Prices on inter-island Hawaii flights
 

Planning a trip to Hawaii for October...

I checked 1-way flights from HNL to OGG about a week ago, and cheapest was $49 (only looking at Hawaiian and Aloha). Now, today they're $54. Should we go ahead and book? Not familiar with that price market, I need advice. Should we wait since it's so far out and wait for a lower fare? Or will the fuel prices continue to drive these flights up?

They may go up, not so much because of fuel cost, but because Aloha is in bankruptcy and many people don't think they'll survive. That'll be remove a bunch of capacity - and competition - so prices can go up.

so should we avoid booking with Aloha?

Definitely avoid booking with Aloha at this time for flights that many months away.

You can look at Go or Island Air though.

You do not have to avoid booking with Aloha. Almost every airline has declared for bankruptcy protection. They are safe for many months.

I would avoid go! as they are the ones causing the problems with Aloha.

I highly disagree. Aloha has little cash left, and they may not survive. It's their 2nd time in Ch11 in 3 years. It's not a "simple" restructuring. The chance of it actually shutting down is significant.

Whether you like go! or not is a different matter. No one needs to book them if you don't agree with their tactics or if you worry about their pilots falling asleep. But their parent Mesa Group is financially much stronger. In fact, they're moving two more CRJs to the islands.

I don't think Governor Lingle or the legislature will allow Aloha to shutdown. They will take some action to prevent it.

As far as GO! airlines, they'd better hope they don't lose the Aloha suit or they will go out of business according the airline analyists.

The one thing that really bugged me about GO! was how stupid they thought us Hawaii folk are. They try to position themselves as a knight on a white horse coming in to "save" us from Hawaiian and Aloha. Riiiiggghhhtttt......

If they succeed in driving Aloha out of business, I guarantee you airfares go right back up to where they were, if not higher.

go! come in with fares below cost exactly because they see Aloha is venerable, and once they Aloha closes its doors, they can raise prices and HA will follow suit.

go! isn't a charity.

And maybe you Hawaiians are smart enough to stay away from go!, but vacationers who care only about lowest fares will continue to fly them. Or whoever has the cheapest tickets.

Airlines are commerical businesses. I don't see how the State of Hawaii can legally keep Aloha flying. That will not be fair to Hawaiian or go!

go! is far more vulnerable as they owe Hawaiian Airlines more than $80 million & after Aloha's suit against go! for the same thing, they will owe Aloha $80 million or so.

Aloha will survive. go! will not.

That may be your optimistic view, but to tell a fellow Fodorite it's okay to book Aloha for an October flight is pretty irresponsible, in my opinion.

BTW, many airlines didn't survive after filing for Ch 11. Maxjet shut down last December, and Independence Air shut down just over 2 years ago.

Meanwhile, while ATA emerged from Ch11 two years ago after getting funding from Southwest, it just announced it'll end most scheduled operations except for those to Hawaii. Many think it'll shut those down too, and return to just becoming a charter.

I don't think it is at all irresponsible to recommend Aloha Airlines.

I live in Hawaii & have followed the airline industry in Hawaii for years.

If there is an airline that is really in trouble it is go!

Aloha is a fairly decent sized airline company.

How big were Maxjet or Independence Air?

Maxjet had 5 aircraft at their maximum operations.

Independence Air was bigger but according to this article, they were in financial trouble almost as soon as they started.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independence_Air

How long do you think Mesa will continue supporting a losing operation in Hawaii with go!? Especially after Aloha Airlines wins their suit against go! & Mesa. It is almost an identical suit that Hawaiian Airlines has won against go!

I would feel confident that Aloha will survive, if not bu itself, then with merging with another company.

I feel just as confident that go! will not survive.

Court case between Aloha and Mesa won't start until later this year. And Mesa is still appealing the judgement against it from Hawaiian. By the time Aloha wins its case and gets its money, it may not have an airline at that time.

Anyways, that's my opinion. The OP can read both sides, investigate more, and decide.

If prices are about the same, I don't see why he/she should book with Aloha and not Hawaiian.

rkkwan~the state of Hawaii made the same offer to Hawaiian when they filed for bankruptcy...loan guarantees, that's all. Hawaiian chose not to take the state up on it, maybe Aloha will, maybe they won't.

"If prices are about the same, I don't see why he/she should book with Aloha and not Hawaiian."

Nothing wrong with that if the price & schedule are about the same.

I was answering questions about whether or not to avoid Aloha. I don't think that is necessary.

More on Aloha's situation. From today's Honolulu Advertiser:


"State lawmakers are considering a financial rescue for Aloha that could include loan guarantees, landing fee waivers and the elimination of the excise tax on jet fuel."

By the way, conversations like this is why the state needs to do something right now and allow Aloha to get the word out that they are indeed OK and IN BUSINESS!!

It won't be long before word of mouth (like here) starts to cost Aloha even more business.

Back to the OP:
You should sign up for email alerts from the inter-island airlines, as people on their email lists get first crack at some good prices.

$49 is a pretty good price, though.

i don't know what the big deal is. aloha has enough faithful customers, i highly doubt word of mouth here, will threaten their business. unlike mahalo and mid pac airlines, aloha is not another short timer like them.

if it was me, i'd book the $54 flight, but i wouldn't recommend it to someone having doubts. book with ha. i flew go! once, not bad. the only reason i like them is because they forced the two airlines (aloha and ha) i do like to lower their prices. so yes, they are a knight in shining armor. since then, i’ve flown more interisland flights (aloha/ha) last year for leisure than in the past five years combined. not just to weddings, funerals, birthdays and merrie monarch anymore

That "knight" is going to come back and lance you (and all of us right in the you-know-where) if their plan succeeds.

