Hawaiian Airlines announced that it would be increasing the base fare price on it’s interisland flights from $49 to $54. This is for one-way tickets.

This news of fare increases is coming on the heels of news that Mesa Airlines, the parent company of the low fare competitor of interisland flights go! airlines, will pay Hawaiian Airlines $52.5 million. This was from the settlement last year that claimed that Mesa used confidential information to enter the market of interisland travel when it was thinking about helping Hawaiian out a few years back.

These prices are for off-peak flights and don’t include increase to peak flights, which I think everyone can agree have slowly been going up. It will be interesting to see how go! reacts to the news and if they can survive after having to pay Hawaiian. The fact that Aloha Airlines is closed may help the two airlines stay in business but Mesa is having it’s own troubles losing contracts with companies like Delta on mainland based flights.

Only time will tell if we’re to continue to see price increases and eventually have to pay more than we should on interisland flights. Maybe these companies should hang out with the CEO of southwest and see how they offer such cheap flights. (Although $54 one way isn’t too bad either.)

The Hawaii Superferry has been in local news for over a year. The main topic of choice has been to write about how the company was able to start operation even without doing an environmental impact study. Or how people tried to stop the vessel from entering one port or the other.

But this article isn’t about that. This one is about how the Superferry is actually making runs between Oahu and Maui, taking passengers and their vehicles on the trips between Honolulu Harbor and Kahului. Tickets still cost only $39, an offer that will continue through June 5th, for one way per passenger on a trip that takes just under four hours.

Vehicles will run you another $55 each way which brings the total for two people back and forth between the islands, $266. Considering that plane fares look like they’re going to continue to rise with rising gas prices and Aloha Airlines closing its doors, if the price of the voyage doesn’t rise drastically, this may be a decent alternative.

But now onto the good news. In addition to traveling everyday, leaving Honolulu at 6:30 am, arriving Maui at 10:15 am, then doing the return leaving at 11:15 arriving in Honolulu at 2:15, the Hawaii Superferry will increase routes and run another round trip on Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

The second trip will leave Honolulu Harbor at 3:30 pm, arrive Maui at 7:00 pm then leave Kahului at 8:00 pm and finally return back to Honolulu Harbor at 11:00 pm. This schedule will begin on May 9th, 2008. This may mean that the Superferry is doing well, but I haven’t heard much. The ship still takes gas so I can’t imagine it’s immune to the rise in gas prices. Do we think it can sustain the $39 and be competitive?

Has anyone been on the Superferry? Any pictures, any opinions? Is it crowded? Are they doing well? Let us know if you have any scoops.

You can check out the Superferry website here

While Oahu has Hanauma Bay and Shark’s Cove which are some of the best snorkeling destinations in the islands, some would even say in the world, Maui has more remote snorkeling, less people and newer reefs.

When I was asked to do this sponsored posted, as usual, I wanted to see if our readers would benefit from knowing about snorkeling on Maui. Turns out, I’m benefiting too, as I will most likely try out this service the next time I travel to Maui.

The service is the Pride of Maui, a 65 foot catamaran that can hold up to 149 people and cruises around Maui and some of the best snorkeling and scenic destinations. The catamaran takes people to Molokini, which I’m told, has the best snorkeling in the islands with massive amounts of diverse underwater species. It also has cruises to other random Maui locations for snorkleing, sunset cruises, and whale watching is the season is right.

The boat offers an onboard grill, bar, and all the accomodations you’d need on a day long snorkel adventure. It also has snuba which is where you access oxygen through a long tube that goes to the surface, allowing you to snorkel in deeper sections of the ocean without lugging around all the scuba gear. Or getting trained in scuba.

If you want to see Maui, both above and below the ocean, the Pride of Maui seems to have everything. The next time I’m on Maui I’ll check it out for our readers and have more to report, and if you’re heading off to Maui and try our the catamaran cruise, let us know what you think.

A federal judge ruled today for Hawaiian Airlines. Mesa, the parent company of go! Airlines was told today they would need to pay Hawaiian Airlines $80 million for mis-using confidential bankruptcy information to gain a competitive advantage over other inter-island carriers.

