Getting to Hawaii?

[wsrobinson]

Hello all,

I would like some guidance/expertise as to the best way to accomplish my end goal which is to travel to Hawaii with my two daughters in the summer of 2008. I was planning on trading my week (Platinum Surf Watch) for a week in Maui and using Rewards Points for the airfare. From what I have read, this seems to be the route I should take.

Does anybody have a feel for how difficult it is to use RP for summer travel of any kind (let alone to hawaii)?

Would anyone recommend using points to upgrade seat classes ( I have been to Hawaii a number of times and flown first class because my former spouse was an airline employee)? It's a long flight from Cincy!

Any advice would be appreciated as always. Thanks.

Is there another way to achieve the same result?

 

[Dave M]

As you probably know, you don't actually use Marriott Rewards points to book your airline flights. You exchange those points for frequent flyer("FF") miles in your FF account for your favorite airline.

Using those FF miles for a trip to Hawaii, particularly with three or more people traveling together can be a real challenge. Learning to give yourself the best chance can take some time and research. Some things to consider:

• The airlines restrict the number of seats available on a flight that can be reserved with FF miles - often to as few as two seats
• Hawaii is one of the most popular vacation destinations for those using FF miles for their tickets. Summer is the most popular family vacation time for Hawaii. Thus, getting the seats you need will be difficult.
• Demand for FF award seats to Hawaii is lower on mid-week dates, especially Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Thus, if you can fly mid-week instead of the weekends, you'll have a much better chance of success.
• Most airlines allow you to book flights 330 or 331 days in advance. You'll want to try to do that for your Hawaii trip.
• Some of the best success stories have been reported by those willing call and call and call to book reservations during the night on that 330th day, as soon as the airline loads those seats into its system.
• You won't want to wait until the 330-day window opens for your return flights to make your reservations or available seats for your outbound flights will almost certainly be gone by then. Airline policies vary as to how long you can hold an outbound reservation before making your return reservation.
• You should start practicing for 2008 now by seeing if you could book award tickets for various summer dates in 2007. Look online. If you can’t book three, try for two or one. Some airlines allow you to search even if you don't yet have enough FF miles in your account.
• Just because you can’t reserve award seats online doesn’t mean that seats aren’t available. Sometimes a helpful reservations agent can find a way – such as (on Delta) CVG-ATL-HNL, rather than CVG-SLC-HNL or CVG-LAX-HNL as you might have been trying.

You'll want to have a back-up plan. Trying to upgrade purchased tickets, as you suggest, is one alternative, although upgrades on flights to Hawaii can also be difficult to get. Another option is getting as many FF award seats as you can and purchasing tickets for the rest.

If you do your research and testing (for 2007) and conclude that you'll likely be unsuccessful for 2008, you should consider hiring www.AwardPlanner.com to assist you. They have a good reputation. The entity is mostly operated by one person and is owned by travel guru Randy Petersen. If you decide to do that, you should hire them not later than July of 2007.

 

[wsrobinson]

I might be misunderstanding what you are saying but...am I no able to book the outbound and return flights w/ FF miles on the same date? Otherwise, thanks so much for the info. I will try to put it good use. A friend suggested going in early December instead because it is easier to fly then?

 

[pwrshift]

One of my daughters is getting married next July and just yesterday I booked them biz class from Toronto to Kauai on UA points on Air Canada to SanFran and then on UA to Kauai ... returning the same way except from Honolulu 10 days later.

Part of the Marriott air & hotel package (Cat6) got them 7 nights in the Kauai hotel on standard reward points. No problem as I had pre-checked the Star Alliance point air seat availabilities online so knew exactly what to ask for when I called UA after reserving the hotel room...but you have to have the miles in your account or they won't hold the flight seats for you. I was annoyed that the hotel a $100 a night upgrade fee on the standard reward for a partial ocean view - first time I've seen that, but it's Hawaii. Does anyone know how good a view that is?

