ALERT: go! Hawaii inter-island airfare sale

Ever since discount Hawaii airline go! started its famous one-day $1 inter-island airfare sales, I’ve stopped writing about them. It’s not that you can’t find tickets with go! for inter-island flights from just $1 (excluding taxes and fees). It’s because the sales are usually over, or the cheap seats are sold out, by the time I receive the promotional e-mail sent to go!Miles members. But not this time.

Deal: Right now, go! has inter-island airfares starting at $25 each way, plus taxes and fees. The offer is valid for one-way or round trip travel, which is extra-good news because previous go! airfare sales have required purchasing a cheap seat in combination with a more expensive return ticket. When I tried to book a one-way flight from Honolulu (HNL) on Oahu to Hilo (ITO) on the Big Island on a weekend in September, I was easily able to grab a $25 fare, which turned out to be $30.90 including taxes and fees. This was almost $15 less than airfares on competing airlines or those offered by popular online travel discounters.

Have you flown go! recently? Tell us about your trip by posting in the Comments section below.

When: Book your flights by 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, August 19th, 2007. The sale fares are valid (subject to availability) for travel between August 17th and September 30th.

Caveat: The inter-island sale airfares advertised on go! must be purchased online. They do not include taxes and fees of around $8.40 or more per flight segment.

Why Go: Although other Hawaii airlines have lowered their fares for inter-island flights recently (e.g., I’ve found inter-island flights for under $45 on Aloha Airlines and Island Air), go! consistently offers the cheapest advance-purchase seats for go!Miles members (signing up is free). Plus, their on-time stats so far for August are over 93%.

Why Not: If the cheapest advertised seats are sold out on go! by the time you read this, you might be able to find only slightly higher airfares on other established Hawaii airlines offering inter-island flights.

Critique: As I wrote in a previous posting, I wonder if go! can continue operating with sales fares like these. This is the third sale notification e-mail I’ve gotten this month from go!, probably to spur higher occupancy on flights during off-peak season in Hawaii (which lasts until just before Christmas).

Contact: go!, (888) 435-9462
Aloha Airlines, (800) 367-5250
Island Air, (800) 652-6541

Related Los Angeles Times links:
Hawaii: New go! flights to Molokai & more
Fuel surcharges, pricier seats on Hawaii Superferry
Hawaii: Inter-island airfares hit new $1 low
Hawaii: Autumn airfare sale update

– Sara Benson, L.A. Times Travel Deal Detective

[Photo credit: LAT / Lawrence K. Ho]

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This entry was posted on Friday, August 17, 2007 at 12:32 pm by Sara Benson and is filed under Fall, Frequent Flier, Hawaii, Hawaii's Big Island, Islands & Beaches, Kauai, Last Minute, Maui, Molokai, Oahu. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.