Hawaii Vacation Specialist-Chris

First Tip: Class of Service

*What is class of service?

All airlines have classes of service which are assigned a letter.   When you get a quote it will have the Airline, ex: UA-United AA-American, HA-Hawaiian, TZ-American Trans Air, DL-Delta Airlines, etc.  Well next to that is normally a number which is the flight number and then you will see a letter next to that, well that is class of service.  Not only do the airlines have first, business and coach class, coach is also broken up into different classes of service and assigned a letter.  Each class of service comes with a different price tag.  So often times people ask should I wait and see if the prices come down?  No you shouldn’t.  Once the lowest class of service sells out, it will go to the next lowest and next and so on until the flight is sold out, so either A. The flight will sell out completely or B. you will end up with the highest class of service which will end up costing more. Bruce and Yaling discuss class of service on their podcast. This is the reason why you should jump on a quote immediately if you see something that you want because you never know, tomorrow the class of service may be sold out and then the price will increase.  So it’s important to know that when you get a quote it is not holding any space for you, it’s quoting you what is available at the time the quote is done.  Thousands and thousands of people are also trying to plan their trips to hawaii everyday, not just you so if you don’t jump on the deal someone else will.

*What is the difference between bulk fares and published fares?

Bulk Fares are special contracted airfares that our wholesalers have with the airlines.  Bulk fares do not fluxuate quite as much as published fares do, ex: You go on an airlines website today, find a great deal, go back tomorrow, all of sudden the price is higher, because published fares fluxate a lot.  With bulk fares you do not have to pay upfront for your air.  Yes the air price is not locked in with just a deposit, however the class of service is.  The only time it would increase with just a deposit is if the airline increases it’s prices.  In the event of a scheduled increase your advantage with booking with Hawaii Aloha Travel is that if there is going to be a scheduled increase most times we will warn you about a week prior to , giving you the opportunity to pay the air and minimum land portion to ticket your air, thus locking your price in.  This doesn’t mean you have to pay off your entire package, just the air and minimum land.  If the price never increases before your final payment well then you just pay at final payment.  If it does then you pay the air/minimum land and the balance at final payment

EX: Your package is $7000.00, your air is $2000.00, (now depending on the airline will depend on what is needed to ticket, some are full air plus deposit, some are full air plus minimum land)
So say to ticket your air is full air plus deposit and you have 2 travelers with waiver then you pay $2,178.00 to ticket the air, the balance of $ 4822.00 would be due on or before your final payment due date.  Even if there is an increase, think you may have had an extra month to pay off your air instead of paying it in full the day you booked it.  That could save you some interest on a credit card.

Published Fares are non contracted fares.  Usually it’s what you see out there on a daily basis.  Published fares do fluxate often and have to be paid for and ticketed the day you book it, so your full airfare would have to be paid the day you are booking.  We can book published fares in a package as well as bulk fares.  There are some airlines we do not have contracted bulk fares with, doesn’t mean we can’t get them, just know that when asking for published fares in a package you must pay for them that day.

What is the advantage of booking bulk fares?
*Well for starters as above if you are not prepared to pay in full for your air then there is the first advantage of booking a bulk fare.
*Bulk fares are covered with the $39.00pp cancellation waiver we offer for ANY Reason.  Published fares are non refundable.

So keep those things in mind when booking airfare.  You may be searching the internet which I know a lot of you are doing for pricing but can’t pay for it at that time.  Well we can get the same air price you are if you are prepared to pay for it right now.  If you cant we can get you a bulk fare no problem…it may be less, it may be a little more, but even if it’s $20.00 more, you will probably pay that if not more in interest on a credit card.

Second Tip:Christmas Travel

As we all know from last year christmas is not the cheapest time to travel to hawaii, however it is a very very popular time to want to go.  You prefer not to freeze on christmas day this year so you want to go to hawaii.  Well just know that christmas travel is not going to be cheap.  Airfares are not at their all time low then and the hotels often times don’t offer any deals, like say we see a lot of 4th, 5th or 6th night free promotions, food and beverage credits, etc during the year, dont expect to see those at christmas time.  Holiday season for travel is normally around Dec. 15-Jan 6.
-I had a customer the other day trying to get a quote for christmas and also on her computer at the same time checking expedia..the dreaded E word.  Well I got her the same flights and price as expedia, but expedia said that the food and beverage credit was included.  Now I know that from dec. 22-Jan 2 is still holiday season and that property is not offering that credit.  Please be weary when doing it online like that as I know she will be disappointed when they don’t give her , her credit.  Then she will try to call expedia and guess what? one of two things, either she won’t get through or they will say sorry misprint on the website..oh well.

*Always try to call the online booking company and see if that is correct AND call the property to see if they are offering that.  Ask the online booking company if it is their promotion they are giving (and get it in writing) or if it is a hotel promotion.  If they say it’s a hotel promotion then ask the property direct and tell them you found it on, whatever online site you found it,  so they can be sure to get you the correct information.  It could be a simple misprint but when you are expecting that and don’t get it, it could aggrevate you on your trip.  Remember we look at these promotions on a daily basis, we know what dates the properties are not offering them, we don’t tell you to be "I told you soers" we tell you so that you are properly informed. If it was wrong online and we got you the same price, why book it yourself online versus having a personal agent do it for you, alerting you to any schedule changes and helping if any problems should arise. If we make a mistake we fix it. Even when we don’t make a mistake and things happen we do try our best and usually succeed at helping you fix your problem. Don’t expect the same from online booking engines.

Third Tip: Group Travel

*Time and time again I get the people saying well I called the airlines for a group rate and it’s not any cheaper than I can book it online myself.  Our rates most times will beat the airlines group rates and sometimes even beat the individual pricing you see online.

Here is where group travel differs and you CANNOT book group travel (10 travelers or more on most airlines) online.  If you notice on online booking engines or even on airline websites themselves you cannot put in more than 6 or 7 travelers, that is because you can’t book that many online.  Groups are a whole different ball game.

*Remember the class of service we talked about earlier?  That comes into play here.  You can try all you want to book that "cheap" fare you saw online.  You book 7 tickets, and by the way you have to pay for them, then try to book 7 more, well now class of service went up, not so cheap anymore, so you book it , again you have to pay for it, then you try to book your remaining passengers…oops flight sold out, now what?  only half your group can get on that flight and you already paid for them.

With our group fares we make sure there is space by contacting the airline prior to your booking and making sure and clear it with them that they have enough space on a flight for you.  Once booked you don’t even have to pay for it all at once.  $50.00 deposit is required, final payment and name list is due somewhere between 45-50 days prior to departure.  Now sometimes that deposit does not go toward the final payment, however you will be refunded after travel has been completed provided  no one cancels creating a penalty on that one ticket.

Airlines require 10 or more travelers to be booked as a group, there is no getting around that basically so don’t try to book some online cheap fare for a big group.  You may see a good webfare, chances are they are not going to give you that fare for more than 10 tickets, it’s just a fact.  You may not understand why but it’s an airline rule and when booking travel if you want to get there, you have to play by the airlines rules and so do we.  So in short, bottom line, don’t try to book a big group online, it won’t work.

To book your dream vacation to hawaii whether it be a honeymoon package, family vacation (big or small family) or christmas travel (yes you should start now!) you can call me at 1-800-843-8771 ext. 32 or email me at chris@hawaii-aloha.com to get started on planning your trip!