How does MyHawaiiVacationPackage.com rate for flights?

My recent post about cheap fall fares to Hawaii prompted this comment from reader Mike, who suggested MyHawaiiVacationPackage.com for those looking for deals on flights to the Aloha State. “They had the lowest direct fare I could find,” he commented, on May 27, 2008. “Today for instance, their price was $150 lower than Hawaiian Air’s price for the same flight, for the flight I chose.”

I hadn’t previously used this vacation-package website, and they do claim to offer better deals than Expedia, Travelocity and Orbitz. I thought I’d put the site to the test.

Have you used MyHawaiiVacationPackage.com to book a flight? How was your experience?

Tested: I compared flight prices only, not packages, trying two sets of dates for a trip from Los Angeles (LAX) to Honolulu (HNL). The following turned up for least-expensive options when I compared MyHawaiiVacationPackage (MHVP) with the third-party sites that they claim to beat; but for the comparisons, I used CheapTickets instead of Travelocity. All of the prices below include taxes.

Aug. 24-31, 2008:

MHVP - $442, Delta Airlines (one stop in Salt Lake City/SLC each way); $693, United Airlines (nonstop)

Expedia – $611, Delta Airlines (one stop in SLC each way); $613, United Airlines (nonstop)

CheapTickets - $618, on United Airlines (nonstop)

Orbitz - $619, United Airlines (nonstop)

Sept. 9-15, 2008:

MHVP - $385, Delta Airlines (one stop in SLC each way); $545, Northwest Airlines (nonstop)

Expedia - $482, Northwest Airlines (nonstop)

CheapTickets - $488, Northwest Airlines (nonstop)

Orbitz - $489, Northwest Airlines (nonstop)

As you can see, there wasn’t a whole lot of difference when it came to nonstop flights, except that MHVP rates do not really stand up against the other more established sites. Expedia won both rounds, but the difference is so negligible that alternate dates would surely bring up other winners.

However, if you’re really going for bottom dollar, and are willing to double your travel time with stopovers, then MyHawaiiVacationPackage does indeed offer the cheapest options, at least this time around. I’m definitely going to keep it on my travel radar.

- Susan Derby, Special to the Los Angeles Times

[Image: MyHawaiiVacationPackage.com]

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This entry was posted on Sunday, June 8, 2008 at 12:00 pm by Susan Derby and is filed under Frequent Flier, Hawaii, Hawaii's Big Island, Kauai, Lanai, Los Angeles, Maui, Molokai, News, Tips & Advice, Oahu. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a comment. Pinging is currently not allowed.