The Best Airfares to Maui and Hawaii

Maui is served by several airlines (Click Here) and prices change by season and demand. I have seen numbers change from about $450 to over $1,000 round trip. To help others out, if you find a great fare, please add a comment about it here.

Tips and Sources to Get the Best Airfares to Maui, Hawaii.

November 24, 2006

For several years Pleasant Holidays offered an “Airpass”. About 8 years ago it cost about $800, I joined in 2002 for about $1,500 for unlimited round trips between Maui and the mainland. Last year Pleasant switched carriers from ATA to United and could no longer offer the airpass. ATA took up the approximately $6 million in business and charged $2500 for renewals. For 2007 the price has gone up again to $3000 and based upon a points system one could possibly squeeze out 15 round trips. You can learn more at http://www.ata.com/flightbank

Last year when Pleasant dropped the program, a bunch of folks created a “group” on the subject at: http://groups.google.com/group/airpass. You can join this group and monitor the discussion on the subject.

One of the best sites I found is http://www.farecast.com You put in your city pair (Maui is OGG) and it predicts when you can get your best fares.

Here is where they suggest you look:

www.cheapair.com
www.cheaptickets.com
www.sidestep.com
http://alpha.flyspy.com/
www.kayak.com
www.itasoftware.com
best hawaii-based site:
www.pandaonline.com
also, don't forget the "coupons" on AirTech:
www.airtech.com/fphawaii.php
www.cheapair.comwww.cheaptickets.comwww.sidestep.com

also, you can sign up for airfare specials emails like this one at Pleasant Hawaii Vacations: http://www.pleasantholidays.com/PleasantHolidaysWeb/Specials Look for their air/car packages.

and some of the comments I think are quite helpful. They are repeated below.

Here is how we started with the shopping the airline market. First let me say that it I could fly into SFO as easily as Oakland and LA, Orange Cty and San Diego. Therefore shopping gave me a lot of "sale options", but more search time.

Sign up with the carriers who fly the route (lax/maui, oak/ogg, etc) for their specials to be emailed to you. Aloha especially. Their last minute specials are posted every Monday and I don't wait for their email. If they have a fantastic special, I sometimes decide to take a last minute trip. 4th of July week, they had an unbelievable special of 29.00 to Sacramento for one day only. Even though Sacto was 90 minutes away from where I wanted to be, I took it. Also, if my spouse has booked for a certain flight and time and find that the same airline offers a lower special, he just calls and they send him a voucher for the difference. One voucher was as high as 122.00.

Only once has Expedia beat the individual airlines price. But we always start out using Expedia to see who is offering what and then just go to that one website if there is a fantastic deal going on that we haven't been emailed about. Expedia, Cheap seats, Travelocity, whichever one you like, to start the initial search to define what specific airline, if any has a great special.

After a couple months of searching and learning, it has become very routine and easy searching. In the beginning it was time consuming. I learned the best deals are usually to LAX with the major carriers, AA, UAL Continental. Northwest to SFO, Aloha to Oakland and Org Cty. And ATA changes their fares daily. If we are set on a date, we will check ATA every day.

Since I do Vegas quite a bit. (In fact it is cheaper to fly to Vegas and back than LAX or SFO, AmericaWest, United and AA, so far have been the best for LV. I have never paid more than 325.00 round trip Maui/LV. Also, sometimes when routing through LAX or SFO, I have done a stop in LAX or SFO for a few days out or on the way back at no additional cost.

Also, using Expedia, you can check seat availability and see how many seats are available. If I see lots of seats, I'll wait and just watch for a better fare, unless I am already at a great fare, then I book it, and if it goes down later, ask for a voucher for the difference. So far Aloha, ATA and Expedia are the only ones who would not give vouchers for the difference, everyone else has.

Ogg/Oak was mostly Aloha and ATA. Once, I booked ATA through Southwest to OGG and the fare was cheaper than ATA and the credits. The summer, when the credits were so high ATA on every flight was cheaper through their website every day.

Also, Pleasant Holidays had some great deals, all you had to do is throw in a car for one day, never pick it up. During the summer when air was hard to find reasonably, I use Pleasant Holidays for SFO, added the car for one day and paid 356.00 roundtrip. This was better than using 100 points.

I have never found a great deal on Hawaiian for the times or dates to fly (except to LV) Also, on Hawaiian once their special is off for a certain time period, they never lower there price again. Whereas, the other airlines may. But if you are signed up for their email specials, it saves a lot of time checking.

Once I receive a great price, 225.00 to 300.00 round trip, I don't bother looking again. There are weeks, I don't bother checking because we received a great price for the next several months. If you are a gambler, (I mean shopping gambler), other than summer, the best deals usually are within 30 days of travel.

The flights above or help is for Thursday/Friday travel out and Sunday/Monday back. If I had the luxury of mid week, the savings would have been much more. And the miles we receive are great, we have enough miles on almost all the airlines, to now use to fly to NY roundtrip several times to see our grandchildren or use them to bring them out. Add all that into consideration and the current flight bank is not of any value EXCEPT for those who are able to use 10 point days exclusively. There has been some Aloha specials for 99.00 and 109.00 that I have been able to use that is equal to the 10 pt days, but mostly it has averaged 15 pts per way.

It sounds like a lot of work, and in the beginning it is, but now it is just routine and does not take much time. For those using LAX, you all have the most to save by shopping, SFO, Oakland and SJose doesn't have anywhere the specials that LAX or Orange Cty has. Also, if you don't mind changing planes in Honolulu, then you add Honolulu to your search and use the inter island fares. I really only did that once out of 12 flights. I prefer to pay a little more to fly direct. But if price is the ultimate goal, then savings are greater (sometimes from HNL)

As far as service, they are all about the same except Hawaiian, I have to say was exceptional. But I am looking for price, safety and reliability. I don't watch the movie, I pack my own lunch or dinner. I board last, and check to see if there is an open row and 50% of the time, I get it and stretch out and sleep. Good luck and I hope this helps.

Another person said:

dont forget to try to use your miles for flights to Hawaii.
Also, Pleasant is having great fares using United from SFO
I read somewhere they require a rental car , but people have gone
around that by reserving the car for just one day then never picking it
up.

That way, they got the great RT rate on airfare.
Kayak.com has good info,(but not always the best prices)
travelzoo.com is good
Im using miles and such.....
IF my mainland schedule becomes more than in years past, then
Flightbank can still be an option since it can be activated at any
time.

Hawaiian SFO-HNL
Check out ALOHA from Oakland. OAK OGG and HNL N/S
For some reason, ATA ,most of the time is packed and Aloha isn't.
I hope more fly Aloha just for more "aloha" than ATA has given us
lately.