moving to where it is easier to get to Puna!

[Carey]

Paula, The Tribune-Herald had a cover story last week that ATA will be using the larger 757's soon, do to the popularity of the Oakland Hilo route, so soon the planes will be bigger!
Aloha, Carey

[Kelena]

Stopping in Honolulu (without actually seeing Honolulu) is becoming tedious. I know of the ATA flight from Oakland...have any Southern Californians found a comparable nonstop from the southland?

[Rob Tucker]

ATA has a code sharing agreement with Southwest Airlines. You can book you ticket with Southwest, get their milage points, and shuttle from LAX or Burbank to Oakland for the ATA flight to Hilo.

That's as direct as it gets until ATA (one hopes) begins service to/from Hilo/LA.

[David D]

We are using ATA for our trip this May. Even though the flight arrives a little late, the direct flight to Hilo direct is very attractive.

[Kapohocat]

quote:

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ATA has a code sharing agreement with Southwest Airlines. You can book you ticket with Southwest, get their milage points, and shuttle from LAX or Burbank to Oakland for the ATA flight to Hilo.

That's as direct as it gets until ATA (one hopes) begins service to/from Hilo/LA.

---

Thats what most of my SoCal family and friends do and they said it is fairly painless. Lets lobby Jet Blue for Hilo/Burbank or Hilo/ Long Beach. And the America West Kona/Phoenix direct is an ok flight.

[robguz]

I've done the ATA flight twice and it's very easy since I live in Oakland. Living in the Bay Area with Aloha, Hawaiian, and now ATA having flights to the Big Island and regular fare sales makes it far to easy to justify visiting again and again. My credit cards don't like it but I sure do!

[PunaPaula]

You just gotta love it when you can buy a roundtrip ticket from Hilo to Oakland for $217. ATA had a 2-day sale about a week ago for travel until the end of March and I needed to make a quick trip back to CA.....even though ATA is absolutely no frills or anything, can't beat the price. If you sign up for their miles program they will send you an email when they have a sale.

I only hope they continue flying into Hilo because I understand that many flights are only about 1/3 full.