I have tickets to and from San Diego already. Was planning on holding out for good deals closer to dates of travel late May/June for my seats from San Diego to Hawaii. BUT San Diego to Kona to Kahului to San Diego for $500. per person is pretty good, isn't it? I know I've seen San Diego to Hawaii for under $400. a couple of times but multi-city complicates things a little. When I checked a few weeks ago, this same itinerary was a little over $700. pp so I'm tempted to go ahead and book this. Any advice?

Yep, had to go for it. I can't believe it dropped $200. pp this far in advance of travel, with gas prices like they are. It just goes to show it's a good idea to check these things at least once weekly...

I would say any time it is below $500 RT from the west coast is a good deal (why wait for fares that may not decrease and fight for seats you may not get--grab it, but buy travel insurance in case your circumstances change in the next 8 months?)

Sounds like a good fare to me, especially with gas prices and multi-city stops. We were origanally going to go from San Fran (flying there on FF miles from Boston) and those tickets were over $700 for next summer! So we just used our miles to go all the way to Hawaii instead. I'd say you were smart to jump on that fare.

We are flying from Boston and paid $730.00 for Next March. We also had vouchers which reduced our airfare down to around $600.00 each. We then upgraded to first class with points. We have gone to Hawaii so many times and each time we have flown coach I felt like a sardine. When we fly first class we feel much more rested and relaxed. We were lucky enough to get seats 2 A,B going to and coming from. On the shorter flight from Boston to Dallas we got seats 3 A,B. We are going to watch the prices and if they drop a lot we will get vouchers again towards our next trip back to Hawaii. Oh the anticipation!

How do you go about getting vouchers? That's a new one to me. As much as I love Hawaii, I need all the tips I can get!

Once you purchase your tickets for, lets say $700.00 you keep an eye out every day for the fare to go down. You then call the airline and tell them that the fare went down and they issue a voucher towards future travel for the difference between what you paid and what the current fare is.

Keep in mind that there is a $100.00 change fee so the fare has to go down more than this to be worth while. There also must still be seats left on your particular flight because they actually re-book you on your flight. Most of the time we book our Hawaii flights well ahead of time because we like to use miles to upgrade to first class. We just booked our March of 2006 flight. Now we will watch for specials that go out that far and call the airline when the price declines.

We bought our tickets for $736 and had vouchers from our last trip in the amount of $139 each, so our flight to Hawaii is only costing us $597 ea. We used miles to upgrade to first class.

It takes a while to get used to all the tricks of the trade but once you do you can save quite a bit of money. I have learned so much from flyertalk.com. You will become an afficiando in no time.

Thank you, fivestar! I have purchased tickets for May so will start watching for a decline! I wonder if Hawaiian Airlines does this as well?

I believe they all do. A real good time to watch for next year will most likely be around December or January.

Well, these same seats have gone from $508. pp to $566. per person - up one cost category for each flight. They may fluctuate several times between now and May but I'm glad I went ahead and got them for the better price. Evidently they're not having any trouble filling up planes to Hawaii next spring/summer!

Crazy4Hawaii, seeing your first post, I was going to reply that you'd be "crazy" NOT to grab the tix at that fare, then read further and saw you've already purchased. It's such a relief to get that part over with (one reason it's hard to wait to buy plane tix) so you can then relax and think about the destination itself. Enjoy the planning for another upcoming crazy-making trip!

You're right. It's so much fun to save a hundred or two. The car rental company or someone else usually finds some way to trick me out of it later anyway but... And when you have your tickets, you start having that "it's really gonna happen" feeling. Isn't planning fun?

Topping to topple those who would ruin this forum with childish protests. Ban them all!