Southwest 40% off Hawaii Fares

[SteveinHNL]

FALL TRAVEL INCLUDED. HI, this is a huge deal. Save up to 40% off base fares* to/from Hawaii with code HAWAII40.
*Use promotion code HAWAII40 from 7/9-7/11/24 for travel on select continental U.S. flights to/from Hawaii between 8/13-12/17/24. Continental U.S. travel to Hawaii blacked out 8/29-9/3 and 11/21-11/25/24. Hawaii to continental U.S. travel blacked out 8/29-9/3 and 11/29-12/3/24. Restrictions and exclusions apply. Seats, days, and markets limited. Discount is applied before government taxes and fees.

Book a Flight | Southwest Airlines

Find the best Southwest Airlines flight deals and book cheap flights with flexible travel options and no change fees.

www.southwest.com

 

[TolmiePeak]

One thing I don't understand with Southwest is how you use them to fly back from Hawaii if you don't live in one of the cities on the west coast with non-stop flights? They don't have any redeye flights. Getting back super late doesn't allow you to connect very easily.

 

[klpca]

Thank you so much! I just received a credit of almost 7500 points for a flight in August. What a nice surprise!

 

[klpca]

One thing I don't understand with Southwest is how you use them to fly back from Hawaii if you don't live in one of the cities on the west coast with non-stop flights? They don't have any redeye flights. Getting back super late doesn't allow you to connect very easily.

Stay overnight in a hotel near the airport and fly out the next day. We do this intentionally when we fly to Europe or the Caribbean. It is quite pleasant to spend the night in a hotel room vs a seat on a plane. Ymmv of course.

 

[ScoopKona]

Stay overnight in a hotel near the airport and fly out the next day. We do this intentionally when we fly to Europe or the Caribbean. It is quite pleasant to spend the night in a hotel room vs a seat on a plane. Ymmv of course.

Go even farther and make a day/weekend of it.

Before non-stops from mom's to here, I would fly via Oakland. 1) Oakland is my favorite airport on the west coast. 2) I can be in San Francisco in a matter of minutes after they open the airplane door. So I would catch the earliest flight to Oakland, spend an entire day in San Francisco, and then take the latest flight to KOA. That usually gave me six hours to grab some Pliny the Elder and Molinari's sandwiches.

When flying to Europe, we have one or two-day stopovers in Seattle and Iceland. It breaks the trip up so it isn't nearly as dreary. Crab in Seattle and salmon in Iceland.

 

[rickandcindy23]

Southwest gets us back home to Denver very late, but it's not late to us because we have just been to the islands with a 4-hour time difference. Midnight arrival doesn't feel so crazy late. We have our son leave our car at the airport for us, but we have to remember to take a car key with us to Hawaii.

The real problem with SW flights coming back from the islands is the times are ridiculously early, requiring us to stay at the Courtyard Marriott the last night, which we have done several times.

 

[klpca]

Go even farther and make a day/weekend of it.

Before non-stops from mom's to here, I would fly via Oakland. 1) Oakland is my favorite airport on the west coast. 2) I can be in San Francisco in a matter of minutes after they open the airplane door. So I would catch the earliest flight to Oakland, spend an entire day in San Francisco, and then take the latest flight to KOA. That usually gave me six hours to grab some Pliny the Elder and Molinari's sandwiches.

When flying to Europe, we have one or two-day stopovers in Seattle and Iceland. It breaks the trip up so it isn't nearly as dreary. Crab in Seattle and salmon in Iceland.

We take an afternoon flight to NYC then a redeye the next day (not my preference but it always seems to be that way). A full day in NYC is great!

 

[ScoopKona]

We take an afternoon flight to NYC then a redeye the next day (not my preference but it always seems to be that way). A full day in NYC is great!

Since you're flying from California, look into Your-airport>SEA>KEF>Destination. Icelandic's stopover program means that there's no additional cost for a few days in Iceland in either (or both) directions. It's seven hours from SEA to KEF over the Arctic circle. And Iceland excels at the "show people some sights over a 48-hour visit" tours. It's one of the few times we'll cheerfully book a tour because it is so much more convenient and so much less expensive than renting a car and doing the trip ourselves.

Granted, it doesn't make much sense if flying to Ireland because you're already mostly there. But if flying to Rome? Absolutely. A soak and some salmon in between flight legs.

Using LAX to Rome as an example. Look at how tidy KEF is vs JFK. Yes, there's the flight to SEA. But head straight to a fish restaurant or brew pub and it's worth spending a day there.

