Flights from the east coast

DisneyinPA

Mouseketeer
Joined
Nov 6, 2014
Possibly planning our first trip to Aulani next June. How were your flights setup? Looking to fly out of PIT, PHL or any Washington DC airport. Did you fly nonstop? Have an overnight layover on the west coast each way? Just a regular layover somewhere? We are flying with boys 12 and 15. We usually fly southwest to Disney but it’s like piecing a puzzle together on Southwest coming from the east coast to Hawaii. Trying to get there somewhat economical since this would be the most we have even spent flying. What was your experience? What’s your favorite airline and route? Thanks!
 
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I recommend going to flights.google.com and playing around with different airports and airlines. You can set price alerts etc. It will even show you price ranges for those dates historically. Google has the best data in the business (most of the other airfare sights used to use their algorithm but now it's exclusive.) (note: southwest data is not available through google flights, but most/all other airlines are?)

A (very) brief search on there shows PHL/PIT doesn't have any direct flights to HNL but DC does (10 hours!) Otherwise you're looking at stopping on the west coast first for a layover.

I once found a wild deal from LA to HNL for $250 from Hawaiian airlines - and then booked a separate flight to LA. The risk here is that since they are not on the same ticket, if the first one is delayed or canceled, you're in trouble. So I'd recommend booking it all together, if possible.

The one time I've been to Hawaii was with the previously mentioned short layover, however my next trip is direct from Chicago! It's a lot of flying...crazy how europe is much closer than a state in our own country.
 
We are flying a direct from ewr on Tuesday. It’s a united flight and it was $600 each. (I know this wasn’t on your list, however it might be about the distance to DC).
When I went out of Philly we did our layover in Chicago and then flew to Hawaii. Maybe you can find the direct from Chicago and piece from whatever airport you prefer?
 
If you want to go nonstop, you’re flying into Honolulu and here are your east coast options:

Hawaiian—JFK and Boston
Delta —Atlanta
United—Newark and Dulles

A lot of people my wife and I run into at Aulani coming from the east coast stop off on the West Coast for a few days before flying over to the islands.
 


We are flying Alaska Air from Boston with a layover in Seattle. If you have their CC you get a yearly companion fare.
 
Good advice above. I'll just add that we have found it better to do one long flight from the east coast to HNL rather than flying to the west coast and then to Hawaii. Of course that's a personal thing and you may not want to do that.

For us, if we fly from here (MCO) to LAX and then to HNL, its a long flight (5 hours) from MCO to LAX and then we have to face another 5 hour flight from there to HNL. Instead of doing that, we choose to take a short flight to ATL and then ATL to HNL non-stop.
 
We are at the airport waiting to return home.:sad::sad: Non stop both ways JFK-HNL on Hawaiian. Three kids 18, 17, 16. We did non stop to get the flight out of the way. We didn’t want to fly, wait around, and then fly again. No complaints. We had a great time.
 


We are flying a direct from ewr on Tuesday. It’s a united flight and it was $600 each. (I know this wasn’t on your list, however it might be about the distance to DC).
When I went out of Philly we did our layover in Chicago and then flew to Hawaii. Maybe you can find the direct from Chicago and piece from whatever airport you prefer?
Which flight number? Do you have a direct flight going home? I too am trying to plan a late June tip from NYC Most of the flights are about 1050 R/T
 
We are at the airport waiting to return home.:sad::sad: Non stop both ways JFK-HNL on Hawaiian. Three kids 18, 17, 16. We did non stop to get the flight out of the way. We didn’t want to fly, wait around, and then fly again. No complaints. We had a great time.
I was looking at that flight.
 
Which flight number? Do you have a direct flight going home? I too am trying to plan a late June tip from NYC Most of the flights are about 1050 R/T
UA 363 from ewr
UA 362 home

I bookedat the end of October. It looks like tomorrow the flight is half full, it might be the time of year.
 
On the way there, we flew from Buffalo around 6am, two hour layover in Atlanta, and then about an 8 hour flight to Honolulu. Arrived around 2:30pm local time. On the way home, we left around 4:30pm Hawaii time, arrived in Atlanta around 6am, had another two hour layover, and arrived home in Buffalo around 11am. All flights were on Delta, on time, and the service was excellent. We are used to flying Southwest to Orlando as well, but our first long haul flight couldn't have been better. We were in standard coach and they offered free meals to all fare classes, hundreds of free movies, tv shows and games on the seatback TV (never even used my iPad!), and the seat configuration across the plane was 2-4-2, so it was very comfortable being in our own row of two.

