Hawaii Airfare

ALERT - April 2008 - Hawaii-based Aloha Airlines shut down its passenger operations after filing for bankruptcy protection. Read more.

• Travel mid-week (Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday) Demand is highest to weekends because vacationers can minimize work vacation time by sandwiching five workdays in between two weekends - nine days in Hawaii for five days away from work.

So demand for flights is lower during the middle of the week, which results in cheaper Hawaii airfare prices as well as interisland flights.

• Travel during low season (Jan-May, Sep-early Dec) You can save up to 20% compared to high season (June-July-August) fares when school is out for the summer.

• Receive a package discount by combining your airfare reservation with a car rental reservation and/or lodging reservation

• Reserve in advance as far as possible

• Want to go first class? Check with Hawaiian Air - their first class fares can be as low as $200 over coach, while other carriers can have a $1000 difference. Even though you may not fly Hawaiian Air on the U.S. mainland, they are a dominant carrier to Hawaii - they have more mainland departure cities (9) than any other airline to Hawaii.

• Avoid major holidays (Valentine's Day, Easter, Spring Break, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas)

• Use one of the new search engines to view savings on Hawaii airfare by flight date. We use kayak.com - the Honolulu airport code is HNL and the Maui airport code is OGG if you want to try the form to the right, (opens a new browser window to a different website).

We saved $500 per ticket (that's $2000 for a family of four) for our March 2008 Maui airfare by moving our departure date to Tuesday from Thursday. Okay, we are taking Erin out of school a day early for spring break, but we figure the $2000 savings will offset a note from the teacher.

See the chart below from Kayak.com to see how we got a cheap Hawaii airfare ticket by slightly changing our flight dates.

• The tips above are for Hawaii flights in general - we also offer additional tips on lowering your airfare to the island of Maui.

Our family reflects the changes that have occurred the last few years on the flight to Hawaii for our Maui family vacation. Technology has opened up a whole new group of activities among younger flyers.

One of us watches movies on a portable DVD player, while another listens to her iPod. This has reduced the popularity of in-flight movies - we had two movies on our last trip, but hardly anyone watched them.

And for a lot of adult passengers, sleeping is still a popular option on the flight to Hawaii.

Another recent change in the cost of Hawaii airfare: now that most airlines are charging for meals (if you call a 'chicken wrap' a meal), lots of passengers are boarding with lots of food (sodas are still free).

And, by bringing your kids' favorite snacks, you ensure that they will eat something on the long flight to Hawaii.

Return to Maui Family Vacation from Hawaii Airfare