A map from the Great Circle Mapper

A map from the Great Circle Mapper

www.gcmap.com

A map from the Great Circle Mapper

A map from the Great Circle Mapper

www.gcmap.com

 

[CalGalTraveler]

Stay overnight in a hotel near the airport and fly out the next day. We do this intentionally when we fly to Europe or the Caribbean. It is quite pleasant to spend the night in a hotel room vs a seat on a plane. Ymmv of course.

I like this idea especially since one can fly in coach and avoid upgrade expense for longer flights.

When I have tried to stopover in NYC from Calif. The flights are usually more than non-stop. Is there a trick to this?

 

[klpca]

I like this idea especially since one can fly in coach and avoid upgrade expense for longer flights.

When I have tried to stopover in NYC from Calif. The flights are usually more than non-stop. Is there a trick to this?

I think that the last time we did this it was on Delta? I'm not a multi layover girlie. One layover is enough uncertainty for me, there's no way that I am giving them multiple opportunities to delay my flight. The overnight layover is great.

The way that I find these flights is to search on Google flight and sort by longest duration. Those are usually the flights with an overnight layover.

 

[flindberg]

FALL TRAVEL INCLUDED. HI, this is a huge deal. Save up to 40% off base fares* to/from Hawaii with code HAWAII40.
*Use promotion code HAWAII40 from 7/9-7/11/24 for travel on select continental U.S. flights to/from Hawaii between 8/13-12/17/24. Continental U.S. travel to Hawaii blacked out 8/29-9/3 and 11/21-11/25/24. Hawaii to continental U.S. travel blacked out 8/29-9/3 and 11/29-12/3/24. Restrictions and exclusions apply. Seats, days, and markets limited. Discount is applied before government taxes and fees.

Book a Flight | Southwest Airlines

Find the best Southwest Airlines flight deals and book cheap flights with flexible travel options and no change fees.

www.southwest.com

Thanks for the heads up!

 

[rickandcindy23]

I think that the last time we did this it was on Delta? I'm not a multi layover girlie. One layover is enough uncertainty for me, there's no way that I am giving them multiple opportunities to delay my flight. The overnight layover is great.

The way that I find these flights is to search on Google flight and sort by longest duration. Those are usually the flights with an overnight layover.

Our kids flew Delta, Denver to Myrtle Beach. Was supposed to be one stop in Minneapolis/ St. Paul.

Flight out of Denver was slightly delayed, got off the plane in time to catch the connecting flight from Minneapolis to Myrtle Beach, which was two gates away, so easy breezy, but NOPE. Delta pilot closed the door and left the gate five minutes early, leaving 20+ passengers to watch the plane back out of the gate. Twenty people with no flight to Myrtle Beach.

Delta put all of them on a plane to Raleigh, NC with no connection to Myrtle Beach. Delta at MSP said to call them THE NEXT DAY to arrange something for Raleigh to Myrtle Beach. The next day??? Okay, so they decided to get a hotel in Raleigh. Arrived in Raleigh late, tiny airport, Delta employees gone, no luggage carousel operating, no hotels available because the PGA tour had all hotels booked. Found a rental car after a couple of hours, and now it's 9 PM, so they drove to Myrtle Beach from Raleigh. Arrived at Sheraton Broadway Resort at 2 AM.

It was a total of $400 car rental for one day, and they were lucky to get that one. Delta refuses to pay the car rental. The kids had no car seats because the rental company was out of them. Twins are 2.5 years old. The seven-year-old could do without a car seat, as she is tall enough. The kids all thought riding in the car with regular seat belts was great fun. They figured out how to get the belts off easily, so our DIL rode in the back to keep them buckled. Great fun.

Our son took it all pretty well, considering, but Delta sure lost their business. They purchased first class for all five of them, RT, so our DIL cancelled the return flight and booked United first class to go home.

Delta abandoned a bunch of people in a tiny airport with no luggage, no hotels available, and very few rental cars.

 

[ScoopKona]

When I have tried to stopover in NYC from Calif. The flights are usually more than non-stop. Is there a trick to this?

Most airlines have a policy to charge more. Allowing stopovers at the same price gives consumers the opportunity to swap carriers mid trip and generally be more in control. A trip to Europe for us typically means SWA or HAL to Seattle. (Leaning toward HAL of late because Airbus.) And then Icelandic to our destination. It isn't much savings (if at all). But the Great Circle map of that route is nearly a straight line. (If I could fly this route through Anchorage, it WOULD be a straight line. I'm not spending so much as an unnecessary minute in the air. I'd need my own plane to get a better route.

Sure, it takes more time -- but it's quality time at our stopovers. I just consider it part of the vacation. I've taken to booking open jaw flights as two one-ways. If the fare screwage is too egregious, we'll go someplace else.

