If you don’t already know about VIP Alerts, it’s our way of quickly informing you of Hawaii deals from your chosen city. Now, you can win free VIP Alerts for an entire year, so you’ll never miss a Hawaii deal again. If you already subscribe to VIP Alerts and win, we’ll extend your subscription for 12 months.

How To Enter on Facebook:

You’ll first need to become a Facebook Fan of Beat of Hawaii. If you’re already a fan, head over to our page and sign up to win. Winners will be drawn every Friday by random selection and will be notified by email.

Subscribers of VIP Alerts Received these Hawaii Deals First:

Here’s a sample of some recent (but now expired) Hawaii travel deals people have scored using VIP Alerts!:

• San Jose to Maui $110 Each Way
• San Diego to Hawaii $129 Each Way
• New York to Honolulu $212 Each Way
• Vancouver BC to Honolulu C$136 Each Way
• Denver or Houston to Honolulu $175 Each Way

How VIP Alerts! Work – Never Miss a Hawaii Deal Again

Beat of Hawaii is known as the “go to” place for Hawaii travel deals. Most of the deals we post however are short-lived so you have to act immediately in order to get the best price and the best dates. They can be gone entirely simply in a matter of hours. Here’s how VIP Alerts can help you get first chance at the deals we find:

• We send you immediate notification by SMS text message, email or voice mail of airfare deals we post between Hawaii and any one of twenty-two mainland US cities.
• You get VIP notice prior to emails, Facebook, or Twitter.
• We’ll only alert you when your subscribed city comes up, so you can relax and we won’t bother you until that all important time to act.
• The cost to subscribe to VIP Alerts! even if you don’t win is only $1.33 per month. $19.99 for a full year of notifications.
• Alerts are available between Hawaii and Atlanta, Bellingham, Chicago, Cincinnati, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, LA (LAX, SNA), Memphis, Miami, Minneapolis, NYC (JFK, LGA, EWR), Phoenix, Portland, St. Louis, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, San Diego, San Francisco (SFO, OAK), Seattle, Vancouver, and Washington (IAD, DCA)
• Find our more and subscribe here.

There’s an abundance of Hawaii travel news to report. In the never ending Pacific island turnstile, players continue to come and go, shrink and grow. Plus we may even find out what Allegiant is planning after a very long delay. Here are today’s updates:

Mokulele: From 8-Seater to London?

We certainly haven’t heard the last of this unusual story. Mokulele (not to be confused with regional jet carrier Go!Mokulele), known for scenic 9-seater Cessna service within the islands, is expanding to charter service between Honolulu, Chicago (Rockford) and London (Stansted). Chicago is scheduled to commence in April with London added in May. The company will lease a single Boeing 767 for the service. Sorry, but I’m struck speechless on this one. More later.

Hawaiian Air/Jet Blue partnership. Should you care?

In most cases no. But it may bring benefits to some Hawaii visitors.

Last fall I suggested Hawaiian would partner with JetBlue to feed passengers into and out of their New York slot when the Honolulu to JFK nonstop service starts in June. Jet Blue was the logical partner and my prediction is now a reality. Hawaiian will use Jet Blue’s New York terminal. The deal features code sharing wherein the airlines will sell each others flights. Passengers can book Hawaii through JetBlue and mainland destinations of JetBlue through Hawaiian. Typically, however, such arrangements don’t offer great sale pricing opportunities. Lastly, the deal allows for mileage earning and redemption across the carriers. Both JetBlue and Hawaiian have similar relationships with others.

Hawaiian call center goes 24/7. Finally.

If you’ve ever tried to call Hawaiian Airlines early in the morning or late at night, you know that this was sorely needed for years. The carrier recently expanded its reservations call center to be 24/7. I did not see any change in the call center staffing, which was moved to the Philippines several years ago.

With the addition of more Asia flights and now east coast flights, Hawaiian has to provide service that spans 11 time zones, thereby necessitating the change.

What’s up with Allegiant?

“We’ve got some big news coming next week, stay tuned…” –Allegiant Travel

I’ve gone from excitement and enthusiasm to doubt when it comes to Allegiant’s willingness to commit to any Hawaii service. This cat and mouse game that now includes Alaska and Southwest has been going on it seems for years. There was something I caught on Allegiant’s twitter last week, however, plus its timing, that gave me pause. Stick around and let’s see if it’s for real this time around.

Updated: I saw this morning that Allegiant announced Missoula and not Hawaii. They do keep telling industry folk that they will be announcing Hawaii soon. 

