Five Tips To Get The Best Hawaii Airfares

1.  Play the airlines in the cat-and-mouse pricing game.

The difference in price can easily pay for the rest of your Hawaii vacation.  For example, a good west coast to Hawaii peak summer airfare this year can be under $300 while a more typical fare can be $700 or more.

2.  Deciding when to buy.  This is our most often asked question.

First, it all depends on what time of year are you coming and whether your dates are flexible.  Second, it requires that you keep tuned to the deals as they happen.  Lastly, it requires timing, flexibility and luck.

The very best deals might only have availability for certain dates or only on certain days of the week.  A recent deal was only valid for Monday through Wednesday travel for example.  So if you can have some flexibility, you might again just save enough on airfare to pay for your accommodations.

3.  Follow Us on Twitter for the fastest notification of Hawaii airfare alerts.

When you follow us on Twitter, from your computer or phone,  you’ll know the deals we post within minutes.

Peak Season:  Planning for Mid-June through Mid-August and Holiday Travel.

4.  Book your dates as early as reasonable airfare can be found.

For summer, typically expect to find the best deals during the preceding winter/spring.  But that isn’t always the case.

For example, the $99 each way (plus tax) between Los Angeles and Honolulu that was widely available until last night, was an incredible summer airfare.  It became available on June 5, and resulted from less than normal summer demand this year.  But that is the exception.

For Christmas, the deals are unfortunately always few and far between, so watch for softness at any time.  So far this year, the airlines are still hoping for strong holiday demand, and as a result, we are really not seeing any deals for that time period.  At least not yet!

Buying Strategy.

5.  The best deals aren’t always available, and they are rapidly on and off by their nature.

The trick is to to keep your eyes peeled, know your availability, and be prepared to buy the same day a deal becomes available.

While some deals linger for month after month (New York to Honolulu is an example from last winter/spring that comes to mind), typically the best Hawaii airfare deals come and go within a couple of days or less.  Some only last a few hours.

Airlines concoct sales for a variety of reasons.  Sometimes they are dipping into a competitor’s home turf.  More frequently though they are enticing us to start shopping.  Even if we don’t find that sensational fare that they offered, they’re hoping we’ll still shop and pay somewhat more.  They put out the great teaser deal, then start reeling it back in, either quickly or slowly, right as we’re biting.  Sounds a lot like fishing actually.

Final Tip:

Last year I wrote When to Find The Best The Best Airfare Deals, a post that has been one of our most widely read.  In it I pointed to a number of tools that are still valid to help you find the best deals.