Airfare to HNL

[NobleAlyssum]

Hello everyone!

The Question
What's a "deal" on airfare when flying from the South Central US to HNL? Large nearby airports include TUL, LIT, OKC, MCI and DFW.

The Details (optional read)
My husband and I will be flying from the South Central US to Hawaii at the end of May in 2017. Right now (and for the last 2 months), I haven't seen airfare drop below about $950/person (on all airlines). Once or twice, I've seen ticket for $50 cheaper if we were willing to have 2 or 3 layovers before arriving at HNL (no, thank you).
I've researched and I know the "best" time to buy airfare is between 30 and 90 days from your departure date, according to a few travel sites. I use Google Flights and Matrix ITA to monitor prices.
Based on similar experiences and airfare hunts, what's a bargain price I should be expecting for airfare? Realistically, I'll probably be buying tickets around $800/person. But if anyone has bought tickets for cheaper, let me know!

 

[ms tom morrow]

We're flying direct from DFW to HNL for $693 round trip per person, including taxes and fees, and we're particular about the airline we fly. We booked about 3 months ahead of time. One caveat is that we get "free" extra leg room seats with our frequent flier program, so we're able to book the very cheapest rate without worrying about being squished or in the back of the plane. Hopefully you can do better than $950!

 

[nkereina]

We flew BUF to ATL to HNL for $980 per person on Delta and that was on the low end of comparable routes and airlines. If you're near a major hub like DFW, I think $700 or less is a good price. If ATL is at all an option, the Delta flight from ATL to HNL is on an Airbus 330 so it's a brand new plane, very comfortable, 2-4-2 seat configurations, and they provide hot meals and alcohol (free) to all fare classes.

 

[NobleAlyssum]

We're flying direct from DFW to HNL for $693 round trip per person, including taxes and fees, and we're particular about the airline we fly. We booked about 3 months ahead of time. One caveat is that we get "free" extra leg room seats with our frequent flier program, so we're able to book the very cheapest rate without worrying about being squished or in the back of the plane. Hopefully you can do better than $950!

DFW has been the cheapest, that I've seen. The lowest price from DFW today is $754, but it has two stops before making it to HNL, and one of the layovers is over 3 hours long! Next cheapest is $849 from DFW, but still with two stops. It's a bit of a savings, but bummed that it would be cutting into my island time. But if I flew from there, I would have to "add on" the cost of gas to get there and parking (and DFW parking is expensive). So even though the ticket is on average cheaper, the additional gas and parking money makes it roughly equal to flying from other places.

We flew BUF to ATL to HNL for $980 per person on Delta and that was on the low end of comparable routes and airlines. If you're near a major hub like DFW, I think $700 or less is a good price. If ATL is at all an option, the Delta flight from ATL to HNL is on an Airbus 330 so it's a brand new plane, very comfortable, 2-4-2 seat configurations, and they provide hot meals and alcohol (free) to all fare classes.

I've heard flying from the East Coast is expensive, but your price is close to what I'm looking at! Sounds like you found a deal. DFW is only doable because I have family two hours from there (so they would like the excuse to see us), otherwise, it's a long drive (about 5 hours). ATL is not an option, sadly. But I am really sad it isn't! I've heard great things about Airbus and now I'm wishing I had a credit card for Delta air miles!

 

[nkereina]

I've heard flying from the East Coast is expensive, but your price is close to what I'm looking at! Sounds like you found a deal. DFW is only doable because I have family two hours from there (so they would like the excuse to see us), otherwise, it's a long drive (about 5 hours). ATL is not an option, sadly. But I am really sad it isn't! I've heard great things about Airbus and now I'm wishing I had a credit card for Delta air miles!

I booked about 10 months in advance, shortly after Delta's schedule was released. Our fares only went up from the time we booked, so it seems as though the earlier you can book, the better.

