A Hawaii vacation in 2020 doesn't seem as difficult as it did in 2002. Is it just me?
My first trip to Hawaii was in December 2002. I was age 23, my younger brother was age 21 and my parents paid. Airbnb did not exist there wasn't much choice on flights.
My parents were in the 200K to 300K income bracket at the time. They were at the peak of their earning years, but also put in a ton of hours. The Hawaii vacation was framed to us as something that you can only do once every 5 years. It is not a vacation that is possible every year. We spent 4 days on Maui and 3 days on Kauai. We flew from Chicago, IL to LAX to Honolulu to Maui. On the flight back it was Kauai to Honolulu to LAX to Chicago. I think we had a 3-5 hour layover at LAX both times. We had a great time, but my impression was that it was very expensive and difficult travel.
Fast forward to 2020. A couple weeks ago, I booked my own family trip to Kauai (Hawaii). Many of you know that I used to live there (Kauai). We bought a house and kept it. We are going to be staying at our house when we have a turn-over of tenants.
Our flights are on Southwest. Round trip airfare from Denver to Kauai is $375 with a 75 minute layover in Oakland. On, the way back we have a 3 hour layover in San Jose. There was a flight option with a 85 minute layover, but it was $50 more and it didn't seem worth it. My wife, son and her parents are staying 14 days. I have to get back to work, so I am only staying 5 days. My total flight was $511 because on the flight back to Denver, I'm flying direct from Kauai to Denver on United (no connection).
Yes we have a free place to stay, but even if we didn't, I'm pretty confident that I could find a good deal on airbnb, which didn't exist in 2002. Now with Southwest flying to Hawaii, the cost of airfare has really gone down. I paid $379 for a one-way direct flight from Kauai to Denver. Before Southwest, I think it used to cost $600. I have now seen it as cheap as $316 (one-way). Many different flights to choose from with great connection times (90 minutes or less).
A Hawaii vacation in 2020 doesn't seem as difficult as it did in 2002. Is it just me?