flights to Aulani

[jtkboston]

Anybody have experience booking Christmas-New Year's flights from Boston to Honolulu (for Aulani)? Thinking ahead to Christmas 2015/New Year's 2016. How far in advance to book? Likely round-trip prices per person?

 

[dreaming4disney]

We flew JFK to HNL this past June for about the same price. ($850-880) None-stop
Hawaiian was nice

 

[CMOORE185]

Non-stop from Chicago on June 1st is $813. Is that a good price?

 

[Anal Annie]

Trying to decide between Delta now ($772 using miles to pay down fare), which is a connection flight both ways and gets us to HI at 2:30pm, or Hawaiian ($852 or $812 depending on which days we go) which gets us in a 5am! Hawaiian connects on the way to HI but is a direct flight to NY to go home.

Thanks for all the input! Makes me realize I'm not jumping the gun to book these fares once my Aulani stay is all booked

Hawaiian includes meals…and they're very, very nice. We actually sprung for an upgrade on our LAX - HNL flight to what they call "extra comfort". It was only $60 more and gives you priority boarding, free inflight entertainment, a power outlet and 5" more legroom!! On a long flight that is HUGE!! We were seated up front in the 1st class area of the cabin (there were 3 rows right behind 1st class in front of the boarding door). It ultimately ended up that our flight was only about 1/2 full as most people changed their flights due to hurricane Iselle so it was extra quiet too. It was the closest we'll ever get to actually flying 1st class but we thought well worth the extra $60… On our particular flight it was still cheaper than Delta's COACH seats at the time I booked it!!

 

[jillmc40]

Anybody have experience booking Christmas-New Year's flights from Boston to Honolulu (for Aulani)? Thinking ahead to Christmas 2015/New Year's 2016. How far in advance to book? Likely round-trip prices per person?

I am here right now. I flew jfk to hnl so it should be comparable. If I wanted to fly Saturday dec 20 - Saturday jan 3 it would have been 2400.00 each! Yikes! I played with the days and did mon dec 22- mon January 5 and it was 1350.00 each. I got this wild idea exactly 7 months out, checked for availability at Aulani and booked it all within a week. I was on Hawaiian airlines and it was a fabulous flight. Roomy, individual tvs, entertainment packages for 6.00, non stop drinks, snacks, meals, free wine with your meal, it was great! I will only fly them if we decide to come back!

 

[jtkboston]

I got this wild idea exactly 7 months out, checked for availability at Aulani and booked it all within a week.

How was availability at 7 months? What room category did you book, what else was available? Aulani is my home resort so I am wondering if I would need to walk a reservation for desired dates, or will it be easy-peasy to get say a pool or ocean view 1BR unit between 11 & 7 months.

 

[disfanforlife]

I am here right now. I flew jfk to hnl so it should be comparable. If I wanted to fly Saturday dec 20 - Saturday jan 3 it would have been 2400.00 each! Yikes! I played with the days and did mon dec 22- mon January 5 and it was 1350.00 each. I got this wild idea exactly 7 months out, checked for availability at Aulani and booked it all within a week. I was on Hawaiian airlines and it was a fabulous flight. Roomy, individual tvs, entertainment packages for 6.00, non stop drinks, snacks, meals, free wine with your meal, it was great! I will only fly them if we decide to come back!

We would love to go at a similar time either 2015 or 2016. Would enjoy hearing about you trip!

 

[jtkboston]

I was on Hawaiian airlines and it was a fabulous flight. Roomy, individual tvs, entertainment packages for 6.00, non stop drinks, snacks, meals, free wine with your meal, it was great!

Did you do their extra comfort seating section, or the regular economy section?

 

[Mduff]

I booked this morning!!! Got 7 ocean view days (although I really want Island view to save on points) - now to fine tune my days - I want 9 days but have to book one at a time each day now. And then I'll book our flights. this thread has been great with info!

 

[shelly3girls]

Did you do their extra comfort seating section, or the regular economy section?

We just got home from our trip to Aulani. We did the extra comfort seating on the way to Hawaii but we chose not to do it on the way home. We did not find that it was worth it. If someone has very long legs then they would probably appreciate the extra room. My husband is 5'11" and did not find that he needed the room. The charging plug they offer is the same on every seat.

 

[jillmc40]

I don't know how to multi quote from my phone so I will try to remember everything . We did not do extra comfort. I couldn't bear to pay any more for the seats . Each seat in regular seating has a usb plug for charging and the entertainment packages are very reasonable in price.

The availability was good from what I remember. I think one and two bedrooms were available. We have a two bedroom lock off. I think both lock off and standard were available but I got what I wanted so I can't fully remember. I do know that one beds were available because I wasn't sure if I should do one bed nice view, or two bed standard view. I went with two bed because I figured I wouldn't care about view after being here two weeks and would like more space. I was not trying to book over Christmas or New Years though, I figure tomorrow is going to be start of off season.

