Pssst - United and Continental Fare War to Hawaii

[BurBunny]

Going completely against logic with two airlines serving Hawaii recently going out of business, Continental has started a fare war to Hawaii directed against United, and United has responded. Can you say fares generally between $300-400 ROUND TRIP, including taxes and fuel supplements?

It seems this fare war began over the weekend when Continental lowered prices on its Los Angeles-Honolulu flights to around $300 roundtrip. LAX-HNL is a big United market, so United responded by matching the $300 roundtrip fare from Newark and Houston, two big Continental markets. Continental has nonstops to Honolulu in both cities, of course, so United made its sale effective on connecting service via its Chicago, Denver, LAX or San Francisco hubs. It even extended the sale to its flights to/from Lihue, Kauai.

Continental responded to United's response, but seemed to target US Airways with its answer. Sometime yesterday, Continental lowered one-stop flights to/from Honolulu, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia to around $300 roundtrip.

Here's what you need to know: All-in pricing ranges from $300-$400 roundtrip for travel between August 21 through November 10, December 5-14 and, surprisingly, January 19 to February 15, 2009. You must take the over-water flights on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday. There is a three-day minimum stay and a 21-day advance purchase.

Best place to look are sites like Orbitz which has flexible date search options so you can see the date choices for the lower fares. And move fast - this type of unadvertised fare sale usually doesn't last long.

 

[justleesa]

You scared me for a second there. I bought my tickets to ORD a couple of weeks ago because the price was going up, up, up. When I started looking they were at 800 something and I finally bought at 1100 (gave up the hope of finding something cheaper). Just looked and the flights are up over 1200 now....glad I bought when I did.

 

[BurBunny]

You scared me for a second there. I bought my tickets to ORD a couple of weeks ago because the price was going up, up, up. When I started looking they were at 800 something and I finally bought at 1100 (gave up the hope of finding something cheaper). Just looked and the flights are up over 1200 now....glad I bought when I did.

Leesa, in general, you did the right thing. These are totally unexpected and flights to and from Hawaii right now are just going to keep going up with the decreased capacity.

Are you aware of Yapta - Track Airfares, Save Money Input your flights there, and it'll track them for you and notify you if there's been a reduction, PLUS tell you how to go about getting a refund/voucher. It's my new best friend web site.

 

[justleesa]

wow! cool....even if i bought a nonrefundable ticket?

 

[BurBunny]

wow! cool....even if i bought a nonrefundable ticket?

Yes! It depends on the specific airline their rules, but for example with UA, if it's the same itinerary and fare class (or higher), you can get a voucher for the full difference, or if you want a refund, there's a reduction in the amount of $150 (their change fee). I always opt for the voucher for full value. Over the past year, I've ended up getting vouchers (which I've been able to use) for over $1k in value! Easy as pie! You can even use the vouchers for online bookings - you just have to call in to make payment then mail in the voucher - they charge you for any difference.

Takes a few steps, but can save you big time. I Yapta!

 

[justleesa]

Very cool! Thanks!

I just checked my flight and it's gone up another $120...scary...

 

[chepar]

wow! cool....even if i bought a nonrefundable ticket?

I'm currently waiting on a voucher to arrive in the mail from United - I had purchased my ticket to Florida back in January, and the fare dropped over $200 for a short time in April.

I was lucky enough to catch it (I'm not signed up for any alerts) and I called in and was given a voucher for it.

Of course, the first voucher they assigned to me never got here, so I called again and was reissued the voucher I'm currently waiting for. Hopefully this one will get here ok.

 

[BurBunny]

Of course, the first voucher they assigned to me never got here, so I called again and was reissued the voucher I'm currently waiting for. Hopefully this one will get here ok.

Sometimes those vouchers do go astray, and take forever in the first place (about 4-6 weeks at least). I've had to have a couple re-issued. If you do load your flights into Yapta to be watched, when you get a voucher and tell Yapta your new price, it'll indicate a voucher was issued, so you can look back and have info of when it was issued (rather than relying on your memory) if you need to have it replaced.