A Portland reader named Sue sent us her itinerary because she assumed something had gone wrong with the flight search. Sue was pricing a summer 2026 trip to Kauai, with dates in late July and early August and hopefully nonstop flights both ways. What stopped her cold was the price: $1,329 roundtrip in economy.
This was not First Class, not a holiday week albeit in summer, and not some refundable ticket loaded with perks. It was a standard economy fare that includes seat selection but does not include checked bags or onboard food. Sue asked us to vet it, expecting confirmation that something was off, and the result surprised us just as much as it surprised her. We did a double-take.
The highest summer Hawaii fares we have ever seen.
We have been tracking Hawaii airfare trends for nearly two decades, watching prices rise and fall through fuel spikes, mergers, recessions, and post-COVID volatility. We have seen expensive summers before, and we have documented plenty of airfare shocks over the years, but this one seemed to stand apart.
That $1,329 Portland to Kauai fare is one of the highest summer Hawaii airfares we have ever seen for a standard, nonstop, west coast economy route. It is not an anomaly or a one-day blip, and it is not confined to one airline or one island. It reflects a broader shift in how airlines are pricing Hawaii during the peak summer season and holidays. And even off-season isn’t looking great.
For years, even at the height of summer demand, there was an upper boundary airlines rarely crossed. Pre-COVID, that ceiling hovered around $700 roundtrip, and even then, travelers bristled. Seven years ago, when we occasionally saw an $800 fare to Hawaii in summer, that was considered extreme and rare enough to draw attention. In summer 2026, those former extremes have become entirely routine.
This is not just one airline. It is all of them.
The screenshot of Sue’s itinerary showed Alaska Airlines pricing, but this is not the story of any one airline. We checked across all carriers and routes, and the pattern was repeated across the board. United is right there, matching the same pricing behavior. Southwest is there too, which seems somehow even harder to believe, and so are the others.
Another example stood out. A Las Vegas to Maui search on Southwest for the same late-July 2026 window showed roundtrip economy fares between $895 and $911 with one stop. But the nonstop option landed at $1,020 roundtrip, which would have been unthinkable for Southwest on a Hawaii route not very long ago.
These Southwest fares are from the carrier long assumed to be the pressure valve that kept Hawaii airfare pricing from spiraling off the charts. Well, forget that assumption. It no longer holds, and when Southwest is charging close to $900 with a stop, and more than $1,000 nonstop from Las Vegas, the pricing floor for Hawaii vacations has clearly moved up. This is not a premium-carrier issue or a limited-route quirk. It is industry-wide behavior.
How summer pricing has escalated.
The familiar seasonal rhythm still exists, but the slope has steepened dramatically compared with anything Hawaii travelers were used to before. BOH editors were also planning a mainland trip this summer from Lihue to Portland, but after seeing these prices, and finding our own itinerary pricing mid-week in August at $800 RT, we look foward to sitting that out unless something changes at the last minute. We’ll let you know
Winter Hawaii airfares continue to hover starting around $350 (regular economy), while spring pricing generally now climbs closer to $500. When summer arrives, prices do not merely rise together with seasonal demand. They leap! Nonstop summer fares from the mainland to Hawaii are now often landing as high as $800 to $1,200 round-trip for regular economy, and in some cases, they push even higher depending on route and island.
One-stop itineraries can dip below that range, but even those prices would have been considered shocking not that long ago. The days of counting on summer nonstops at anything resembling reasonable pricing appear to be long gone, at least for now.
Where the pain is hitting hardest.
The Pacific Northwest is being squeezed the most. Portland and Seattle summer nonstops to Hawaii are routinely pricing higher. Seattle can be marginally cheaper than Portland, but the difference is small and inconsistent, marking a sharp reversal from years when PNW gateways were some of the best values to Hawaii.
The Bay Area offers limited relief. San Francisco this summer will see $100 to $200 cheaper fares than Portland or Seattle, while San Jose sometimes also does better, but with fewer neighbor island options after route pruning. Southern California looks better only by comparison, with Los Angeles pricing roughly matching San Francisco and San Diego close behind.
Hawaii’s desert hubs tell another surprising story. Phoenix and Las Vegas are frequently as or more expensive than the Pacific Northwest. Across the islands, Honolulu is trending slightly cheaper than Kauai, but the gap is narrow, while Maui and the Big Island generally price close to Honolulu as well.
What those fares really buy you.
Economy pricing no longer means what many travelers assume it does, and the sticker shock does not end with the airfare itself.
A $1,329 ticket from Portland to Kauai or a $1,000-plus Southwest fare from Las Vegas to Maui covers little more than transportation. First Class on Sue’s Kauai flight was priced at $2,259 roundtrip, while economy saver fares were only marginally lower and came with restrictions many travelers cannot realistically cope with.
For a family of four, economy fares alone can exceed $5,000 before a single bag is checked. Once luggage and basic onboard purchases are added, the total pushes closer to $6,000, and that is before a rental car, accommodations, resort fees, and 19% taxes, or any of the on-the-ground costs that Hawaii visitors already struggle to absorb. These airfare numbers are only the starting point for this coming summer vacations, not the finish line.
