Booking FF flights to Hawaii - summer time

I booked four FF tix from SFO (San Fran) Oahu for Dec 2008 back in about March (I forget the exact time) - it was really painless, booking two on UA and two on AA.

What has been the history of booking FF flights for the summer months, like later July or early August - I am mainly asking for AA and UA.

Are there specific summer months/periods that are better in terms of FF availability?

Thanks.

As you might expect, that's when a lot of families take vacations to Hawaii and use FF miles for award tickets. Thus, the preferred strategy is to:

- stay as far away from July as possible - e.g., late August at the earliest; also May to early June.

- Aim for flights on Tuesday, Wednesdays and Thursdays, if possible. Most vacationers want to fly on or near a weekend to minimize the number of extra days taken off from work as "vacation" days.

- Start looking for flights a full 330 days in advance of when you want to fly. It's already way too late to start looking for 2008. Each airline has its own rules as to how long it will hold your outbound flights while you are waiting for inbound flights to open up. Here are the policies for various airlines on holding FF reservations (for U.S. travel) without ticketing. The info is based on info in a travel publication I get. I can vouch only for the UA and AA policies. If you get an agent who allows a more liberal policy, consider yourself lucky!

• AA 14 days
• CO 5 days
• DL 48 hours
• NW none allowed
• UA 72 hours
• US 72 hours

The only way we've gotten United ff flights to Hawaii (Big Island) during the summer is by booking them as early as possible. And even then we can't always get all 4 tickets using only Saver miles (35,000 vs 60,000). Of course we're not always terribly flexible with our flights.

thanks for the responses so far - I am actually planning for two weeks in Maui for 2009. My 2008 is BOOKED !!!

winger said:

thanks for the responses so far - I am actually planning for two weeks in Maui for 2009. My 2008 is BOOKED !!!

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I am confused. You booked FF tickets on UA and AA for Dec 2008 more than 18 months in advance? I thought both of these airlines only booked flights (much less FF tickets) 11 months out? -- Suzanne

No I booked Dec 2007 stay in about Mar 2007. I am now planning my summer 2009 Hawaii trip, trying to use FF miles

ff miles

I booked 2 tickets with ff miles for Aug 08 to Hawaii on US Air.
I hated to use 70k points per ticket (took me forever to accumlate them).

I had an additional ticket - around $1000. Hope the fare drops and I can get a voucher for it.

ownsmany said:

I booked 2 tickets with ff miles for Aug 08 to Hawaii on US Air.
I hated to use 70k points per ticket (took me forever to accumlate them).

I had an additional ticket - around $1000. Hope the fare drops and I can get a voucher for it.

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i expect fares to HI from the East Coast costs more than from out West where I am, so 70k is more of a value for you than I. From here our tix cost about 500 - 700 or so per ticket r/t

If you really need peak times--do what I did!

set your clock, get up at 1:00 AM EST and call AA 331 days out. It just turned midnight at DFW and they just loaded the seats--book anything that they have for you--even if it is not the right island---repeat for 1 week and you will get something. I got 11 tickets on 4 airlines for summer a few years ago.
ALWAYS hold something---I held 5 out-bound tickets to Maui (not an island we intended to go to), thinking that other seats would be loaded in a few days (sometimes they don't get loaded exactly at 331). Well, the other seats never became available and if I had not held Maui--we would have been out of luck. We traveled at peak time (end June and needed 5 tickets), so it's not really a big deal to get a $79 flight to another island--when you are getting $1000 tickets for 35,000 miles.

elaine said:

set your clock, get up at 1:00 AM EST and call AA 331 days out. It just turned midnight at DFW and they just loaded the seats--book anything that they have for you--even if it is not the right island---repeat for 1 week and you will get something. I got 11 tickets on 4 airlines for summer a few years ago.
....

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Thanks Elaine.
Questions.
1. Is 1AM EST a known the magic time or it's just a estimate?
2. why do you say try 331 days out, I am sure i have read it is 330 days .
3. Is the 331 (or 330) for the outbound or return? I just tried 331 on UA and it seems the only day available for the return is the SAME day. If you are booking 331 days as outbound, how do you not choose a return (online) ?

When are you getting ff seats for 35k points? I'm thinking it must not be in the summer when I normally would go to HI.

Mine were 70k or so.

elaine said:

set your clock, get up at 1:00 AM EST and call AA 331 days out. It just turned midnight at DFW and they just loaded the seats--book anything that they have for you--even if it is not the right island---repeat for 1 week and you will get something. I got 11 tickets on 4 airlines for summer a few years ago.
ALWAYS hold something---I held 5 out-bound tickets to Maui (not an island we intended to go to), thinking that other seats would be loaded in a few days (sometimes they don't get loaded exactly at 331). Well, the other seats never became available and if I had not held Maui--we would have been out of luck. We traveled at peak time (end June and needed 5 tickets), so it's not really a big deal to get a $79 flight to another island--when you are getting $1000 tickets for 35,000 miles.

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1) When airlines populate their databases with new flights, the flights you want can be added any time during the night. Often there are only two to four FF award seats on a particular flight. Thus, if you are trying regularly through the night, you'll have a much better chance at getting the seats you want than if you wait until you get up the next morning.

