My D and her BF have been invited to Kona over Christmas break by his family.Once they are there it is free but they need to but the plane tickets.
All her searches are coming in close to 800 dollars from SF Bay Area. I figure they are probably trying to go at the most expensive time of the year. Will waiting and watching help or is this what they will need to spend?
They might also have an option of trying to get on a military flight for less but I would think that they won’t have much luck during that time.
Edit- I don’t think she could go on the military plan even if they found seats since it appears she would have to be his spouse.
Buying tickets too early might guarantee that it’s expensive, but it can be hard to tell how long to wait. I think there are some good fare forecasting sites out there. They might look into Alaska Airlines, they have direct flights from Oakland to Kona, and of course connections from SF. If they can stomach getting a credit card, Alaska Airlines has a great deal where if you get their credit card, you get 25K miles, and a round trip companion ticket for $99 plus taxes, anywhere you want to go. We used to always get that for the annual companion pass, for a cheapo ticket to Hawaii for the kids. And when the annual fee came due, we’d cancel the card. Unlike many airlines, I believe there are no restrictions on the companion pass, you can get it with any fare online.
As far as military flights, are they active duty, and you’re talking about space A? They might be able to get a C-17 from Hickam AFB (Honolulu) to Travis (Fairfield), but of course military flights are very iffy. You never know for sure when they are going, and if you can get on. But the price is right (free).
Her BF is in the National Guard. I don’t think it works anyway since I think she would need to be married.
We used to go to Kona regularly. If you watch super carefully, United usually puts some tickets on sale around September. Also, traveling on Christmas Day (and New Years Eve) will be cheaper than any other days in that time frame.
Yep, positive she would have to be a dependent to travel space A. Even if she was, you can never count on a military flight going as planned, and even if it does, you could get knocked off the flight by people with higher priority.
Virgin Air just started flights from SFO to Honolulu and Maui. Fares are $700 RT, but jump on them. Virgin doesn’t always show up for search engines.
I think it’s too early to get cheap fares.
The problem with Virgin is they don’t go to Kona. If they add in the inter island flight they aren’t saving much if any.
Dr Google- I will advise them to wait. She is looking I to the Alaska credit card. I’ll also have her look into flying Christmas Day.
Many hotels are almost sold out for Christmas. Unless the economy tanks like in 2009, airfares are not going to get any cheaper. Kona is a small airport with limited number of flights; they might have better luck looking at flights to HNL and then buying a puddle jumper flight to Kona separately. This is what we occasionally do.
For the last few years, I’ve been tracking fares but not around Xmas, the year 2014, in Dec some airlines has the lowest fares around $190 one way. I flew directly to Kona on a free ticket on United airlines but I think either Alaska or Hawaiin had low fares, but again not around Xmas.
Over the past month, I’ve been tracking fares–HNL to SFO. UAL has them for $730/person for mid-June, midweek travel. Other airlines have lower fares, but its a red-eye, has layovers and/or uses Oakland, San Jose, Monterey or some other airport. Ugh! I need 4 tickets and prices haven’t dropped at all. . 
Himom, Alaska has red-eye and layovers in Oakland, that’s one of the reason why my husband and I decided to skip it. I think they are even cheaper, IIRC, they have the cheapest fare about $166 for one way. They also fly out of San Diego but not LA.
Yea, only want daytime, direct flights. Just too tough otherwise to travel with my older parents. If we have to buy the exorbitant tickets, we may just have to do so. Ugh!
The prices for flights to Kona from SFO in DEC arent going to drop. That destination is always very popular with many Bay area families and with the economy going gangbusters in NCal there is no reason to think you’ll find a bargain. I advise they bite the bullet and getting the flights they want.
We have generally had to pay steep prices for our kids to visit over Christmas, even from the West Coast. The prices you’re seeing for Kona in Dec are lower than the 4 figures they will likely rise to.
I checked and most accommodation are booked from Dec 21 till New Year so if you can avoid those dates then you get a good chance to get a good bargain. But usually fall sales are released at the end of summer. So check back around Sep. Also make sure you sign up for fare alert from the airlines. Right now if I book for my trip in dec, the fare would be around $700+ but I’m hoping in Sep it would be around $400+. Just recently Virgin America has a special sale to Hawaii for $199 each way. Hoping for a repeat. I booked for about 2-week in Hawaii but the nice properties are going fast.
Dr google those dates are the exact cayes they are looking at. They have free lodging Dec 20- Jan 3.
Hawaiian Air is coming in the cheapest but still close to $900.
Maybe they can come later and going earlier, just a suggestion. I’m interested in non-stop flight so I’m also taking my chances here, I won’t book my flight yet, but I have to be back here before dec 26 because one daughter has to get back to work, so I hope I don’t fly at the same time as everybody else.
If they are planning to rent a car they can consider flights into Hilo too.
It’s a pretty long drive from Hilo to Kona and there can be significant traffic. Just saying that should be factored in when the choices are made.