Holiday fare sales snubbed
By Frank Cho
Advertiser Staff Writer
With Christmas still two months away, most major domestic airlines have rolled out their annual "Mele Kalikimaka" fares a few weeks early to help pump up travel demand for the holiday season.
United Airlines, which carries more people between the Mainland and Hawai'i than any other airline, kicked things off Sept. 11 by offering the special fares, a regular holiday promotion for airlines serving Hawai'i for the last several years.
But the discounts are not as deep as a year ago, and competition from other cheaper rates since last month's terrorist attacks have contributed to slower demand, travel agents said.
"People are not really hopping on these fares like they have in the past," said Rachel Shimamoto, an agent and manager with Travel Ways Inc. in Honolulu.
The special fares have become a tradition in Hawai'i with holiday travelers.
The fares were introduced by airlines several years ago as a way to fill seats that might otherwise be empty on the return legs of flights bringing Mainlanders to and from Hawai'i for Christmas.
"What is hard now is the mele fares are being camouflaged by all these other specials and there has been no advertising for them," Shimamoto said.
Shimamoto said many carriers are offering other, competing heavily discounted fares to help get a jittery public to start flying again and that has cut into demand for the mele fares.
She also said the mele fares do not allow for travel during between Fridays and Sundays.
A round-trip ticket to Los Angeles on United, for example, will cost $388, up 18.3 percent from $328 a year ago. Travel to Boston or Washington, D.C. would cost $688 round trip. The prices do not include fees and taxes.
The fares must be purchased seven days in advance and require a minimum three-day stay. The trip must depart Hawai'i between Dec. 2 and 30. The fares are only good for travel between Mondays and Thursdays.
Northwest Airlines, Delta Air Lines and Continental Airlines are also offering lower fares through the holidays.
A spokesman for Continental said a round-trip fare to Los Angeles would cost $406.29. If a Honolulu passenger wanted to go to Newark, N.J., the cost would be $706.30, not including surcharges and taxes.
Aloha Airlines, which flies to Oakland and Anaheim, Calif., said it is not planning to offer special Christmas fares this year.
Hawaiian Airlines, the second-largest carrier between Hawai'i and the West Coast, said it plans to introduce special fares during the Christmas holidays.
"We will be competitive," said Keoni Wagner, a spokesman for Hawaiian Airlines.
Tom Renville, United's Hawai'i managing director, said the mele fares were designed to be the lowest prices available when they were released in September. But the terrorist attacks and shutdown of the air traffic system that followed changed all of that, he said.
"With the way things have unfolded, there are other fares out there that are lower than the mele, and people who are still flying are shopping around to find those lower fares," Renville said.
Reach Frank Cho at 525-8088, or at fcho@honoluluadvertiser.com.
