Purchased Hawaii Flights Today

[njhowie]

$527 per person round trip EWR/HNL 3/28/23-4/4/23

30th anniversary + DD birthday.

Rental car reserved for $685 for the week, which will be worst case...hoping it goes down somewhat between now and travel date.

 

[omni550]

Rental car reserved for $685 for the week, which will be worst case...hoping it goes down somewhat between now and travel date.

Try AutoSlash for car rental.


omni

 

[njhowie]

Try AutoSlash for car rental.


omni

That was the first place I checked.

 

[skyking1]

congrats!

 

[USGrant1962]

Wow, that's pretty reasonable from the east coast. We're looking at another trip out there in 2023 as DS#2 will be stationed there in the Air Force around the first of the year.

 

[Montecfo]

Seems a great price. Well done.

 

[PaunchyPirate]

Great price on the tickets. Is that non-stop? That's an awfully long flight to be in coach seats. I would not be able to do it. Hopefully there is a connecting flight so you can stretch your legs some at an airport. But many people don't have that issue, I know.

The rental car pricing these days really hurts. I doubt you'll get much better, but keep trying. You may stumble into something.

 

[njhowie]

Great price on the tickets. Is that non-stop? That's an awfully long flight to be in coach seats. I would not be able to do it. Hopefully there is a connecting flight so you can stretch your legs some at an airport. But many people don't have that issue, I know.

The rental car pricing these days really hurts. I doubt you'll get much better, but keep trying. You may stumble into something.

I did have to make concessions on the flights...United Economy Basic. We likely won't sit together, but it's not worth an extra $100+ each to choose seats, at least for me.

United does have a nonstop 10 hour flight daily from/to EWR (which we have taken the first two times we visited Hawaii), but that is $900/person. For this fare, there is a stop/change in San Francisco, so that will break it up.

On the rental car, I'm confident that over the next 9 months I'll be able to shave the price down some. I'm pretty good at the rebooking game.

 

[cathy63]

For our trip this fall, the best deal I found was a Costco Travel bundle with rental car and hotel together. It was several hundred dollars cheaper than booking the hotel and car separately. It's cancellable until a couple of days before we leave, so I am checking every week or so to see if there's a better deal, but prices have only gone up since I booked.

 

[njhowie]

For our trip this fall, the best deal I found was a Costco Travel bundle with rental car and hotel together. It was several hundred dollars cheaper than booking the hotel and car separately. It's cancellable until a couple of days before we leave, so I am checking every week or so to see if there's a better deal, but prices have only gone up since I booked.

That's great! We have our hotel covered with our Disney timeshare staying at Aulani, so the bundle wouldn't work for us in this situation.

 

[YVRRocketSurgery]

Hawaii is on our shortlist for a next trip in the fall but yeah, car rentals are scaring us enough to put off the trip until next year. Hopefully rental prices do drop next year.

 

[Drake3287]

As someone who's been to Hawaii literally 40 or so times, I would not be locking yourself into anything Hawaii related for 2023 unless it's cancelable like most car rentals.

Hawaii is riding high on record high prices simply because of post pandemic traveling and the fact that people have plenty of cash in their pockets from not traveling for 2 years.

With a recession almost guaranteed for next year, you'll see a huge difference in prices and availability. I've seen this several times in my 35 years of Hawaii travel. Things change quickly when jobs and security are threatened.

I was attempting to book a 10 night trip this September but after looking at the prices, we ended up getting airfare to Rome, a rental car, 4 hotel nights and 1 week in a Tuscany Villa for the same exact price as going to Hawaii. At some point Hawaii isn't worth it as we're seeing now.

I do hope to go back next year when prices drop though.

 

[pacergal]

Enjoy your trip!
We hope to take kids and grands to Honolulu and stay at Disney Aluani sometime in the near future

 

[foxcreek9]

Congrats and enjoy.

We are going Oct/Nov to celebrate (a few months early) our 40th wedding anniversary.

 

[Ian S]

Rental car reserved for $685 for the week, which will be worst case...hoping it goes down somewhat between now and travel date.

There's at least some chance it will. We vacationed in Maui and Kauai last month. At first, our rental car rates were around $700 for a week on each island. But I checked again a couple of weeks before we left and the price in Maui had dropped to $300 and that was for a larger car that we wanted. Unfortunately, the price in Kauai had increased slightly and never came back down.

