Originally Posted by
NJTeacher
We just qualified for a companion pass and would like to take our family to Hawaii during the holidays. I realize that those tickets are not on sale yet, but I want to get myself prepared for when they do go on sale. We have never been to Hawaii and need some advice...
1) We'll be traveling from BWI or PHL and ultimately need to get ourselves to Maui. Is it preferred to stop on the west coast for the night and then make the remainder of the journey? Anyone do it all in a day?
2) Is it better to book the entire trip, lets say BWI to OGG or segments...BWI-PHX, PHX-OGG? Is there a cost savings either way?
3) I see there are more flights going to HNL from the mainland than OGG. Is it worth looking for flights to HNL from the mainland and then flying to OGG?
4) Lastly, is there a way to find a list of airports SWA flies to Hawaii from? I have seen PHX, LAS, and SJC. Anything else I should be checking?
Thank you so much!
how much have you flown? I would seriously consider slitting the flights up.
Q1—
there are 3 windows for leaving hawaii
1. 6am-9am
2. noon-4 pm
3. 10pm- midnight redeye ( southwest do not do these)
I dislike early am flights. You need to return a car et all.Out of Hawaii you also need to do a state agriculture inspection
i usually book an afternoon flight to a west coast city that leaves 12-4 pm or so to a west coast city. Next day or a day later I book a separate flight. You can also get cheap fares. Like flying to LAX for the night, thrn next day do a different flight.
since southwest limits on 1 connection and 1 stop or 2 stops it limits your flight options and thus likely pay more.
BWI is a hub so you can get direct or 1 stop flights to cities that have direct yo hawaii service.
directs come from Phoenix, vegas, oakland which operste as “ hub” citues with southwest. Thry also have directs to califotnia cities like San Diego, LS, Long Beach, San Jose, and SAcramento. These routes can chsngr or modify. The cities in hawsii or LIH on Kauai , HNL Honolulu, OGG on Maui, and KOA on the big island . Some cities might have service to all 4 Hawaii cities while some might only fly into 1 where you thrn need to connect like through Honolulu to other islands.
as mentioned above you have directs from bwi to LAS ot PHX. PHL might have directs to those cities but it might not be e ery day or there us a stop with no plane change at denver or other Midwest “ hub” cities of Midway, nashville, St. Louis, KC, Dallas, Houston, or Austin.
Q2 you likely have cheaper fares doing split bookings. Where on day 1 you book the cheapest flight to LAS, LAX, PHX, OAK, thrn next day book the cheapest to hawaii destination either as a direct, or as a change planes in Honolulu. Early am flights from the western cities usually do not have much east coast feeders that depart before 11am.
similarly a late day departing at 3 pm to LAX is bringing local travelers because it has no/ little connects after landing after 9 pm on west coast.
Q3 HNL flights are going to have more feeders so prices will go up. You would have flights from all western cities into HNL feeding even if the People are not connecting to another island.
Q4 as I mentioned, from east/ central time zone airports the routes are likely going through LAS or PHX because many markets have directs but those fares are going to be higher to hawaii due to feeders.
with southwest fares hry are usually high to start when published. If it’s not filling, prices stsrt to drop, thrn under 22 days it starts to increase. Since hawaiiis a place many want to go there will be a lot of bookings right when it comes out.