While there aren’t any great deals at the moment between Southern California and Hawaii, there’s a glimmer of light for next year that might help keep a downward pressure on prices.
I’m talking about renewed competition and Delta’s recent announcement of daily 757 service between San Diego and Honolulu starting June 3. This route has previously been served only by Hawaiian Air.
This will follow upcoming expansion of Delta’s Hawaii service from Los Angeles, and the addition of a second daily flight between LA and Maui next March.
Continental is also keeping its focus on Hawaii with their upcoming new service to Honolulu from Orange County. That too starts next March.
Lastly I still don’t think we’ve heard the last of Alaska Air’s Hawaii routes. While not from Southern California, in March, the airline will add three flights a week between San Jose and Kahului, four-times-weekly service between San Jose and Kona, and daily flights between Sacramento and Maui. I’ve been predicting additional Alaska Air service from Orange County and/or San Diego to Hawaii’s neighbor islands, and still think this is likely.
The best is yet to come.
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That’s great news. As an Orange County resident I’ve talked with you all before about getting a great deal again this summer to come to Hawaii. It will be hard to beat last summer’s $312 a ticket for nonstop air to Kona out of LAX on United.. but I’d liked to try! This year we’d like to go to Kauai. Traveling with two young ones forces our travel choices to rely on direct daytime flights and my career as a teacher forces us to choose the busy summer travel season. United came through last summer and we had the time of our lives. However, I see that prices have gone up. I’m willing to fly out of LAX, Orange County or San Diego for the right price. Seems like talks are still on holiday travel for 2009. Am I too early to be searching high and low for cheap summer rates? When can we possibly expect those?
Hi Susan,
Yes, I think it is too early for next summer, unless you’re willing to pay up. Since most predictions are for a fairly strong summer here. I don’t think airlines will start significantly dropping prices unless they need to and if they do, perhaps not until March or after.
Aloha, Jeff