Disney Cruises pulls Hawaii plug

Disney has just announced their 2013 cruise schedule and something is missing. It’s Hawaii! Wasn’t it just recently that the cruise line announced it was starting Hawaii cruises? It seemed like a great play given their new Aulani Resort on Oahu. If you want to get in on the action before it’s over, Disney has two 15-night Hawaii cruises on the books this year, in April and October. They start at about $100/night. But they’re calling it quits at the port of Los Angeles starting next year, which in part explains what happened to future Hawaii itineraries. The Disney Wonder ship will be relocated to Miami for 2013.

There’s also increasing Hawaii cruise competition and it appears Disney did not want to get into that whole ruckus.

Hawaiian Air/ANA partnership

Lastly, Hawaiian has also just partnered with ANA, expanding their prior code share agreement covering flights both in Japan and Hawaii and adding mileage earning and redemption reciprocity. The carriers will be able to sell each others flights to and from termination points.

Hawaiian Air new mobile website

If you’re flying Hawaiian Air, you’ll be pleased to see that they’ve just added mobile-awareness to their website. You’ll be served up a version for your smartphone that is much easier to use.

We always love Hawaii vacation contests and so do you. The whole idea of following Hawaii sweepstakes started when one of our readers won a trip for her family on a contest we wrote about. Following are six new contests currently running, offering in total, free Hawaii vacations for up to 22 persons.

You’ll need to follow the link to each entry form. We are not affiliated with any of these contests or have a say in who wins. We hope another Beat of Hawaii reader will be a lucky winner. Please let us know if you are.

1. Dole Fruit in 100% Juice Aloha Sweepstakes.

• Eligibility: Open to residents of the 50 United States, age 18 and over.
• Grand Prize: One grand prize consisting of a choice of five Hawaiian vacations to Honolulu including airfare, hotel and more. Some are valid for 2 persons while others are valid for 4 persons. Themes include, spa, golf, adventure, family fun, and authentic Hawaii.
• Enter by: March 24, 2012

2. Seattle’s Best Coffee Trip to Hawaii Sweepstakes.

• Eligibility: Open to residents of the 50 United States, age 18 and over.
• Grand Prize: A trip for two to Hawaii including round trip coach airfare for two and hotel for 6 nights.
• Enter by: February 14, 2012

3. RC Willey Hawaiian Vacation Giveaway.

• Eligibility: Open to residents of Utah, Idaho, Nevada, Wyoming, Oregon, California and Arizona who are 18 years and over.
• Grand Prize: Win one of three grand prizes each consisting of airfare to Kauai, car rental and a 6 night, 7 day stay for two at the Koloa Landing Poipu Beach Wyndham Grand Resort.
• Enter by: January 31, 2012

4. Marriott Dream Vacation to Hawaii Sweepstakes.

• Eligibility: Open to residents of all states except New Jersey.
• Grand Prize: A two-week trip for up to six persons, visiting up to 3 Hawaiian Islands. Includes 1 million Hawaiian Miles to get you here, plus a two-bedroom villa and a $10,000 Visa gift card.
• Enter by: November 7, 2012.

5. Hawaii Magazine Win an Oahu Vacation Sweepstakes.

• Eligibility: Open to residents of all 50 states.
• Grand Prize: A trip for two including airfare and accommodation at Waikiki Beach Marriott to attend the Honolulu Festival. Must travel March 1, returning on March 5. Airfare is provided only from one of Hawaiian Air’s domestic gateway cities.
• Enter by: January 31, 2012.

6. Honolulu Publishing Company win a free trip for two to Maui

• Eligibility: Open to residents of all 50 states age 21 and over.
• Grand Prize: A 5- night Maui Kai ocean-front condos vacation including round-trip coach airfare for two to Maui from any major U.S. airport, rental car, helicopter tour for two and snorkel tour for two.
• Enter by: January 31, 2012.

More Hawaii visitors are choosing to voyage either one way or round trip between the west coast and the islands. As for cruise ship safety, the recent disaster will likely put an unprecedented focus on cruise regulations and enforcement. Last year more than 15 million people cruised safely world wide.

Not only is there an increase in the number of cruises coming to Hawaii, there are also more Hawaii cruise deals popping up. So much so in fact, that we’ve written about Hawaii cruise sales four times recently.

In the first eleven month of 2011, the number of people arriving in Hawaii by cruise ship rose nearly 15% from the prior year. At 104,000, that’s still below the 2007 peak. It may not be long, however, until we see a new record being set.