 

[njhowie]

There's at least some chance it will. We vacationed in Maui and Kauai last month. At first, our rental car rates were around $700 for a week on each island. But I checked again a couple of weeks before we left and the price in Maui had dropped to $300 and that was for a larger car that we wanted. Unfortunately, the price in Kauai had increased slightly and never came back down.

Thanks.

Over the past few weeks I have continued checking, and the prices have gone higher since reserving - now the lowest prices are around $770 for the week.

We have a week in FL coming up in September, so hopefully those start going lower. We can survive without the car in Orlando/Disney, but it is much more convenient having it. $250/week all-in is my absolute limit there. It's currently about $400.

 

[Drake3287]

For car rentals in Hawaii, the two most popular companies to use are either Costco Travel or Discount Hawaii Car Rental. Both require no money (or credit card) down and you can cancel and rebook every time the price drops. For me, it's not unusual to rebook close to a dozen times. It's all a game for us and we've been so many times we know how to play this game.

Another thing about using Costco, there the largest car rental wholesaler in Hawaii and rental companies know not too screw with its customers like so many companies do.

 

[SecondAttempt]

As someone who's been to Hawaii literally 40 or so times, I would not be locking yourself into anything Hawaii related for 2023 unless it's cancelable like most car rentals.

Hawaii is riding high on record high prices simply because of post pandemic traveling and the fact that people have plenty of cash in their pockets from not traveling for 2 years....

I live in Hawaii and 100% agree. Things are crazy here right now with tourists and prices are sky high. That said, it is otherwise a good time to come. Everything is open with little or no covid restrictions.

 

[Koolau]

I live in Hawaii and 100% agree. Things are crazy here right now with tourists and prices are sky high. That said, it is otherwise a good time to come. Everything is open with little or no covid restrictions.

Yeah, I had to pay roughly twice that much to go the other way and I live near HNL. Agree that it's a good time to come, though there are still a few business that never reopened. BUT there's plenty to do. WATCH FOR PEDESTRIANS.

 

[njhowie]

Rental car rates have come down some. Made two swaps since originally reserving. First down to a prepaid refundable rate of $522 (Autoslash/Avis) a few months ago for a compact. Then a couple days ago, cancelled and received refund immediately, then rebooked for $454 (Autoslash/Hertz) with no prepay for a mid-size. Also have an intermediate SUV reserved through Costco/Alamo for $477 and will cancel one of the two if this is the best we can do. We have just under 3 months until travel date, so still have fingers crossed we see further rate declines and hopefully can get the SUV for less. In any case, the $200 decline from original rate is free money for other things.

Beginning to get a bit excited and ready to start making some plans for things to do.

Anyone have unique and/or out of the way things to do off the beaten path on Oahu? Favorite and/or inexpensive places to eat in/near Honolulu? Money saving tips/tricks?

 

[njhowie]

Less than two weeks now and getting excited.

(Probably) Final car rental reservation was rebooked this morning from Autoslash - $347 for Compact SUV with Hertz. That's half the price from where we started for a lesser car.

Booked Luau
Booked Pearl Harbor
Booked Helicopter Tour

Hunting for good/hidden out of the way places that aren't crowded where we can spend some time exploring.

 

[RetiredAt49]

I’ve only been to Oahu once - not my favorite island (too many tourist and feels like Vegas in areas)…. Kauai is my personal favorite - going there next month!

Wish I had some tips for you but it’s been a long time and I really didn’t enjoy Oahu much.

 

[Ian S]

Final car rental reservation was rebooked this morning from Autoslash - $347 for Compact SUV with Hertz.
...

Booked Helicopter Tour

Hunting for good/hidden out of the way places that aren't crowded where we can spend some time exploring.

We had the same experience last year when we booked a rental car in Hawaii (Kauai) through Autoslash: dropped several hundred bucks for a better car!

I hoped you booked the helicopter tour with an outfit that records your trip to video. We did so on the big island but not on Kauai and I regret not doing it. I was in a middle seat and taking really good pictures and video wasn't very feasible.

 

[njhowie]

I hoped you booked the helicopter tour with an outfit that records your trip to video. We did so on the big island but not on Kauai and I regret not doing it. I was in a middle seat and taking really good pictures and video wasn't very feasible.

I'll check into it. Thanks.

 

[Koolau]

I'll check into it. Thanks.

Well worth the cost for the video. Heh, heh, you can relax and "leave the video to us."