 

[melissy123]

A bit off-topic but I just noticed Southwest made a sneaky change. If the flight you booked was no longer available, Southwest would book you for another flight that same day, and then you could make two changes to that reservation, plus or minus 14 days, or another flight that same day, regardless of cost. You could also fly out of a nearby airport that was more convenient (like Oakland, San Jose and San Francisco are deemed interchangeable under this rule). You could make the changes in the Southwest app, and the flights that had changed would be marked by some kind of red banner.
Well, now there is no red banner letting you know your flight had been changed by Southwest. And if you want to make changes, you have to call in to do that, otherwise you will incur a cost if making a change yourself.
So now you need to have a good memory, the original email telling you about the flight change, or some other sort of record keeping, to keep track of what flight you have changed. AND you have to call-in.

We fly a lot on Southwest, and about half of our flights had changes. Good thing I have a good memory!

 

[dioxide45]

Well, now there is no red banner letting you know your flight had been changed by Southwest. And if you want to make changes, you have to call in to do that, otherwise you will incur a cost if making a change yourself.
So now you need to have a good memory, the original email telling you about the flight change, or some other sort of record keeping, to keep track of what flight you have changed. AND you have to call-in.

Perhaps this is the issue my wife ran into. They totally messed up flights for us to Buffalo. It said online she could make two changes. She made one but something wasn't right and she had to call. They said she had already made a change and couldn't make another. Even though online there was still a note about making two changes. In any case the new flights we wanted were actually way cheaper and she was able to change anyway and get a bunch of flight credit we need to figure out how to use.

 

[CalGalTraveler]

That's what I find. The new flights have to be rebooked and cancelled rather than changed. Perhaps too many people with easy arbitrage, changing their flights reducing profits.

 

[jackio]

A bit off-topic but I just noticed Southwest made a sneaky change. If the flight you booked was no longer available, Southwest would book you for another flight that same day, and then you could make two changes to that reservation, plus or minus 14 days, or another flight that same day, regardless of cost. You could also fly out of a nearby airport that was more convenient (like Oakland, San Jose and San Francisco are deemed interchangeable under this rule). You could make the changes in the Southwest app, and the flights that had changed would be marked by some kind of red banner.
Well, now there is no red banner letting you know your flight had been changed by Southwest. And if you want to make changes, you have to call in to do that, otherwise you will incur a cost if making a change yourself.
So now you need to have a good memory, the original email telling you about the flight change, or some other sort of record keeping, to keep track of what flight you have changed. AND you have to call-in.

We fly a lot on Southwest, and about half of our flights had changes. Good thing I have a good memory!

That happened to us, but they rescheduled us for the next day. We booked ISP-OAK for a flight OAK-HNL the next day. The change would have had us miss the next day's flight. We couldn't make it work, so we ended up booking ISP-SAN to fly to HNL the next day.

 

[klpca]

A bit off-topic but I just noticed Southwest made a sneaky change. If the flight you booked was no longer available, Southwest would book you for another flight that same day, and then you could make two changes to that reservation, plus or minus 14 days, or another flight that same day, regardless of cost. You could also fly out of a nearby airport that was more convenient (like Oakland, San Jose and San Francisco are deemed interchangeable under this rule). You could make the changes in the Southwest app, and the flights that had changed would be marked by some kind of red banner.
Well, now there is no red banner letting you know your flight had been changed by Southwest. And if you want to make changes, you have to call in to do that, otherwise you will incur a cost if making a change yourself.
So now you need to have a good memory, the original email telling you about the flight change, or some other sort of record keeping, to keep track of what flight you have changed. AND you have to call-in.

We fly a lot on Southwest, and about half of our flights had changes. Good thing I have a good memory!

I have a memory but for whatever reason, when I received the email about the change, it made me so angry that I was invested in making this change work *for* me, rather than against me. It took a month but I was able to make a change that worked best for us. I had to call in to make the change because I had early bird (one of my freebies) and those don't carry over if you make a change, so you have to call and have them move it manually. Both the first change, and the price change today resulted in point credits so at the end of the day, I came out ahead by over $200. We added 3 nights to an existing reservation using some expiring WorldMark points and changed our return date, so it worked out great. To me the weird part is that the PNR stays the same, so under that PNR we have had 3 different itineraries.

One other thing, I use the free version of Tripit which will monitor your email, and import travel plans into individual "trips". It will highlight itinerary conflicts within each trip monitored. I find it very helpful, especially when there are multiple flight changes.

 

[kq2mtx]

Thank you, I got a $110 credit from them for a flight I had already booked