My husband and I are going to Kauai October 3-11! We have our condo reserved and now it's time to start thinking about purchasing our airfare.
We are flying from Austin, TX and we really like the US Airways flight that goes from Austin to Phoenix then Phoenix on to Lihue. We have done this flight before on a previous trip to Kauai two years ago.
The flight is $388 EACH WAY per person if you buy ROUND TRIP. Right now we have the money to purchase the flight going TO Kauai. The flight on October 3 going TO Kauai is filling up. I have been keeping an eye on it.

Here are my questions:
1) If we buy a ONE WAY ticket the price is $416 per person. Since the flight going TO Kauai is starting to fill up, should I buy the one way ticket to Kauai now?
The flight coming home on October 11 is still fairly empty so I'm not too concerned right now about it filling up and I will keep watching it.
2) Is $416 a good price each way (if bought one way the price is slightly higher than buying round trip)? Would you hold out for a lower price?

Thanks in advance to all replies!!

We flew last year to Big Island from Saint Louis for
$400 each round trip!! I kept watching Expedia at crazy
hours, and I know it was after 2AM when it appeared.
For fun,I looked it up at night after I
bought the tickets and found that price a couple more
times, but only for part of a day.
I wouldn't want to advise you to wait and miss the
arrival time you want, but I learned to really look
often to get the price you want.

I'd think you could do better than $800 RT especially given the dire tourism numbers I keep hearing about Hawaii, though I guess if airlines respond by cutting flights, prices could stay high.

But I have to add, if your cash position is so low that you can't currently afford the RT ticket, are you sure you can afford such a vacation? Maybe you're coming into money in the near future?

I just did a quick check on www.kayak.com and travelers are booking flights from Austin to Lihue for around $500-$550RT for May and June. Kayak offers the option of checking prices that have been booked and they tell you when the flight was booked--use the flexible date search. It would seem that $800 is too much for you to pay. Keep checking on Kayak and book when it drops. We often fly on Tues., Wed., Sat. to get the best fares. Your lodging dates are probably more flexible than your airfare dates. Is there a cancellation fee with your lodging?

I"m not sure I agree with this advice. I should preface this by saying that Hawaii isn't my specialty, but I can speak to the trends in airfares right now. You could do better than $800 round-trip, but you might not. Anything between $700 and $800 from a secondary airport in Texas to a non-main island in Hawaii is a good fare. Not great, but certainly well within what you might expect. The number of flights to Hawaii is lower this year than last year, but as LindainOhio has pointed out, the flights are wildly discounted right now. Who is to say if these discounts will continue into the Fall, when the high season begins. And remember that you are flying to Kauai, not Oahu, which could be significantly cheaper. I don't think anyone has a crystal ball to tell you if this is the best you'll be able to get. If you really can't afford to buy the round-trip now, then don't. Buy it when you can. If your dates are flexible at all (i.e., if you can change the condo dates a bit), you could keep searching.

We've already purchased our air fare for Feb 2010, because that's usually a busy time for Hawaii. We purchased Minneapolis to Maui on US Airlines for $712 roundtrip - it might get lower, but didn't want to take a chance on waiting. In all the times I've gone to Hawaii, I've never purchased a one way ticket & hoped to get return air later - guess I'm not a risk taker. Dianne

I've always purchased round trip tickets. I'm not buying one way and waiting for the price to drop on the return home. We like the US Airways flight. I feel it's the best flight when going to Lihue. I use the actual US Airways website and there is an option to click on 'seats' and it shows what is available.
I just checked and now the price is down to $403 per
person going TO Kauai. I will have the money in about a month or slightly longer for a round trip ticket. My main concern is that I don't want the flight GOING TO Kauai to fill up. The flight leaves from Austin & arrives in Phoenix. That first leg has plenty of seats. From Phoenix to Lihue the seats are filling up. If purchased round trip the flight is $375 each way so buying one way we will pay $25 extra per ticket so we aren't really getting stiffed for choosing this option.
The cheapest flight I ever bought to Hawaii was $600 a person so I feel that anywhere between $600-800 is fair.

Understand your logic. If you're relying on the airline's website to determine if the seats are filling up, just be aware that many of those are notoriously inaccurate. Airlines usually block out a number of seats for FFs and others which often aren't released until 24 hrs before a flight. That doesn't mean you should wait until the last minute, but I thought the info might be of some use to you.