2) The number of dates varies by airline, although for most major U.S. carriers, it's usually 330 or 331 days in advance. As you demonstrated with your UA test, it's easy to determine how many days in advance your favorite airlines make flights available. Currently, AA has flights available only 329 days in advance. However, note that an airline doesn't necessarily make all of its FF award seats available on that first day. Sometimes, none of those seats will be made available on that first day. There is no guaranteed way to determine when your seats will become available.

3) As you found out, you can't make both your outbound and return flight reservations on the 331st day before your outbound flight. You would have to wait until 331 days before your return flight to book your return flight. See my post above for how long you can ask each airline to hold your outbound flight reservation while you are waiting for the date your return flights will become available. With an airline like UA, that presents a challenge, because you can hold your outbound reservation for only 72 hours. That means you must make a choice:

• Before the end of that 72-hour hold period you could make a return reservation for a date much earlier than you want to return home. Then when flights open up for the date you want to return home, you could change your reservation, paying a fee (typically $100) to do so. Not all airlines charge such a fee, but you should ask about the policy for changing an award ticket before deciding on this option.
• You can wait until flights for your return date open up before making any reservation. Then make both your outbound and return reservation at the same time. Although you'll escape any fee for changing your reservation, the big risk you run is that someone else may have already reserved the only award seats on those tough-to-get outbound flights before you try to make your reservations.
  
  If you plan to stay only six or seven days, you might be okay with that strategy. But if you plan to stay more than a week, it's very likely that someone else staying only a week will have already snagged the seats you want.

Also take a look at my advice from a year ago on how to snag those elusive FF award seats. The only change from that advice is that the AwardPlanner service is no longer available and there is apparently no similar service currently available.

ownsmany -

As stated at the link at the bottom of my above post, many airlines allow booking an award seat for double the number of FF miles normally required if any seat on the plane is still unreserved. That's what you did.

The strategy suggested here is designed to snag some of the few seats that will be made available at the lower level of FF miles. There have been many reports on these forums of people having success in doing that at peak times.

ownsmany said:

When are you getting ff seats for 35k points? I'm thinking it must not be in the summer when I normally would go to HI.

Mine were 70k or so.

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I got two out of the four needed (United) for summer 2007 using 35,000 miles each. The other two required 60,000 miles each. And that was even booking as far ahead as I could. When I requested 4 "Saver" seats they weren't available. But then I broke it down and looked for 2, which I got. So try asking for a smaller number and see if there are any available at the lower "price".

I just booked 2 tickets (35,000) eacj from FLL to HNL for Sept. 19. Had no problem.

Nancy

Luanne said:

I got two out of the four needed (United) for summer 2007 using 35,000 miles each. The other two required 60,000 miles each. And that was even booking as far ahead as I could. When I requested 4 "Saver" seats they weren't available. But then I broke it down and looked for 2, which I got. So try asking for a smaller number and see if there are any available at the lower "price".

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this is where I would (as I did for Dec) consider booking flights on two airlines (2 ppl on each airline). Easier to find seats this way.

In August I was able to book 4 - 35,000 tickets for June 08. We are flying out Den-Ogg and returning HNL-DEN. We still have 1 ticket to buy.

kapear said:

In August I was able to book 4 - 35,000 tickets for June 08. We are flying out Den-Ogg and returning HNL-DEN. We still have 1 ticket to buy.

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4 tix on the same flight? Did you book all in one sitting or multiple? Did you follow method outlined by Dave and book right at that magic 330 (or whatever it is for your airline)? What airlines did you book with?

Dave M said:

ownsmany -

As stated at the link at the bottom of my above post, many airlines allow booking an award seat for double the number of FF miles normally required if any seat on the plane is still unreserved. That's what you did.

The strategy suggested here is designed to snag some of the few seats that will be made available at the lower level of FF miles. There have been many reports on these forums of people having success in doing that at peak times.

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Thanks Dave. I didn't realize that. Next time I'll have to try and get the award saver ones. I just thought they weren't avail for summer travel.

Thanks for the information.

The 72 hour hold period for UA's return flt. rez. is not always adhered to. The last 5 times I've made award rez. with UA they have let me hold the out going rez. for 21-22 days. These were all USA based agents. Talking with someone in India may be a different story. My point is to just ask for what you want. You may or may not get lucky.

Phil

I agree Phil. That's probably because the 72-hour time limit (24 hours for UA partners Singapore Airlines and Asiana Airlines) is relatively new and not all agents are familiar with it. From the UA ticketing instructions that UA and agents use:

4. ENTER TIME LIMIT AS MAXIMUM 72 HOURS AFTER BOOKING
TIME LIMIT CANNOT BE EXTENDED-XNL ITIN AND START OVER.
**EXCEPTION: SQ AND OZ TICKETING POLICY
- 7 DAYS OR MORE BEFORE DEPARTURE TICKET WITHIN 24 HOURS.
- 6 DAYS OR LESS MUST TICKET IMMEDIATELY.

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Dave M said:

I agree Phil. That's probably because the 72-hour time limit (24 hours for UA partners Singapore Airlines and Asiana Airlines) is relatively new and not all agents are familiar with it. From the UA ticketing instructions that UA and agents use:

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Dave,
I'll be testing this in Feb. when I again try to snag two award tix to Hawaii for Jan. 2009. Everyone wish me luck.

If they won't do more than a 72 hr. hold I'll just make a fake rez. coming home two days after I leave and then change the return date when the 330/331 day mark comes up. Thank goodness UA doesn't charge a change fee for dates or times on award travel.

Phil