When to book airfare from East Coast to Honolulu in winter? Best price?

[Shooraq]

I am currently booked go on NCL's Pride of America in mid-January. Right now I see prices of flights from Boston to Honolulu ranging from $850-$1000. Cheapest is using United and a little more is either Hawaiian/Jet Blue or Alaskan Airlines.

 

Does it pay to wait another couple of months to see if prices will drop? Can prices go below $850 in the winter time? Preference of airline to go for?

 

Thanks for your help! :)

[cruzn single]

You could wait, but I am not sure that airfare will go down much! We always book in early March for our December/January. Just checked Hawaiian from Phoenix, and it is now over $700 R/T pp.

 

We have always been pleased with Hawaiian--like the configuration on their 767, as it is easy for two to be seated together! Not fond of flying 757 anyplace, but especially on such a long flight.

[rockabutzer]

I am currently booked go on NCL's Pride of America in mid-January. Right now I see prices of flights from Boston to Honolulu ranging from $850-$1000. Cheapest is using United and a little more is either Hawaiian/Jet Blue or Alaskan Airlines.

 

Does it pay to wait another couple of months to see if prices will drop? Can prices go below $850 in the winter time? Preference of airline to go for?

 

Thanks for your help! :)

 

I booked my flights with United in April and since then, the price has increased by almost $200.00 per person R/T. For their Non-Stop service R/T from Washington, DC (Dulles - IAD) was around $900.00 PP for economy class. Now it is almost $1100.00 PP.:eek: So, IMHO, I wouldn't wait.

 

Aloha

[Havin'fun]

We flew Detroit to Honolulu this past January with Delta. I booked our air about 8 months before we left and then watched the pricing almost daily. Very rarely did I see a price drop, prices mostly stayed the same or went up and the back down to what we paid.

I would say find a price you are comfortable with and book it.

[hill6]

I don't think it will get any cheaper.

[SharonK]

We will be on POA 12-1-12 sailing and are also watching airline prices trying to decide when the best time to book. Wish someone had the magic answer!! LOL!!! I think we will watch prices daily for about a month and then decide what to do (unless we find an extraordinary price before that.)

[cr8tiv1]

It is a gamble either way. I really can't speak of fares from the East Coast to HNL, but have a lot of experience with LAX to HNL on Hawaiian Airlines.

 

Generally, fares are best right after everyone returns from HNL after the Chirstmas break. You can find some pretty good fares from about the third week in January until the first couple of weeks in February. By March, the fares are up again for Spring Break (which is extended over a couple of months).

 

Last February, I flew from LAX to HNL for around $120 each way. I am in HNL now and my fare (Late May) was $158 one way. Going back (HNL to LAX) is running about $350.

 

You just have to watch the fares. Hawaiian has a month calendar. That helps a little. Most of the times, their sales start on Tuesdays. Sign up for their Hawaiian Miles program. As you can probably tell, I am a loyal Hawaiian fan. See if you can get a good fare on Southwest or Jet Blue and then transfer to Hawaii on the West Coast. Some cities are cheaper than others. I think San Jose and Seattle are cheaper than LAX.

 

I definitely would arrive at least a day or two earlier to enjoy the city before going on your cruise.

 

Aloha,

 

Renee

[FreshOffTheBoat]

I wouldn't wait either. What I noticed this year when pricing out our fligths for this September is the prices kept going up. If I had booked earlier I probably would of saved soem money.

[Babiblues75]

Also; something I've come across. I booked my flights for New York to Honolulu about 3 months ago and my cruise isn't till Thanksgiving. The prices have gone up A LOT since I booked it but your flight schedules might change a lot also. I was checking another flight I had reserved for a trip that is in 2 weeks and for some reason; I checked on my Hawaii flights and good thing I did. They had a schedule change and changed me to the craziest flights EVER. One even had us landing in one airport at 10:50 when the next flight was leaving at 10:20am and in tiny red notes "you may miss this flight" I never got an email or phone call or anything regarding this. I might of totally fogotten to check this and by the time Thanksgiving comes around = most of the good flights would of been sold out and I probably would of lost the first class fare that I'm booked in so please... Anyone booking their flights early; give them a check every so often. I never got an email or call regarding this and it was just sheer luck that I looked at it.

[rockabutzer]

Here's a for instance:

 

United Airlines has Non-Stop service from Dulles IAP (Washington, DC) to Honolulu and vice versa. I'm booked on this flight for January 2, 2013. Economy Fare is $1079.00 R/T. If you were to book this same flight for, say tomorrow, it would be $2385.00 R/T. To get any kind of price break, you need to book at least 30 days prior to the date you plan on flying.

 

Aloha