DIY is cheaper

Hi there

After some advice. As you may know we are planning a trip to LA and Maui next summer.
I have been getting packaged quotes from several companies including VH and Charter travel.
I have had quotes ranging from 6 to 8k for 14 nights travelling EC and staying at the Hyatt Regency on Maui :0 . This doesn't even include direct flights from LAX to OGG...

There are 3 of us travelling so I knew it was going to be pricey but keep thinking for the same cost we could do a lot better
Anyway have started looking at DIY options. No not swimming the Atlantic and Pacific )
Today I put together all the components and it came to £5800 with PE flights to LAX and Direct flights with AA to OGG.
The only downside is that we have to pay upfront, whereas a TA would take deposits with the balance due 3 months before travel.

The advice I need is regarding MPM PE flights. Today for our dates they are coming up at £983 each plus 7.5k miles, I only have about 30k miles so cannot get reward flights. Anyway they are unlikely to be available as we are travelling in August.

Will the MPM flights go up in price as we get closer to the date ? I checked various dates in Aug and Sept next year and the price is always the same, is there a standard price ?

I do have a companion flight vouchers with the black Amex card but cannot see that this will be of any use as there are 3 of us and the flex fare will be ££££ !

Any advice very gratefully received

L2H

MPM fares may go up or down in price they may also become unavailable as there are only a set number of MPM fares available on each flight.

The other thing I'd add is that you should consider the 'true' miles cost of a MPM fare - in that not only are you directly spending 7500 miles for a PE return, but you're also not earning the miles (or tier points) that you would get from a pure cash flight.

May not be an issue for you if you're not interested in accumulating more miles, but for me, it's generally the killer blow in seeing MPM as any sort of good value option, given that the actual cash reduction is often pretty small, or may even be negative if you get a sale priced fare.

Oh, and sorry, we don't know when the next sale will be

Not sure of your travel plans but be careful of the connections if you are booking them seperatly (ie not on one ticket) because if any of the inbounds are late and you are on seperate tickets neither airline is obligated to rebook you.

You may have alrady factored that into yout plans though.

Thanks all.
Ratechaser - Not bothered about miles or TP as am not a frequent flyer these days, but through use of the Amex card I manage to rack up a small amount of miles.

Tontybear - good point, our onward to OGG is after 4 nights in LA and on the return we have a 1 night stopover in LA to avoid any issues... Fingers crossed !!!!

How much £ is MPM saving you over a straight cash PE K fare?

Well only about £300 in total but still a saving .

I do have a companion flight vouchers with the black Amex card but cannot see that this will be of any use as there are 3 of us and the flex fare will be ££££ !

Any advice very gratefully received

L2H

Actaully the one time the companion fare is IMHO of use is when used with an S fare. There needs to be availability in a P class fare for the companion ( this has replaced the old U class fare). The wretched taxes / fees etc would still need to be paid for the companion but you'll earn miles and TPs on the paid fare. Having just done a dummy booking for next August( there seems to be P availability on a few dates) the cash cost for an S and U is working out at just shy of £2,000 so much the same as a MPM fare. Personally I can't see a sale fare to LAX in PE being less than £1000 in August and as already said there are only a set number of MPM fares.
You also need to think about the OGG flights - the longer you leave booking these the more expensive they'll get (my Hawaii flights went up rapidly just after I booked :0 ).
It's all a bit of a lottery with flight prices but still infinitely cheaper doing it yourself .
DL

DL - thanks that's very helpful. I want to book ASAP , just need to get CFO (aka hubby) to approve costs

If you have a companion ticket you could get an 'S' class ticket in P/E and use the companion ticket against that and then another 'K' class ticket.

That way you buy an 'S' and a 'K' and get a 'free' ticket ('free' except for APD / Fuel surcharges etc etc etc etc etc)

I think the 'S' is about the only fare class that is worthwhile on the Companion ticket.

PS - Dragon Lady beat me to it

DL - thanks that's very helpful. I want to book ASAP , just need to get CFO (aka hubby) to approve costs

You're welcome . The CFO just needs to know who's the boss in matters like this . Plus, it's a bargain . Just look at what you've saved doing it yourself !!
DL

It's all a bit of a lottery with flight prices but still infinitely cheaper doing it yourself .