Because they also wanted to spend 3 nights on another island that might be a little more 'lively' than Kauai they selected 3 nights at the Waikiki Beach Marriott Resort and Spa before coming home. This part they pay themselves at $305 per nite incl. car, and fly home from there. UA would allow them to stay over without charge in San Fran but they elected not to do that.

Total cost to me was $118 in air total fees & taxes and $700 for the upgraded room. Total time to book it all - about 20 minutes after I had done my research. I just looked at Travelocity to see what biz class would cost ... and it amounted to $5264 per person, so that can't be right. No doubt it would have cost more than the $818. The hotel alone was priced online at $2688 plus taxes. Ya gotta love MR's point program once you've used it effectively.

I really wanted them to go to Italy and did some research on it for them, but the temps in Italy during Summer are pretty hot and the Marriott hotels pretty sparse, so Hawaii got the nod.

Brian

 

[abouna]

We have done it in February many times, first class too. You just have to check everyday and be persistant. Call on the phone and check online.

Good luck!

 

[laxmom]

This is what we did but I don't think this is typical but it may help. We had received an AC for our Grande Vista week, giving us 2 weeks. We went to Williamsburg in June on 1 week. Last fall, I found an instant confirmation into an efficiency for Ko Olina for November. I started looking for airfare. Forget flying out of CVG. I also never saw and FF seats for Delta that did't take 70,000 points. CMH is usually cheaper and at the time it was $250 per person cheaper. I had noticed that airfare for Hawaii goes down about 3-6 months out so I decided to hold off. (I usually book airfare asap) I finally found $575 pp out of CMH. 3 weeks ago, Delta called and asked if we wanted to fly out of CVG instead. That was unexpected. At the 60 day mark, we started calling the Marriott desk at II looking for an upgrade. (I learned about that on this site) They did say they had a 2 bedroom on Maui on one of the 3 calls we made. On the 3rd call, they had a 2 bedroom which we booked for another $79 exchange fee. We used Marriott points for our rental car. As of now, we have approx. $1800 in our trip for 3. I also bought an Entertainment book to help with dining out and excursions. I should probably put a disclaimer that "results are not typical" Hope this helps.

 

[McFail]

I might be misunderstanding what you are saying but...am I no able to book the outbound and return flights w/ FF miles on the same date? Otherwise, thanks so much for the info. I will try to put it good use. A friend suggested going in early December instead because it is easier to fly then?

To clarify:

The FF seats open up on the 330/331 day line and it shifts back every day. You will need to secure your outbound seats within minutes of them becoming available and put them on hold.

You can't ticket the return until until the 330 day line moves the number of days your trip will last. When that day comes you can get the inbound and ticket.

If the dates are too far apart to hold initially you can usually call back and get it extended.

 

[McFail]

I don't recommend using MR points solely for FF tickets. The exhange rate is poor. Take a look at the hotel/air packages. You will not need to use the hotel in conjuction with the FF tickets.

 

[Hawaiiker]

My husband and I go to Hawaii every year. We live in Cincinnati, Ohio. We have found it's cheaper to fly out of Dayton or Columbus. We have been visiting Hawaii since 1987 & have never paid over $550 (cheapest fare) in all the years we have traveled there. This year American Airlines was celebrating 25 years in the business and sent an email to all thier customer's that they were reducing FF miles for anywhere by 25%. This was good up until November of this year but you had to book by the end of May. So we leave tomorrow 9/29 for Hawaii First Class. I feel everything is luck of the draw. We were able to get in the Ko'Olina 59 days out with a bronze week of Marriott. So I feel it was meant to be.

I would agree to use your Marriott points for car rental.

If you have any questions regarding anything about Hawaii, please feel free to email me.

Good luck!

