo. This way we save money on the meals for breakfast (which I don't eat), can pack picnics for hikes and the beach, and then just eat out for dinners. This previous year we booked our condo on Kauai through vrbo.com and couldn't of been happier!!!

In addition, we saved money taking ATA (which for us is not worth it--never again).

luv, I just checked Pleasant Holidays (Pleasant Hawaiian) and here's what I found:

1. You didn't say which midwestern city so I plugged in Chicago.
2. You didn't say which island so I plugged in Maui
3. I used Nov 6-13 just to have some dates in the time period you specified.

I got prices that started at under $1200 per person for airfare, hotel or condo, and car. There were a number of choices at that price, even more if you add an extra $100-200 per person.

If you fiddle around, you may find a different island or different dates are less expensive. You can also call them and ask what the best deal is.

Good luck! Hope we'll be saying Aloha to you next fall!

I have very little advice to offer.

But, I went to Oahu for the first time in October. Great advice on this board. Posted my trip report back in late October.

Used frequent flyer miles for my trip. However, found all kinds of airfare deals beginning in September for the months of October and November. I have miles to use again and will likely go again during the off months in 2005.

Booked my hotel via Priceline. It was a great deal

Mary2Go--you, too? Me, too :)>-

luvtravelen2, though it may be too late for this trip in the future if you don't already have one join a frequent flier program for when you do fly, or, if you use a credit card switch to a card that gives you miles for dollars spent. I hope you get to Maui for your anniversary--good luck! :-)

I go to maui a couple of times a year I have found that Suntrips.com has the cheapest airfare, they also have packages. If you wait until about a month before you go to book air, you can always find great deals from oakland,CA for about $279-300 Round trip, maybe take jet blue or south west to oakland. Condo's vary in price, you can get a 1 bedroom for as little as $100 a night in Kihei. I Love this end of the island near Wailea, All the beaches are public so you can use the beach in front of the "four seasons" its great there is a public parking lot right before the Grand Wailea. There is Costco near the airport where you can buy your food for the condo. Aloha

Thanks for all the advice. decepedes, I have frequent flyer miles- 52,000 total on Northwest airlines. I need 70,000 for 2 free tickets to Hawaii, I believe? I checked out Pleasant Holidays, but unfortunately, it looks like they don't fly from Detroit, Michigan? Any other good websites I could look into specializing in Hawaii air?

I'd suggest you look into travel packages through Northwest, or other airlines that use Detroit as a hub. Last May we used an American airlines package (flying out of St Louis) and spent 9 nights in Kaua'i (Aston Islander on the beach) and 2 nights in Waikiki (Ohana Waikiki Tower) for $2667 for 2 people. that included a rental car on Kaua'i--that was for the least expensive car, and we did upgrade one category for $90. The package also included transportation between Waikiki and the airport, and of course the interisland flights.

I have never added up what we spent for meals, but the most we spent was about $45 for a meal with a couple of drinks each, and almost every meal was under $10/person (I am including tip amount) . The best 2 meals we had were takeout , eaten on the beach!

It doesn't have to be prohibitively expensive to go to Hawai'i. And, personally, I think if you really want to do it, it's worth incurring a little bit of debt. Like crazy4hawaii said, a lot of people are willing to carry debt on things like a car--or even furniture or other major purchases--so why not for a trip you'll reemember the rest of your life?

Have you tried priceline.com? I haven't used them but friends of ours have with success--you may need to be flexible with dates. The cheapest I found for your route was $781 :-( I would further investigate sandyca's suggestion.

You also don't have to get TWO free tickets with miles. We often don't have enough for two tickets so we book one with FF miles and pay for the other. That's automatically half price airfare! And that way you can GET miles on the cash ticket to use for the next trip.

I second the idea of Priceline, at least for a good hotel deal. I used them for our Waikiki 2 night layover last month and got a great price. Study the biddingfortravel.com site before venturing into Priceline however.

A friend just referred me to a site called travelzoo.com. It lists the best deals gleaned from multiple travel sites, and is very user friendly. From there I found off2hawaii.com, which lists airfares from a number of cities to hawaii for under $400. Also check out consolidatorwebwares.com. We've used the strategy of locating a good fare from a larger city, then using southwest to get there, rather than booking from our home city (Salt Lake) which can't compete with fares from LA or Seattle. Good luck!

I forgot about Travelzoo. I'll have to check them out. Now I did look on Travelocity and the cheapest airfare I found was $900 for October. I'll have to look into getting one ticket for free. At least that would save me some money. I've never used my ff miles before so this is all new too me.

How we do it?

WEB SURF! WEB SURF! and use FF miles.
Get a charge card that you put everything onto, or get TWO cards for the same FF mileage number. If you have to, like many of us, finance some things and carry a credit card balance, use one card for your utilities, phones, etc that you WILL pay off in full each month and the other one for balances you have to carry - no point in paying interest on the monthly costs you would normally write a check for in full just because they go to a card with a prior balance.