We have been on Kauai for the last 12 days visiting my brother. It has been nice but a little colder than I thought it would be, and rainy :/ we are very excited to check out aulani tomorrow!!!

 

[jerseygal]

Not sure where to post this but on Thursday we can book Aulani for August! I've started looking at airfare from NY and I'm wondering if $856 round trip is a good price or if I can do better if I wait. There are 4 of us flying so I'm trying to get as cheap as possible!

I know where Bethel is...Might be worth checking United from Newark...Stay overnight if you have to...There are fly and park hotels at Newark airport which have reasonable safe gated long term parking rates right at the hotel and a quick shuttle to and from airport...say 5-10 minutes on shuttle at most

Just looked up our round trip airfaire United to Honolulu nonstop...I booked 7 months in advance of our departure date which was May 27 of '14..GREAT airfare for day after Memorial Day!
Paid $758 round trip including all tax which was AWESOME!
Scoured the web for about 10 months and as soon as we booked Aulani at 7 months jumped on it..Dissapointed, because I waited a day and it had been running at $715 rtrip for our dates, but jumped the next day..We LUCKED out because starting 2nd week of June '14 through end of August, fares were as high as $1,100 or so...Flight time nonstop from Newark was 11 hours going and 9 1/2 flying back..we did red eye on return trip home from Honolulu..Left Newark at about 9:15AM and left Honolulu at 8:15PM...LOVED the fact that on our last day we had the entire day to enjoy awesome Aulani!
BEST OF LUCK and HAVE A FABULOUS TIME!

 

[Billinaz]

This might help you out:

Use this page:

http://azalohafest.org/Airline_Discount.html



$50 Off Coach Roundtrip Fare
Between JFK, SFO, OAK, SJC or LAX and
Hawaii via HNL or OGG (when applicable)
Booking Period: now-12/15/2015
Travel Period: now-6/15/2015
Ecertificate # FP15006

5% Off
Between SEA, PDX, SMF, OAK, SFO, SJC, LAX, SAN, PHX, LAS, JFK and Hawaii
Ecertificate # P09039A

$50 Off Coach Roundtrip Fare
Between JFK, SFO, OAK, SJC or LAX and
Hawaii via HNL or OGG (when applicable)
Booking Period: now-12/15/2015
Travel Period: 9/1/2015-12/15/2015
Ecertificate # FP15006A

 

[Melany502]

Hawaiian will give you a credit if the fare drops, but will not refund.

DH and I purchased our flights for March 2015 for $99.00 through Hawaiian. We did this by each getting a Hawaiian Airlines credit card. We pay it off every month. They give you 35,000 miles if you spend $1000.00 in 3 months. DH and I both were able to secure flights for 35,000 points, but the flights were typically 40,000 when we would look.
The annual fee is $89.00 and we each were charged $10 for the flight. We only had to pay the full fee for our daughter.

was it 35k round trip or one way? I've been thinking about doing this as well.

 

[dreaming4disney]

We went to Aulani last June. Non stop from JFK on Hawaiian. The flight was good- no issues and I think we paid about the same, give or take a few bucks.

 

[Girimama33]

It was round trip. When checking, they fluctuated between 35,000 - 40,000 points for a round trip ticket from Nor Cal.

 

[Glent59]

We decided to do the NY to Oakland trip, we are spending a little time in Oakland do some sight seeing in SF ( oak - hnl round trip for us was 378 per person easily 100 per person less than SF SD or SEA) we cant book Southwest yet as that booking window doesn't open for another couple weeks.. but I think we will get in just under that 800 per person too..we did look at JFK to HNL round trip, and could have done that, at the time for just under 800 per person.. but the thought of that 11 1/2 hour flight just didn't sit well.. then a three hour drive back home from jfk.. ugh..

btw.. if your doing the Credit card points thing.. Hawaiian airlines is pretty reasonable. for spending 1K on stuff we normally would have to buy, it covered TWO coach fares from Oakland.

_

 

[Alice Sr.]

Non-stop from Chicago on June 1st is $813. Is that a good price?

We paid $800 r/t on a non-stop United flight Nov 2013. We are looking at going again January 2016, so far the United non-stop is about $50 more. We made them about 8 months out in 2013 but I might wait a bit longer this time to see if the price of gas has a favorable influence on the price of future tickets.

 

[CMOORE185]

We paid $800 r/t on a non-stop United flight Nov 2013. We are looking at going again January 2016, so far the United non-stop is about $50 more. We made them about 8 months out in 2013 but I might wait a bit longer this time to see if the price of gas has a favorable influence on the price of future tickets.

Thanks for your reply, prices are already down to $775 per person.

 

[Billinaz]

If flying Hawaiian dont forget to use the discount code to save some money.

http://azalohafest.org/Airline_Discount.html