$724 LAX HNL is a "sale"?
 

Got an email from UA for their "Islands on Sale" only to find that all islands are >$700 RT. I realize that fares to the islands are up since early 2011 but this is hardly a "sale". Pre-2011, HNL could be had in the low $400s, what happened? Fuel costs? With our economy, one would think that the opposite would be true. I think the airlines have figured out that they can fly fewer flights and command a higher fare due to supply/demand and rich folks who like the islands. But the island economy stinks, and this is one reason why: fewer pax.

One way to help out our friends on the islands is to fly more people over at lower rates. Might work, eh? Build more properties, stimulate the economy, make things better for the islanders. They deserve it.

Why is it an airline's job to stimulate an economy?

btw, it's all competition. Hawaii is cheaper than ever from the Bay Area thanks to AS.


Not all islanders agree with this sentiment. Many would rather the mainlanders stay home.

I have to assume fuel costs are a big part of it. In Jan 2009, I booked a round-trip to HNL from DCA for $400 on United. The SFO-HNL flights were overbooked all day so they desperately needed volunteers. I got $600 in travel credits and an overnight in SFO so I made money on the deal!

Miss those days...now it's difficult to even get to the West Coast for under $500.

Given some folks were reporting $2000+ economy fares to the islands not so long ago, $724 is indeed a "sale." :eek:

What I still don't understand is how fares from the East coast are not much more then from the West Coast? I just saw a fare yesterday from JFK-HNL thru SFO/LAX of $850

FYI - fuel is one big reason they can charge so much but also the fact they are replacing 777s with 737s must have a lot to do with it as well

Pretty standard for summer fares.

Will be back down come September.

There's only a loose correlation between distance and fare. It's the city pairs and competition that really determine the fare.

I've been watching these fares closely for the past 6 weeks for a trip at the end of July from SFO-KOA.

Price back then was $980 r/t, has since come down to $780. Award buckets were WIDE open on basically every day I looked at, and the seat maps were equally wide open (both remain so) so I booked saver awards for the significant others.....

Maybe I'm being stupid, but I'm waiting on the flights to drop a little more before pulling the trigger on my own $$ ticket. The $780 fare currently books in S bucket, and with pax loads so low I'm banking on them opening up T or L at some point in the next few weeks.

As I said, maybe a crazy strategy, but I'm willing to take the risk right now....

I would like to see our friends on the islands come to Chicago and stimulate our economy and ride the CTA but I don't expect United to subsidize that.

:D

I know that's the ACTUAL reason but still I can't wrap my head around it. I went to Rio in March. Wanted to book a W fare from NYC and use my GPUs. I also knew I would have to go to L.A. At some point coming up. The W fare LGA-IAD-GIG was $1900. I was ready to book it but just for the hell of it checked the W fare from LAX.....it was $1250 (LAX-IAD-GIG). The S fare at the time JFK-LAX on PS flights was $300. End result was I got to COMBINE L.A. And Rio trips, earn almost 10K extra PQMs AND THE TOTAL FARE WAS $350 LESS THEN IF I HAD JUST FLOWN NYC-IAD-GIG .....and still got all 6 flights upgraded with the 2 GPUs and 2 extra RPUs for the PS flights. I would love to know what they smoke in Chicago before making up these fares!

Same situation. I was looking at flight for next week a couple of weeks ago and they were in the $900+ range for SFO-HNL even with many empty seats. Finally got a $671 fare yesterday for next Tuesday (S bucket). My family is traveling on saver awards which are plentiful for June through August. I've never seen so many saver awards available!

I would think these high fares are a burden to the Hawaii economy for travel from the mainland. If fares are too high, then it really doesn't matter what the hotel cost is especially if you are traveling with a family of 4+. And making sales now won't do much as families will just make other summer vacation plans.

But the hotels are doing very well from what I'm told. Can't speak for EVERY hotel but a friend who's with Starwood told me summer bookings are UP.

Isn't Hawaii one of the richest places in the US anyway? With the crazy housing prices over there, it'd better be.

Yep, wikipedia reckons it's the fifth-richest state of the union, well ahead of California in ninth. Maybe United should lower fares so the rich Hawaiians can come and spend some pineapple money in Los Angeles, and stimulate *our* economy.

Overall hotel occupancy is up, but I'm seeing more foreign travelers there, which is what is keeping the Hawaii economy afloat as opposed to coming from our own US dollars.

Not exactly.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaii_..._capita_income