Flights to Aulani

[Mazz519]

I booked my Aulani vacation at the 7 month mark and immediately booked my flights. I paid 650 pp on Hawaiian Airlines and thats with two inter island flights…. I never heard about waiting 3 months out…, Hopefully your right and you do get a cheaper flight… Good Luck

 

[Anal Annie]

Question for anybody who has flown on Hawaiian Air lately….last time I used them was in like 2006 and they were pretty strict then about their carry-on size and weight limit. At that time we had 1 bag that was over their 25 or 26 Lb carry-on weight limit (it was an older traditional style suitcase type bag but it was very heavy - even EMPTY). Then we had a smaller lightweight duffle that I had packed with those squishy neck pillows and snacks so it was WAY UNDER the limit (I had packed the way I did so DS would have a bag that was lighter and bcuz the snacks were easier to reach in that bag). ANYWAY, they literally stopped the check-in line and made us open the 2 bags and rearrange how they were packed in order to adjust the weight limits so the weight was redistributed between them. It was so embarrassing I have a fairly new duffle that we just used going to FL on Delta and it's lightweight & it FIT in the overheads but my DH thought it was a little on the big side…even tho it SAYS it's cabin-friendly we had to do a little shoving to get it in on a couple of the flights. (I guess not all overhead bins are created equal.) So I was wondering if Hawaiian is still weighing and measuring bags on a regular basis?! I now have a luggage scale and try to make sure I'm distributing the weight properly but I don't want to have to pay to check the bag if it's over their size limits.

 

[DrChuck23]

From my research....under $700 bargain... Under $850 very good...$1000 average if you do not book early ...like 6 months out.

We went last June, booked airfare 9-10 months in advance on United (layovers in CA from Dallas) for under $700. Prices just kept going up after that. Fares 3 months out were over $1200. Four people travellng= $2k more we would have spent.
If you can find fares for <$800 any time of year, I'd get them. At most, if they go down you might "lose" $100 per person. Relatively small amount to sacrifice to not play the "wait and pray a better deal comes along" game.

 

[jillt2ph]

Don't forget about San Diego. I have several friends who have flown out of San Diego versus LA and have saved $100-300 going that route!

I just booked San Diego to HNL for $223 one way on Alaskan. I have the luxury of having a free day after the Disneyland portion of my trip. So it is no problem driving down there. Paid $188 for PIT to SNA, so I am happy with the $411 for that direction, since HNL to PIT is running over $800!!!

 

[carissa1970]

I just booked San Diego to HNL for $223 one way on Alaskan. I have the luxury of having a free day after the Disneyland portion of my trip. So it is no problem driving down there. Paid $188 for PIT to SNA, so I am happy with the $411 for that direction, since HNL to PIT is running over $800!!!

We got our tickets from San Diego to HNL about a year and a half ago for $365 RT. Guess I don't stand a chance of finding that for June this year.

 

[msabol01]

Went to Hawaii the past two summers, booked between the 330 and 300 day mark both times (this is typically the earliest you can purchase a ticket). In both cases the airfare only went up. The first was a roundtrip via Phoenix on US and the second was a three-leg with a stop in LAX for DL on United. If you are booking during peak periods I suggest booking as early as possible. If you are able to afford a full Y fare refundable ticket, you can always change if your airline doesn't offer a refund on fare changes.

I suspect with airline consolidation and field prices, we won't be seeing much fare reduction anytime soon.

 

[CailinFig]

So I was wondering if Hawaiian is still weighing and measuring bags on a regular basis?!

I've never had them weigh our carryons on Hawaiian....and we've flown several times since 2006....(although my check-ins have been over-twice-and I've had to readjust those!!!) My husband also takes a backpack (not a jansport type but a longer hiking/camping type backpack) as his carryon. I know for sure it's longer then their dimensions but it still fits in the overhead compartments. He's never had any issues taking that on.

 

[luv2sleep]

If you fly out of LAX, Allegiant Air has cheap RT flights to HNL on weekends.

 

[Anal Annie]

I've never had them weigh our carryons on Hawaiian....and we've flown several times since 2006....(although my check-ins have been over-twice-and I've had to readjust those!!!) My husband also takes a backpack (not a jansport type but a longer hiking/camping type backpack) as his carryon. I know for sure it's longer then their dimensions but it still fits in the overhead compartments. He's never had any issues taking that on.