If you have your own business or use a card you own for reimbursed business, again put everything on it and I mean everything - parking, meals, printer cartridges. Be sure you collect miles for one major airline, not several.

Take advantage of balance transfers to 0% or other really low interest to move your carried balances and note that while most balance TF don't get you miles SOME OF THEM DO!!! Keep transferring AS LONG AS YOU ARE ALSO PAYING them off - no cheating that the TF = a payment for that month!!!
LOL
You will be amazed how fast the miles add up.

As for internet deals - they are out there for air fare and hotels. We stay at the 4-5 star Hapuna Beach Prince for $190 - $200 per night per room (rack rate $350 and up in high season because I am willing to devote as many hours as needed to find the one site that has one of the few "Good Deals" that Hapuna sold them left for the dates and room type I want.

Don't ever assume that because Travelocity and Lodging.com both say your hotel is sold out or too expensive that it is true. Try 10 or 11 sites if you have to! I often jump around the pages that come up in my search under the hotel name from say 1-3 then to 99 then to 200. Often the higher number page has the deal (This is very frequently true for car rentals and I will always start that way from now on. You get the smaller, more private rental agents that come up with a lower "match %" on the search engine but they are still repping Avis and Hertz only with better deals.)

I also agree that it is OK to finnance travel, but only if you are very good at self monitoring your debt and never have payments going on the first trip when you are charging your second trip. My own bottom line is that airfare and hotel are prepaid in full before we leave. Tours, meals, booze, car can be financed and paid off in 4 months or less.

Travel for us is a priority. Our Suburus each have about 80,000 miles on them, but it is seeing countries and travel experiences we are interested in so long as those autos are reliable transportation. I could care less about a BMW - give me Russia, France, Italy,etc or Hawaii!!

luvtravelin2--will you please let us know how this turns out?!? I'm keeping my fingers crossed for ya b-(

bad emoticon--sorry! >) this is better :-D

Hawaii is expensive and like you, I wished for years I could afford to go. This past Dec. my husband had a heart attack...he is fine now(with 2 stents), but we decided that the time is now! It will be our 35th wedding anniversary this summer and WE ARE GOING. We have saved fflyer miles(you can also get thier credit card with mile partners) and belong to Starwood. You can sign up for just about any hotel card(Starwood, Hyatt, Hilton, etc.) for free. You can also get their credit card which applies points to the hotel card. I got a card for each member of my family(4 above 18) and we started charging everything we would normally buy anyway(and I have a son in college). We have accumulated enough points for 7 free nights at a Starwood Hotel(Westin, Sheraton, Kapalua Bay). It can be done. I also have a card for the Emerald Aisle with National Car Rental. Start saving and don't put off the memories you can make....you never know what tomorrow may bring.

Don't just check one site eg Travelocity, also check Expedia, Orbitz etc and use the "My Dates are Flexible" if you can. I helped a friend with a multi-city US trip yesterday, Orbitz came in at about $780, Travelocity said nothing available, Expedia's cheapest was $1300 and this was at the same time.

Regarding packages, we've had good luck with American Airlines ( www.aavacations.com ), two round trips and six or seven nights for around $2200 isn't unusual - as long as you stay away from the Ritz Carltons etc :)
Good hunting.

You can get 25,000 bonus miles by getting the NWA affiliate Visa card and by signing up for MCI.

That would get you to 77,000 miles. Does NWA give you a grace period for coach awards?

Try this offer for bonus miles: http://www.nwa.com/promo/wpvmci/

Go in the offseason.

We are miles junkies. We sign up for miles dining rewards and frequent those restaurants. We send in the miles offers on the back of cereal boxes.

We buy used cars and pay cash for them. We buy clothes at Target and TJMaxx. We bought a fixer-upper house in an up and coming neighborhood and do much of the work on it ourselves instead of hiriing people (use this hint with caution and safety in mind) We have been known to cancel the cable for a few months (those big gaps between Sopranos seasons make it possible) in order to save for a trip.

Have you checked Hawaii.com? You do have to register for some of the features but it seems a good resource. I checked packages (flights and hotel) from Detroit for Oct 27 to Nov 3. On O'ahu, the Ohana Waikiki Surf was available for $795 per person, and the most expensive was the Royal Hawai'ian for 1525 per person, probably not a bad price if you want that hotel. You can also build packages on 2 different islands. I haven't booked anything (yet) on this site, but their packages are through wwte, which I have noticed is the packager on the web sites of a lot of hotels.

Oops, i just noticed you are interested in Maui, sorry about that! Anyway, the packages at Hawaii.com are for all the islands. I hope you find something--as you can see we all want you to take this trip!

Have you checked with Northwest to see how much it would be to purchase the miles you need to make up your shortage on miles? Their website says you can purchase or gift miles. Maybe someone will gift you the needed miles if they know you need them for an anniversary gift...drop hints!

Ok, I'm gonna have to do some investigating and praying :O)
I'll give Northwest a call this week and see what specials they may have to offer since I'm a member in there ff miles program. I already have there Northwest Visa card with a balance. This is why I don't charge everything onto that. I need to pay that card down. Wish me luck. I do appreciate all the tips and welcome anymore!!

