If ultimate dynamic Hawaii airfare pricing isn’t enough to raise an eyebrow, another trend has just being observed by one airline that flies to Hawaii. A trend that could forecast a change in Hawaii travel and make it less advantageous and more expensive to book one-way flights to and from Hawaii.
For decades, airlines priced round-trip airfares with advance purchase and minimum night stay requirements. That was how most Hawaii tickets were sold. One-way fares were always somewhat to considerably more money. Then, about a decade ago, that all changed. When it did, it became cost-effective to book one-way tickets with more flexibility for us the consumer.
Since that happened, it has meant that flying into one island and out of another, for example, without paying extra, has been possible. Or flying over on one airline and flying back on another. While there have remained some advance purchase rules, even on one-way tickets, those, too, have been far easier to navigate in recent years. But it looks like there could be an industry trend upcoming that will change all that once again.
Could this result in some Hawaii airfare increases of over 50%?
It’s too soon to know, but one aviation geek (affectionate term) we follow from FlightRadar, Jason R., posted on X (aka Twitter) yesterday something that he noted. “
“US airlines are starting to bring back round-trip pricing for domestic flights and I Hate it.”
In his case, Jason found a Delta flight that was priced 53% higher when purchased as two one-way tickets compared with a roundtrip.
“This JFK-PIT-JFK @Delta itinerary prices at $262.80 if booked as a round trip, but $233.90 and $168.90 if booked separately. That’s a 53% increase in price!” — https://twitter.com/AirlineFlyer/status/1706324790150037907.
Beat of Hawaii: Using Google Flights, we checked and can confirm the very same situation that Jason reported. It’s too soon to know how this will impact Hawaii flight prices, but we suspect that it may and will keep checking back. As of today, we did not find this in effect on Hawaii flights Yet.
What works for the airlines internationally may return again to Hawaii.
It has remained true when flying internationally that one-way flights can be more costly than round-trip. Your editors flew from Hawaii to Europe this summer, and the round trip fare they paid on United Airlines was about the same as a one-way ticket on the same route.
The airlines are endlessly creative when it comes to pricing. Let us know your thoughts.
Hate the airlines. Sadly like telecoms it’s a necessary evil. Given how often tax dollars bailed out the industry you’d think they’d do something good for consumers but it’s nickel and diming, further make flight’s uncomfortable etc.
Flew HNL to ORD on United on the 16th — pretty reasonable one way via Priceline. We head back next week, no tix yet haven’t decided if we will go from LAS or SJC. Have had good luck on short notice one-way on Southwest, though last Christmas got stuck in TPA during their meltdown, and even a week later LAS to SJC and SJC to HNL weren’t problem free. We also have possible option of “Air Mobility Command airlines” to Hickam. Price is right but you never know when/if you can get out.
Just block cookies. If you don’t let them track you this b.s won’t work. Also, use a VPN when buying tickets, booking rentals etc. NordVPN is less than $10/month.
I’ve always admired the Hong Kong subway. When they plan a new station, they also buy the immediate real estate around that train station. They then give long term leases to businesses immediately around the train station — and so the Hong Kong subway is able to have just a nominal charge for tickets, and yet makes 2 billion profit in the typical year. The subway is run by a private company that pays the government for the right to run the train system. Their transportation system provides both ultra-low cost transportation and community revenue. Amazing what good government can do.
This is crap. They charge extra for a specific seat, extra for luggage, extra for carry-ons, no more meal included on many routes. The airlines charge extra for everything as if we will fly to Hawaii and other long distance and not need to check luggage.
Anyway, my travel agent always checks multiple airlines, different routing, one-way tickets, etc. So all those extra charges for things that used to be included with the fare aren’t enough for some airlines.
There’s really only one effective way to force the airlines to treat customers like valued partners – we need to drive more, to takes trains or buses. Any way to get the airlines attention.
Aloha
I would love to hear your suggestion on how to drive from Albuquerque to Kauai.
I think what RodW is suggesting is we rediscover the places we live in. We are committed for Hawaii in 2024, because we are celebrating a big anniversary and wanted it to be special with our grown kids. After this, I think we may explore some of the hidden gems in our own state. The question for big companies in general, is how much is enough? Greed is a terrible thirst.
At least on HA it still seams the same. I almost always book one way because of scheduling flexibility, but when I can do roundtrip it’s just the combo of the 2. Caveat is I book almost everything short notice. A change to this would really hit me hard costing me a lot more. HA dynamic pricing is still out of control, massive fluctuations are still common.
Another airline rip-off trick? When will it end? Being semi-retired used to allow one to be flexible with their return trips. It looks like that might end. Thanks for exposing another thing to watch out for.
Well that is unfortunate. This summer I did a three leg trip PDX-KOA on Alaska, KOA-LIH on Hawaiian and LIH-PDX on Delta via Seattle. The pricing was cheaper than nesting two round trips of PDX-KOA and KOA-LIH.
If I can’t do that, delta is the likely loser. I’d just do a round trip PDX-KOA and a round trip KOA-LIH inside the other trip.
I’ve been coming to Hawaii for over 30 years & the airport was considered pretty nice in the late 70’s. But fast to 2023 and every airport in Hawaii is old, outdated, the bathrooms are just horrible & unclean. I’ve retired and moved to the Big Island, the Kona airport is just almost disgusting. It’s supposedly been removing I don’t see the remodeling when you have to leave the gate are to go to the one bathroom inside the secure area. And don’t mention the one bathroom outside, it’s totally outdated & dingy and dirty. This is the image people coming to Kona has to see. I had some friends come and was asked “ is this the airport “? I said yes. She say it’s like a Bus station. It’s a downright shame.
We always book one way fares – we snag the lowest $$$ we can for one way and then go back and use points for the other one way. I guess we never pay attention to the cost difference because we’re usually using points for either one or both of that second one way trip. Would hate to see that option vanish!
In my opinion the state is forcing airlines to sell tickets in this manner so if the tourist goes broke you will always have a flight home or off the island. It’s a way the state can control a tourist from becoming homeless residents and applying for benefits. Same result as a state providing all their homeless people a one way ticket to Hawaii. An officer told me this on Oahu and the reason is they can live outside all year around without freezing like in Alaska or heat exhaustion in Arizona.