Thanks!!

If you fly out of LAX, Allegiant Air has cheap RT flights to HNL on weekends.

I have never used Allegiant Air but briefly considered using them on our flight from LAX to HNL because their prices were less than everybody else even with paying for carry-ons, seats and over 40 Lb luggage but (thankfully) I did some research on them first. They don't fly this route every day and my concern was about the "what if" they cancelled the flight. Here's some of what I found:

Skytrax is a website with airline reviews that run from 0 to 10 (with a 0 being the lowest rating). I just now scanned through their January and February reviews and counted (25) 0's; (8) 1's; (7) 2's; (2) 3's; (1) 4; no 5's, 6's or 7's; (2) 8's; (1) 9 and (3) 10's. The end of Dec. started with about 5 more 0's so I quit counting. Here's the website I found these on: http://www.airlinequality.com/Forum/allegiant.htm And here's a review from this site that stood out to me:

My son traveled to Honolulu in January to see his girlfriend. He is a college student so budget is key. The flight home was delayed 7 hours then cancelled until the next day. When he arrived at the airport, in plenty of time, there was no-one at the desk. He didn't have a boarding pass because there wasn't an option to print it for that flight. The airport customer service called the gate and told them a passenger was waiting - they said they would come and get him. No-one came - he missed his flight. To top if off the next flight out was 2 days later. I was told by the central office that they do not have a reciprocal arrangement with other airlines and there was "nothing they could do". The low prices may be appealing but in the end you end up paying more. Good, discount airlines are a great alternative, but Allegiant Air has missed the mark.

Then I found this Hawaiian website: http://beatofhawaii.com/allegiant-improves-on-time-performance-but-strands-spokane-passengers/.

While this article wasn't all negative a comment on this site that was posted regarding the cancelled Spokane flight DID stand out to me:

My family was one of the family’s scheduled to fly to Hawaii on Allegiant on Friday 1/17/14 . We got to the Spokane airport early and excited to go on our family vacation. We were informed that the flight was delayed due to fog. Allegiant continued to push the flight back. Finally late Friday they informed us that they would try again on Saturday at 12:30. We got 2 hotel rooms for my husband,myself and our 2 boys and daughter in law. We showed up on Saturday morning and found out that our flight was again being delayed. My husband was told at one point from an Allegiant rep. that the plane had left Boise but was shortly informed by an airport rep. that they had called and the plane had never left Boise. At around 4:00 p.m. I called Allegiant and spoke with their customer service agent, I asked her what was going on, what was going to be done, if they were going to make arrangements to let us stay in Hawaii longer as we had lost 2 days of our 6 day vacation. She was NO help. She said that it was weather related and there was nothing they could do. I told her I was watching planes come in and go out from other airlines. She told me that Allegiant needed more viability than the other airlines. I said “we are going to fly across the ocean on an inferior aircraft?” I then asked if we could get a refund as we were looking into getting a different flight. (We had been planning this vacation for a year, we had a non refundable condo rented everyone had taken time off work ect. this was our family vacation) she told me we could get a credit that had to be used by June as that was one year from when we booked our tickets. I told her there was no way we could use a credit that large on Allegiant only by June. Her response was, “mam we are a small airline I am already breaking several rules, I am not going to charge you any fees for changing your tickets and I am agreeing to give you a credit what more do you want from us?” I said, “we just want to get to our vacation” I did not take the credit, we decided to wait and see about the flight. About an hour later the Allegiant reps. came out and told everybody that the entire flight would be cancelled, we would get a refund that would be funded back to our bank within 5 days. At this point we had to get online and book a trip for 5 to Hawaii with Delta. We left the airport got 2more hotel rooms and left for Hawaii on Sunday afternoon thousands of dollars more spent. Allegiant was awful to us. I am so disappointed in the treatment they gave us and everyone else. I am going to be contacting an attorney if we can’t get them to help us in some way with the additional costs. For anyone out there looking to fly on this airline please be warned if it’s important to you to get somewhere please reconsider taking Allegiant. We fly with them to places like Vegas or L.A. By will NEVER use then again if we care wether we get there or not. I have since heard SO many terrible stories from other people. I am hoping to get this word out wherever I can. Be forewarned. I hope this helps someone.


