Flights to Hawaii - Advice for a first timer

[ranchlandsselling]

I've been there 7 times I'd guess. Never paid more than $630ish per person all in. I'm quite confident you can wait until you see that price. There's also a large chance you'll see lower, but . . . I'm always content with $600ish, and am not to sad if I see it cheaper.

[North East Goon]

Try and get on an international flight, one that stops in Hawaii and goes on to Australia or somewhere else. Free Booze passes the time well

[CASe333]

Since you mentioned you were going in January if you can avoid the holiday rates then a direct flight should not cost you much more than $600 as quoted by others in this thread. I would expect the rates to be lowest in January after January 7th. I also think its probably worth the extra money to fly there direct considering you will be with family.

I normally spend $400-500 going to Hawaii but I'm usually flying out of Seattle and have very flexible dates to chose from. I even managed to fly out of Seattle to Hilo for just under $300/round trip this year. Would be curious if anybody has ever found a cheaper price for a flight to Hawaii?

[Buff]

Originally Posted by fredr123

The condo we're staying at is on Kauai though I think we're going to spend a few days over on Oahu checking out Pearl Harbor and such.

Thanks for everyone that recommended Kayak.com. Great tool. Can't believe I didn't know about it already.

That's the way you do it. In 2004 we spent a week in Kauai but first spent 3 nights on Oahu and we checked out Pearl Harbor. Pearl Harbor, I think, is a must see. You'll see a big contrast between Oahu and Kauai. Oahu is very touristy while Kauai is way more laid back and relaxing.

I was recently told by a co-worker who went to Kauai that you can get a direct flight into Kauai but there was only one day of the week that it could land there. So you'll have to take Hawaiian Air from Oahu to Kauai and back... but if you're checking out Oahu then you likely expected that.

[Titan]

Originally Posted by fredr123

The condo we're staying at is on Kauai though I think we're going to spend a few days over on Oahu checking out Pearl Harbor and such.

Thanks for everyone that recommended Kayak.com. Great tool. Can't believe I didn't know about it already.

We did this as well and pricelined a great deal at the Hyatt. $130 a night if I recall.

Check out Betterbidding.com to figure out how to make priceline and hotwire work for you and to identify the hotels that come up. Great tool.

We also hotwired our rental. Not that way, and got a smoking deal on that too.

[cmyden]

A lot of good advice in this thread but I'll just throw in my $0.02

- Hawaii is generally not a destination where waiting for a 'last minute deal' would be a smart strategy. Typically in Canada the destinations that are occasionally discounted by the tour operators at the last minute include: Mexico, Dominican, Cuba, Jamaica - destinations that are popular for 'all inclusive' travelers (ie: include food + drinks).

Occasionally however, WestjetVacations will discount their Hawaii packages, so they would be worth a look 1-2 months before departure. They generally don't move drastically in price at the last minute though..

On American based sites, such as Expedia/Travelocity, they are simply bundling the latest real-time airfare prices from the major airlines with their hotel inventory. The major airlines never discount last minute flights (can be quite the opposite, with prices skyrocketing) so a last minute strategy would not work in this case either.

- Flights from Calgary to Honolulu (HNL) bottom out fairly consistently at around $525-$550ish roundtrip after taxes these days. In general, anything under $600 is probably a good deal for most people. There hasn't been a fare in the $400s (roundtrip after tax) since May of 2011.

- Honolulu is always the cheapest to fly into, but Maui (OGG) is usually just $50-$100 more roundtrip. Kona (KOA) and Kauai (LIH) are generally a little more than that.

- Airfares to Hawaii are relatively consistent year round. The biggest influence on price is likely to be anything around peak holiday periods. The further one can get from the dreaded December 21 to January 7 date range, the better.

- As with a lot of destinations, I wouldn't be overly afraid to watch fares up to about 8 weeks before departure.

[cmyden]

Originally Posted by CASe333

I normally spend $400-500 going to Hawaii but I'm usually flying out of Seattle and have very flexible dates to chose from. I even managed to fly out of Seattle to Hilo for just under $300/round trip this year. Would be curious if anybody has ever found a cheaper price for a flight to Hawaii?

Here's the lowest I've seen in the past few years:

http://www.yvrdeals.com/bellingham-t...trip-after-tax

That was out of Bellingham, after taxes.

Airfares out of Seattle or Bellingham are in a very different world of prices than airfares out of Calgary.