Often, but not always. At the time I booked it, our St Lucia trip this summer was cheaper booked via VH than via an independent VS and hotel bookings.

It's all a bit of a lottery with flight prices but still infinitely cheaper doing it yourself .

Often, but not always. At the time I booked it, our St Lucia trip this summer was cheaper booked via VH than via an independent VS and hotel bookings.

Sometimes yes ( I've experienced the same phenomena on one trip to Barbados), but I was specifically referring to this scenario as the OP has already gotten quotes that range from 6-8K for the same trip as a package ( travelling in economy as opposed to PE).
DL

Thanks again VFlyer family

Looks like a good set of options have been laid out to ya. Will just echo what DL said earlier about the S class ticket being the best use for a companion. It is y)

In my opinion MPM fares are not the best use of miles as you give a lot, reduce the fare a little and make nothing back n( n(

Do you have any economy-premium economy reward vouchers from your black amex? If so there is a way one of them could be of great use to get the three of you into PE using the companion too. S class with companion - 2 of you.. Reward fare in Economy round trip use the voucher to upgrade the number 3 to PE - you would need to buy 17,500 more miles working from the 30K you have. Better than MPM :w

I usually find there is saving to be had booking outside of tour operators. I have always found it cheaper to book directly with the airlines, whether VS or not ii) as for the hotels... I take note of any savings offered by the tour companies, call the hotels directly and in my experience they have either matched the price or bettered it, so I can highly recommend looking at booking the things individually.

Finally, hope you enjoy your holiday 8D

Sometimes yes ( I've experienced the same phenomena on one trip to Barbados), but I was specifically referring to this scenario as the OP has already gotten quotes that range from 6-8K for the same trip as a package ( travelling in economy as opposed to PE).

Ah, ok....

£983 to LA was roughly what the sale fare in PE was when the sale was on last month.

Try somewhere like bestattravel. They will tailor a holiday like that and if you time it when a sale is on you will get those fares through them and also have the advantage of ABTA backing and payment options.

Each year I go to Dubai and price up the plane, transfers and hotel for myself and them see what they can do and its normally so close it makes sense to get them to do it all etc.

Unless you are paying well over the odds, or able to utilise frequent flyer miles, always book such an intricate, and expensive package through an ATOL protected tour operator. There is so much can go wrong such as missed connections, strikes, airlines going bust and even volcanic ash clouds. With a protected package it's the sole suppliers responsibility to fix problems.. If you go down the DIY route you are on your own. Also a good travel professional can often come up with alternative routings and suggestions that can improve your trip and save you all the time and hassle of DIY. If you have to pay a bit more to get someone to do all the work and give you total protection it's well worth it!

Looks like a good set of options have been laid out to ya. Will just echo what DL said earlier about the S class ticket being the best use for a companion. It is y)

In my opinion MPM fares are not the best use of miles as you give a lot, reduce the fare a little and make nothing back n( n(

Do you have any economy-premium economy reward vouchers from your black amex? If so there is a way one of them could be of great use to get the three of you into PE using the companion too. S class with companion - 2 of you.. Reward fare in Economy round trip use the voucher to upgrade the number 3 to PE - you would need to buy 17,500 more miles working from the 30K you have. Better than MPM :w

I usually find there is saving to be had booking outside of tour operators. I have always found it cheaper to book directly with the airlines, whether VS or not ii) as for the hotels... I take note of any savings offered by the tour companies, call the hotels directly and in my experience they have either matched the price or bettered it, so I can highly recommend looking at booking the things individually.