 

[MikeM132]

I did this trip earlier this year, but there were only 2 of us. Flyertalk.com is a good place to find out about FF awards, travel, etc. Dave gave you good advice here. I decided to use AA as my airline for Marriott to deposit points in, as generally they are supposed to be the easiest to get FF travel through. I spent the 5 bucks a ticket extra and called AA instead of booking online--glad I did, they are true pros. We booked the flight from Phila to Honolulu first, right at 331 days. They held that for 2 weeks until the other reservation came up, then we booked the return. Here is something to consider--we panicked when nothing showed up at 331 days for a return to Phila from Maui--because only Maui-DFW was actually at 331 days; the rest of the return from DFW to Phila went into the next day so did not appear until 330 days our time. AA rep explained that to me. We did not try to "open jaw" or anything fancy like we kind of wanted to in Calif for a day to break up the flight. We kept it simple.
Don't use your points just for airline miles--bad deal. Get a travel package and save the 1 week hotel cert for another time. You can do this. We are going to try for 4 FF tickets in 2008 sometime, and will probably pick midweek (we did this last time, too) and not a high-season time to maximize our chances. FWIW--we thought the Hertz car rental discount from Marriott was not a good deal--we found even with that discount we could get a car elsewhere for 1/2 the price of Hertz. We just chucked that part of the travel package. I had never used FF miles before, and the experience was exactly the same for me as using a credit card. We saved a TON of money on our trip in April. The hotel bill was great--we got little charges for incidentals, bar tab, etc. but a big ZERO for room charges at the end of 7 days.
Forgot to mention--with Marriott you might have (or can ask for) a vacation rep at Marriott VC. They can really help you set this up. Our guy had us book our flight first to make sure we knew what airline we were going to use before he redeemed the travel package and deposited the points in AA. I was warned by AA it might take a week or so for the points to "hit" my AA account, but they were there the following day. Flying AA had its drawbacks--no meals, nearly no frills--but what I read on Flyertalk seemed correct to me that they were easy to work with and had flights when I wanted to go. Contrary to the TV commercials, they DO give you a blanket and a pillow, and you can buy food (snack box, sandwich, etc.) on the plane.

 

[pwrshift]

Is the no meals/drinks idea with AA for first class passengers something new?

When we flew AirCcanada business class in May Toronto to Phoenix we were given hot meals, snacks, as much wine and booze as you wanted, etc. This was booked with UA miles. I believe those in economy had to pay for their meals, even coffee, but have never seen that with first or business class.

Brian

... Flying AA had its drawbacks--no meals, nearly no frills--but what I read on Flyertalk seemed correct to me that they were easy to work with and had flights when I wanted to go. Contrary to the TV commercials, they DO give you a blanket and a pillow, and you can buy food (snack box, sandwich, etc.) on the plane.

 

[MikeM132]

Brian---I am a coach flyer. Forgot you high-rollers still get your warm rolls, champagne pre-flight cocktail, etc.. We sat right behind F/C on way to Hawaii and heard one person complain they kept waking them up to give them more food. Life is tough in f/c. I'll never know.

 

[pwrshift]

Mike...never is a long time. Once you try it, you'll be hooked.

Brian

Brian---I am a coach flyer. Forgot you high-rollers still get your warm rolls, champagne pre-flight cocktail, etc.. We sat right behind F/C on way to Hawaii and heard one person complain they kept waking them up to give them more food. Life is tough in f/c. I'll never know.

 

[bbibb]

Hello All,

The infor provided will work perfectly well, including using an "open jaw" in Calif. We live in Tenn. and have been making the trip (3 people) since 97'. Have booked a total number of 12 FF tickects using the 330/331 day rules. I generally call right after midnight to ensure I get the seats. I have booked both first and coach with sucess. When I book coach I usually am able to choose a bulk head this early in the resevation process. The only thing I would add is that you must "watch" the ticketing changes throughout the rest of the year because when the airline changes times/flight numbers this may impact your chosen seat assignment. If impacted just call the airlines or use the online reservation process to reselect the desired seats. It is a looooooooong flight and comfort is important. Have fun!

Bob: