Air reservation help appreciated

[christie1111]

Some of you know that I am going with the family to Hawaii in June. We have a couple of days leeway on the days we leave and return.

I was doing the normal internet searching.

Any advice from you web-savvy peeps?

Favorite sites? Best bargains?

For MMFF's benefit, my favorite NYC-HNL flight is the non-stop EWR to HNL flight. I love getting on a plane and the next time the doors open, it is in Hawai'i!

[sunflower]

Some of you know that I am going with the family to Hawaii in June. We have a couple of days leeway on the days we leave and return.

I was doing the normal internet searching.

Any advice from you web-savvy peeps?

Favorite sites? Best bargains?

For MMFF's benefit, my favorite NYC-HNL flight is the non-stop EWR to HNL flight. I love getting on a plane and the next time the doors open, it is in Hawai'i!

I swear by www.kayak.com for flights. It searches lots of sites and accumulates the info. You can set all types of preferences - multiple airports on either end, number of connections (including only direct), time restrictions, airline restrictions, price limits, etc. What you can also do if you sign up is set alerts - you put in one or more specific searches and set a price and it will alert you if it goes below that price. I did that going to Italy, I set up JFK, LGA, EWR, BDL, and Philadelphia to Rome and watched for it to go under $800. It watches for you daily and that's how I got a ticket for under $800 for a direct flight from JFK to Rome in June (2 years ago, it was a great price - most were in the $1300 range).

[sunflower]

I didn't mention - it's free to sign up, you just have to give your email address and maybe some other info and create a password. Then look for fare alerts under my account, if it's not on the main page.

[Ritterskoop]

Kayak is indeed the best meta-searcher. Orbitz is also good, and it's owned by the airlines. but normally, Kayak will find anything Orbitz would, and send you to them.

They do not include Southwest, so if any legs would be cheaper using them, you have to set it up as a separate flight, and deal with your luggage.

[KillerTomato]

Christie, I can only tell you that I just paid $540 round trip from Pittsburgh (via Houston, you're welcome MMFF!!) for my trip to HNL. I actually got it through Continental's website, as a package deal with my HNL hotel (I went through Expedia for the HNL-OGG portion, again getting what I thought was a great deal on the flight and hotel).

I tend to avoid priceline for airfare, since I don't want to end up with a 12-stop (or even 3-stop) either way. I do like it for just about everything else, and got my car rental on Maui there for $15/day (about 1/2 of the normal rate). It's actually cheaper for me to rent this car than to take the shuttle from the airport in Kahului to Ka'anapali. And I'll be able to drive down to Lahaina or to Haleakala to watch the sunrise if I want. Of course, I probaly won't, since I'm doing a trip to Hana that'll get me up way too early as it is, but if I do that the first full day I'm in Maui, I'll still be on Pittsburgh time. OTOH, while in HNL, I got free airport transfers from Continental as part of my package deal.

Of course, you're probably not going to get a hotel room....

BTW, if you have any restaurant suggestions in either Lahaina or Honolulu, feel free to PM me!