[MelBridgeman]

Originally Posted by hulkrogan

Say hello to one of them. The cabin pressure system was having issues and we had to turn around and go back to YYC (no 757 Westjet maintenance crews at YVR). 7am flight departed at 4pm. We were supposed to get to Hawaii before noon and have an afternoon at the beach, instead, showed up in the dark and went to bed.

Happened to me a few years ago but it was the 737 service out of Vancouver - turned back to vancouver after about 1 hr in the air.

but hey im still here.

[Flacker]

Originally Posted by MelBridgeman

Happened to me a few years ago but it was the 737 service out of Vancouver - turned back to vancouver after about 1 hr in the air.

but hey im still here.

Westjet is well within their legal rights to operate 737-700 from YVR to OGG, however it is well outside of my comfort zone. Very few options for contingencies. I would pay twice as much to fly Air Canada's 767.

When BigTime mentioned Westjet's Calgary direct routes I was a little baffled until he stated that they Charter 757s.

[Bigtime]

Originally Posted by Flacker

Westjet is well within their legal rights to operate 737-700 from YVR to OGG, however it is well outside of my comfort zone. Very few options for contingencies. I would pay twice as much to fly Air Canada's 767.

When BigTime mentioned Westjet's Calgary direct routes I was a little baffled until he stated that they Charter 757s.

About 3 years ago WestJet did do non-stop service from YYC to OGG and HNL with the 737 and 738. However due to the range they had to restrict how many seats they could fill on the flights. So I believe they "booked off" the middle seats on most rows.

Of course a non fully loaded 737 operating to almost the max of its range got absolutely murdered by Air Canada and their 767-300's in leisure configuration. Thus they switched to chartering the 757's for the last two years. I still think it is not an ideal scenario for them, as when things go bad the delays are big and their very good reputation takes a hit.

Also I've said it before but if you are traveling with kids being on a widebody and having two aisles is the much better choice. Easier to get up and walk around if they are restless, and more room with a mid-cabin and aft galley to let them hang out if they are restless in their seats.

[albertGQ]

We just got back. Feb 17 to 26. Cost was $1100/person with a layover in Vancouver. We overpaid! Boooooooooooooo

[kipperiggy]

We flew Saskatoon --> Calgary --> Vancouver --> Oahu when we went. Went with Westjet - this is going to sound like a completely random comment, but I would be wary of any airline having two flights leaving to two different Hawaiian Islands (other was Maui) within ten minutes of each other. We left Friday, and Westjet flew my mom's luggage to Maui instead. Although we ended up with a $500 voucher to compensate for the inconvenience, Westjet was pathetic at handling the situation. They found the luggage to be in Maui sometime Saturday but didn't get it to our hotel in Oahu until late Tuesday. When you're only there for a week, half of it without your luggage hurts. Like I said they tried to please my mom with a voucher - but better customer service would have been to get that suitcase on the first flight to Oahu!

Pack a lot in your carry-on luggage! A good practice in case they lose it.

Any flight I have ever looked up to Hawaii has gone through both Calgary and Vancouver.. but maybe that it just Westjet. It's been a while so I don't quite remember.

I don't know if you've ever flown over the ocean but I found that there was more turbelence (sp?) than I have ever experienced. We flew back in the middle of the night and I couldn't sleep because the ride was so bumpy. If anybody in your party is nervous of turbelence I would make sure to pack some Gravol or something for them!

[Bigtime]

Originally Posted by kipperiggy

I don't know if you've ever flown over the ocean but I found that there was more turbelence (sp?) than I have ever experienced. We flew back in the middle of the night and I couldn't sleep because the ride was so bumpy. If anybody in your party is nervous of turbelence I would make sure to pack some Gravol or something for them!

Most of the time the flighpath from Hawaii-YVR-YYC crosses the jetstream path, that is usually where you get the most turbulence.

[MelBridgeman]

Originally Posted by Flacker

Westjet is well within their legal rights to operate 737-700 from YVR to OGG, however it is well outside of my comfort zone. Very few options for contingencies. I would pay twice as much to fly Air Canada's 767.

When BigTime mentioned Westjet's Calgary direct routes I was a little baffled until he stated that they Charter 757s.

Wasn't so bad - It was i guess off season (June) and the plane was half full - mostly annoying Oiler fans (was during their playoff run)

Kinda cool having HNIC start at 2 pm though

[Bigtime]

Originally Posted by MelBridgeman

Kinda cool having HNIC start at 2 pm though

The satellite TV was working over the ocean? I was under the impression it cut out not too far from the coast.

