Hawaii Vacation Specialist-Chris

How to book your hawaii vacation and what to expect!

Booking hawaii is a little different than booking any other destination.  The big thing that makes it different is the unique destination.  In order to prepare for a hawaii vacation, if you are the type that likes to be totally prepared before you head into anything, is to research the different islands.  If you arent, then its simple to just pick up a phone and call hawaii aloha travel, where the agents are in hawaii , most born and raised there, and know it best.  You can simply tell an agent what you are interested in doing, maybe you don’t want city , maybe you do, maybe an absolute have to do is see the volcano or pearl harbor.  Often times people do get mixed up as to what island they have to go to in order to see what is on their agenda.

Start getting quotes and looking into the cost of your trip in advance.  When we are talking about hawaii, a good time to start looking into your trip is about 6 months prior to your vacation dates and about a year in advance for christmas.  Some people are really good and try to get their pricing really early.  Unfortunately there are times when the air is just not ready yet, like right now november 2006, we are not being able to retrieve air for november 2007.  That doesn’t necessarily mean forget about it because often times you do and then when you remember it’s a little late or from my experience I have worked with people before their dates were available, we got everything planned out on which islands they wanted to go to, the order of islands and where they wanted to stay, when the dates became available I went through got  it all the way we planned and booking was fast and easy.  why?  Because we were prepared.

Getting quotes.  Getting a quote is often a starting point in booking your trip.  If you need changes made to an itinerary let your agent know right away.  Often times people wait to get a requote and as you wait things are booking up and selling out.  One thing not a lot of people know and I myself didn’t know before I got into the travel business was that airplanes are broken up into classes of service.  There is the obvious First class, business class and coach, but coach is also broken up into many different classes of service and they are given letters.  They are all different for different airlines, but you may hear someone say you are in T class of service, or U or K.  These are the different classes of service that are in coach and with each class of service is a different price.  Sometimes we quote people and when we go back in to do the quote or pull it back up the price goes up, sometimes it is an airfare increase and sometimes it’s because the lower class of service sold out and so they go to the next class of service which costs more even though it may be just the seat in front of the one you last had.  Often times if you are booking early enough, we can hold your itinerary for you for 5-7 days with just your names at no cost to you.  If yoiu decide you don’t want it, you can just cancel it or it will automatically cancel if you don’t put your deposit down.  If you forgot to make the payment, we can just redo the itinerary for you and then book it at that time.

Booking.  When you are ready to book, the first thing we need is the first and last names of the passengers as they appear on your ID’s (Drivers License/passport).  You don’t need a passport to visit hawaii, but can very well use that as you form of ID.    If the booking is in advance you have between 5 and 7 days depending on where we get the package from, to make a deposit.  Once the deposit is made the final payment would be due any where from 35 to 60 days before the departure day.  Holiday bookings have different rules, higher deposits and earlier final payment due dates.  We accept major credit cards and can even do check by phone.  After you make a deposit you may also mail in checks to make payments on your itinerary.  Booking in advance is to your advantage.  We realize a family vacation to hawaii does cost some money and to make it easier when booking in advance you can put a deposit and make your final payment by the deadline or even make monthly payements on your itinerary as to not have to pay a one time big payment. 

Deposits:  Deposits will hold your itinerary meaning its holding your plane tickets, hotel room , car, and activities if you have any.  The deposit does not guarantee prices.  Most often the thing that will most likely change if anything is the air price.  While the class of service does not change because it is being held, the air price can change, reason being, the airlines will not ticket your air until they get full payment, plus a deposit for your land portion which is different for different airlines.