EWR-HNL BusinessFirst fares?
 

What is the distribution of great/good/average/high BusinessFirst fares? I know it was mentioned on some thread that I can't find anymore that someone saw a 2.4k RT fare. The best CO has right now is a 2.8k RT fare.

As an example, decent discounted coach fares run between 550 and 700. Prices have been as low as in the 300's. Around the Christmas/New Years holidays I find anything below $1000 acceptable.

Good question.. We have some vouchers to burn and family consensus is HNL again. I am getting tired of the HoKeY hunt, esp for 4 pax, so was thinking about actually PURCHASING BF.. Are there ever any decent BF fares NYC-HNL, even with connections? (Must be thru CO to use the vouchers)

Robin

for travel this past winter CO's fares were stubbornly high north of $1,000 coach Newark Liberty (EWR) to Honolulu (HNL). i looked for months.

but, for a three or four day period in october'ish, the fares fluctuated constantly from about $1,600 to $750. one hour they were $1,600, the next they were $750. who the heck knows why. so, i was able to get $750 for two tix.

p.s.-the flights were packed. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

edited to add: i now see that the title was looking for BusinessFirst fares. but the original post (second paragraph) also discussed coach fares.

[This message has been edited by fly co to see the yanks (edited 02-11-2003).]

I go to Hawaii frequently on CO and have been checking fares almost daily for the last few months.

Coach fares from NYC have been bouncing between $511 and $1100 (they're at $511 r/t now for travel through the next 3 months.)

BF fares have been as low as $2.3k and as high as $4.2k ...right now, they're at the $2.9k someone referenced above.

One thing I have noticed is the inter-island segments can often swing dramatically as well. For example, EWR-HNL is $511 but EWR-KOA (or OGG) via HNL is $1,027. If you book HNL-KOA (OGG) separately, that current r/t fare is $125.

As far as upgradeable fares, CO's lowest to HNL from NYC is $711 now (and this too ranges from $650 to $950 r/t.)

So the debate is:
-do you want to pay $2.9k for a confirmed BF to HNL
-do you want to pay $711 + miles for a shot at BF to HNL

and

-do you buy a separate ticket for onward travel beyond HNL within Hawaii
or
-do you redeem a 10k mileage award for free interisland travel

BTW, you all should be aware that there are decent fares EWR-HNL up to 330 days out. I've bought my Thanksgiving and Christmas/New Year's tickets already.

something else to consider if you have stray miles on other airlines

AA costs 5000 miles for RT interisland on AQ (aloha)
NWA does same on Hawaiian

I flew EWR-HNL a couple days ago, and even though our flight was packed (Pres. Day Weekend), the people in the President's Club said that loads have really been light--maybe 60-70 in Y and 5-7 in BF. They were quite concerned.

That SHOULD lead to some good deals, although I heard CO RAISED their fares today, to try to generate more revenue! Makes a lot of sense: people are afraid to fly; they're tired of the hassles; so now we raise the fares to see if we can attract more revenue.

Anyway, I guess it's usually easy right now to get an upgrade from HoKeY fares, or to upgrade using $ (I know, there's another thread about this floating around). Unless you go during a holiday, your chances are good for getting an UPREV or whatever they call it.

Why not just buy a full Y fare and then just use 5K miles to upgrade?

A full Y fare is upgradable to BizFirst on the spot, I believe and no Hokey is needed. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

The full Y fares are not cheap, but still cheaper than paying full fare BizFirst.

You are correct on all counts, but there's a big piece of the picture missing that applies only to the HNL routes: There's a D8 fare that's only $400 more round-trip than the Y8 fare. It's true that the J/J8 fare is about double the Y8 fare, but I can't imagine anyone actually buying the J fare to HNL. Unlike other BusinessFirst routes, there always seems to be a D fare published with the same (lack of)restrictions as J, and more importantly, D inventory is almost always available (it rarely is any different than J inventory).

So, for routes to HNL only, I can't ever imagine it making sense to buy a full Y ticket and upgrade. Not only do you spend a lot of miles to save just a bit on the ticket, you lose the 50% elite-qualifying class-of-service bonus miles.

However, sgopal2 offers excellent advice on BusinessFirst routes other than to HNL.

Does a Y8 fare qualify for a YPASS upgrade? Don't tell CO, but I don't think I've ever purchased any Y fare (if someone squeals, please note that I have purchased J to London).

Besides, even in the best-case where I am allowed to upgrade Y8 to BF, the difference in RT fare is only $400 as mentioned above. With purchased BF you get the 50% status and real miles bonus - that would be 5k miles. Add in the 15k for the RT YPASS upgrade and you get 20k miles cost difference for buying Y8 vs. D8. At the semi-standard two cents a mile that makes it a wash in financial terms. Slight advantage to YPASS if you put the miles at less than two cents a mile.

Let me summarize...Advantages to Y8 and YPASS upgrade:
1. $400 cash

Advantages to D8 fare:
1. Don't burn 15k OnePass miles
2. Earn an additional 5k elite qualifying miles.
2. D inventory instead of Z.

Conclusion: Buy the D8 fare or play HoKeY.