pinnacle

Does anyone have any suggestions on getting lower fares on interisland flights? We will be travelling to 3 islands in October. Awhile back, I booked one leg of our flight interisland because we will be there during Ironman and I was concerned about the availability. The price we got was about $60.00. Now, for the other two legs, all I come up with is $81.00. Any help would be appreciated.

kaudrey

I was expecting you to say hundreds of dollars! You are concerned about $21?

No offense, but this really doesn't deserve a "Yikes!". You are on vacation. Don't worry about $20. You are going to Hawaii! Have fun, relax, and enjoy!

I know this doesn't help, but just try to get into the vacation state of mind! You'll be much happier!

Karen

bonniebroad

The only discounts I'm aware of is joining the AlohaPass program with Aloha, and getting about 10% off that way, and I believe someone on here told me they'd gotten a discount with AAA membership. Since 9/11, interisland travel is a whole new world, without the discount coupons that were once available.

fdecarlo

Not really. Fares were $60 for a long time, then on our last trip someone said because of either increased security or state taxes (I don't remember which, I think it was the latter) fares now range from $80-$85. But another $40 spent on a $3000 (or whatever) trip isn't much to complain about.

The only people I knew who got lower fares were locals (kamaaina rates), and even that may be a thing of the past now.

jafrogg

In February we flew on round-trip interisland tickets we had booked on Hawaiian Airlines through American Airlines with 5000 American frequent flier miles. If you (or somebody who likes you) has miles with American, it's an excellent deal, though I don't know if it would work on one-way segments.

AAFrequentFlyer

jafrogg,

The Hawaiian Airlines interisland 5K mile award was one of the best deals around, unfortunately was is the word of the day. Sometime in Feb or March it went up to 10K miles.

Conlet

We each had 8000 miles on Northwest that we did not plan to use. I was able to book one-way interisland flights for 2500 miles each which was muuch better than buying magazines to use up the miles!

Spokaneman

Just a side note on Hawaiian Air.

We've been to the island many times, and have always been able to take earlier same day Hawaiian flights on a standby basis for no charge. Last week, we were going from KOA to OGG via HNL. We got to the airport in time to take an earlier flight, so I asked where the standby line was. The gate agent said that there is now a charge to go standby on earlier same day flights.

Was she just trying to get rid of me or is that now the policy?

crys

Not sure about Hawaiian, but on aloha a couple of months ago, the desk agent told me there would be a charge to standby, but if I went over to the gate and asked, they'd probably just let me board the earlier flight once they boarded the reserved passengers if there was room. I did just that, and got on without problem.

Hanalei

You can still use 5K for Aloha Airline using United miles. Just booked some ourselves.

hulagirl

Hi everyone -

Due to 9/11 and most of the airlines in the US getting hit hard - Hawaiian and Aloha both stopped many of their interisland flights to save money.

They are slowly adding flights, but yes, prices have gone up and availability has gone down. No longer can you buy a coupon and go to the airport and pick a flight. Those days are over. Sadly.

The best prices I've seen are via internet and the supersaver deals. But you must book VERY early to get those prices and no, getting onto an earlier flight isn't as easy. They say they will charge you for changes.

All of this has the Hawaiian community up in arms as we have no other choice to travel to see family or commute. There is a very solid push for an interisland ferry service that is supposed to be opening up in 2005 or 2006. I hope it happens because that would sure save tons of money by bringing your own car interisland!

Denise

Spokaneman

There was an article in the Honolulu Advertiser last week or the week before indicating that the interisland car ferries were pretty much a cetainty in 2006. It didn't say anything about routes or pricing. I remember reading the article thinking that if successful, it will truely change the character of travel in the islands. It will make multi-island trips much, much more attractive.

here_today_gone2Maui

If you have three or more members in your party, Mokulele offers `Ohana rates of $66 a person.

Spokaneman

Is Mokulele the flight service company at KOA? If so, I took a circle Island flight with them on Kona; very nice, very competent people.

pinnacle

Thanks everyone for their help. We booked our interisland flights through Aloha. For anyone else out there needing to do this, if you join the AlohaPass program (free), the flights are reduced a little bit. However, even more importantly, there are more flights available through AlohaPass than just through the main part of their website. We had wanted to get a particular evening flight but had been told by several travel agents that they were all sold out. Using the website, we found they were not offered there either. However, when we went into the website through our AlohaPass membership, there were lots of additional flights, and they were not sold out. I hope this helps someone.

bonniebroad

Pinnacle, thanks for that info on the AlohaPass program, offering more flights than you can get otherwise. Very good to know!