Pursue Your Own Hot Ticket by Using the Current Deal-Drought as a Test Case to Hawaii
Hawaii is nearly a dry state right now. Not from an alcohol-control standpoint, but a fare-deal one. In October 2008, before the Delta-Northwest merger, North-west WorldVacations (the package division) offered a First Class ticket to Hawaii from LAX for $831. That was 65% less than the published fare of $2,348.
We are now finding that deals via the Delta Vacations Desk are slim to none.
Mergers are remaking the airline industry—the United-Continental hookup is the latest (see High & Inside for an important update)—but more important, making deals disappear because capacity goes down with each new merger.
The upshot: The Hot Ticket now and for the future is flexible thinking. So we took the current “deal scarcity” to Hawaii and used it to create a five-point “deal-finder” that can be applied to other destinations.
There’s usually a “best-fare route” to a destination.
Try as they might, the airlines can’t stamp out overcapacity. There are always seats left over—somewhere—and that’s where the deals are. To Hawaii, those seats are hiding in plain sight: on the West Coast. Over the last few months (see FCF April 2010) Alaska, Delta, United, and US Airways have offered promotional fares from major West Coast cities to Honolulu. The current best-five deals on First Class are:
- From LAX on Delta, $1,001 versus $1,934 on American (prices do not include taxes and fees). Delta fares mentioned here are valid now through Nov. 16, Dec. 5 to Dec. 14, Jan. 9 to Feb. 15, and April 24 to June 7.
- From SFO on Delta, $1,018 versus $2,334.
- From Portland on United, $951 versus $1,496. No black-out dates, but there are peak-travel-date surcharges of $20 to $40 one-way, so you could take advantage of this fare during Christmas-New Year’s.
- From Seattle on Delta, $1,050 versus $2,994.
- From Las Vegas on Hawaiian Airlines, $1,200 versus $2,238. Blackout dates: Dec. 16 to Dec. 28 outbound and Dec. 26 to Jan. 9 inbound.
Use the loopholes in an airline’s loyalty program.
An easily forgotten fact about American’s AAdvantage program is that it pulls award and upgrade seats from the same inventory as promotional First Class fares (booking code A), which is unusual since most airlines put these seats in separate buckets. This means that as long as a discounted First Class seat is available, so is mileage space, giving you access to more mileage inventory than at most other airlines. You can take advantage of this strategy even if you have no AAdvantage miles by transferring points from Starwood or Diners Club.
Always check lesser-known airlines’ First Class fares.
Alaska Airlines First Class fares usually beat the four majors. Sample savings to Honolulu: $1,350 from Chicago vs. $2,750 on United; $1,350 from Dallas vs. $2,940 on American; $1,350 from Minneapolis vs. $2,800 on Delta; and $1,350 from Washington vs. $2,460 on Continental. And you have to love the options this airline gives you, providing elite and milage credit with AA and Delta, which makes them a strong wild card.
Remember that US Airways is the king of mileage-buying promotions.
As mentioned in our post on Sept. 17, US Airways has extended its 100% bonus promotion on purchased and gifted miles (50,000-mile limit). A First Class award on US Airways (and partners United and Continental) costs 70,000 miles—$962 during this promotion for a First Class ticket that could otherwise easily run more than $2,500, a savings of $1,538. US Airways link: US Airways Buy and Gift Miles
The airlines’ vacation arms are a last resort.
Our Delta example not withstanding, the airlines’ package-fare division may still net a 10 to 20% savings. For example, from Atlanta, Delta Vacations offers a 23% savings if you book a fly-drive package over its published fare.