Last night, I played around on United.com looking for an excuse to get away from the freezing cold weather that has “graced” the northeast. Though I was expecting such last-minute fares to any warmer destination to be in the $1000+ range, I was greeted by a little surprise….
$427 round-trip nonstop between Newark and Honolulu for a 1/23 departure, leaving HNL late on Friday night. Underneath that beautiful fare was some small-print reading, “one ticket left at this price”. With a deal that good on such short notice, I quickly booked it “just in case”, knowing that I’d have 24 hours to sleep on it (literally) and could cancel for a full refund without penalty if needed.
Well, all of the pieces were adding up for me to go…
- HackMyTrip let me use his expiring SWU to confirm an upgrade on the outbound, so I can fly 10+ hours in BusinessFirst (thanks a million again for that!).
- I have a decent place to stay thanks to HotelTonight credits I have and dear longtime-friend of mine who moved out to Oahu.
- Â I *do* want to reach 1K status with United this year, so this will knock off a nice 10% chunk of the 100,000-mile requirement..
- I sent out a tweet last night calling for a “vote” upon this, and the votes in favor of this were in the 95% range. Such enablers you guys are! :-P (Now, who didn’t approve? Well, I received a not-so-encouraging tweet from @uittrader. If you connect the last names then you know who that is!)
- Did I mention that it’s f*&*^ cold here in NJ with possible snow on Friday? Yuck.
I really don’t have a solid plan yet when I land, but I’ll figure it out when I get there. Off to EWR I go, and on with the craziness!
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Have a great time! I was just in Oahu a couple weeks ago. Hard to come back to cold weather and major jet lag. Definitely see Byodo in Temple – very beautiful (do in morning) and then on to Polynesian Culture Center which is on the way and it opens at noon. Be there at noon as there is much to do and see (the luau is awesome, not so much for the buffet but it’s food), it’s a little spendy but it is worth it. Pearl Harbor ( reserve tickets in advance ), Iolani Palace, Giovanni’s shrimp truck up North Shore, and of course, eat some shaved Hawaiian Ice.
Why not just NYC-MIA on AA for $5 using Avios? :-)
I’m in cabo now and the weather is superb. Direct flight on united from EWR as well.
Did you have to upgrade your fare to use the SWU?
Don’t forget to grab some amazing pizza at Big Kahuna’s right by the Airport! We’ve had good weather this week, hope it stays!
Haha- I did almost the exact same thing 2 days ago. I found a last minute ticket from SJC-HNL for ~$300, so just bought it and now in HNL. The original deal was SJC-OGG for $250 on HA, but the hotels in Maui were so much more expensive than HNL.
For a food tip, check out Ono Seafood on 747 Kapahulu Ave for their amazing Ahi Poke (only $7 per bowl). Also malasadas at Leonard’s is right down the street.
Nice price but I fail to understand why you don’t go for longer. Aren’t you in transit for longer than you are actually awake in Hawaii?
I am feeling like doing the same thing this weekend. I just need to get away!