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The cheapest time to fly to Honolulu

The shoulder seasons of April to May and September to October tend to be the cheapest times to visit Honolulu – the weather is mild, there are fewer tourists, and hotels and airlines may offer lower prices. For surfers, even early November can be a great time for a Honolulu trip, as the island is still not crowded and it’s a good time to go surfing. When the high season starts in the first weeks of December, be ready for tourist crowds and sky-high prices for flights and hotels.

If you don’t mind the rainy season, late spring Mid-April to early June represents the off-peak season in Honolulu, and during these months many airlines run promotions and sales to fill the empty seats on their planes. Additionally, midweek travel is usually cheaper than weekend travel.

Summertime and the week of Christmas are peak seasons for Hawaii and Honolulu. Also, avoid the last week of April, which is the “Golden Week” in Japan – Honolulu will be flooded with Japanese tourists.

Fly to Honolulu half-price with Companion Fare

It’s one of the best ways to save money on your trip if you travel from the Midwestern US to Honolulu.

Alaska Airlines offers a Companion Fare program that allows eligible customers to purchase one full-priced ticket and bring a companion for a flat rate of just $120 ($99 basic airfare plus taxes and fees).

To take advantage of this program, you must have an Alaska Airlines Visa Signature® credit card. Each year, on your account anniversary, you will receive a Companion Fare code which can be used to book a discounted companion fare when purchasing a qualifying fare.

The Companion Fare works for any destination that Alaska Airlines flies to, including Honolulu (the airline has many nonstop flights to Daniel K. Inouye International Airport on Oahu island). Being primarily a West Coast carrier, it operates nonstop flights to Honolulu from cities close to the Pacific coast, such as Anchorage, Los Angeles, Portland, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose and Seattle.

Interisland flights: island hopping in Hawaii

Thanks to the close distances between the major Hawaiian islands, this archipelago is a tempting destination for island hopping. As there is no passenger ferry service from Oahu island (where Honolulu is situated) to nearby islands, the best way to explore Hawaii state is by interisland flights.

Oahu serves as the primary point of interisland travel, and you can catch a flight from Honolulu to nearly all of the major neighboring islands. Prices vary greatly depending on the time of day. It can cost $50-$150 to go island hopping in Hawaii with flights being relatively short – under one hour in most cases.

Hawaiian Airlines has always been the leading carrier for inter-island travel – they have a comprehensive route network that covers all the major islands (Oahu, Maui, Kauai, Big Island) and the smaller islands of Lanai, Molokai, and Kapalua. However, similar routes are also operated by Southwest Airlines – it’s worth keeping an eye on this carrier, as they tend to run frequent sales for inter-island flights. Another great option is provided by a less-known airline – Mokulele Airlines – the Hawaii-based small carrier which focuses solely on connecting the islands with its fleet of Cessna 208 Caravan aircraft (a capacity of a maximum of 9 passengers). It has more than 800 flights a week (!) to 10 destinations across the Aloha State. Finally, for those looking to travel directly from Honolulu to the small island of Lanai and stay at a luxurious resort like the Four Seasons, Lanai Air offers a turbo-prop option.

Flying to Honolulu with Hawaiian Airlines

While most major US airlines fly to Honolulu, choosing Hawaiian Airlines as your carrier will help you to immerse yourself into Hawaiian culture before you even set foot on the islands. There is Hawaiian music during boarding and an island color scheme onboard and on crew uniforms. Mai tais (a rum-based tropical cocktail) are available for passengers. Hawaiian Airlines flight crews a known to be friendly and more accommodating than your average domestic flight crew.

All this is coupled with relatively low fees.

Flights from the US mainland to Honolulu are at least 5-6 hours long, and even much longer from the East Coast. To help pass the time over the Pacific complimentary hot meals are served (while with other airlines you’re just going to get a snack box). You can get a free glass of wine with your meal, too.

Hawaiian Airlines often come in first in operations – it has impressively high rates of on-time performance and low cancellations, passenger rebookings and baggage mishandling. The airline’s fleet of aircraft is relatively new and well-maintained, and the airline has a good safety record – running since 1929 it has never suffered a single fatal crash.

Hawaiian Airlines operate its flights to Honolulu out of almost all major US airports: Austin, Boston, Las Vegas, Long Beach, Los Angeles, New York, Oakland, Ontario, Phoenix, Portland, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, and Seattle.

Know your time zone

When checking flights and airport transfer times, ensure you know the local time zones. The departure/arrival times on your plane ticket and boarding pass are based on the time zone of the departure/arrival airport – this also applies to the connecting (layover) airports.

Hawaii has only one time zone – it observes Hawaii Standard Time (HST) all year, which is UTC -10 time zone. As a result, clocks in Honolulu are 21 hours behind Sydney, 10 hours behind London and 5 hours behind New York. HST does not have an associated daylight saving time.

When you board the plane, adjust your watch to the local time of the destination – subconsciously orienting yourself to the new time will help you to reduce the jetlag a bit.