Hawaii-based Airlines - Are there sales? $80 ow HNL-LIH seems expensive

I need to fly this route one-way during X-mas and I see the fare is $80 all in - the same as I'm seeing for October. Are there any discounts to be had, and is there any downside to waiting? Like will the $80 bucket sell out anytime soon for X-mas week?

Thanks for the advice. I don't really feel like using award miles for this trip, but I don't feel like paying $80 per person either. $60 ow would seem to be plenty profitable for the airline.

These are roughly the average fares for fall interisland travel booking now. Crystal ball is malfunctioning at this point, so not sure what we can expect in a few weeks for fares. ;)

Personally, I'd just burn the 5k miles +$2.50 tax and be done with it, especially if you know you'll have to take this flight. Save the stress of having to look. If the last 9 months are any indication, you won't get fares lower than $50, so you'll at least get 1 cent per mile on the booking. Not the best redemption, but worth avoiding the hassle, IMHO.

These are roughly the average fares for fall interisland travel booking now. Crystal ball is malfunctioning at this point, so not sure what we can expect in a few weeks for fares. ;)

Personally, I'd just burn the 5k miles +$2.50 tax and be done with it, especially if you know you'll have to take this flight. Save the stress of having to look. If the last 9 months are any indication, you won't get fares lower than $50, so you'll at least get 1 cent per mile on the booking. Not the best redemption, but worth avoiding the hassle, IMHO.

Yeah, it's high enough that award travel might make some sense. I feel sorry for you guys in Hawaii who would want to do this regularly. The prices seem unfair and not worth it for weekend trips, etc.

Yeah, it's high enough that award travel might make some sense. I feel sorry for you guys in Hawaii who would want to do this regularly. The prices seem unfair and not worth it for weekend trips, etc.
Compared to what it was like 10 years ago, definitely so. You used to be able to buy coupons in bulk for well underneath the prices offered now, then get last-minute seat availability and jet off to a neighbor island for the weekend.

I don't know if the pricing is "unfair" but it is high. At the end of the day, HA is a business and its out to please the shareholders.

What we need is honest competition in the market. And one that can handle it (unlike Mesa, on both counts).

Yeah, it's high enough that award travel might make some sense. I feel sorry for you guys in Hawaii who would want to do this regularly. The prices seem unfair and not worth it for weekend trips, etc.

Agree. I just wanted to book a last minute HNL-OGG and the price was almost $300 r/t... no thanks.

Compared to what it was like 10 years ago, definitely so. You used to be able to buy coupons in bulk for well underneath the prices offered now, then get last-minute seat availability and jet off to a neighbor island for the weekend.

I don't know if the pricing is "unfair" but it is high. At the end of the day, HA is a business and its out to please the shareholders.

What we need is honest competition in the market. And one that can handle it (unlike Mesa, on both counts).

It just seems to me that there should be plenty of $50 and $60 fares in this market. And it almost seems like it should be regulated -- gasp, as I am a free market Republican.

Air service in Hawaii is just different. It's kind of a necessity. Especially if there's no ferry (which is another matter).

Just another steadily increasing cost in the price of paradise. Now for the HNL-ITO flights you're lucky to get a $80 one way that doesn't leave at 5am.

i know your looking for a one way only..but have a look at the packages thru sites like orbitz...might get a hotel room for a bit more after using coupons

I've been traveling interisland quite a bit during the last year, and except for one time when I saw a price drop for a few days, the prices have increased steadily. Doubt that the fares will drop unless a serious competitor enters the market. The flights have been quite full; there is no business-related reason for Hawaiian to drop fares.

Travel around the holidays can be tricky. If you intend to fly on Dec 23, 24, 26, or 30, I'd book it now. The flights will sell out and $80 is the lowest fare right now; the prices increase as each bucket sells out.

Using United miles to book the flight is a hassle--need to call United and place a request and call back 12+ hours later to see if the request was granted. Called the 1k desk last night and the agent said she couldn't check availability and just took the flight info. Others have been able to do so in the past. Called the rewards line and that agent was able to tell me that there were no flights available on the two days I wanted, but there were flights available the day after one of the days.

If you have access to Expert Flyer, I believe it is Hawaiian's t class that you need to look for. The agent told me that is the class he was looking for and Expert Flyer showed unavailable on the days I wanted and flights available on the day the agent told me they were available. Was surprised to see availability > 3. At one point an agent said Hawaiian only released 3 seats/flight. I've tried to book award flights about six times in the past year and have not been successful; I was doing so less than a month prior though. Had better luck in previous years.

If you have access to Expert Flyer, I believe it is Hawaiian's t class that you need to look for.

Correct:

If you are looking for UA options on HA, just fyi if you use something like SeatCounter.com you want to look for flights with "T" bucket availability, a UA CSR confirmed to me.

I don't know the seat bucket for WP, though, for UA partner awards.

Just put two one-way awards on hold for 5K each. Judging from a before-'n'-after on SeatCounter, I'm guessing that WP's partner award inventory comes from "X"

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/11737541-post22.html

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I've been traveling interisland quite a bit during the last year, and except for one time when I saw a price drop for a few days, the prices have increased steadily. Doubt that the fares will drop unless a serious competitor enters the market. The flights have been quite full; there is no business-related reason for Hawaiian to drop fares.