The flights and length of the flight were easy to deal with, but we did find it took about two days to adjust to the time difference. Hawaii doesn't observe daylight savings, so they were 6 hours behind when we went. For the first two days or so, we were exhausted by 8-9pm, and wide awake by 4-5am. Because we knew to anticipate this, we did tours to Pearl Harbor and Diamond Head on our first two days because we knew we'd have to be up early for those. Worked out well. On the way home, because we got home at 11am, we just stayed up until our normal bed time and had virtually no time adjustment period at all.

We considered stopping on the west coast, but ultimately decided to fly straight through and are glad we did. We wanted to maximize our time in Hawaii and we were anxious to just get there, and then to just get home on the way back. Stopping on the west coast would have taken a day or two away from our time in Hawaii on either end of our trip, and we didn't want to sacrifice that.
 
On the way there, we flew from Buffalo around 6am, two hour layover in Atlanta, and then about an 8 hour flight to Honolulu. Arrived around 2:30pm local time. On the way home, we left around 4:30pm Hawaii time, arrived in Atlanta around 6am, had another two hour layover, and arrived home in Buffalo around 11am. All flights were on Delta, on time, and the service was excellent. We are used to flying Southwest to Orlando as well, but our first long haul flight couldn't have been better. We were in standard coach and they offered free meals to all fare classes, hundreds of free movies, tv shows and games on the seatback TV (never even used my iPad!), and the seat configuration across the plane was 2-4-2, so it was very comfortable being in our own row of two.

The flights and length of the flight were easy to deal with, but we did find it took about two days to adjust to the time difference. Hawaii doesn't observe daylight savings, so they were 6 hours behind when we went. For the first two days or so, we were exhausted by 8-9pm, and wide awake by 4-5am. Because we knew to anticipate this, we did tours to Pearl Harbor and Diamond Head on our first two days because we knew we'd have to be up early for those. Worked out well. On the way home, because we got home at 11am, we just stayed up until our normal bed time and had virtually no time adjustment period at all.

We considered stopping on the west coast, but ultimately decided to fly straight through and are glad we did. We wanted to maximize our time in Hawaii and we were anxious to just get there, and then to just get home on the way back. Stopping on the west coast would have taken a day or two away from our time in Hawaii on either end of our trip, and we didn't want to sacrifice that.
We are watching this same exact Delta flight (except going to Atlanta from Tampa). We are 6 months out and prices still seem kinda of high to me ($1204 for main cabin). How far out did you book?
 
We are watching this same exact Delta flight (except going to Atlanta from Tampa). We are 6 months out and prices still seem kinda of high to me ($1204 for main cabin). How far out did you book?
We booked about 10 months out, about 4-5 weeks after flights were released for our travel dates. That was the lowest we saw the prices, and found it only crept up from there. We paid about $980pp main cabin, round trip, from Buffalo. This was 3 years ago, traveling in September which would be a slower time of year than the spring/summer.
 
We are watching this same exact Delta flight (except going to Atlanta from Tampa). We are 6 months out and prices still seem kinda of high to me ($1204 for main cabin). How far out did you book?
I'm trying to decide if I should book or wait. I'm not sure there is any reason for the fares to go lower
 
I'm trying to decide if I should book or wait. I'm not sure there is any reason for the fares to go lower
Its a real guessing game. Airlines change prices daily (or even more frequently) based on how well that particular flight is selling.
 
I'm trying to decide if I should book or wait. I'm not sure there is any reason for the fares to go lower
We took the plunge and booked today our first trip in June!!!! I wanted to fly Tues-Tues for cheaper fares but it’s wasn’t going to work out due to work vacation schedules so we have to do Sat-Sat which is making me nervous because of the high rates already. I’m track flights via email through google flights so fingers crossed they will come down. Right now they way too high for my liking.
 
We took the plunge and booked today our first trip in June!!!! I wanted to fly Tues-Tues for cheaper fares but it’s wasn’t going to work out due to work vacation schedules so we have to do Sat-Sat which is making me nervous because of the high rates already. I’m track flights via email through google flights so fingers crossed they will come down. Right now they way too high for my liking.
I’m see flights for about 1000 non-stop and 750 for 1 stop r/t
 
I know. It's crazy. As soon as we book our flights, the prices will go down but it's all good. We can save about $250 by flying United (combined savings for the 2 of us), but I really like the Delta via Atlanta plane better. The two of us can sit together on the way out and back without having someone else right next to us. However, the United flight comes back through Dulles and it's got the 2 seat configuration, too. But, United doesn't appear to have wifi on the leg to Hawaii. Yada Yada Yada. And then there's the Hopper app that keeps telling me to wait until 2-4 months out. YIKES!!! We were originally going to do a one night stop in California both ways but by the time you add in hotels and dinners, it would be about the same as just getting it over with in one day. I have this crazy notebook full of notes, prices, cities, etc. Thank goodness planning is half the fun:)
 

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