Is it better to purchase your Hawaii inter island flights ahead of time or when you are on your trip?|162052

Looking to find out if we can just kind of play it by ear and by flights between the islands or purchase them ahead of time?

Hello,


I recommend purchasing your inter-island flights ahead of time. I also recommend going with one of the smaller, local air carriers (see links below). Last time I was in Hawaii it cost me only $39 for an inter-island flight - way cheaper than on Hawaiian Airlines.

With the smaller carriers, just purchase a ticket for the last flight of the day. If you want to leave sooner, just show up at the airport and they can usually get you on an earlier flight. It_s like a bus pass! Usually there isn_t a fee, but be sure and check with the carrier.

Have a great trip!

P.S. You should try scuba diving while you_re in Hawaii. It_s amazing.

You can usually get away with playing it by ear, though the best fares and the most convenient flights tend to disappear about a week before departure. Transportation to the smaller islands--Molokai or Lanai-- is severely limited, and a high school sports tournament, for example, could keep you from buying tickets at the last minute.

If you like to take photographs from moving planes, you might consider a smaller airline that flies a 9-seat propeller plane. Those often have bigger windows that are less scratched up, and they fly closer to things you want to photograph, like cities and mountains. Because it is a more visceral flying experience, you will probably want to wait until after you land to eat.

My suggestion is to buy them ahead of time. There are three airlines that do interisland flights:

www.hawaiianairlines.com
www.mokulele.com
www.iflygo.com

These airlines all have low fares for certain flights...sometimes as low as $39 pp one way. Those flights fill up quickly and then you are stuck with the higher-priced fares. I have seen interisland fares for as much as $129 pp each way! If you know when you are going to travel, buy ahead of time to save money. These tickets aren_t open-ended and you will have to pay the difference if they have to rebook you on another flight at another time.

When I did that in 2007, I booked all of the flights in advance on Hawaiian Airlines. The advantage is that you can book the whole itinerary as a multi-destination trip (just click on the check box on the home page). That_s usually a better price than you can get on separate flights. Better still, you might be able to fly from one island to another then home from the second island without flying back to the first one. That saves both time and money.