Jun 02 2008

Travel Newsletters Don’t Have Good Airfare Deals

Published by Jeff at 12:05 am under Travel tips

I used to monitor popular travel newsletters for the best Hawaii airfare deals. It’s my feeling, however, that these sites are no longer the best resource for today’s fast-changing travel market.

The reason is that while Hawaii airfare deals are still to be found, the nature of them and their duration, has completely changed over the past few months. By the time a newsletter comes out, the deals are normally gone.  So while a newsletter can purport to offer a deal, just how good can those deals be?

One day deals are the new reality in travel.

Hawaii airfare deals are now infrequent and seem to pop up when you least expect it. Most importantly, they can last as little as a few hours before they are either expired or their capacity is exhausted.  The most desirable dates can be gone even faster, say within an hour.

You have to watch for them constantly, as the airlines post new fares up to three times daily.

Last week for example we had a flurry of fast-evaporating Hawaii airfare deals. Following that, we had many comments from readers, both on and off the site.

The question everyone seems to be asking is what can they do now to find airfares deals between North America and Hawaii.

  • Summer:  It would be very unusual to find deals offered in summer (through the third week in August), and in that regard we don’t expect anything different this year. The $800 plus airfares are standard. Other than the Superferry promotion, I would not expect to find inter-island airfare deals either.
  • Late Summer and Fall: If you have flexibility in planning your trip to Hawaii, deals should start reappearing again for August.  Expect the best and easiest to find deals to be available from early November through early December, with the exception of Thanksgiving week.  Then perhaps again starting in the New Year.

Instead of travel newsletters, what tools are helpful?

For me, there is no one best tool.  Instead, I set up my Google Reader to monitor deals from around the web, and I check them from my computer or Blackberry almost constantly.

Some people report good results from sites that alert you to deals, like Yapta, Yahoo’s Fare Chase or from Expedia’s Fare Compare.

In summary, keep vigilant watch and be prepared so you can act within minutes of finding your deal.

When I see a deal that has seats left, and more than a few hours duration, I’ll be posting it here for you on Beat of Hawaii.  Stay tuned.

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7 Responses to “Travel Newsletters Don’t Have Good Airfare Deals”

  1. # Stacy Kasseon 02 Jun 2008 at 12:34 am

    My question is: will GO airlines still be flying July 9. I heard they weren’t scheduled to file again until July 20, which is good news for me as I have tickets for the 8 and 9th. It makes it difficult to plan to island hop this summer…don’t want to get stuck some place.
    Thanks,
    Stacy

  2. # Rachelon 02 Jun 2008 at 11:58 am

    Thanks for the post!

    So, do you mean that starting in the 3rd week of August we’ll start to see fares drop? And that we should start keeping an eye out for September/October deals starting then?

    Or do you mean that sometime this summer, we’ll start to see fares for late August and beyond dropping, and that we should keep an eye out for that drop, whenever it happens in June, July or early August?

    Hope the above is clear, just want to make sure I’m understanding when exactly to be looking… thanks!

  3. # Jeffon 02 Jun 2008 at 12:03 pm

    Hi Stacy and Rachel,

    Stacy, I think you’ll be okay with those dates. I’ll write more about this tomorrow.

    Rachel, the deals could be popping up at any time. They will, however, likely be for travel dates beginning at the end of August. That’s exactly what we saw happen last week.

    Thanks for your comments.

    Aloha, Jeff

  4. # Rachelon 02 Jun 2008 at 3:04 pm

    Thanks, Jeff… have google reader, will watch with an eagle eye!

    : )

  5. # Grant Wiscouron 23 Jul 2008 at 1:32 am

    Hopefully, the Onepass Program doesn’t change its program within the next ten days.

    The end of September we are heading out for our second 2008 trip to Hawaii.

    As long as nothing crazy comes up…we’ll be there.

  6. # drnzymeon 19 Aug 2008 at 5:03 pm

    I need to book a trip for waikiki in october, but all the packages on hawaii.com are for august and september. do i have to wait until september to get october deals?

  7. # Jeffon 19 Aug 2008 at 10:14 pm

    I’ve never even heard of hawaii.com. Why are you looking there?

    Where will you be traveling from?

    Packages are not necessarily a good deal.

    If you’d like to say more about your requirements, I’ll be happy to tell you what I know.

    Aloha, Jeff

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