DallasCowboy

I am planning a vacation to Hawaii in the November to December timeframe. The lowest fare that I can get right now is $593 ns or $545 with 2 stops.

Is there any chance I can get better prices than these? I'd like to know if AA (or any othe airline - though I would very much prefer AA) runs any sales/specials for Hawaii. Should I buy now or wait??

Thanks for all your replies in advance.....

SAT Lawyer

November and December are peak season for Hawaii. It is impossible to predict whether AA may offer a lower fare in the future (e.g. a NetSAAver), but IMHO, the fares you have found are pretty reasonable so I'd book soon before the discount seats are claimed by others. If AA does drop the airfare, you can recover the fare difference in the currency of a travel voucher.

andrzej

I found $537.50 non-stop on AA.com, but you have to leave and return on M,T,W,Th. This was for early December.

chfenton

I respectfully disagree with the above poster who indicated that Nov and Dec are peak times. In fact other than a spike at T-giving and of course after Dec 20th or so-the rest of Nov and Dec is a great time to visit. I have been to Maui 12 times in the last 10 years and the least crowded visits have been either early Nov or early Dec. If you look at many of the condo rates also you will see that most offer a low season rate basically from Sept until Dec 20th.

As for airfare, I have always used miles and again have has the best luck with midweek non-holiday weeks in Nov and Dec. The next trip for me is in Sept and I bought coach MIA-HNL through LAX and upgraded with 15,000 each way. Ticket was about the same as I recall mid $500 range. But 10 hours of flight time is a great use of 15K miles IMHO.

PETEFLYS

I will say also that nov and dec are not peak months in Hawaii other then the holidays.
Regarding airfare I monitor these routes and I would jump on any 550-600 fare. Very rarely will you see it for less.I use 600-700 as a bench mark average for Hawaiicoach tickets on AA.

Glasair

Hawaiian Airlines has a fare of $309 LAX-HNL for most of Nov and Dec. Compared with the $550 or so AA fare. We booked at $325 for one that is class H on the outgoing leg and class M on the return leg. The class M will earn full AA miles, the class H I don't think so.
This was booked in conjunction with a stay at the Hilton Hawaiian Village from the AA Vacations web site for Nov 23-28. The per night rate was exactly the same as on the specials page of Hilton, and AA gives 11,000 miles for the booking, so that is also a good deal, in my opinion.
I expect to earn:
11,000 AA Vacation
2,500 Hawaiian Air one way miles
1,079 AA Vacation (5 nites)charged to
Citi AA Mastercard
927 Hawaiian Air charged to Citi AA card
1,000 or so, incidentials at hotel and
on vacation charged to Citi AA card
16,506 total

f00sion

I recently returned from hawaii, i booked 4 months in advance for about $550 each on AA.. I checked about a month before we left and it was up to nearly $1200/ticket..I wouldn't risk finding last minute deals when you could get totally screwed.

SAT Lawyer

To clarify my earlier post, while all of November and December may not be peak times for hotel bookings -- although Thanksgiving and Christmas/New Year's certainly are -- they are most certainly peak season for airfares. I, too, perpetually monitor Texas to Hawaii airfares and a sub-$600 airfare for November or December travel from DFW on your carrier of choice is unlikely to be bettered.

MDSD

I frequently fly LAX-HNL in Oct. and Nov. for low $300s; this is a great time to go, as both airfares and hotel bookings are way down. The kids have gone back to school and it's not yet cold enough to bring out the East Coast and Canadian flyers seeking tropical warmth. Jan./Feb., that's another story!

Spiff

Hawaii Expensive SeAAson:

~Dec 16 - ~ Jan 7.

Otherwise, it's pretty cheap for much of Sept-Feb.

DallasCowboy

Thanks ya'll for all the good info.

If I leave on a Thursday, AA price drops to about $545. But departing Thursday morning is gonna be real difficult. The lowest price on AA for a Friday departure I am getting is $586 from my corporate travel web site.

I am getting a $505 on Continental via Houston (from my corporate travel site).

But too many issue with Continental -
1. no miles gained on both our primary FF program.
2. no bonus miles
3. no possibility of an upgrade using miles (I am not sure if it is 15k or 25k miles each way. In any case, only a 20-25% chance that I'll use miles to upgrade - depending on my miles situation, which I typically save for my India trip)
4. Continental coach sucks!!

Saving 80 bucks (& connecting) v/s gaining 7500 bonus miles!!!!

Since all of you are heavily advising that a under $600 range is "good", I'll probably go for it - just wait another week & decide. In the meantime, figure out the Hilton availibility for the ALON award.

Thanks, once again for your replies. This is a great forum!!

Spiff

" 3. no possibility of an upgrade using miles (I am not sure if it is 15k or 25k miles each way. In any case, only a 20-25% chance that I'll use miles to upgrade - depending on my miles situation, which I typically save for my India trip)
4. Continental coach sucks!!"

Visit the CO forum and see just how hard it is to upgrade to HNL on CO. Also, CO considers HNL to be international, so unless your $500 fare is booked in H class, you're going to have to pay $300-400 each way for the privilege of using your miles to upgrade.

Bottom line, CO just plane sucks when it comes to a reasonable international upgrade policy and its system-wide coach product.

Just say NO and fly AA.

DallasCowboy

Yes CO is surely out........even the $160 savings does not seem worth it as we'll get 7.5k bonus miles each on AA.

Will wait for a couple of days more to see if any other lower fare opens up!

socalgal

Going LAX-HNL end of Sept...booked 2 months in advance...$385....call ahead and hope for cheaper fare later......

benoit

You got a pretty good fare from Dallas, I'd grab it. It doesn't get a whole lot cheaper.

The Christmas flying season in December can be surprisingly wide. Still, sometimes they come through with decent fares on particular days in there (like Christmas day itself) if you are flexible. Flying home on Dec 30 might be cheap, while Dec 29th might be just nuts. For thanksgiving, I get some cheap fares if I go home just a day or two after thankgiving, if I buy well in advance. Otherwise you have to fly many more days after thanksgiving. Anyway, merry Christmas or Happy Thanksgiving, enjoy your trip to Hawaii.
Merry Christmas in Hawaiian is "Mele Kalikimaka".