The pristine beaches, lush, native vegetation and rain forests, towering waterfalls, and mountainous, active volcanoes make the Hawaiian Islands one of the most popular vacation destinations in the world. Part of the unspoiled beauty of Hawaii is due to its isolated location, over 2,000 miles from the closest point on the Southern California coast. Around a 5-hour flight from Los Angeles or San Francisco, the sheer distance makes any flight to the Hawaiian Islands expensive. However, if you are persistent, you should be able to find a flight to Hawaii that fits into your travel budget.
Go to ITA Software at itasoftware.com and search its flight matrixes for the cheapest flights. ITA is the software engine used by virtually all major airlines, such as United Airlines, and airline fare sites, such as kayak.com. ITA searches over 500 airlines worldwide for the cheapest fare available, saving you time from searching individual sites one-by-one. If you are asked for a password, click the Guest link to perform your search. ITA is not the most user-friendly flight search engine, so you'll need to know your Hawaiian airport code to start the search process. Use "HNL" for Honolulu, "KOA" for Kona on the Big Island of Hawaii, "OGG" for Maui and "LIH" for Kauai.
Review ITA's cheapest fares for your dates. If the fares shown are too high for your budget, try a search on other options. First, if your dates are flexible, perform a "Month Long" search to see if there are any weeks or days that have cheaper flights. Flying mid-week on a Tuesday or Wednesday often results in a cheaper fare. Next, if you are flying into Hawaii from a departure point not on the West Coast, search for flights to Los Angeles or San Francisco, then search for a separate flight to Hawaii. There are often cheap flight deals from Los Angeles or San Francisco directly to Hawaii that are not available in other markets. For example, try New York to LA on one airline, then LA to HNL on another airline.
Once you've found the cheapest fare, write down the airline, departure dates and arrival dates. You can only search for flights on ITA. You'll need to buy your ticket elsewhere.
If you're nervous that the flight may get cheaper in the future, go to Farecast at http://www.bing.com/travel/ . Enter your planned flights and Farecast will search historical data to predict whether the airlines will discount the fares in the future. If it looks like the purchase price may decrease in a few months and you can wait, hold off on purchasing your ticket.
If you are satisfied that you've found the cheapest fare, go directly to the airlines site, enter your flight information from ITA and book the ticket.