Good luck! and please let us know how it all works out :-)

luvtravelin2...maybe the biggest factor for people is their own taste, expectations and lifestyle. Are you the type who doesn't consider it a vacation unless it's a 5* $300+ a night resort or will you have a ball regardless, just as long as its in an *aloha paradise*?

When we went to Oahu & Maui last year, took some basic steps: called up hotels in Entertainment book for rates (mostly Astons & Outriggers), got info/pics on their websites, then narrowed down by checking reviews on traveladvisor.com. Ended up with a great lil oceanfront condo for avg of $100/nt, was even less on Oahu. It really was the vacation of a lifetime! So much that this year we're going back to take kiddies for their 1st time and will be doing it for even less. I watched the fares like a hawk, till I got the best rate...flexibility helps. As for hotel, booked what we consider a luxurious...3* 1 bdr. oceanview condo at $110/nt. It's only for 6 days but that's okay since we went last year.

If you want it bad enough, you can get it! :) Research...research..research :)

I did not read every response to this post, so sorry if I am repeating info. I use my American Express card everywhere I can, which has put me on mailing lists for so many travel related companies. I always get killer deals sent to me. Sometimes they are timeshare presentation offers, and I never take advantage of the ones where you are obligated to attend a presentation. These are always great deals and often include car rental. I just received one for a luxury resort in Hawaii for 5 nights with car and dinner gift cert. for $800. Sometimes if you subscribe to a travel related magazine, you will start getting great offers too. Credit card companies warn you that they basically sell your name to other companies. If you don't opt out, you can get some great deals along with the junk mail.

I'm not one to always push travel agents, but for a first trip to Hawaii, they can put together some great packages. AAA did a nice one for me years ago, and I was amazed at the cost--air, interisland air, car, hotel and breakfasts for about what I found on my own for mainland to Oahu flight alone. The downside of a TA is that they rarely will mess with the real "finds" of condos or B&Bs, but if you're looking for an economical way to get a pretty nice trip, a TA can put one together for you.

luvtravelin2 - I kept saying I wanted to go back to Hawaii and it was 13 years before I finally got there. How did I do it? I made it the number one priority. I picked a date - well over a year in advance - and just determined that I WOULD go on that date. Then I started gearing my life toward it. I started checking things out - airfares & hotels. Even though it was way too early to book anything, I just kept at it, it seemed more real and possible as long as my nose was in the computer searching stuff out.

Several months out I found a pretty good airfare and booked it. There was no greater feeling than when I went down to the airport, paid cash for the ticket and had it in my hot little hands!

Next I paid the deposit on my hotel - I found a gem in the heart of Waikiki - the Hawaiiana - which had a kitchenette. Two weeks before I left I paid the hotel off in full. When I arrived they took a credit card imprint to cover phone calls. etc. I paid cash when I checked out.

I paid off my credit card balance (it wasn't too high) before leaving and used it for most everything while I was there. I also made good use of my debit card.

All those years that went by with me pining away for another Hawaiian vacation went by because I had not DECIDED to go. Once I did, I went. You will, too, once you make up your mind and set a goal date in front of you. Then GO FOR IT! You won't regret it. I know for me it's about time to set another goal - it certainly won't be another 13 years before I set foot on Waikiki beach!

What a cute story bashful V. Your right, all you need is determination and you can do it!!

For luvtravelin2 - get a second card for NW miles to avoid excess interest but to charge more things. They will rack up miles for the same FF acct. For United Visa, anyway, their offer actually states you can have more than one United Visa card.

I have 3 United Visa cards - one for my business, one for the household carrying a balance as needed for those big ticket items or sudden unexpected necessities (like major car repairs) and one for the utilities, groceries, or monthly, "ALWAYS pay them anyway" expenses.

To be really careful, you can always come home from the store and write the check immediately to the credit card company and put them all in an envelope so you don't get caught short!!

By opening my third card last month, I got a free companion ticket (mainland use only), plus some intro miles and an upgrade. That means we only need to purchase ONE roundtrip ticket CT to Ca and then get two tickets on Aloha or Hawaiian Airines. Since one of those is in the Star Alliance with United, I can use miles for that part of the trip. So the two of us go for @ $500 in airline fees!

My husband took the same card offer so we can do the RT CT/CA deal again using his companion ticket and if we don't have enough miles, pay for 2 CA/Hawaii roundtrips, but use the two upgrades to 1st class (since we are paying for the tickets). Still only paying @ $900 in airfare for both us for a second trip in the 12 month period the companion ticket stays good.

Get creative as long as you can control your credit card use!!

We saved for 8 months before we went to Hawaii. No going out to dinner, my husband took his lunch to work instead of eating out, hamburger instead of steak....

We stayed at condos right on the beach for $110 to $125 a night, took helicopter trips and did everything we wanted to while we were there, ate the best food, and still came home with a little money. You just have to plan ahead and make some sacrifices before you go, so you don't have to sacrifice once you get there!!