Spring Break Pricing
 

I'd love some advice. I've been planning a trip to Kona during the popular week before Easter. I've been watching the airfares from the Los Angeles area hang in the $750+ for the past 4 months. I'm getting a little nervous now since Aloha has started their Summer Sale for May-June. Their fare is now a little over $800 with taxes. I remember in years past I could easily pick up a fare in the $400 range or less 6 months prior to an Easter vacation. Are those a thing of the past? Should I just wait for a last minute special or bite the Very Expensive bullet?

That's a tough decision. The airlines have become quite expert in controlling capacity. If you can't find anything reasonable now, I doubt that you'll find it, except perhaps for some last minute leftovers at say Travelocity/Last Minute. I looked at that week of 4/9-4/16 and it looks grim. What about calling/emailing some of the HNL based travel agencies? We've had threads about them here before. Otherwise, if your heart is set on it and you can't flex dates, I'd say the airlines win and you'll have to pay up.

Do also try to see what the vacation packages for air and auto/car go for. (e.g., UnitedVacations, or the vacation packages option on Travelocity or Expedia)

Sometimes the airfare break on these can be very significant and even if you don't want a car you can book it for one day and not use it.

Hi...I've flown from lax to hnl quite a few times in the last couple of years and have noticed Hawaiian Air seems to have a pattern of sales every few months. For instance, fall travel sales begin in Mid summer, winter travel sales begin in fall, then usually spring break sales begin in February or so. Of course, this has just been my observation and usually the sales are only into HNL. You might want to look at HawaiianAir.com they have discounts for ff members too.

Good thought but no deals. I checked.

Hawaiianair.com has it for $357.70 right now. (4/9-4/16 LAX-HNL) May only be a few seats remaining.

Both Expedia and Travelocity just turned up a $392 fare for me (also 4/9-4/16 LAX-HNL).

You can try the Hawaii-based Panda Travel. I've used them quite a bit and their customer service by phone is remarkable - short wait times and very competent and helpful staff. PS: BTW I don't work for them.

I did a search 4/9-4/16 LAX-HNL on Panda Travel and it returned 2 DL fares @ $411.09, 1 HA fare @ $509.20 and some other more expensive fares. Good luck!

I'm not sure where the last poster found their HA pricing, but here's the actual pricing for those days, including tax. HNL travel agency is a good idea though.

Hawaiian Airlines
$589 per person

Continental Airlines
$614 per person

America West Airlines
Change planes in Phoenix, AZ (PHX) $615 per person

I found the HA price on the Hawaiian Air website 1/23 around 10pm HST. It's now $524.20 because the cheaper return sold out. (1/24 ~10:15pm HST)

The fares at Panda Travel are still the cheapest I've found...and they're still available. All prices are including taxes/fees.

I've flown both DL and HA to/from HNL and they are nearly equal in comfort.

Aloha!

I used to use Panda Travel quite a bit because they had an office across mine on Bishop St. But I find them a bit, er, local when you try to deal with them by phone or internet.

Of the big Hawaii travel agents, I prefer dealing with Travel Hawaii.

Thank you all for your advice. I ended up booking my tickets with Panda Online. My desired flying dates were filling up quickly and Aloha kept going up and was $807 today. Panda was $620 which was lower than anything I've seen from my home airport since I've been watching over the past few months. Now I'm not going to check anymore because I'll be bummed if it does go lower!