We’ve mentioned before that cruises can make for an ideal first time visit to Hawaii. With multiple stops, you’ll get a brief albeit limited sampler of what each island has to offer. For a more in depth Hawaii experience, of course, cruises do not allow enough time in each port to really do justice to Hawaii.

Here are the top reasons that cruises to Hawaii are regaining momentum:

1. Value.

Just this past week Jeff reported on a round trip 2+ week cruise from San Diego that came out to about $75 per day, all-inclusive. That is still available. The cruise includes transportation to and from Hawaii ($400 average value) as well as inter-island transportation ($300 average value). There are no baggage fees. Also included are 14 nights accommodations ($1,400 average value), and perhaps 42 meals ($420 average value). Even with these conservative calculations, this cruise might be worth $2,500 or more, and yet it is on offer for about $1,000. I simply cannot see any other possible way to have a two week multi-island Hawaii vacation for that price.

2. Convenience. 

There’s nothing more convenient than unpacking and packing once, sleeping in the same room every night and not being in any airports or sitting on any crowded planes.

Here’s a great idea for a first time Hawaii vacation that doesn’t require being on any airplanes, staying in any hotels, or eating in any restaurants. Based on that, it just can’t get much cheaper than this.

This is a round-trip cruise from Southern California on the highly regarded Celebrity Century. You don’t have just one date to choose from but instead there are four sailings at this price. Act quickly for a no airline trip to Hawaii.

Here’s today’s Hawaii Travel Deal:

Cost: $999 net per person. Based on $1,099 less $100 per person credit.

Ship: Celebrity Century.

Itinerary: Round trip from San Diego. Itineraries can vary and may includes stops in Honolulu, Maui, Kona, Hilo and Ensenada.

Departures: October 5, 20, November 4, 19.

Where to book: cruisedirect.com.

Here’s a new Kauai dining option that will only cost a few bills and helps adults with disabilities. I stopped for my first time on Friday at their new Lawai restaurant. It’s just off the highway next to Menehune Food Mart.

For only $6.50 I feasted on a large serving of Mahi Mahi with lemon butter, two scoops of brown rice and salad with homemade dressing. I could have added two more entrees to my plate for a dollar each. This is a great deal and a healthy taste.

In addition to many lunch items they also serve breakfast starting at 6am. Menu choices included pancakes for $3.95 and breakfast plates with rice, meat and scrambled eggs for $6.95.

All proceeds from the kitchen support training and employment opportunities for people with challenged lives on Kauai. Lanakila Pacific has helped thousands of people on Oahu for 72 years. This is their first neighbor island kitchen.

More Info: Conveniently located at 2-3687 Kaumualii Highway in Lawai by the post office. Catering offered too. Open 6am to 2pm during the week. Closed on Saturday and Sunday. Website.

Aloha and Hau’oli Makahiki Hou.

As we start the New Year I’m offering my predictions for Hawaii travel in 2012 as has become a tradition.

2011 ended with a number of great travel deals, some of which are still in effect. Beyond that, while we continued to see many airfare sales last year, they were generally fewer than in prior years, of shorter duration and more limited availability. Sadly, Los Angeles, the number one market for Hawaii, had the least fare sales ever.

1. Prices are going up.

Airfares to Hawaii continue to rise as is also true with most other markets. All indications are for a very strong travel year in general, with airlines in unprecedented control of their seat inventory and thus pricing. That means that with the exceptions you’ll see below, and occasional airfare wars, you can generally expect to pay more to travel, including to Hawaii. If you’re planning to visit during our peak travel times which include Spring break, June 15 to August 15 and Christmas/New Years weeks, prices are being set higher than ever.

2. A new player will join the fray.

Either Allegiant or Southwest or both. As you know the airlines that serve Hawaii are non-committal at this point. In generalities, both Allegiant and Southwest  have said that they’re coming to Hawaii. Neither has said exactly when and where they plan to fly. I believe something is going to shake loose this year, one way or the other.

3. More love for cities served by Alaska Airlines.

We have Alaska Air to thank for keeping deals going in 2011. Their presence in the San Diego, Bay Area and Pacific Northwest markets have kept prices in check. If it hadn’t been for them, Hawaiian’s prices would have simply been through the roof. You can find great prices today from all these markets to and from Hawaii on both Alaska and Hawaiian.