Finally, hope you enjoy your holiday 8D

Thanks for that, have done something similar before when the 3 of us travelled to ORD last year and MCO in Feb.
I do have 2 of the vouchers but now that our son is at school we are restricted to school hols, and I don't think we will get reward flights when we want them.
I am assuming I would need 2 to be available in PE, one for the companion and one fo the voucher upgrade, plus a miles fare in EC to start with ?
Would probably involve a call to the FC, will save that for a day when I can hang on the phone for a while xx(

Thanks for that, have done something similar before when the 3 of us travelled to ORD last year and MCO in Feb.
I do have 2 of the vouchers but now that our son is at school we are restricted to school hols, and I don't think we will get reward flights when we want them.
I am assuming I would need 2 to be available in PE, one for the companion and one fo the voucher upgrade, plus a miles fare in EC to start with ?
Would probably involve a call to the FC, will save that for a day when I can hang on the phone for a while xx(

Actually I believe that you may be able to get away with 2 x 'P' fares and an 'S' fare roundtrip into LAX. The question mark is whether you need to nab a T (Eco reward fare) first and then upgrade to the P (PE reward fare) with one of the vouchers- you won't actually be using the T so it may be one of those things you can skip over with the assistance of FC ii) - usually though if there is PE reward availability there should be Eco too, hopefully.

If you manage to snag all the reward seats you need, I think this will come out the cheapest option too :w

As others have said, nothing like a bit of consumer protection, but given you have at least a day on the flight transfers you should be fine, barring an act of God incident - which most don't cover anyway With package holidays you still have to pay for everything up front whereas booking hotels and transfers separately gives you a lot more flexibility if circumstances change.. Hotels for example are charged on checkout and most with 48hrs notice (sometimes less) give refunds in full for cancellations!! Good luck getting that from a tour operator - yes I had a bad experience with Thomas Cook once upon a time :w

A bit more of a hand on the rudder granted but I think that just adds to the fun, no? 8D

The question mark is whether you need to nab a T (Eco reward fare) first and then upgrade to the P (PE reward fare) with one of the vouchers

If you're looking to use the upgrade voucher there only needs to be availability in P (despite what FC may tell you ).
DL

Thanks for that, have done something similar before when the 3 of us travelled to ORD last year and MCO in Feb.
I do have 2 of the vouchers but now that our son is at school we are restricted to school hols, and I don't think we will get reward flights when we want them.
I am assuming I would need 2 to be available in PE, one for the companion and one fo the voucher upgrade, plus a miles fare in EC to start with ?
Would probably involve a call to the FC, will save that for a day when I can hang on the phone for a while xx(

Actually I believe that you may be able to get away with 2 x 'P' fares and an 'S' fare roundtrip into LAX. The question mark is whether you need to nab a T (Eco reward fare) first and then upgrade to the P (PE reward fare) with one of the vouchers- you won't actually be using the T so it may be one of those things you can skip over with the assistance of FC ii) - usually though if there is PE reward availability there should be Eco too, hopefully.

If you manage to snag all the reward seats you need, I think this will come out the cheapest option too :w

As others have said, nothing like a bit of consumer protection, but given you have at least a day on the flight transfers you should be fine, barring an act of God incident - which most don't cover anyway With package holidays you still have to pay for everything up front whereas booking hotels and transfers separately gives you a lot more flexibility if circumstances change.. Hotels for example are charged on checkout and most with 48hrs notice (sometimes less) give refunds in full for cancellations!! Good luck getting that from a tour operator - yes I had a bad experience with Thomas Cook once upon a time :w

A bit more of a hand on the rudder granted but I think that just adds to the fun, no? 8D

LOL, yes am definitely more a hand on the rudder type of girl, much prefer to book things myself and have all the booking refs for seat requests etc ):
I find dealing with TAs very time consuming, you ask for a quote and they don't even tell you that flying a day later might save you £££, !

The question mark is whether you need to nab a T (Eco reward fare) first and then upgrade to the P (PE reward fare) with one of the vouchers

If you're looking to use the upgrade voucher there only needs to be availability in P (despite what FC may tell you ).
DL

y) y) Thanks DL, was not 100% positive on that one, didn't want to convey incorrect advice oo)

How do people go about hunting down a 'good travel agent'? Do you go for independent agents or the high street names like Kuoni, Trailfinders etc?

How do people go about hunting down a 'good travel agent'? Do you go for independent agents or the high street names like Kuoni, Trailfinders etc?

Try looking in the Trip Advisor forum for where ever you intend going and see if there are any experiences/recommendations there.