Expert: Stephen Tanenbaum - 12/29/2004

Question
My husband and I are planning to fly to Maui at the end of March. Can you tell me if there is a better time to purchase the air tickets? They have decreased a little since before Christmas and I'm wondering if they will go down more after the first of the year or if I should get them now. Thanks!

Answer
In addition to your web search, which I presume was a thorough one, I suggest you buy next weeks Sunday New York and/or L.A. Times. Both of these Sunday Travel sections are the best in the U.S. and often have great deals on low cost airline tickets.  

I do not know of any better time to buy tickets. Prices vary, as you know, and usually hit the high mark at peak and holiday seasons. I note that Easter falls on March 27th and tickets at that time, including the week prior to Easter and week of Easter are usually peak priced.(3/19-4/3).

Let me know if you have other Maui related questions. We are licensed ‘inn keepers' on Maui and have visited 30+ times since the early 80's, most recently two months ago. It may be you too have enjoyed many visits to America's paradise. I also assume your lodging is taken care of so that you can not take advantage of bargain air fares tied into low cost air/land/car rental packages.   

I should add that we use Free flights to Maui via our favorite, the American AAdvantage   program. If you are not enjoying such free flights you probably should be. Let me know if you have any questions about free award travel.

Here are three of our October Maui pix archived in my favorite Cyber picture storage web site. Just cut and paste this address. It is very easy to create and share Image Event albums. And no commercial ads etc. though Image Event does charge a nominal yearly fee. Happy Travels.

http://imageevent.com/worldromer/brendarecentmauipix