Going to Maui in mid June, just started looking for air fare, any tricks of the trade (sort of speak) to find a good airfare and what would be best airline, Leaving from the Bay Area, Calif.

I'm searching for airfare from Burbank to Maui for Aug 2004. Aloha airlines gives 10% discount from published price for AAA membership. I look at orbitz and expedia weekly for deals. Check ATA.com too. If anyone else has better ways for better prices......speak up!

Try Pleasant Holidays. We do the LA to Maui thing regularly and always seem to find the best fares from Pleasant. They always have multiple offers departing from LAX or SFO, and depending on what they have at the time, we often just book the car through them as well.

I also subscribe to travelzoo.com. They send out a weekly email that compiles some of the best travel deals of the week. While I haven't booked any flights to Maui from their specials, I have found weekend getaways, Vegas deals and even a trip to Paris from their listings.

I booked through Pleasant Holidays out of San Fran twon months ago for a January trip. They fly ATA to Maui. Three weeks ago, I was checking travelocity and the price went down on ATA almost $100 pp. Two weeks later, it was back up and the Pleasant Holidays deal was the best. I guess I'm saying they fluctuate a lot and to be patient and check often.

We book a couple of weeks on different islands in Hawaii round trip Boston every year and use Pleasant Holidays most of the time. They offer a great "package" deal that includes air fare, a car (with $200 off the first week) and a condo for a great price (better than you can do individually) and, most often, better that AAA.

I think it's a little early yet...
Packages might be the best way of you want to buy this early but if you are wanting to fly on a preferred carrier and book your own hotel, go ahead and confirm a hotel (without a deposit if possible) and monitor air fares for the next few months until you get something good on an acceptable carrier.
Travelocity seems to always come up with good fare options when I search without a specific date. It helps you pick your dates to take advantage of the best fares. In LA you also have the option of using several airports... I find some of the better deals are out of Orange Co. It's not always the case, so check them all.

If you don't mind flying on the Suntrips cattle-car you can find faires from around $300 to $500 direct to Maui from S.F.. It is not the best way to fly, but it is cheap.