Flights from the North

mauidandy

A lot of my family lives in North Dakota and Canada....My mom just called and she's freaking out about plane ticket prices- we just found out they are going for $1450 each right now!! That's from her city in ND to Maui. She did find some for $1010 at an airport 4 hours away, so they might drive there to save some money.These prices seem really high. For all you ladies who have booked Hawaii tix coming from the northern states and Canada....what did you pay? When did you purchase?We are trying to figure out if we should wait on them to come down or book now before they get even higher! I just feel so bad because my family is huge and $1450 is completely ridiculous.

charmaine&matt

Andrea, I don't live up North (I'm in Texas) but we found when booking our families that we saved a LOT by booking package deals (air/hotel).  We got the best deal on Travelocity and it means you have to pay everything up front at one time.  Good news is that it gives you time to pay off before the trip instead of getting a huge hotel bill at the end.  Other sites that were close were hotwire & expedia. Good luck!

meitra

Yikes!  that's a lot...I can't imagine the price going up from there.  Not sure if you have a membership, but Costco offers really great packages.  We are leaving for Maui on Friday for a vacation and got a killer deal through them.

peachmango

Wow that is a lot.  Though some guests paid about $1100 for our wedding last year.  They were coming from the east coast.Have you tried checking with a travel agent to see if there are any group prices available?

peachmango

Oh another thing... you should check kayak and mobissimo.  They offer programs to see the cost of flights in the past.  Perhaps you can see a pattern there and determine the best time to buy your tickets.

sandyhorne

A lot of our family is coming from Chicago and from all the research we have done the cheapest for them is going to be to fly Southwest either to Vegas, Phoenix or Los Angelos and take Hawaiian Air from there and that's going to be about 800 each.  1450 seems like a LOT!  Good luck

BoBride28

Wow, that definitely is a lot. Not sure if this theory is true, but the prices may go back down after labor day weekend. You still have a lot of time to purchase though. We bought our tix back in February and they were just under $600 from the east coast. We bought early since our wedding is over a holiday weekend. But right now the tix are about $1000-$1100. I would keep looking at your tix and wait for the price to come down. There is no way that they will go higher than $1450. I also agree with the hotel/package deals, although a lot of times I see those for Oahu more than for Maui.Keep us posted!

kaesha

That's TONS! I'm in Canada, and I don't think our guests paid more than 700$ for tickets from Ontario (it was more like 300$ from BC). In fact, 1500$ was the most I've seen for tickets. I suggest your Canadian guests sign up for alerts for sales from Air Canada & Westjet. It definitely pays to wait sometimes.

KKakes

WOW! That seems WAY too much. I am coming all the way from New York City and my ticket was only $800. Maybe they should look at different dates/times?? I find it hard to believe it costs so much!! Also, you have some time before the wedding so have them keep an eye on prices. Also check out kayak.comOh, and they could always try to name thier price on priceline??GOOD LUCK!!

tifani27

The issue is getting to a port that most airlines who fly to hawaii fly out of, and those are mostly on the west coast, like Seattle, Portland, Lots of places in CA, and Phoenix. I just saw a deal on alaska airlines that is $149 for Portland to Maui, so if they could get to Portland for cheap you could save some money there. Also, I would register with the Hawaiin Air Wedding Wings program, it saves all your guests 5% on any flights that Hawaiian air has from the us to HI. And on top of that if 40 people fly you and the FI get a free first class upgrade. Check it out, it's easy to register. Otherwise I would check priceline they have good deals too. It may also have to do with the time of year your wedding is, obviously the tourist season is going to be super pricey as opposed to "low" season. Hope that helps!

mauidandy

Thanks for the advice everyone!!! We are going to look into everything you guys mentioned.

pbkmom

You still have a lot of time. Airfares are really tricky right now , earlier this year you could get a $500 round trip to Maui from Chicago now its $800 or more for January. When you come from a smaller airport vs a major hub like Minneapolis, Chicago or Denver you always pay a premium. One suggestion is for them to sign up for an airline card. United for example is giving 30,000 miles after your first purchase. Charge everything you possibly can on the charge and buy whatever miles you need to round up to the required 40,000. If you have a business, pay all accounts payable on the airline card. Kayak is an excellent search engine but I have to say for packages we found the best deal on expedia. Whereas the air from Chicago - Maui was $1100 on United, with a hotel package at expedia the air figured out to $600. They seem to be running the best deal right now. Sale fares for June travel won't come out until after New Years. I see no advantage to buying June travel until Jan/February. Most people do not plan out farther than 4-5 months.

M&M's_Maui

Hey Andy!  Our wedding was also in June and I found the best & cheapest prices we found were in Feb & March.  That's when we & most of our family booked their tickets.  My cousin booked hers around this time last year and she paid nearly $900 for hers... we got ours for less than $600.  (We found really good deals on Kayak & Smartfares)

ETweet

Hi Andrea! I am from the Fargo/Moorhead area and many of my family members are flying out of Fargo or Minneapolis. The prices right now are out of this world! We have yet to book so we've been tracking prices as well. I promise they get MUCH cheaper. For those family members of mine who have already booked their tickets for our March wedding, many of them purchased them for around $750. One group even booked theirs for $480! Fargo and Minneapolis compared pretty equally for us. I hope this helps. Don't get discouraged, my travel agent anticipates them dropping again soon.

marikoono

You still have plenty of time to buy plane tickets so I would wait to buy them...just be on the lookout.I've been flying back to Hawaii every couple of years since 1999 (from PA) and depending on the time of the year and how far out from the flight, the prices change dramatically. Last year I bought my tickets to Hawaii for $700 (about 8 months before the trip), my dad bought his tickets to Hawaii for a lil over $1000, thirty days later. I had friends buy tickets 2 months before the event for around $550. We were ALL flying from the same airport.I doubt the tickets will go any higher, they will either stay the same or come down from that price. Just check on a weekly (daily, if you have the time) basis to see when prices go down.

mauidandy

I sent my mom this thread and she is so relieved. Beth- $480?? That's crazy cheap! We're all going to wait and keep an eye on the prices. Thanks again everyone (from my whole family)!

pbkmom

Hi Andrea,Just to follow up on my advice. I checked and 10,000 miles on United cost $357.50. I believe the card is free for the first year. United flies out of most of those cities and partners with Air Canada as well. It takes about 6 weeks for the miles to be posted to your account which will still give plenty of time to get a ticket. We got at least 8 tickets using miles for my sons Jan. wedding. There really is no catch to it, it's just knowing how to work the system. Regarding airfares. I'm not sure we are going to see the great sales of the past. In July 08 I was able to buy tickets to Maui for $600 for Jan 09. This year we have yet to see a sale for next Jan. Airlines have cut their schedules back to keep the demand higher. While there used to be 4 or more flights a day from the west coast to Maui, now there are only two from the major hubs of LAX and SFO. Portland and Seattle are your other connection options via Delta/Northwest or Alaska air . If you find a sale grab it. If you need more help with the frequent flyer tickets, email me at kem330 at aol dot com

mauidandy

Pbkmom....I LOVE working the system, great advice! We are definitely checking into doing that. I have a Delta Skymiles card that I've been racking up miles on, so my flight is pretty much paid for. The United card seems like a good way to go as well....thanks!!

ETweet

Andrea, Are you using a travel agent? The family members of ours who got their tickets for $480 went through an agent. Their agent called them one day during a special and they only had like 30 minutes or so to book everything because the tickets were selling out. One plus of having an agent, they do the watching for you.