Anal Annie
at least I KNOW I'm a kook...I just can't help it
- Joined
- Dec 8, 2006
OK, so a lot of you here know that we had booked a big trip for last summer to VGC and Aulani but had to cancel 8 days out due to a medical emergency with our DS. We're in the process of trying to RE-plan the trip for NEXT summer. We are "down" 100 points from what we had to work with last year so need to book more conservatively AND while we have a fair amount of airfare $ credits coming to us, airfare has gone up a lot and we still have to re-purchase some of our flights that didn't carry-over until next summer. I am trying to be frugal and am watching airfare like a hawk. I see some good fares for our return flight on Alaska Air (which we need to use) but I am afraid to purchase now without having secured our DVC ressies yet. In fact the fares are SOOO good that FIRST CLASS right now is almost affordable. I can't book DVC yet so am putting my anal retentive nature thru its paces right now. I am assuming the rates will go up before I can book but am thinking the DAYS they fluctuate up & down will stay the same.
I figure we will have to cut back from 4 n to 3 n at VGC and they have to be sometime from Sun-Thur nights bcuz of the points. If we start our trip on a Sun., spend 3 n at VCG, 7 n at Aulani and 3 n on Maui the final return date would be on a Sat - which makes the return airfare something like $270 more per person than 2 days later on a Monday. SOOO if we delay the start of the trip by 2 days and leave home on a Tues. the airfare from DC to LA goes down by $30 pp and the return air is $270 less. Problem that I am worried about is that we would then leave VGC on a Fri. to head to Aulani. My concern then is that I've read several times here that Aulani gets really crowded on the weekends with locals or HI residents. I thought our chances of getting in might be better if we started the 7 nights at Aulani on a weekday rather than a weekend. Does anybody have any experience or thoughts about WHEN is the best time to try to START a ressie at Aulani? Am I over-thinking this?
My other thing that I am trying to figure out (and which I need to do SOON) is Maui. We are using Starwood points for those nights. Last year when I went to book the Sheraton on Maui was already unavailable to book with points but we were able to book 3 n. at the Westin Ocean Resort Villas. Well, just a few weeks after we booked last year Starwood changed the booking requirements (on points) on a lot of their resorts and they raised the minimum required there so much that we can't even book ONE night now! The only Maui property we have enough points for now is 2 nights at the Sheraton (we would then pay cash for the 3rd night). I don't want to wait so long this time to book the Sheraton since I know from last year that it will probably book up again. I want to go ahead & book a few days there (then will cancel off 1 or 2 when we have firm dates. But I don't really want to book a whole WEEK there and have to pay a big deposit on the cash nights. (If you follow all that.) I am just trying to figure out some good plausible dates for this trip that I can't actually book yet and I'm worried about trying to start our dates at Aulani on a weekend.
It's gonna drive me NUTS to watch this airfare increase while I wait for our booking window to open (that's what it did last year too). But what do you think about the strategy for Aulani? Do you think we should plan to bite the bullet on the airfare and go back to our orig. plan of leaving home on the weekend and returning on the weekend so I can go ahead & book the Sheraton with our points??
I know, this whole post is a rambling mess - I am just so busy right now I can't think straight let alone think this through&. Looking for some other thoughts about the whole thing. Right now the only dates to fly that work out to be approx. the same amount as our flights LAST year would be to leave home on Tues and return on Mon. If we do Sun to Sat it would cost us about $300 more - and that's at TODAY's airfare prices.
I figure we will have to cut back from 4 n to 3 n at VGC and they have to be sometime from Sun-Thur nights bcuz of the points. If we start our trip on a Sun., spend 3 n at VCG, 7 n at Aulani and 3 n on Maui the final return date would be on a Sat - which makes the return airfare something like $270 more per person than 2 days later on a Monday. SOOO if we delay the start of the trip by 2 days and leave home on a Tues. the airfare from DC to LA goes down by $30 pp and the return air is $270 less. Problem that I am worried about is that we would then leave VGC on a Fri. to head to Aulani. My concern then is that I've read several times here that Aulani gets really crowded on the weekends with locals or HI residents. I thought our chances of getting in might be better if we started the 7 nights at Aulani on a weekday rather than a weekend. Does anybody have any experience or thoughts about WHEN is the best time to try to START a ressie at Aulani? Am I over-thinking this?
My other thing that I am trying to figure out (and which I need to do SOON) is Maui. We are using Starwood points for those nights. Last year when I went to book the Sheraton on Maui was already unavailable to book with points but we were able to book 3 n. at the Westin Ocean Resort Villas. Well, just a few weeks after we booked last year Starwood changed the booking requirements (on points) on a lot of their resorts and they raised the minimum required there so much that we can't even book ONE night now! The only Maui property we have enough points for now is 2 nights at the Sheraton (we would then pay cash for the 3rd night). I don't want to wait so long this time to book the Sheraton since I know from last year that it will probably book up again. I want to go ahead & book a few days there (then will cancel off 1 or 2 when we have firm dates. But I don't really want to book a whole WEEK there and have to pay a big deposit on the cash nights. (If you follow all that.) I am just trying to figure out some good plausible dates for this trip that I can't actually book yet and I'm worried about trying to start our dates at Aulani on a weekend.
It's gonna drive me NUTS to watch this airfare increase while I wait for our booking window to open (that's what it did last year too). But what do you think about the strategy for Aulani? Do you think we should plan to bite the bullet on the airfare and go back to our orig. plan of leaving home on the weekend and returning on the weekend so I can go ahead & book the Sheraton with our points??
I know, this whole post is a rambling mess - I am just so busy right now I can't think straight let alone think this through&. Looking for some other thoughts about the whole thing. Right now the only dates to fly that work out to be approx. the same amount as our flights LAST year would be to leave home on Tues and return on Mon. If we do Sun to Sat it would cost us about $300 more - and that's at TODAY's airfare prices.