Getting to the 2008 Honolulu Regionals doesn't require breaking the bank
 

For those of you out there concerned about the travel costs to Hawaii, I'm hear to tell you that you can get round trip tickets from the East Coast all the way to our beautiful island paradise for around $500/per person.

Cross county flights into LA, Oakland, SFO and Las Vegas routinely run $99 - $129 each way/per person. West coast to Hawaii connections run $119 -$149. These are valid fares available pretty much daily on major carriers, most with only 2-week advance purchase requirements.

Check out fares from ATA, Aloha airlines, Hawaiian Airlines, Spirit, Frontier, America West and Jet Blue. Fares in and out of Oakland on ATA are DIRT cheap.

If your Team's Travel Coordinator is not afraid to go after the begging, whining and always effective crying discount, I'm sure they can get additional "concessions" and knock the price down some more. This of course, leaves more funds available for your team to island hop at $29/per person each way.

Paradise beckons.

Re: Getting to the 2008 Honolulu Regionals doesn't require breaking the bank
 

Thanks for the info!!! We have a team meeting tonight and I will surely bring this up

Re: Getting to the 2008 Honolulu Regionals doesn't require breaking the bank
 

Thanks for the info. I know that we were sitting in the stands and were amazed when they announced it.

If we can get the money hopefully we can make it down :)

Re: Getting to the 2008 Honolulu Regionals doesn't require breaking the bank
 

Wowzers... thanks for the info. Err... um... does anyone know any good websites for airfare? I can't think of any of the companies in the commercials off of the top of my head.

Good job on selling the Hawaii Regional. I'm sure teams like 234, 233, and 25 would definitely consider this regional since they've travelled all over the US in recent years.

Re: Getting to the 2008 Honolulu Regionals doesn't require breaking the bank
 

Thanks for the info., i'm gonna try and get one of my teams to go next year.

Re: Getting to the 2008 Honolulu Regionals doesn't require breaking the bank
 

www.orbitz.com

www.travelocity.com

www.expedia.com

Re: Getting to the 2008 Honolulu Regionals doesn't require breaking the bank
 

Any way of getting some advance information of where it would be held, or at least which airport to fly into and what dates??
(In talking with some of my team this past Friday night, we came across the idea that we would love it if Hawaii and Las Vegas were back to back regionals and hit up both in one long extended vacation trip. How cool would that be?)

MY team is among all the others who wish to make Hawaii a reality, and if not I would like to go myself and volunteer with some folks at least.

Either way, I want to make it out there and cross off Hawaii from my "places to visit" list one of these days,and why not during a FIRST event? :)

Re: Getting to the 2008 Honolulu Regionals doesn't require breaking the bank
 

My experience is that travelocity, expedia and orbitz don't have the fares I'm referring to. Go to the airlines directly:

ata.com
alohaairlines.com
hawaiianair.com
jetblue.com
spiritair.com
frontierairlines
usairways.com
southwest.com

- Deanna

Re: Getting to the 2008 Honolulu Regionals doesn't require breaking the bank
 

And also remember that the earlier that you make the reservations for the flights and hotel rooms and stuff the cheaper that it will be.

Also look into smaller airports like local non international ones sometimes you can get better air fares as long as you don't mind 1-3 layovers before reaching your final destination.

Re: Getting to the 2008 Honolulu Regionals doesn't require breaking the bank
 

A quick glance at Farecast (www.farecast.com) shows that fares aren't available yet for March, 2008.

www.sidestep.com is another reasonable site for checking airfares, as is www.qixo.com. Both will query multiple other websites at a time, including the airlines' own sites.

Re: Getting to the 2008 Honolulu Regionals doesn't require breaking the bank
 

Hawai’i inaugural FIRST Robotics Regional will be held March 27-29, 2008 at the University of Hawai’i Manoa’s Stan Sheriff Center. University of Hawai'i Manoa is on the island of Oahu near the downtown area in Hononlulu.

Honolulu International = HNL

If you're only planning on visiting any of the other islands (hint, hint). Then you'll want to check out these airports. Fares from Aloha Airlines, Hawaiian airlines and Go! are currently running $19/each way and up. Go's website is iflygo.com.

Lihue, Kauai pronounced Lee Who Aye = LIH
Kailua Kona, Hawaii pronounced Kai Lou Ah Cone Ah (western side of The Big Island) = KOA
Hilo, Hawaii pronounced He Low ( eastern side of The Big Island, and best place on all the islands to visit) = ITO
Kahului, Maui pronounced Kah Who Lou E= OGG

- Deanna

Re: Getting to the 2008 Honolulu Regionals doesn't require breaking the bank
 

Is there a danger of the robot not making it to Hawaii / back to the states in time if your doing a regional the week before or after the Hawaii one?

Re: Getting to the 2008 Honolulu Regionals doesn't require breaking the bank
 

There is that possibility for any regional or even the Championship event. But I think that FIRST will be handling this regional with a little better care then the rest for 2008 because of its location and the buzz surrounding it. I think that there might be a increased fee for shipping for the teams that plan to attend this regional because it will cost more to ship it but maybe I will be wrong.

Re: Getting to the 2008 Honolulu Regionals doesn't require breaking the bank
 

Hmm fly out on the 26th participate in the regional and then our spring break is the next week.....

It does present some interesting possibilities!

Re: Getting to the 2008 Honolulu Regionals doesn't require breaking the bank
 

My personal favorite is kayak.com. It basically searches a bunch of airlines websites as well as Orbitz, Travelocity, etc. It doesn't actually sell the tickets, but instead links you to the cheapest place to buy the flight you want. There are also useful tools to play with to narrow or broaden your search as you see fit. By creating a login, you can have it email you when a given trip drops below a certain price, which could be useful when say; you want to book a flight to Hawaii when the price is below $400. It obviously doesn't include all airlines and websites out there, but I have been satisfied every time I use it.