4. More expansion from Alaska Airlines.

This company appears ready to expand and dominate the west coast to Hawaii market while Hawaiian Air has its sites set towards the likes of Asia and New York. In some ways, however, Alaska isn’t in all that different a position than either Allegiant or Southwest. They aren’t going to extend themselves too much more until they see when new players are coming and what they have in mind.

5. New inter-island carrier.

I’ll have to say that this is one thing that I’d personally like more than anything else. Hawaii’s “bus” service has been literally clipped by the high prices we saw in 2011. Alaska and Southwest have the ability to enter this market, which would dramatically shake it up and allow residents and visitors to start island-hopping once again.

6. New markets for Hawaiian Air.

With their New York service set to debut this summer, and a fleet of planes best suited to long distance runs, Hawaiian will be looking for additional opportunities afield. I’ve suggested Chicago is next, and I believe we’ll see that happen in 2012.

I’ll be monitoring for all deals to and from Hawaii, as we’ve done for the past four years. Our VIP Alerts have become a very popular way to get those short-lasting Hawaii travel deals sent immediately via SMS or email. For just over $1 a month, you can sit back and I’ll get a hold of you when your next Hawaii airfare deals shows up.

Happy New Year and A Hui Hou.

The news media is abuzz with word that Hawaiian Air may resurrect some legacy pricing models for inter-island air travel. As you may recall, in the past there was a variety of ways to obtain discounted tickets. Those included coupon booklets sold in grocery stores that provided one way tickets for under $50. At present, however, there are no discounts available, and fares (typically for the least desirable dates/times) start at $80 and go to $160+ for one-way twenty minute flights (including tax).

The need for reduced inter-island airfare pricing is obvious. We see it here in comments, and you know it first hand if you’ve tried flying within Hawaii. The costs have nearly brought an end to the once common multi-island Hawaii vacation.

I had recently planned to fly to Honolulu for a vacation, but when the cost was approximately the same as flying to the Bay Area, I opted to fly to California instead. That’s 2,500 miles for about the same cost as flying 100 miles. Ridiculous to be sure. So what’s wrong with this picture? Read on.

Kamaaina fares

The idea of a reduced fare structure for Hawaii residents is something that’s always being discussed locally. Inter-island flights are our local bus service, and it is sometimes obligatory to be able to fly between the islands for business, medical care, and other necessities. A discount for residents isn’t unprecedented here or in other places. There now is an online petition helping further bring this matter to the public’s attention. (Please read comments before signing petition).

According to Hawaiian Air: “We know how prices affect our local customers and they depend on us for transportation between islands. For some months now we’ve been working on developing options for them.”

But will we see any results from the current discussions or the petition, either for Hawaii residents or visitors? I’m very doubtful of anything substantive developing barring significant new competitive pressure.

So Where’s the Competition?

There simply is no competition in our  air transport market at the present time to help keep costs in check. Go!Mokulele and Island Air remain in virtually perfect lockstep with Hawaiian to maintain the highest overall prices ever seen here.

It seems to me the only real hope for reduced inter-island airfare pricing is the entry of a serious competitor. That would either be Alaska Air or Southwest Airlines. I’ve widely mentioned those over the past couple of years and we’re going to find out quite soon exactly what these two big boys have in mind.

I’m glad to see that Green Car Hawaii is expanding its presence in the islands. They now have a Waikiki location at the Doubletree Alana hotel for hourly or daily on-demand car rentals.

Right now I’m in sticker shock over the price at $15 an hour or $95 per day for their Nissan Leaf electric cars.

You may recall that we reported about Green Car Hawaii previously, after they were awarded a $200,000 grant and began offering hybrid car rentals at the Grand Hyatt Kauai.

Green Car Hawaii plans to expand to have a total of six locations on Oahu and Kauai by next summer. No other islands were mentioned.

Do you think you’ll be taking advantage of hourly electric car rentals in the near future?

I’m likely sticking with Discount Hawaii Car Rental for now to get the best price. It would be great to see the green car rental marketplace become more competitive in the future.

If you missed out last time there was a sale, here it is again. A long time favorite of mine that was started by our travel legend friend Arthur Frommer.

A number of you commented that you were unable to get the deal when it was available on Tanga. It is offered today only on Discount Mags instead.

Today’s Hawaii travel deal

• Budget Travel Magazine for $3.99/year
• Available today only!
• Enter coupon code 7681 to obtain discount.

PS: You may recall I was interviewed on the Frommers Travel Show which you can still listen to.