Jul 29, 2010

Cheap flights to Honolulu

Hey everyone, there are only so many websites you can check to see if you can get a cheap flight to honolulu. What I would like to show you is how to get a cheap flight, with some old road warrior tips for traveling. So I decided that I would share with you some way to get a cheap flight to Oahu.

Ok, the biggiest mistake I see people doing is asking for a direct flight, and wanting to stay with one carrier.  What I mean by this is, if I was going from Chicago to Honolulu, and want to find a cheap flight to Honolulu, I would not go into the travel sites and put the flight info like, flight from ORD (the airport code for O’Hare) to HNL (the airport code for Honolulu) and wish for the best.

You have to know which carrieres, meaning airlines, go to which places the most, and the most means the cheapiest.  As for my example, I would put into the travel website of my choosing, ORD to LAX, yep, fly to LA. Why a could of reasons, first it will get you a cheap flight to Honolulu, but the flight from Chicago to Honolulu is too long anyway, it is like 8-10 hours in the air, and that does not count the airport lay overs, and possiable missed connections.  So I plan my lay overs as part of my trip, I like LA, and I like Las Vegas, and Seattle, and San Franisco. I am I mentioning all these other cities, because they are major cities which have cheap flights to Honolulu. So you have a couple of options, here is what I like to do, I will book a flight from Chicago to let’s say Las Vegas, and I find a really cheap flight, so I know that if it is cheap, there is always a catch, noramly something like, the flight gets in at 4am.  I think, wow that is great, most people would say want am I going to do in Vegas at 4 am?  I say, hummm, gamble?  See I love Las Vegas, but I can only take it for at the most 48 hours  at a time, unless you need gamblers annomises.  I do not pay $150.00 to see nude dancers on ice, so at 4 am, I grab a shuttle to one of the resort hotels, and I spend maybe 4-8 hours checking out the strip.  Oh and I grab some breakfest. Yes, I know you wanted a cheap flight to Honolulu, not breakfest in Las Vegas, but I will probaly save you $500.00 per person for have breakfest in Las Vegas.

If you look at this travel as an adventure, and enjoy the getting there as much as the money you will save by knowing you are going to have breakfest in Las Vegas, to save $1,000.00 each way.  Why not?

Ok, so back to the cheap flights, we now have had breakfest, we slept on the plain to Las Vegas, and we will need our next part of the trip, first, there are curtain days of the week which are better to travel on, so I find a hotel in Las Vegas, maybe the Hooters Hotel Las Vegas, which normally has a deal for like $29.00 per night, but only on week day.  That is ok, I planned out my trip to leave Las Vegas on either Wed, or Thurs, so once again, $29.00 saves me a few thousand, why not.  Do not think of the hotel in Las Vegas as part of your vaction, or the next thing you know you will be a the Venetian and you will blow all your savings on a one night stay.

Ok, you will find a cheap flight to Honolulu from Las Vegas, on a Wed, or Thurs, so now, as the travel website to look for the cheap flight, and once again this will be one of the strange flight times. either leaving or getting to Honolulu. So the tip to finding a cheap flight to Honolulu is be flexable and having fun getting to Honolulu.

One more tip about finding cheap flights to Honolulu, the plain ride will make it so you lose a day or 2 if you do not do this longer layover, you will be tired from the trip, and when you get to Honolulu the first thing you will want to do is check into your hotel, and sleep.  Is this what you came to Honolulu for?  So, plan on sleeping on the flight.

Another tip on saving or finding a cheap flight to Honolulu is, planning your days, and saving also on Hotels, everyone asks about cheap hotels in Honolulu, which I have a list of, but think about this, you have a 6 hour flight that is going to get you in at 2am, or you pay $250.00 more each person to get in at 6pm.  Well a lot of travels say, get in a 6pm we can check in, get a bit to eat, and go to sleep, but the fact is, you will either sleep on the plain, or you will crash the moment you get in the room.  If you go to sleep when you get here, you just paid an extra $200.00 for your flight, and the $250.00 per person so you just wasted $700.00 to get here 8 hours earlier.

So here is what you do, tell your traveling companion you have a very romantic idea, how about, you fly in at 2am, rent a car, and drive to the north shore and watch the sun rise as the start of your first day in Hawaii.

Oh did I mention, you just saved an extra night hotel, there is $200.00 you saved $250.00 per person on flights, and you start your first day having fun instead of sleeping it away with jet lag.

Ok, now bug tip for finding Cheap flights to Honolu, there are only so many airlines that fly to Honolulu, so if you ask a local, if they were to fly to the mainland who would they fly, they will tell you one of two airlines, Hawaiian air, or Alsaka Air, yes, I said Alaska air.  Both of these companies have built their entire businesses around flying to and from Hawaii.

So check out their flight, and book Hawaiian air, or Alaska Air, and check their websites.  If you check all the travel sites, they may save you $20.00 to $50.00 per ticket, maybe, but I find that the air lines are more understanding if you have a problem if it was booked direct. I can not tell you how many times I hear, I can not change that flight, you must contact Expedia.  But if I want to change my flight, they look it up, and tell me, Yes, Mr. Brown, I can put you on that flight.

I just noticed how long this post has become, so I will continue more tips on how to find cheap flights to Honolulu on the next post.