Best time to buy Hawaiian Air?

czmom

DIS Veteran
Joined
Oct 26, 2011
We are traveling to Aulani in May from TX. We plan to use our SWA points to get us to California, and then fly the least expensive route to Honolulu. Right now it's cheapest from Oakland at $544/person round trip.
Can we do better?? Or should I buy now? I'm so used to SWA points this is all new :)
 
I always aim for under $400 flying out of SFO/OAK/SJC. I've always gotten it except for our more recent trip during spring break (week after Easter). Prices usually drop around 2-4 months before.

Do you mean Hawaiian Airlines or air to Hawaii? Just checking because there are other airlines that do the nonstop to HNL. We've gotten good prices on Alaska Airlines (United and Virgin do the route too out of SFO).
 
I always aim for under $400 flying out of SFO/OAK/SJC. I've always gotten it except for our more recent trip during spring break (week after Easter). Prices usually drop around 2-4 months before.

Do you mean Hawaiian Airlines or air to Hawaii? Just checking because there are other airlines that do the nonstop to HNL. We've gotten good prices on Alaska Airlines (United and Virgin do the route too out of SFO).

Thank you! Any airline that flies nonstop with the best price will work :)
 
Following because we plan to do something similar except want to fly from California to the Big Island and then fly back to the mainland from Honolulu.
 


Following because we plan to do something similar except want to fly from California to the Big Island and then fly back to the mainland from Honolulu.

We did this last trip. SJC-KOA nonstop Alaska Air. Then KOA-HNL-SJC Hawaiian Air. Did a stopover on Oahu for 2 nights because it was cheaper to connect through HNL. And if I need to connect through HNL, I gotta stop and have some delicious Japanese food! It was the same price to stopover compared to doing the connection on the same day. The price seemed to just depend on the HNL-SJC leg.

Are you going to the Big Island just for the volcano or will you be spending some time on the Kona side too? We went to the volcano first before staying on the Kona side, so we had to drive 2 1/2 hours from KOA to Volcano Village. It was tiring for DH since we had gotten up early for the flight.
 
Following as well because we are guessing SWA will not be flying by summer, but are waiting for the official word. We are hoping we aren't pushing our luck by going past the new year to book. But if you say they drop 2-4 months out, that's good news!
We are flying LAX to HNL.
 
We did this last trip. SJC-KOA nonstop Alaska Air. Then KOA-HNL-SJC Hawaiian Air. Did a stopover on Oahu for 2 nights because it was cheaper to connect through HNL. And if I need to connect through HNL, I gotta stop and have some delicious Japanese food! It was the same price to stopover compared to doing the connection on the same day. The price seemed to just depend on the HNL-SJC leg.

Are you going to the Big Island just for the volcano or will you be spending some time on the Kona side too? We went to the volcano first before staying on the Kona side, so we had to drive 2 1/2 hours from KOA to Volcano Village. It was tiring for DH since we had gotten up early for the flight.

We've decided to just go to the Big Island for the volcano so we won't be driving to the other side.

Following as well because we are guessing SWA will not be flying by summer, but are waiting for the official word. We are hoping we aren't pushing our luck by going past the new year to book. But if you say they drop 2-4 months out, that's good news!
We are flying LAX to HNL.

I'm hoping SW will be flying to Hawaii by summer but it's not looking good at this point. I've got a tentative idea of days for flights but I'm waiting until I can book Aulani with DVC and then I'll make plans around that! Best of luck to us all! This is a LOT harder than planning a WDW vacation, but hopefully it will be worth it.
 


Alaska Air will often have deals from CA to HI for around $400. I don't know how many flights they have out of TX though. We're flying to HNL (Aulani) late next June and I just booked the outbound leg with Hawaiian Airlines for $349 from SEA. Still waiting to see if prices come down a bit for the return flight. I checked prices last year and they seemed to bottom out in midt December, at least when flying out of SEA.
 
SWA flying to HI I beleive in Feb. Also try Sacramento. Therr is only one flight out and back on Hawaiian each day from Sac/SF/Oak. outbound from sac is 5:55am.
 
We are traveling to Aulani in May from TX. We plan to use our SWA points to get us to California, and then fly the least expensive route to Honolulu. Right now it's cheapest from Oakland at $544/person round trip.
Can we do better?? Or should I buy now? I'm so used to SWA points this is all new :)

We did the exact same thing this past September. Flew from Oakland and cost was $241 on HA one way to Honolulu. I bought our tickets in February and they just kept going up after that.
 
Theres really no “best” time, airlines have been doing random (at least as far as I can tell) price drops for years...probably has to do with their whole buy/sell fuel bit they’ve been doing for about as long. Alaska, Hawaiian, and delta typically have the best prices...and while I’ve not heard anything about southwest prices to hawaii...I wouldn’t expect them to be much better (probably would end up being slightly more than an LAX to MCO non-stop...dunno if southwest does that tho). Also they’ll probably have some exceptions to sales, or not as big of one for flights to Hawaii...almost everyone does this...

There might be some price drops on other airlines when southwest does announce when flights will begin (and prices)...but other than that constant checking sites like kayak or the airline sites themselves is probably the best bet...traditionally roughly 3 months out is close to “best”...but that doesn’t seem to be the case anymore.
 
I did some research and found the latest news on SW to HI here http://beatofhawaii.com/southwest-hawaii-airline-update/.

Looks like they should make an announcement maybe next month on WHEN the first flights will be, with possibly this summer! Oh please, Santa!!
Nothing more then speculation from a blogger. Some is fact based, the planes SW flies don't have the range to fly N/S from Chicago. Some is sort of obvious, first flights will be from West coast cities where SW already has a presence.
 
For those looking for the best time to purchase airfare, I HIGHLY recommend downloading the Hopper app on your cell phone. I have multiple flights that I'm watching via this app and they tell you to either wait or buy now.
 

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