Need Help...To HNL
Oct 25, 2000 | 7:34 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 1999
Location: Cleveland, OH
Posts: 794
Need Help...To HNL
Trying to book a little vacation trip to ring in 2001. I was able to get a week at the Hilton Turtle Bay Resort on Oahu, and am waitlisted for the Hilton Waikoloa Village on the Big Island...tentative dates are 1/01-1/07.
Now my BIGGER problem...how to get there! I have about 200k NW miles and 50k AA miles. There are three of us going...me, the wife, and two-year-old daughter.
My questions are...try and use some sort of "rule buster" mileage award, or pay our way there? We would be flying from here in Dubuque (via MSP), our could go out of ORD if necessary. Does anyone know of any "deals" out there to HNL? The best I could do was around $850-$900 per person, and that is just not going to cut it.
HELP!!! We are dying to make this trip!!!
[This message has been edited by E (edited 10-25-2000).]
Now my BIGGER problem...how to get there! I have about 200k NW miles and 50k AA miles. There are three of us going...me, the wife, and two-year-old daughter.
My questions are...try and use some sort of "rule buster" mileage award, or pay our way there? We would be flying from here in Dubuque (via MSP), our could go out of ORD if necessary. Does anyone know of any "deals" out there to HNL? The best I could do was around $850-$900 per person, and that is just not going to cut it.
HELP!!! We are dying to make this trip!!!
[This message has been edited by E (edited 10-25-2000).]
Oct 25, 2000 | 8:02 am
#2
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Apr 1999
Location: Bryn Mawr PA & Wailea HI
Posts: 15,726
I wish I could help, or I had a nice deal for you, but you indicate "1/01-1/07" as your desired date. This is one of the BUSIEST times (read busy/expensive) of the year here. You better grab flights to whatever place you can at whatever price you can get if you want early-January Hawaiian sunshine. FWIW I always do my airline booking prior to hotel booking. Good Luck!
Oct 25, 2000 | 8:05 am
#3
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Jul 2000
Location: PHX and LIH
Programs: AA: 2 MM, HA, VS
Posts: 91,959
There is no way you are using your miles this late in the game. You needed to plan this 300 days ahead. You are going to have to PAY! However, if you end up at the Waikoloa Village, you will not begrudge the airline a penny. It will be a fantastic trip! You will think you have arrived in heaven. Think of us back here in the c-c-cold Midwest as you splash into the pool from one of the waterslides!
Oct 25, 2000 | 2:50 pm
#4
Join Date: Jan 2000
Location: 3A - most likey <> BKK <--> EZE; TACA 3A nobody, but GP million miler; Hilton Gold sometimes. Successfully divorced from CO PLAT.
Posts: 3,079
Keep trying for Waikoloa...alot more activities there!
[This message has been edited by tvl4free (edited 10-25-2000).]
[This message has been edited by tvl4free (edited 10-25-2000).]
Oct 25, 2000 | 8:08 pm
#5
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 1999
Location: Cleveland, OH
Posts: 794
Good feedback so far, gang. Here is what we were able to accomplish so far, on fairly short notice...
* A six night stay at the Hilton Turtle Bay Resort on the north shore of Oahu using the 100,000 point VIP award from 1/01-1/07.
* Three roundtrip tickets on NW from right here in Dubuque to HNL, via our normal stop in MSP. On the way back, we go through SEA by way of the redeye flight. Total mileage cost to us will be 157,500...or 52,500 miles per ticket. The actual ticket price for the same flights would be $945 or $.018 per mile...kind of "borderline" for the ticket vs. miles decision, but for three tickets the decision to spend almost $3,000 or 158k miles was an easy one!
* In order to get the above airline tickets and itinerary, we had to return on 1/10 instead of 1/07. So...we just extended our vacation by three nights by staying in the windward shore city of Kailua at a nice looking B&B, something we love to do.
Bottom line...$33 in taxes for the airline tickets, $0 for the hotel room, and $240 for three nights at the B&B, and a rental car. Not bad, I think?!?!?
tvl4free...I really appreciate the deals you came up with, but traveling with a 2 year old and the added expense and time for a west coast trip was just not worth it to us at this time. Had it been just my wife and I, maybe we could have swung it, but as long as the trip is to begin with, our little girl would just loose it we felt.
* A six night stay at the Hilton Turtle Bay Resort on the north shore of Oahu using the 100,000 point VIP award from 1/01-1/07.
* Three roundtrip tickets on NW from right here in Dubuque to HNL, via our normal stop in MSP. On the way back, we go through SEA by way of the redeye flight. Total mileage cost to us will be 157,500...or 52,500 miles per ticket. The actual ticket price for the same flights would be $945 or $.018 per mile...kind of "borderline" for the ticket vs. miles decision, but for three tickets the decision to spend almost $3,000 or 158k miles was an easy one!
* In order to get the above airline tickets and itinerary, we had to return on 1/10 instead of 1/07. So...we just extended our vacation by three nights by staying in the windward shore city of Kailua at a nice looking B&B, something we love to do.
Bottom line...$33 in taxes for the airline tickets, $0 for the hotel room, and $240 for three nights at the B&B, and a rental car. Not bad, I think?!?!?
tvl4free...I really appreciate the deals you came up with, but traveling with a 2 year old and the added expense and time for a west coast trip was just not worth it to us at this time. Had it been just my wife and I, maybe we could have swung it, but as long as the trip is to begin with, our little girl would just loose it we felt.