Any Suggestions Booking Airfare to Kauai?

Our exchange came thru for Kauai Beach Club, a Sunday to Sunday check-in Sept. 13-20, 2015. It's our first time to Kauai so we thought we'd go a day or 2 early (or stay later). My husband, who is trying to reach 2 million miles with United, wants to pay for his flight (so he'll get credit for the miles) but I plan to use miles for mine. I'll be referring to flights booked with miles as "free" flights. We'll be flying from Boston.

I've been waiting for these dates to become available for booking using miles and I think they are now. I want to book as soon as possible to make sure I can use miles AND get the best choice of flights. After my tickets are booked, then we will purchase my husband's ticket to match my flights.

Here's what I've encountered:
The majority of the choices require 3 flights there and 3 back (UGH), but there is one flight on Saturday that goes from Boston to Lihue with just one stop in San Francisco, and I would like to book that flight. However, it doesn't find any award-travel flights coming back from Lihue. I think I am within the range of dates available for booking the return flight on the 20th because the available dates appear to be thru the 23rd, and because I can check prices of flights using these days, but there are no "free" return flights available on the 20th, 21st, 22nd, or 23rd - not even 1st class. Yet there are "free" seats available on all other days up to the 19th. Just for the heck of it, I looked to see if I could book a "free" r/t from BOS to SFO and from SFO to LIH using my dates, and it showed me return flights available. Does this make any sense?

My second question is regarding the price. The last time I flew to Oahu and Maui, the fares were about $600-700 r/t, but I'm seeing fares to Lihue around $1600-2100. Is this typical from the east coast? Should I wait a few months (after I book my flight with miles, of course) to see if the prices come down?

I'm thinking I should snare the BOS to LIH via SFO flight using miles before it's gone, and worry about the return trip later, but my husband thinks I should wait, in case the r/t airfare (for his ticket) with those flights ends up being really expensive. Advice?

Any other suggestions for me? I am considering trying to book our airfare to Honolulu instead, and maybe I can get a cheap airfare from HNL to LIH on Hawaiin Airlines or Island Air, but sites such as Travelocity won't let me book that far in advance so I don't know what the price would be.

I can't speak to the airfare cost of it, but if you have the extra time, I'd recommend staying overnight in SFO on the way to and from. Boston to Lihue is a LONG way to fly, and in September it will make for six hours time difference. Stopping for a night in SFO would give you a chance to recover a bit so you aren't so dragged out on either end of the trip. That may also help make the miles fit better.

Good luck!
Dave

Alaska Airlines has direct flights from San Jose, CA (SJO) to Lihue (LIH). We are going this November and I was able to get two tickets using my Delta SkyMiles and 3 tickets we paid $398rt each. Check back often and watch for deals.

I don't have time to check availability, but things we have done in similar situations....

1) Travel from another gateway. Look at JFK. See if that offers the award travel. Flights from BOS-JFK are cheap. Just allow enough time-even an overnight to connect if you are on a different positioning ticket.

2) Instead of flying to Kauai, fly to HNL. Much more inventory. Then, buy a flight on an island hopper to Kauai.

3) Call United. Tell them each flight is avail as award ticket individually, but not as compete routing. See if they can capture the whole itinerary for you.

Best of luck!

Since this thread is not Marriott-specific, I'm moving it to Travel for greater exposure.

Kauai Flights

We are looking at flights from NY to LIH in May, and the current prices are around 900 (or so). Our preferred mode is to fly from NY to the Four Corners area (i.e., Phoenix, SLC). That breaks the flight to LIH up nicely. There are not too many direct flights from the East Coast to HNL, and I can say that is a LONG trip. Having to jump on another plane to LIH is a PITA, even if there is more availability.

I would think you should be able to find BOS to southwest or California and then jump to LIH from there. That would be my choice. We don't fly United very often, so I really don't know their routes.

It's also difficult to predict what fares are doing these days. it used to be that you needed to jump on them as soon as they appeared, but that doesn't necessarily seem to be the case now. We have seen fares go up and down in a somewhat "random" pattern, and we are not really panicked about finding a good fare closer to the time we are traveling. If we see a good fare, we jump; if not, we wait.

It also seems like a lot of airlines are foregoing "free" seats in favor of "use your points to pay." That way, it's all about the fare.

Hope this helps!

Tom

I appreciate the responses. Spending a night in SFO on the way there and back is a good idea, but we've always flown directly to Hawaii and have been okay with that. I'd rather spend my extra 2 days on one of the islands.