I think these are valid concerns and we were not willing to risk having a cancelled flight with nobody to help see that we even GET to our destination in a timely manner - I don't care how cheap they are!! Several other things were disturbing to me too. Like the one comment from the Spokane customer who was told by the airline rep that they need better weather to fly in than other airlines! Seriously?! I think they sound like "buyer beware".

 

[SuperRob]

SuperRob - Is it any fair that this happens with? Or does it have to be one of the more expensive refundable fares?

My friends - a husband/wife team - are first officers for Alaska, and based on what they have said about working for, they are a good airline.

We are in the waiting game too. Flights from the LA area are running about $700 right now... Ugh...

I always book the cheapest fare, and have no problem getting price adjustments. You just can't get a compete refund on the cheapest rates.

As I mentioned before, make sure once you book your flight, use the alert service at Yapta.com to get notified if the price goes down. Makes it super easy to get your price adjustments.

I think these are valid concerns and we were not willing to risk having a cancelled flight with nobody to help see that we even GET to our destination in a timely manner - I don't care how cheap they are!!

It's a reasonable concern, and that's why I'm a little iffy about regional carriers. I certainly feel bad for whomever that has happened to.

However, this really could happen on literally ANY airline. Even my "beloved" Alaska Airlines nearly screwed over my wife and I. I found out that the red-eye from Seattle to Orlando we had booked for our honeymoon cruise was "moved forward eight hours", and only found out because I happened to keep checking it regularly. Of course, in this case "moving" the flight was as good as canceling it, since it got us to Orlando too late to make our cruise.

I called them absolutely livid, only to find out that they would have only contacted me 30 days in advance. The only reason why we booked this flight was because it was the only non-stop that could get us there leaving right from our wedding reception, and we had planned everything else that day around the flight. If I had only found out with 30 days to go, it's unlikely I could have found us a replacement flight that wouldn't have had us have to cancel our wedding reception (or at least, not be there for it).

Eventually, we got them to put us on a similar Seattle to Miami with Delta and a connecting puddle-jumper to Orlando and we made the cruise in time. (I had debated getting a car to Orlando, just in case.) But it was incredibly stressful, and we had to leave the reception earlier than we would have liked. I made sure the Alaska rep understood that we don't travel all that often, and that people plan their lives around this stuff, with as expensive as airfare is.

 

[Anal Annie]

^ Oh yes SuperRob, I agree that ANY airline could cancel a flight and many DO - but my concern with Allegiant Air in this case in particular is because they don't even fly the route every day! And on the days they DO fly it's only 1 per day. So if they do screw up somehow you would be royally screwed on getting to / from Hawaii. That's a big deal in my book.

I'm sorry about what happened to you with Alaska Air and your honeymoon. I also continue to watch our flights after I book them in case they make changes. We used to fly Air Tran a lot before SW bought them out (they used to be more competitive) but they were notorious for changing flights if you booked them right after they were released. With Air Tran you also had to pay additional for assigned seating - which I always did. One time they changed our flight and when I found us on the new flight there was a change in the type of plane so they didn't transfer our seats over. I had to call to get new assignments. But if I wasn't watching it for dumb crap like that we'd have been SOL. FWIW we never fly the day of a cruise - we always plan to go the day before...

 

[TheRobbs]

We are going to Aulani June 18-25. LAX to HNL is 763.00 pp on all airlines for those dates. And that is a Wed-Wed. The price has been the same for months. I'm guessing I will have to bite the bullet and buy at this price. Ridiculous!!

 

[carissa1970]

We are going to Aulani June 18-25. LAX to HNL is 763.00 pp on all airlines for those dates. And that is a Wed-Wed. The price has been the same for months. I'm guessing I will have to bite the bullet and buy at this price. Ridiculous!!

Those are our exact dates!! Crazy. I have been watching Alaska Air for a while now, and they are about two weeks away from dropping it down to the $280 one way range. Each week that passes, the prices go down on their fare calendar an additional week. They are about two weeks out from our dates. I'm waiting at least 2-3 more weeks before I give in and buy.