 

[buffettgirl]

I just got airfare alerts for travel jan- mar on Delta and American from Boston, with rates around 629. Most are mid week dates though. But there are plenty.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

We flew from MCI to HNL in September. The ticket prices were just over $800 if you had booked around May/early June for our September dates with Delta (1 stop in LAX there 1 stop in LAX back). Unfortunately my husband wanted to wait and the flights went up to just over $900 when we finally booked. Due to using Delta Skymiles Points for 1 of the tickets we had to take 2 stops on the way back (1 in LAX the other in MSP)..two stops did suck. It was more because our flight left at 8:40pm Hawaii time and we didn't get into MCI til 4ish pm the next day. With the 5 hour time difference and overnight flight plus two stops it was hard. We left on a Monday at 3:30pm and arrived in Hawaii that night (due to the time change) at around 9:45pm/10ishpm.

So my experience the flight was between $800-$1,000 RT from MCI with Delta Main Cabin depending on how many stops you're willing to take and when you book your tickets as well as the days you fly. I want to say there was flights less than $800 when we first started looking which was like Feb/March however the flight times absolutely sucked and it was multiple stops but your experience may be different.

 

[KBinCO]

We are flying from Denver. If we wanted to fly from here direct, we would be dropping 3-4K on flights alone for the 4 of us and that's just not feasible for our budget.
I have a ton of Southwest points so we are flying Denver-Oakland on SW, then nonstop from Oakland on Hawaiian Airlines. We are flying back to San Jose and then flying San Jose to Denver on SW again. The Southwest flights cost me points only, and the flights out of the San Francisco area are $420 a piece round trip, so at least half of what we would pay out of Denver. We are going to fly in to Oakland the night before and out of San Jose the morning after to make sure we don't miss flights, and even with hotel rooms, it's a huge savings for us.

 

[OKW Lover]

When people say "direct" in these posts, are they actually meaning non-stop?

 

[KBinCO]

When people say "direct" in these posts, are they actually meaning non-stop?

In my post, I meant just booking from Denver to HNL. Whether with a stop (I'm not stopping more than once with the kiddos) or nonstop, it was going to be quite pricey.

In general, I always think direct means no plane change (but with stops) and non stop is just that- non stop.

 

[twodogs]

If you can get non-stop from DFW for less than $800, I think that is a good deal. We went on AA in May/June this year, $850/pp was the best I could get (and I refuse to stop over!). I booked about 5 months out, and the tickets went more expensive from then. Never dropped. I hate the planes AA flies on this route, as they don't even have personal in seat entertainment, but they are slowly changing the fleet over. Didn't help us, even though it showed we were on the updated metal right up until departure, and when we walked on to the plane, it was an older model. Not happy.

 

[JCornell]

We flew BUF to ATL to HNL for $980 per person on Delta and that was on the low end of comparable routes and airlines. If you're near a major hub like DFW, I think $700 or less is a good price. If ATL is at all an option, the Delta flight from ATL to HNL is on an Airbus 330 so it's a brand new plane, very comfortable, 2-4-2 seat configurations, and they provide hot meals and alcohol (free) to all fare classes.

Just an fyi that sometimes it helps to expand your search. We were looking at BUF and ROC to HNL and were seeing similar prices. We expanded to YYZ (Toronto) though and got a flight for $480 round trip on Delta for next August.

 

[longboard55]

May is one of the slowest months, I would wait till about march/april

 

[jliehr]

Google Flights is what you need, you can enter a search and have it track/alert you, and you can use multiple airports at once

Here's an example, you can also use flexible dates through their tool.

https://www.google.com/flights/#search;f=TUL,LIT,OKC,MCI,DFW;t=HNL;d=2017-05-20;r=2017-05-31

Switch your dates as needed, but using these dates I see $763 from DFW going through LAX with short stopovers.

If you use Twitter, follow these sites, they Tweet out deals frequently

https://twitter.com/TheFlightDeal (covers DFW)

https://twitter.com/FareDealAlert (covers MCI)

https://twitter.com/airfarewatchdog (covers US, you can also go to their sites and setup emails for your airports)

 

[GooglyBear808]

We're traveling LAX - HNL mid June 2017 and prices are steadily at $795ish r/t. I recently just book our flights for $498 r/t on American. I did my daily log onto kayak.com with my cache/history cleared like I always do and there it was! 30 minutes after I booked the flights for the same exact dates/flight times were back to $798! I think it just takes consistency sprinkled with some luck. Check this site out ... https://skiplagged.com/ they help you find flights using 'hidden ticketing'. We were planning on doing the 'hidden ticketing' technique but ended up with such a good deal and now we don't have to!!

