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Hawaii Question/Advice

I

indyhorizons

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Jan 31, 2006
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Good Morning,

I have a pending exchange request for MKO, MAW & MM1 for this summer. The request has been in since August 08. I am trading a Horizons Orlando 2 BR Plat wk which I know isn't the strongest of trades for Hawaii. I have resigned myself to Flexchange transaction.

My dilemma is this: My flights will be using freq flyer miles on NW. As a result of the NW/Delta merger:bawl:, one of the changes is a move to DL's 3 tiered reward structure. While I have a healthy number of miles in my acct, I also need to use miles for a family of 5. The new structure is almost destined to make this impossible.

As a result, I am seriously considering booking award travel on NW now (prior to Jan 15 change) to secure the perksaver awards to HNL that I currently see. I realize that if I am able to secure another island location, that I can rather inexpensively fly to the new island (or I have misc ff miles on USair that I can use to fly between islands if need be).

Question, do you think I should book the airfare now, thus limiting my search to a one week window of time vs. 2 mos current? In other words, during flexchange is it likely that I will get something close to or around my travel dates? My DH & I went to MKO in March of 08 on an AC and during flexchange (I think it was 3 wks before), we secured our exact travel dates. What do you suppose the chances of doing so again during the summer months?
Thanks all!!!
 
Your travel plans are similar to ours. We will be going to Hawaii this summer(2009) using FF miles on Northwest.

We started with a request for a larger unit in a few select resorts. After reading posts here on TUG, I decided to change the request to anything that would suit us for the trip.(smaller unit; not Marriott) My intention was to lock into a week, and watch the flexchange sightings when the date got closer. We can cancel the exchange and rebook(extra exchange fee, though), if possible. This subsequent request was filled within two weeks allowing us to book the flight early.

This is a riskier way to plan; you have to be content with the first exchange, as the second one may never happen. For us, the resort was a lessor priority, we won't be in the unit very much.

Good luck on you trip planning; we are very much looking forward to ours!

DawnB
 
Thanks for responding Dawn. The unit is important because my 81 yo mother will be traveling with us and she will spend time in the unit. I agree that your plan is risky, but hey so is what I am proposing. At least you will have somewhere to stay when you get there. :D Well, in any event Aloha. ;)
 
I used Marriott rewards to do just this. I reserved the hotel portion of Beach Club in Kauai (you could do the same on any island) in case the exchange didn't come through (I have since decided to stick with the hotel for other reasons).

I used USAIR - still had to pay the points premium. We fly into Oahu, stay for a week, and out of Kauai a week later. The inner island flights were very inexpensive.

Good luck.
 
Well, believe it or not, it turns out I was stressing yesterday for naught. I woke up this morning with an email from Interval confirming my exchange for Ko Olina for the first week in June. I am absolutely over the top! It's a great way to start the week and my first day back in the office. I was dreading the day. But hey, things are definitely looking up. :D
 
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Congratulations on the exchange!:clap: Maybe we will cross paths! We are there June 6-16th. Have a good one!

DawnB
 
indyhorizons said:
Well, believe it or not, it turns out I was stressing yesterday for naught. I woke up this morning with an email from Interval confirming my exchange for Ko Olina for the first week in June. I am absolutely over the top! It's a great way to start the week and my first day back in the office. I was dreading the day. But hey, things are definitely looking up. :D
Click to expand...

Did you get a studio, 1BR or 2BR?
 
dmbrand said:
Congratulations on the exchange!:clap: Maybe we will cross paths! We are there June 6-16th. Have a good one!

DawnB
Click to expand...


Indeed. We are there on exchange until June7th, but are extending our stay until the 9th.
 
Congratulations indyhorizons! We love Ko Olina, probably our favorite Marriott resort.
We'll be there March 1-8 - any other Tuggers there are that time? Would love to say hi - let us know.
 
Actually, this resort has gotten us good exchanges. We have always received our request, with the exception of Hawaii 2 years ago. To be fair, though we had the request in for a full year, we limited ourselves to 1 week (because of flights) and 2 weeks before departure we still hadn't been confirmed so we ditched and went to Marbella, which was a wonderful experience.

We have traded for Surf Club, Myrtle Beach, NCV & Palm Desert. We've been most pleased with our success rate.
 
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