Help with booking lie flat for two DFW-LIH
 

Hi all - appealing to the brain trust on this one. Booking two RT tickets for a newly married couple to go to Kauai from DFW in August. I’d like to buy them J, or PE at minimum, since this is a special trip for them. Flying AA is not a must, but from DFW figured AA is the likely option to get lie-flat J instead of narrow body domestic first out of LAX or SFO as on other carriers. I thought I could just get AA or google flights to sell a cheapie Hawaiian HNL-LIH segment inside of a non-stop DFW-HNL ticket, but not having much luck.

I can force the AA website to show a Hawaiian segment, but prices are silly at $4k/person in PE and something like $6k in J (I assume this is a full-fare refundable ticket?). Meanwhile, it really wants to show me an LAX connection on an A321 each way for ~$2k/person, which is roughly where I assumed this should price out. Same on google flights.

Am I missing anything? Haven’t ever booked a Hawaii trip from DFW, but have never had trouble getting the website to tack on non-OW segments to lesser-travelled destinations in Europe with AA as the main overwater carrier.

Thanks a ton!

Dates?

Aug 16-22. No flexibility due to bar review classes and a new job, unfortunately

The only AA lie-flats to Hawaii are from DFW to HNL or OGG. You could book separate tickets onto LIH on HA, but you will need to collect and re-check any bags. (Or pay the ridiculous price to include a HA segment/codeshare).

I think UA may have one lie-flat flight on LIH-SFO, but I’m sure it’s a regular seat from DFW to SFO.

Yeah, if you have to get it on one ticket, it looks like it's going to be expensive -- here's $4500 in J: https://www.google.com/flights/#flt=...3*2.USD.452481

Separate tickets would probably be the way to go... yes, they'll have to recheck their bags (if they're checking bags) but with 18 HNL-LIH flights a day each way, I wouldn't be too worried about misconnecting in the event of a delay, etc. Still looking at $3k each ($2770 for the DFW-HNL nonstops on your dates) but there's no reason (IMO) to pay an extra $1500 each just to get the flights on a single ticket. https://www.google.com/flights/#flt=...2*2.USD.277062

I should point out that the lie-flats are more advantageous on overnight flights, which is the return leg of any DFW-Hawaii trip. So perhaps PE on the outbound and J on the return is reasonable. On my DFW-HNL rt last year I considered a J connection through LAX or PHX, or PE direct, on the outbound leg, but the return had to be direct in J. FWIW, I wound up choosing DFW-HNL in PE and wait-listing for a SWU, which I did get.

Is there any structural reason for fares this high? Or just "airfares vary" in this case? Just wondering whether AA is using some form of "married segment" or similar type device to keep fares high for this given it originates in DFW. This fare all the more surprising given the global travel backdrop and surplus widebodies AA has right now, all of which led me to assume this kind of thing should price cheaper than a historical average.

And appreciate the suggestions, just a little hesitant to get creative given these are relatively neophyte travelers, so their ability to recover if something goes awry on separate tickets, etc is probably limited. Then again, I'm really not paying more than I just paid for DFW-Eur for this upcoming summer in J. Maybe I just lay out pros and cons and have them "opt-in" to the creative separate ticket solutions, with all the appropriate caveats that come with it.

What about looking at UA via DEN. The DEN/LIH is on a 757 with lay flats.

$2700 for a 3,800 mile flight* in a flat bed is not really "this high" especially when you have zero flexibility on dates. I think you can probably do closer to $2000 on DFW-HNL if you plan well in advance and are flexible on dates, particularly if you can travel mid-week (e.g., Tues/Wed).

*This is longer than JFK-LHR which would normally be $3k-8k r/t but can go down to ~$2k for off periods.

Well, sure, I guess as a matter of absolute value. I've bought plenty of $9k DFW-LHR tickets, so understand it's just a matter of what the market will bear. But AA will sell me a RT non-stop DFW-HNL J ticket on those dates for $2,700. So I'm really talking about the incremental thousands of dollars to tack on the LIH segment. That is the thing that puzzles me.

You can do DFW-LAX-LIH outbound, LIH-HNL-DFW return for $2777 on your dates.

Easy connection and earliest possible arrival on the outbound, then lie-flat's on longer overnight flight on the way home.

Alternatively I also see DFW-HNL-LIH roundtrip for $3,480.

OK, that wasn't clear to me from the post. But yes, I agree, that difference seems a bit absurd. Typically there is a premium to booking an AA codeshare vs. other airline prime flight, in part due to the incremental benefit you get, mainly in terms of mileage accrual (e.g., most CX economy fares don't earn anything on AA). While I'm not sure if this itinerary is booked as an AA codeshare, here you obviously get the benefit of not having to re-check your baggage and potentially more seamless re-accommodation in case of a misconnect. If it's booked as an HA segment, the reason it would be so expensive is that there probably isn't a discounted fare that allows for the combination of AA- and HA-marketed segments, so it's bumping you up to a full fare or near-full fare.

Good suggestion - agree that the lie-flat is a much bigger deal eastbound. Could have sworn I tried clicking through to look at both ways, but maybe just missed it. Dealing with an A321 through LAX on the westbound not the end of the world and probably a good compromise.

Ah yes, this is probably the best option. So it looks like due to married segments, AA is only offering full J inventory on the return including the HA codeshare (though on its own, it's still J7 R7 D0 I0). But fortunately even full J (on the return) is not *that* crazy (and arguably the $3480 fare isn't crazy for full J on such a long route either).
One benefit is that you earn 3x elite qualifying miles on the return in full J, so this itinerary in total would earn >19k EQMs. Enough to make the Platinum challenge, although if the passengers are infrequent flyers, this probably doesn't matter much.

Now in this case, just booking HNL-DFW on the return is $2545, and I assume the cost of a separate ticket LIH-HNL (in F) is somewhat less than the $232 difference to LIH-HNL-DFW, but not enough to justify the hassle of re-checking bags. Obviously this $2700 fare is quite a bit more than the lowest FC fare on the routing, but most of that incremental is for the flat bed on HNL-DFW.

...and DFW-KOA thru August 17.