Airfare timing question

zsn · Nov 21, 2014

Sorry if this is not the right location to post this question.......I just booked our home resort usage for 2015 for the Thanksgiving week next year - 1BR at WKORV. (Digression: the online process is awesome - spent exactly four minutes, confirmation at 9:02 pm, PST)

We will be new-emptynesters as Daughter2 will also have gone off to college (Daughter1 is already in college this year) and we are hoping that they will be able to join us then. Since the bulk of the expense is airfare from mainland-islands, we are thinking about booking either the previous week or the following week in WPORV (in Feb, when the window opens) as a second honeymoon, almost 24 years later! My question is if there is a difference in fares (usually) between the following itineraries, in terms of timing (peak/lean/shoulder periods):
a. leaving Nov 14th, SFO-LIH-OGG-SFO returning Nov 28th trip and
b. leaving Nov 21th, SFO-OGG-LIH-SFO returning Dec 5th?

Thanks in advance

DavidnRobin · Nov 21, 2014

zsn said:
Sorry if this is not the right location to post this question.......I just booked our home resort usage for 2015 for the Thanksgiving week next year - 1BR at WKORV. (Digression: the online process is awesome - spent exactly four minutes, confirmation at 9:02 pm, PST)

We will be new-emptynesters as Daughter2 will also have gone off to college (Daughter1 is already in college this year) and we are hoping that they will be able to join us then. Since the bulk of the expense is airfare from mainland-islands, we are thinking about booking either the previous week or the following week in WPORV (in Feb, when the window opens) as a second honeymoon, almost 24 years later! My question is if there is a difference in fares (usually) between the following itineraries, in terms of timing (peak/lean/shoulder periods):
a. leaving Nov 14th, SFO-LIH-OGG-SFO returning Nov 28th trip and
b. leaving Nov 21th, SFO-OGG-LIH-SFO returning Dec 5th?

Thanks in advance

It depends - but the leg between OGG-LIH is going to increase the cost. We use SFO-OGG/LIH (1-way) and OGG/LIH-SFO (1-way) using FF miles (SuperSavers) - then pay cash for OGG-LIH segment. If I can't use SuperSaver miles - then I pay cash - Alaska has low-cost flights from San Jose. And now HI-Air leaves from SFO as well.

Enjoy

vacationtime1 · Nov 21, 2014

The short answer is that airfares are inconsistent and that the only way to know for certain is to actually book your flights -- which you cannot do until February when you have the WPORV reservation. I don't think it will make any difference that you are coming and going from different islands; however, as David says, you will need to purchase an inter-island ticket. We just paid $68 each for ours (book well in advance, like in February when you book the other tickets; they can get expensive).

Flying Thanksgiving weekend may or may not make a difference; again, the airlines are inconsistent. You could check fares now, using a different holiday weekend as a proxy.

The best way to save money on Hawaii flights is to get an Alaska Airlines VISA card; it comes with an annual $119 companion ticket, so even if the fares are $700, the two of you can fly for $819 (plus the cost of the VISA card, but that cost is waived the first year).

nokaoi9 · Nov 21, 2014

vacationtime1 said:
The short answer is that airfares are inconsistent and that the only way to know for certain is to actually book your flights -- which you cannot do until February when you have the WPORV reservation. I don't think it will make any difference that you are coming and going from different islands; however, as David says, you will need to purchase an inter-island ticket. We just paid $68 each for ours (book well in advance, like in February when you book the other tickets; they can get expensive).

Flying Thanksgiving weekend may or may not make a difference; again, the airlines are inconsistent. You could check fares now, using a different holiday weekend as a proxy.

The best way to save money on Hawaii flights is to get an Alaska Airlines VISA card; it comes with an annual $119 companion ticket, so even if the fares are $700, the two of you can fly for $819 (plus the cost of the VISA card, but that cost is waived the first year).

I personally prefer Hawaiian Airlines and have the Barclay's Hawiian Visa. Annual fee is $89 and you get a buy one, get one 50% companion ticket, plus 35,000 miles when you spend $1000 in first three months. We go each November and airfare typically runs $450 round trip. What we did the first year was use the companion ticket, roughly $675 for the two of us. Second year we used the 35,000 miles, which is the cost of a round trip ticket in November. We also have Starwood AmEx for primary charges throughout the year, and have converted Starwood Points to Hawaiian Miles (20,000 Starpoints convert to 25,000 Hawiian Miles). We now have the option to use either miles we accumulate throughout the year, or the $100 anniversary credit we from our Hawiian Visa. Best of luck!

zsn · Nov 22, 2014

Thanks all. I had not thought to book the mainland-island as an openjaw and buy interisland separately. Last time we did this (it was in June and we paid around $500) there was only about $30 difference between buying the whole thing and the open jaw - it was on Alaska, out of OAK and Hawaiian interisland.

Since at least one leg is connected to Thanksgiving, it may not make a difference, as you pointed out.

DavidnRobin · Nov 22, 2014

Can't book the inter-island using UA FF - at least that shows availability online.
So I purchase separately, and then attempt to use SuperSavers. I can't seem to get SS tix for next Sept LIH-SFO, but did for SFO-OGG in August. Typical...

Airfare timing question

zsn

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