fadeforward

I've flown back to Hawaii for Christmas for over ten years now. Right now I've got a United flight on hold CID-ORD-HNL-(stop xmas)-LAX-SJC-(stop new year's)-ORD-CID for $985, and I feel like that's a fantastic deal. But last year I thought exactly the same thing, purchased a similar itin, and the fares dropped from just over a grand to $722 on the first of November. A United fare SFO-HNL-(stop xmas)-SFO dropped down to $279 from over $500 for the same time period. Those fares didn't last long, but they were oh so sweet.

I know this is a crystal ball thing that no one can really predict. I'm just looking to adjust my standards based on the experiences of others.

If your dates are moderately flexible; you can plan in advance; and you want to fly one of the big carriers (UA, AA, NW, DL, CO), here are my expectations for week-long travel over Christmas.

West Coast: $400 good fare, $600 baseline
Midwest/East: $700 good fare, $1000 baseline

Starting in August, book anything that falls less than $450 or $800 ($500 and $850 from tough airports like CID) respectively. Fares have a 50% chance of dipping for a refare or a $100 itin change, but it's not worth the risk. Your standards?

thc

I'm looking to fly either OAK/SFO to HNL on 12/21 and returning on 12/25. So far, the lowest fare i found is about $604 on American. I have this itinerary on hold till 11:59PM, 10/12. does anyone have any opinions on whether I should purchase this itinerary?

Thanks.

cblaisd

For anytime 12/15 to 1/2 that's a good fare.

thc

thanks for the feedback! Even though this is a short visit, I'm really excited to visit Hawaii for the 1st time.

Edited to add: I just went back to aa.com, and found that the fare had gone even lower. Now it's at about $591 + taxes. I've gone ahead and purchased it.

fadeforward

I agree that $600ish is a typical fare booking early for that time of year. I'm not sure if AA has a low fare guarantee like UA (where you can refare if the price drops and get a voucher for the difference), but that would be a consolation.

I don't get the feeling that fares will drop much between now and then, or, if they do, they won't drop for long.

fadeforward

I thought I'd bump this thread, because it's about that time of year again, and I just pulled the trigger on a $770 HNL fare from BOS, 12/22-28. I have a feeling that this is the best I'll be able to do to HNL over Christmas.

mander

My wife is from Maui so we do ***-OGG over the holidays every year out of the midwest. My rule of thumb of late has been that if I can get the flights I want on the days I want at under 1K a ticket I buy. This year fares seem to be trending a bit lower so I am not surprised to see 770 to HNL but, nonetheless, it is a great deal. Probably flying midweek is helping. Our best deal ever for the holidays was 520 but that was 2001 after 9/11.

twospirits

The farecompare history chart might help out, This one is for flights from BOS to HNL for the last 5 years.

just change the part in the address that states "&back=1825" to the number of days going back you want.
365, 730, 1095, 1460, 1825 (for 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 years) etc etc

TS

fadeforward

That's a great tool, twospirits, but it understates the "Christmas" problem somewhat, as fares are often restricted around key dates, particularly to Hawaii in the 20-23 range and around New Year's. Still helpful to get a baseline, though, no doubt.

mander, I appreciated anything in the $900s back when I was ex-CID 2006-9. I also splurged on award first tickets a couple of times.

mander

We used to use CID too and now use LNK or OMA after moving

businessmachine

Hello all.

Thank you very much for the all the priceless advice found on this forum. I am in the midst of planning a vacation/honeymoon in hawaii from December 25th to January 4th. ( Coming from NYC)
My goal was to try and get there using FF miles.I had 160,000 AA miles and 100,000 BA miles. I have been spending countless hours looking and just yesterday I got lucky finding one way tickets for my wife and I FROM LIH to JFK on Jan. 4 2012 in business class for 37,500 AA miles each. I was thinking we can be in Maui from Dec 25- 29 for some fun activities, and then in Kauai from 29-Jan 4th for a little more luxury time.

What thing I do really need help with is finding a one way award ticket to Maui on Dec 25. Unfortunately the cheapest I see is 45,000 each in COACH which is just ridiculous waste of miles.I also searched possibly going to the other islands and then transferring but that too was the same price. I would also appreciate any comments/advice on my plan.

Thank you again for all the help.

el_tigre

The bad news is the Xmas holidays are absolutely the toughest time to get award tix to Hawaii. That said, if you are actually traveling on Xmas day, you might have better luck with something opening up since most folks would rather not fly on a major holiday.

It sounds like all that is currently available is a standard/AAnytime award for your outbound. My only advise would be to keep checking everyday. Since standard awards can be booked anytime there is a seat available to purchase, there isn't a real rush unless the flight is close to selling out. Also, award seats in premium cabins are not usually as difficult to come by as coach seats to Hawaii, so you might just get lucky with the outbound as well if you are patient.

Tony10s

Try alaska air ewr- sea-OGG

businessmachine

Thanks for the advice guys.

I was thinking they christmas day would be no problem but apparently they are not releasing any award tickets.

I checked with Alaskan and unfortunately they having no award availability to OGG, LIH, or HNL either.

saacman5033

You might want to look at Hawaiian airlines through LAS or one of their other west coast cities. You'll have to call AA to find if seats are available but seats show as available on the HA site for 12/25 on flight 31 to OGG.