 

[JCornell]

Also, a lesson I learned some time ago. No matter how many tickets you're buying, look for the price for one ticket. Sometimes airlines will release small blocks of tickets at a reduced price and you may miss them. Last year we flew BUF->LAX. I needed 4 tickets but I was able to score 3 of them at a significantly reduced price this way. It made paying a little more for the 4th well worth it. If I had just been searching for 4, it would have only showed me the normal price.

 

[nkereina]

Just an fyi that sometimes it helps to expand your search. We were looking at BUF and ROC to HNL and were seeing similar prices. We expanded to YYZ (Toronto) though and got a flight for $480 round trip on Delta for next August.

We looked at Toronto as well but at wasn't as cost effective for us. There was about a $400 savings, but by the time we got a hotel on the front and back end of our trip, drove the 90 minutes from Buffalo, and dealt with border crossings, we chalked the little savings up to the cost of convenience. We were also gone for 16 days and didn't want to leave our car somewhere for that long either.

 

[NobleAlyssum]

Google Flights is what you need, you can enter a search and have it track/alert you, and you can use multiple airports at once

Here's an example, you can also use flexible dates through their tool.

https://www.google.com/flights/#search;f=TUL,LIT,OKC,MCI,DFW;t=HNL;d=2017-05-20;r=2017-05-31

Switch your dates as needed, but using these dates I see $763 from DFW going through LAX with short stopovers.

If you use Twitter, follow these sites, they Tweet out deals frequently

https://twitter.com/TheFlightDeal (covers DFW)

https://twitter.com/FareDealAlert (covers MCI)

https://twitter.com/airfarewatchdog (covers US, you can also go to their sites and setup emails for your airports)

I didn't even know you could input multiple airports at the same time for Google Flights! I've been doing it one by one like a pleb. lol. That is some great savings you found though! Thank you for your help!

Also, a lesson I learned some time ago. No matter how many tickets you're buying, look for the price for one ticket. Sometimes airlines will release small blocks of tickets at a reduced price and you may miss them. Last year we flew BUF->LAX. I needed 4 tickets but I was able to score 3 of them at a significantly reduced price this way. It made paying a little more for the 4th well worth it. If I had just been searching for 4, it would have only showed me the normal price.

I would have never of thought of search for one ticket at a time. That is a smart trick to maximize savings, even if one cannot get all the tickets they need at the same price. Thank you!

 

[JCornell]

We looked at Toronto as well but at wasn't as cost effective for us. There was about a $400 savings, but by the time we got a hotel on the front and back end of our trips, drove the 90 minutes from Buffalo, and dealt with border crossings, we chalked the little savings up to the cost of convenience. We were also gone for 16 days and didn't want to leave our car somewhere for that long either.

Yeah, it's situational for sure. We have 4 of us so the cost difference of 4 plane tickets outweighed the cost of one hotel room the night before (we're driving home directly from the airport so we don't need one on the back-end). We also would be putting our car in a parking garage no matter where we flew out of whereas a Buffalo local might have a ride from someone so there's potential savings to staying in Buffalo then. The unpredictability of the border wait time was one of the reasons we decided to stay the night before, too. We'd be leaving extremely early for our 7am flight so it was one less hassle we wanted the day of our trip.

 

[mrp4352]

For our outbound next February, we used miles. But for our return, we booked HNL to San Jose for $250 each. We get in around 8pm, so we're overnighting in SJC, then using Southwest (right now $100, hoping it will drop more before the flight) to get the rest of the way home to Dallas. Even including the hotel cost, we feel like we've got a good deal for our flights home, and will hopefully not be absolutely exhausted when we arrive!