[MelBridgeman]

Originally Posted by Bigtime

The satellite TV was working over the ocean? I was under the impression it cut out not too far from the coast.

No at the local bar - and it might of been NBC and not HNIC

And yes no sat TV over the ocean - about an hour in its toast

[Bend it like Bourgeois]

With young kids I'd go direct for sure. Even a direct flight is 10 hours door to door.

My kids seemed to handle the overnight flight back better than the daytime flight there (with a little help from gravol).

Check the aircraft specs. I think both AC and Westjet use charter aircraft for some or all of the flights. For AC this means no seat back entertainment, power etc. Might be the same for Westjet. (sorry, seems like everyone already said this bit)

[Brotato]

I will have a 3 month old on our flight in Oct. We are going to Kauai so there is no direct option. Look at at flights with only one stop to minimize baby's discomfort.

My issue is the return flight. For 1-stop options there are not many. It's either early morning (6am) out of Kauai and a Dash-8 from SEA to YYC (turbo prop - yuck) or an overnighter in through PHO.

Any thoughts on which would be better?

[Buff]

Originally Posted by kipperiggy

We flew Saskatoon --> Calgary --> Vancouver --> Oahu when we went. Went with Westjet - this is going to sound like a completely random comment, but I would be wary of any airline having two flights leaving to two different Hawaiian Islands (other was Maui) within ten minutes of each other. We left Friday, and Westjet flew my mom's luggage to Maui instead. Although we ended up with a $500 voucher to compensate for the inconvenience, Westjet was pathetic at handling the situation. They found the luggage to be in Maui sometime Saturday but didn't get it to our hotel in Oahu until late Tuesday. When you're only there for a week, half of it without your luggage hurts. Like I said they tried to please my mom with a voucher - but better customer service would have been to get that suitcase on the first flight to Oahu!

Pack a lot in your carry-on luggage! A good practice in case they lose it.

Any flight I have ever looked up to Hawaii has gone through both Calgary and Vancouver.. but maybe that it just Westjet. It's been a while so I don't quite remember.

I don't know if you've ever flown over the ocean but I found that there was more turbelence (sp?) than I have ever experienced. We flew back in the middle of the night and I couldn't sleep because the ride was so bumpy. If anybody in your party is nervous of turbelence I would make sure to pack some Gravol or something for them!

I can't remember who we flew with back in 2004, but they lost our luggage coming back to Calgary. I think we figured out it was because we caught an earlier flight from Kauai to Oahu, but couldn't take an earlier flight from Oahu to Calgary, however our luggage did. So when we got to Calgary and our luggage didn't come off of the plane we filled in a missing luggage claim. Got a call a couple hours later (just as we arrived home in Lethbridge) that they found the luggage and it was enroute to the airport in Lethbridge.


As I said, I don't remember the airline, but back in 2004 we took a flight that connected in Salt Lake City. There was also an option to stop at LAX. We figured LAX was huge and more likely to have delays so we chose Salt Lake.

I somewhat remember turbulence, but I don't remember it being much so that we couldn't sleep or anything like that. It was a long time ago so my memory is muddy, but I do remember on my next flight, which was in 2007 to Vegas that I was pleased with how little turbulence we had compared to the Hawaii flight.

[billybob123]

Originally Posted by Brotato

My issue is the return flight. For 1-stop options there are not many. It's either early morning (6am) out of Kauai and a Dash-8 from SEA to YYC (turbo prop - yuck) or an overnighter in through PHO.

I took my 2-year old (significantly older than yours!) on the Seattle connection but included the overnight there. I Pricelined the airport hotel (there's a bunch right across the street from the airport that come up regularly, the Hilton and Doubletree if I recall) and made it so easy with the 6-hour flight to SEA, then overnight and a short 75-minute flight to Calgary.

The Turboprop from SEA is a Bombardier Q400 and is quite comfortable for short flights like that - plus they have the cart service planeside so you don't have to try hucking your 5 carryons you need for the baby in the overhead.

I swear by overnight stops with kids. Makes life so much easier.

That being said, you're with a 3-month old that won't really notice much of a difference so I'd go with the Seattle connection since you don't have to pay for the overnight, and reclear security in the AM with a baby, once is painful enough.