We have to fly United so we can use our miles and DH can earn miles towards his 2 million, so Alaska Air from San Jose won't work for us.

Mr.Vker had some great ideas... I planned on checking other airports and now I see there are direct flight to Honolulu from Newark, and back. That might work for us - spend half a day and a night in Honolulu and catch a morning flight to Kuaui. And the r/t from Newark to HNL is only $858 right now, so we'd save money doing that.

TTom, thanks for letting me know what you're seeing for airfares. I've been seeing some fares from AirfareWatchdog to Kauai for around $750, but of course those are for travel within the next "x" days, so I don't know if anything like that will be available by next Sept. It's always a gamble...book now or wait.

Again, thanks for all the suggestions.

Kayak

Kayak used to do searches a year out, and I have one set up for NY to LIH. I also have one for my target travel dates. I just checked both and, for May, the fare was 934. There are fares ~720, but they are all for the next three months. My search didn't have anything beyond that. i don't know if the search algorithms have changed. Will have to wait and see the next time I get an email alert.

I just booked direct flights from Newark to Honolulu. It was $858 round trip per person. This might not be for everyone, as the flights are over 10 hours long. We toyed with the idea of using miles to upgrade to 1st class, but they wanted 60,000 miles PLUS $1000 per person to do so, so we'll take our chances with Economy Plus and maybe we'll get lucky with a complimentary upgrade.

The best days to travel to get award flights are Tuesday/Wednesday. If you can extend your trip that long, that might be the best bet. I've done that before in order to get 4 award tickets, and even with the extra food and lodging costs, we came out ahead. Last time I checked, flights to the islands were around $1100 from Cincinnati. Not cheap.

Certainly check arrival and departures from the other islands. There are usually many more flights to HNL than the other islands, ergo more award flights, so consider flying in and/or out of there. Usually an inter-island flight costs ~$75 each way. Most airlines will allow you to fly into one island and home from another, so try every combination to see if there are award tickets with just one layover. Sometimes it pays to pay the fee to book it via an agent vs. online.

NboroGirl said:

I just booked direct flights from Newark to Honolulu. It was $858 round trip per person. This might not be for everyone, as the flights are over 10 hours long. We toyed with the idea of using miles to upgrade to 1st class, but they wanted 60,000 miles PLUS $1000 per person to do so, so we'll take our chances with Economy Plus and maybe we'll get lucky with a complimentary upgrade.

Click to expand...

I've been considering this for our trip to Europe next year, but only going to business class it costs the same ($500/pp each way, so $1000/pp rt). Egads.
Have to admit it's been a couple of years since I used miles to upgrade to FC to HI, but I don't remember any 'assessment' then. Guess I could swing over to FlyerTalk to see how long they've been doing this.

If your airline offers the option of booking different cabins, either with $$ or miles, I'd highly recommend booking regular economy on the way out and upgrading to economy plus or first class on the way back. Even from the midwest, the flight out is doable because you're awake (reading/eating/watching movies) the entire time. I don't even start to feel the time change until around 7pm Hawaii time, when I'm ideally just arriving at my resort.

On that redeye back, though, you'll be ready for bed and being able to recline back farther is a godsend.

Also, if you have different options, use SeatGuru.com to check the specs of the different planes. Pick the one with the most legroom.

Any other suggestions for me? I am considering trying to book our airfare to Honolulu instead, and maybe I can get a cheap airfare from HNL to LIH on Hawaiin Airlines or Island Air, but sites such as Travelocity won't let me book that far in advance so I don't know what the price would be.

We did this when we went to Hawaii last Sept. The inter island Hawaiian air flights were pretty reasonably priced.

Interisland Flights

Going out on a limb to say that, unless you can get a REAL deal on your flight to HNL, I don't think it's worth the trouble. The interisland flights are commuter trips, and the fares are likely to be pretty consistent (i.e., no real bargains). Couple that with the time to transfer in HNL (note that the terminals require a decent amount of walking), and you are probably doing yourself a disservice.

A lot depends on where you are flying from and what the prices are like, but our experience has been that, coming from the East Coast, we prefer to look for flights direct to our final location. As I have previously said, doing plane changes in the Four Corners area or California breaks the trip up pretty well.

Just my opinion!

Tom

TTom said:

Going out on a limb to say that, unless you can get a REAL deal on your flight to HNL, I don't think it's worth the trouble.

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We were discussing award flights, which are flights you book with miles instead of cash. For our family of 4, it's a $4400 savings.

I think that qualifies for a REAL deal.