Airlines are clearly testing the limit.
Sue put it bluntly when she told us this feels like airlines “seeing how far they can push before people finally stop paying,” and that assessment aligns closely with the numbers.
This is no longer revenge travel or post-pandemic chaos. Summer 2026 looks like the first real stress test of a new pricing model for premium leisure routes, with airlines appearing confident that demand is durable enough, alternatives are adequately limited, and visitors’ emotional attachment to Hawaii is strong enough that travelers will either pay up or walk away.
Hawaii is the ideal testing ground for that experiment, with longer distances, carefully constrained capacity, and a once-a-year trip mentality creating conditions where reaction to cost can come late in the planning process, if at all. Although, on the other hand, if it hits others as it did us just now, some trips are definitely coming off the plans.
We couldn’t believe Sue’s itinerary cost at first, but after waking up and checking again and again across airlines, islands, and gateways, we believe it now. If you are looking at Hawaii this summer and seeing prices that feel completely out of line with anything you remember, you are not imagining it.
The question remains: At what point do these airfares change your plans entirely?
Lead Photo Credit: Beat of Hawaii at Waimanalo Beach, Oahu.
Get Breaking Hawaii Travel News
As low as $500 CAD/$361 USD return from Vancouver. No brainer for Seattle types. I’ve seen it as cheap as $297 CAD as of late.
Yes, the airlines are stress-testing our limits. But as I’ve said before, for every person that bails out (as we once did) there are plenty of people to take their place in this K-shaped economy. We cut our trips from twice a year to never, then acquiesced to once-a-year — but on what we feel are more Our terms: shoulder season (lodging and airfares much less expensive), companion fares (or miles), social car rental, and fewer costly experiences and dinners out. Blindly following an annual routine costs more every year (kinda like car insurance). Time for a save-money reset. Or pay the ‘tariff’ and enjoy your trip on their terms.
I just did a dummy booking on Alaska for RT, non stop Portland to Lihue in main cabin for 788.00 today 1/20/26 at 15:30.
It seems like “testing the limit” is right! Don’t reserve now. By the time summer arrives, these fares will go down because people have had enough! I am usually not the pro-tourist type, but after reading the resort fees and now the cost of a flight, people need to stop this craziness. I don’t like extremes on either side ….
The ” synergy” of Alaskan ownership of Hawaiian Airlines will result in ever higher prices and most flights routed through Seattle.
My boy-friend is arriving from Germany as I am writing this and he paid $700 from Duesseldorf via Paris with Air France, then Delta from Seattle and returning to Germany with Air France. We will fly from OGG to Washington, DC for about $300 one way end of March or the beginning of April with American Airlines. I fly twice a year to DC (and back to OGG) and the price hasn’t changed in years ….I guess they really take advantage of tourists from the West Coast!
Hawaii has officially priced me out. I love Hawaii and always spent a good deal of money at restaurants and souvenir shops, but with the increase in hotel prices and the discontinuation of BOS-HNL on Hawaiian prices are just to high for me to justify. I’ll go to Fiji instead, sure airfare is $100 more, but once I’m there Everything is significantly cheaper.
Hi, thanks for bringing this price increase up. I’m in a unique position where I Have to travel to Hawaii from Oregon to pick up my son for parenting time. These high rise prices and nickel and time airlines make it extremely challenging to plan and budget. I’m have this challenge at least four times a year.
Its time to begin a consumer boycott of all Hawaii air travel until the airlines come to their senses and are forced to back off this price gouging stunt.
Clearly Hawaii will see very little tourism .with the governor raising prices with everything that walk , the airlines getting greedy and prices going up all over, most people will not be able to afford these islands..
The new ownership of Southwest wants to milk it for money. They’re no longer a low cost airline. The cycle will continue, as this price means so much profit someone else will move in where Southwest was. It is just another example of a company going for enpoopification.
Just for curiosity, I check on the points to get the same flight. They’re now showing 60K, when they used to be 40K. Inflation here, but not as bad.
Just think about what this means for residents of Hawaii, who frequently must travel outside the state for medical care, family visits, and out of state colleges. We will also pay the price or are stuck here.
Aloha, I understand that people who love Hawaii are having sticker shock but think about people that live in Hawaii and have to fly to the mainland at least once a year to see elderly parents or children and grandchildren. We don’t have a choice of deciding not to go on “vacation”. It’s heartbreaking to talk to kupuna who say they can’t afford to fly to the mainland and their mainland children and grandchildren can no longer afford to fly to Hawaii either. Gas prices have gone down and should go lower now that we have all this oil from Venezuela but airfare has gone up up up.
This increase in fares are ridiculous. The article is right, they’re pushing the envelope to see how far they can go. I try to visit my son & grandchildren 2 to 3 times a year. With these fares, I’ll be lucky if I can see them once a year. So sad, especially with Southwest Air. They were my “go to”, I use to sing their praises, but no longer.