Question about airfares this summer to Hawaii (from BOS)
 

Hi,
Looking into returning to Hawaii this summer for our 1st anniversary (we went this past summer for our honeymoon). My question is about airfares....We are flying from Boston, and are looking at open jaw flights so we can visit 2 islands.

Right now, open jaw for Oahu and Maui is about $700....Maui and the Big Island is about $800...Maui and Kauai is about $800...and Kauai and Big Island is $900!! We are only looking at American Airlines because that is where we have our FF account. We would be going Aug. 6-18.

Last year we paid $725 for Oahu and Maui, and flew to the BI in between. Are the prices out now high? Any opinions on when or if they will come down at all? I looked at earlier months and in the spring, the fares are mostly all under $800. I wasn't sure if this was because the spring is a slower time, or because it's closer to now, when I am checking. Any advice would be appreciated...thanks!

ttt...

Yes, I have always found the fares are a bit cheaper in the spring to most destinations.


I had been monitoring fares from to Newark to Hawaii. I found best fares
example: early Decmeber $420! roundtrip on Continental non-stop.
We decided to go early May $600 roundtrip.
I would not wait to book - the fares are more likely to go up and availability limited - with families starting to book their summer vacation.

Aloha!

Can anyone help? Now that we have decided on Kauai, I am concerned that the airfare is high.

Open jaw to Kauai and Maui is $800 from Boston...Kauai and the Big Island is $900! (Going in August). Are these high because it's still early, or do they sound about right for summer time?

summertime almost always seems high, there aren't too many sales for travel after the 1st week of June until the last week of August. Have you looked into booking directly to HNL and possibly using frequent flyer miles for your interisland travel? Sometimes flying open jaw is more expensive than booking seperately. A couple of airlines (Northwest on Hawaiian, United on Aloha) offer roundtrip interisland airfare for only 5000 miles per person.

ggrtist: Thanks for that tip! We have frequent flyer miles on American Airlines...will they redeem on either Aloha or Hawaiian?

I have used AA miles for interisland flights on Hawaiian. And, for what its worth, I have always found cheaper flights about 3 months before I want to travel. The dilemma is whether seats will be available if you wait. I booked in August for a December flight to Maui only to have the fare drop by $125 in October (and seats were still available for my flight at the lower price). In my experience, getting the lowest fare is simply a crapshoot.

Those prices don't sound that terribly high to me since you're coming all the way from back east. I'm comparing to what I usually pay for my own trips to Europe and Hawaii (originating from west coast USA).

pdx: when you use AA miles for interisland fare, how do you do that? Do you book through AA, or Hawaiian or Aloha?

Just checked AA.com -- it's 10K miles to redeem on Hawaiian. If it was 5, I would have looked at it, but for 10, I'd rather just pay the fare!

Went to Hawaii in May '04 roundtrip for around $450 on Northwest. May seemed to be an off-peak window. Not sure about August. Aloha.