Airfares From The Bay Area To Hawaii Increase By 50%

I wasn’t actually looking for his story or even one similar, but when I read this article in the San Jose Mercury News, it sparked another issue that may be happening sooner than we think. For those of you like myself, who use air miles, this article should raise your brow because I wonder how long it will be before Hawaii is taken off the air miles list.

The article from SJMN states that:

Hawaii, which depends heavily on California visitors, has seen a huge plunge in tourism fueled by sharp fare increases since the bankruptcies two months ago of its two key links to the Bay Area, Aloha and ATA airlines. Air travel to the islands from California dropped about 25 percent in April, compared to a year earlier, according to data made public this week by Hawaiian tourism officials. It fell nearly 8 percent from all other destinations.

The price of tickets to Hawaii from the Bay Area has shot up about 50 percent, while fares to Hawaii from all U.S. destinations have increased 25 percent, according to Farecast.com. All U.S. air fares generally are up 20 percent from a year ago.

But it was this line that caught my attention:

Some experts said airlines see little economic benefit in adding flights to Hawaii because many vacationers, instead of paying to get there, use their accumulated frequent-flier miles.

I am one of those fliers. Last year when my wife and I went to Kona, we used our freebie miles to make the trip. I’m sure not going to use those precious miles to fly to Detroit! No offense to my Michigan friends. But it doesn’t make sense to use your air miles for short flights in the 48 states.

I wouldn’t be surprised if we don’t start seeing restrictions on air miles and how we use them.

Lucky me. I got United air miles who seems reluctant to add flights because of the current economic situation.

Comments welcome.

Source.