Travel around the holidays can be tricky. If you intend to fly on Dec 23, 24, 26, or 30, I'd book it now. The flights will sell out and $80 is the lowest fare right now; the prices increase as each bucket sells out.

Using United miles to book the flight is a hassle--need to call United and place a request and call back 12+ hours later to see if the request was granted. Called the 1k desk last night and the agent said she couldn't check availability and just took the flight info. Others have been able to do so in the past. Called the rewards line and that agent was able to tell me that there were no flights available on the two days I wanted, but there were flights available the day after one of the days.

If you have access to Expert Flyer, I believe it is Hawaiian's t class that you need to look for. The agent told me that is the class he was looking for and Expert Flyer showed unavailable on the days I wanted and flights available on the day the agent told me they were available. Was surprised to see availability > 3. At one point an agent said Hawaiian only released 3 seats/flight. I've tried to book award flights about six times in the past year and have not been successful; I was doing so less than a month prior though. Had better luck in previous years.

No need to waste time calling United. Continental's website lists all T class awards on Hawaiian and is bookable online without a booking fee. Just transfer miles from UA->CO.

Excellent reminder, slippahs!

Using United miles to book the flight is a hassle--

Not really... all you have to do is transfer some miles to Continental and then book it online. 5k one way.

Not really... all you have to do is transfer some miles to Continental and then book it online. 5k one way.

Very tempting. But there's terrible availability for X-mas week. Like only 6 am flights! I have some PenFed award points (a credit union card that gives you the equivalent of a 7.5% cashback on airline tickets and sometimes hotels/restaurants) and you use the points to buy regular tickets. So I may do it that way. I'd prefer to use CO miles because, as a plat, I could change my plans without penalty if a miracle happened and I could stay longer on my mainland-Hawaii AA award (they've been embargoing most x-mas vacation days, not that there's any inventory left now anyway). But if all I can take is a 6 am interisland flight on a CO award, I'll sacrifice the flexibility and buy the tickets!

EDIT: After looking at the dismal state of AA award availability for December, I concluded the chances of changing my family's AA travel dates was a number approaching zero. And since I didn't want to fly at 6 am, and could book a much more civilized 9:45 am flight time with my PenFed points (no extra points, even though the $80 bucket on Hawaiian was not available on their website), I used points. Not worth watching it more carefully when the most I'd be likely to save would be $15/ticket, and even that seemed improbable (and I'd probably get stuck with a less convenient flight time). If it weren't X-mas week, I probably would have waited.

Very tempting. But there's terrible availability for X-mas week. Like only 6 am flights!

FYI, logged into my OnePass account and doing a dummy booking for 4 award seats on the HNL-LIH flights, I see Saverpass available for every single flight from 12/24 to 12/31. All the other days on the December calendar are also green, but I did not click on them all to check.

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To LIH, there should be WP availability on most days. Just remember that if you use CO miles on Island Air, you cannot check in online and they have a 1 hr check in cut off time.

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No need to waste time calling United. Continental's website lists all T class awards on Hawaiian and is bookable online without a booking fee. Just transfer miles from UA->CO.

Why could no one tell me this a month ago when I booked with United miles. Flight one way OGG-LIH in January was $125, so figured it was a good use of miles. Calling to redeem made me want to kill myself, took many, many calls to get it booked, including them charging me $50 for the call that they promised would not be charged, and having to call back and send a very rude email to get the charges reversed. Sigh, oh well, what can you do.

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No need to waste time calling United. Continental's website lists all T class awards on Hawaiian and is bookable online without a booking fee. Just transfer miles from UA->CO.

Why could no one tell me this a month ago when I booked with United miles. Flight one way OGG-LIH in January was $125, so figured it was a good use of miles. Calling to redeem made me want to kill myself, took many, many calls to get it booked, including them charging me $50 for the call that they promised would not be charged, and having to call back and send a very rude email to get the charges reversed. Sigh, oh well, what can you do.

If it makes you feel any better, the ability to transfer miles UA to C O only started in the spring.

It just seems to me that there should be plenty of $50 and $60 fares in this market. And it almost seems like it should be regulated -- gasp, as I am a free market Republican.

Air service in Hawaii is just different. It's kind of a necessity. Especially if there's no ferry (which is another matter).

As a lifelong progressive, I'm going out on a limb and say that $80 doesn't seem outrageous when you consider the cost of oil, labor costs, airport costs, airplane costs, etc. Certainly, if they offered discounted fares, they should apply only to residents of the state of Hawaii at off-peak times.

Not really... all you have to do is transfer some miles to Continental and then book it online. 5k one way.

Thought CO required you book RT for 10,000 or one way for 10,000?

Thought CO required you book RT for 10,000 or one way for 10,000?
It's 10k r/t or 5k one-way + $5 or $2.50, respectively in taxes.

Thought CO required you book RT for 10,000 or one way for 10,000?

That was the old Continental before the United influence. This is a change that I liked!