Enjoy the lower fares right now. Nothing wrong with that. But I hope we all know exactly what's going on here. It's capitalism at it's worse.

The State of HI should impose price control. No fares lower than $99 allowed. Problem solved.

;)

Good discussion...

But can I possibly expect lower fares than $50 one way from Hawaiian in the future? If not, then I'll go ahead and book what I'm looking at.

Yes, tourists will more than likely just buy the cheapest ticket - no matter the airline. But I, on the other hand, will choose to support Hawaiian or Aloha even if it costs $10-20 more per ticket.

I love Aloha Airlines and fly them at least 6 times a year.

With the issues with the local airlines in Hawaii, I don't think they are going to have the fare wars that they used to have- like $19 one way.

You can get cheaper flights if you avoid flying mid-day. Those flights fill up fastest and tend to be slightly more expensive.

I thing $49 is a reasonable fare and I would take it. I don't think you'll find something much cheaper, or much more expensive.

I'll probably go ahead and get the tickets at Hawaiian Airlines - not really wanting to take a chance with Aloha, and I don't want to fly Go or IslandAir.

Unless I'm not thinking of something...?

Lakeside, there is no way to guess accurately at airfares. I can relate my story....you can take it for what it's worth.

I was also going back and forth on whether to book my tickets now to the mainland (from Oahu) for an early fall trip on Hawaiian Air. My fear was that rising fuel costs would only cause prices to go up, but others said that wouldn't matter and it might go down.

Well, I ended up booking it a couple weeks ago. In the two weeks since then, prices have gone up by 200.00 (rt for two)!! So I'm glad I made my reservations. Might price drop down and below what I paid? Possibly. Just real hard to predict.

One thing though, you won't have any worry about seats being sold out and not getting to Maui on the day you want. There are so many flights between Honolulu and Maui. It's just the price that might change.

Also, for what it's worth, 54.00 was a pretty decent price before these latest rounds of fare wars began. Airline analyists say that's about the minimum price for airlines to be able to stay in business in Hawaii, so I'd say it was a "fair" price. It's not like they're gouging you. JMO.

<i>It's capitalism at it's worse.</i>

Actually, it's capitalism at it's best :) Survival of the fittest.

lakeside77,

If I were you I would buy those cheap tickets now and although I have been a loyal Aloha Air customer for more than 30 years and am a Alii Gold member I would not book with them that far in the future.

As I see it, Aloha will not make it through the Chapter 11 this time around. Way too much debt and no money.

Aloha is for sale today in just about any form. A purchase deal with United fell through last week and that seems to be the straw that broke the camels back. The only part of Aloha's business that is profitable and worth anything is their cargo business mainly because of their contract with the US Postal Service. That part of the business will go on the auction block next week. 3 buyers have expressed interest in bidding. The bankruptcy court will have to go along with an auction

Aloha is having a rally at the State Capitol today to drum up political support but I think that will have little impact on the inevitable. Sad really.....

Aloha!

I really appreciate all the insight from everyone. I went ahead and purchased tickets through Hawaiian Air for $54 each. I'm satisfied with that price, and definitely don't want to pay more later because I was waiting for a cheaper price.

Well, a lot of the details are coming together for my trip. I just hate that it's almost 7 months away!

Thanks!

dm, perhaps I should have said &quot;capitalism at it most brutal.&quot; I read that quote from some wallstreet broker. That's certainly what we're seeing these days, all around the country.

IMHO, booking an advance flight with Aloha at this time is very, very risky.

Aloha employees have been told there will be no paychecks issued after the end of April.

So, so sad to see this long-time island air carrier &quot;taken down&quot; by a predatory airline from the mainland.

Ditto, Lakeside 77. We'll be spending a week in Kauai in late July, observed the recent price hike from $49 to $54 so just yesterday went ahead and purchased 3 round trip tickets(Oahu-Kauai)from Hawaiian Air. Feedback here was very helpful in spurring my decision regarding timing of purchase and which airline to go with.











july

In light of today's news, you made a very good choice!

Well, Go! airlines got what they wanted. Now it's them and Hawaiian.

I guess we'll soon see just how much they really care about us poor Hawaii folks and the outrageous prices we were being charged for inter-island service (their reasoning for coming in and undercutting the competition, even thought Go! themselves would lose money with those prices).

My guess is they (along with Hawaiian) will soon have their rates up as high as (if not higher) then when it was just Hawaiian and Aloha.

wow - definitely glad I made the decision I did!

Not too sure about all of the drama with the airlines, but we will be in Hawaii in May and the tickets are the same price as your tickets for October, so I doubt they would go down too much lower.

Read this about Go! airlines and decide whether you want to be on those planes...

http://kgmb9.com/main/content/view/4250/40/

I am sad to see what has happened to Aloha but part of it is their own fault for not updating their planes and having gas guzzlers for inter-island trips.

I bet that Southwest is frothing at the mouth right now. They got into Hawaii through ATA and now they may be able to get Southwest into the islands to replace Aloha.

&quot;I am sad to see what has happened to Aloha but part of it is their own fault for not updating their planes and having gas guzzlers for inter-island trips.&quot;

No, you can blame it on go! Airlines driving the price down for almost two years.

Mesa's entire plan with go! was to undercut Aloha &amp; Hawaiian Airlines &amp; force them to cut their prices to match go! until one or both went bankrupt. Aloha didn't have a parent company like Mesa pouring in $$ for 2 years.

I won't ever fly on go!

How far ahead should we buy tickets between for an August trip?

I'd buy them RIGHT NOW.

No way prices are going to go down with just Hawaiian and Go! operating here now.