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Hey all I really need some help. I'm a new be and I'm trying to get my parents to hawaii from New York. I work for America West Airlines and was wondering if someone can PLEASE explain Zed fares to me because I really dont want them to get stuck on the island, I heard its really hard to get out of there and was recommended to buy Zed tickets. http://www.nonrev.net/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif
-TOny-
Well, ZED and "don't...get stuck" have nothing to do with each other. ZED = Zonal Employee Discount. Destinations are grouped by zone and charge a flat fee based on distance. Different carriers have different pricing plans for nonrevs. A couple of examples in addition to ZED might be: ID90, ID75, ID100 indicates the discount amount off the full unrestricted fare. Another, service charge passes, are set $ amounts regardless of destination. All of which are space-a and all of which can be bumped. Again, each airline can be different. Check your pass bureau/staff travel office for information on your specific agreements.
The best chances to nonrev from the mainland to Hawai'i are January (after New Years) and early February, September/October after Labor Day is done and school has started. September/October represents what historically is the slowest season for Hawai'i. This is time of the year usually offers a better chance and interline discounts at hotels are better and more prevalent.
As for flights, this would depend on what agreements you have with other carriers. The best option might be EWR to HNL nonstop on CO. (I have no idea how loads tend to run throughtout the year). Most major hubs in the U.S. offer at least 1 daily flight, again depending on your agreements. My recommendation to most people is to try LAX if you have limited options. Order them several backup passes (you can refund what they don't use). From LAX you have UA, AA, NW, TZ, HA and several charters. LAX has more flights to the islands than all other airports in the country combined.
We just returned from HNL this morning. We flew AA nonstop from ORD last Thursday and returned on their overnight last night. Over the years we've sucessfully non-rev'd to Hawai'i a couple of times a year. Holidays are probably the worst time to try, you can count on being bumped. June is terrible, shool is out and people are taking their first summer vacation. I've sucessfully done it in June but I'll never try again. It took me 3 days! The only reason I did this foolish thing was to attend a wedding I had committed to several months earlier.
Another thing I would do is use the "Find" feature on the tool bar at the top of this page. Just type in "Hawaii" and it will search all of our threads. This question comes up several times a year and keeps getting rehashed over and over.
However, if you have any further questions just ask.
Hey Redeye,
I also work for America West, at the corp. office in Tempe.
I'd suggest you put your parents on either the JFK-LAX nonstops, or route them through Phoenix to LAX, then follow Randy's advice above. We fly from both JFK and EWR to PHX, with tons of PHX-LAX flights daily. You should have access to PBT's through Compass; if you don't know what that means, send me a PM and I'll explain. I can also help look up how things look from there.
We do have a codeshare with Hawaiian, although it doesn't really help us too much with standby. The people I work with have said they are good to deal with though, and will tell you how many seats are left.
Where are you based? Just curious. Let me know if you need more help.
A few people I know have used Aloha through SNA with good luck; anyone else use them?
Aloha from SNA is pretty good.
Aloha from San Diego is great too.
There's four flights from SNA (2 HNL, 2 OGG), and two from SAN (1 HNL, 1 OGG).