 

[TheRobbs]

Carissa1970, thanks very much for the info. I haven't seen anything drop? How do you know about them dropping their prices? I really appreciate the info and will definitely wait now.

 

[TheRobbs]

Those are our exact dates!! Crazy. I have been watching Alaska Air for a while now, and they are about two weeks away from dropping it down to the $280 one way range. Each week that passes, the prices go down on their fare calendar an additional week. They are about two weeks out from our dates. I'm waiting at least 2-3 more weeks before I give in and buy.

Just re-read your post and get it now. Thanks very much for the tip!! Let's hope it pans out. See you in a few months.

 

[carissa1970]

Just re-read your post and get it now. Thanks very much for the tip!! Let's hope it pans out. See you in a few months.

I'm glad you understood it...it wasn't that clear. Lol. Several weeks ago May was around $400 one way, but now it is all around $280. It has crept into the first week of June so far.

 

[jerseygal]

I understand your problem with flights from Newark!

We got one of the lowest prices for May, $758 via United nonstop from Newark!

I had "tracked" the fare for about 2 1/2 month before my 7 month booking window! It was running $715 with practically an "empty" plane according to the seating chart...Hadn't moved off the $715. I booked our 2BR dedicated island view at 7 months and was "happy as a clam"!

Then, because of the "waiting game" and becoming crazy busy that day, I decided to book 2 days after my 7 month window. Very long story short, flights had jumped from $715 to 856 with some May dates in the $1,015 range!
I was FURIOUS at United, because the seating chart hadn't moved. June-August was RIDICULOUS as the airlines are capitalizing on their best market when kids are off from school!

When I checked May again 3 days after, I found one date with $756. I then of course had to find availability for a 2BR. I "bit" the bullet and booked pool view, dedicated 2BR and capitalized on the ONE date at $756. I didn't want or need the Pool View and wanted to conserve the points.

I waitlisted the 2 BR Island View and 2 BR lock off island view and my 2 BR lock off Island View came through! I am able to save some points for a Dec WDW trip, but I was a "little" disappointed with the 2BR lock off! Feel BLESSED THOUGH to be going to Aulani and CANNOT WAIT FOR OUR MAY TRIP!

My only advice to the HIGH airline prices is THE MINUTE YOU SECURE YOUR 7 MONTH OR 11 MONTH RESERVATION, BOOK THE AIRLINE! Also, start "tracking" the airline about 2 months in advance of your booking window to get a feel for pricing and then jump on the lowest price!

BEST OF LUCK IN BOOKING YOUR AIRLINE!

 

[allison k]

TheRobbs - I was going to suggest the San Diego -> HNL that Alaska offers, but I see you're in Valencia, so that's a LONG way to drive. I'm in South Orange County, thus basically in between LAX and San Diego.

Right now, there are flights out of San Diego for $663.

Thanks Carissa1970 for mentioning the fare calendars. We'll be watching that for sure!

It's times like this I wish I became a pilot. My friends fly to Hawaii at least once a month and usually end up with a 24 hour lay-over when they're there. Plus, they end up getting great fares and hotel deals. Man, if only I thought about that career when I was 18...

 

[TheRobbs]

TheRobbs - I was going to suggest the San Diego -> HNL that Alaska offers, but I see you're in Valencia, so that's a LONG way to drive. I'm in South Orange County, thus basically in between LAX and San Diego. Right now, there are flights out of San Diego for $663. Thanks Carissa1970 for mentioning the fare calendars. We'll be watching that for sure! It's times like this I wish I became a pilot. My friends fly to Hawaii at least once a month and usually end up with a 24 hour lay-over when they're there. Plus, they end up getting great fares and hotel deals. Man, if only I thought about that career when I was 18...

Thanks very much! I have been following the SD route as well. If I can get it 200 less per ticket then it would be worth it. The cheapest I found was 723.00 out if SD though. I only want Non Stop.

 

[TheRobbs]

Has anyone ever used Allegiant Air? I just found a fare of 415.00 LAX-HNL non stop if we go one day early. That's 350.00 less per ticket. Worth the extra cost of a hotel room for one night. Thoughts??