This could mean the price of interisland flights will increase back to pre-go! days. If that’s so, which Hawaiian Airlines CEO has said will happen to interisland flight prices that could mean good news for the Hawaii Superferry depending on how it’s travel schedule pans out. Either way, cheap flights may be a thing of the past if this ruling holds.

Mesa has yet to comment on how the ruling will affect go! Airlines inter-island travel.

In an article over at Star Bulletin we read some quotes that we thought might interest some interisland travelers.

The quotes came from Hawaiian Airlines top dog, CEO and President Mark Dunkerley as he explained to a backruptcy judge what would happen if go! airlines were to leave interisland travel. The article states that he says his “company would return to pricing air tickets reasonably to cover the actual costs of transportation.”

Now we don’t know how much the increase would be but we would imagine our days of $19 flights, just announced this morning would be long gone.

The news comes as go! airlines battles it’s lawsuit from Hawaiian Airlines which could cost Mesa Air (go!’s parent company) $173 million and bar them from selling tickets in the islands for one year.

Who knows what will happen but it sounds like you should think about getting your interisland travel in soon.

It’s that time again. The airlines are battling for your business.

go! airlines and Hawaiian airlines are offering one-way interisland flights for $19. You have to fly between now and November 30th and you must purchase your ticket by 11:59 pm tonight.

Get em fast because probably by the time I’m done typing this half of the flights will be gone.

Are you looking to head over to Kauai in the near future? Finding a decent priced hotel room, condo, or rental house on that Island can be daunting. Staying in Poipu and you’ll pay a ton. Staying in Hanalei and you’ll pay a ton. Staying in Princeville and you’ll pay 2 tons!

Face it. Unless you stay at the Tip Top Motel (been there done that) you need to know someone with a timeshare, or pay the price. A hefty price. That’s why when I was asked to write this sponsored review about a Princeville Resort website I jumped on the chance.

The site is nice, uses good pictures, easy to get around and tells you the deals right on the front page. As I write this the front page says you can get Princeville condo rentals from $140 a night. That’s a great deal for those of you who haven’t searched around Kauai for a cheap place to stay. When we were on the island not to long back hotel rooms at most of the resorts started at $400 a night. And the cheaper places were still well over $250. (And the cheaper places aren’t as fun as Princeville)

The site splits up the listings into condos and vacation homes. Full of pictures and good descriptions, it should make choosing a place to stay much easier. Another nice thing is the prices are right there for you to see. No hiding the price until you inquire, as some do.

Lastly, the site also gives you a few pointers on where to go and what to see with beach reviews and golf course reviews and descriptions. So if you’re heading out to Kauai soon and want to stay somewhere nice without all the cost, check out the site and let us know what you think of the service in a comment below.

For one day only Aloha Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines, and go! Airlines will be offering one-way $9 inter-island flights. You must purchase tickets by midnight tonight, so if you’re reading this, you’re already on your computer, head over to one of those airlines sites and book!

The only catch is that the flight must occur by the end of the year. 3 airlines, 4 more months? That’s a lot of flights to choose from and it appears they’re going to be offering a lot of flights open to this new value (although that usually is never the case so we won’t hold our breath over here.)

A couple weeks ago, I watched the Hawaii Super Ferry, Alakai (which means “ocean path” in Hawaiian) coming in, from the Ala Moana Beach Park. It was a pretty amazing sight, and I could tell that people around me were getting excited too. Today, Hawaii Super Ferry hosted a free tour of the ferry for 4000 lucky individuals (wish I was there too…). Many visitors seemed to like the amenitites they provide, and the vessel seemed very comfortable. If you were not one of those lucky people who got to preview the ferry today, don’t worry. Hawaii Super Ferry is planning to set up more free tours in the near future, and those dates will be announced soon. I did sign up for their newsletter, so I will keep everyone posted about the dates. Or you can sign up yourself as well.

I didn’t know that you could pay extra $20 for an access to the first class lounge (Hahalua Lounge). You can have wider reclining seats not to mention a free drink and snack. Since it takes about 3 hours to either Maui or Kaui from Oahu, $20 is definitely worth it.

They already started taking reservations for the travel dates between September 5th and January 15th. However, the Super Ferry expects to have their inaugrual service sooner than that, possibly sometime in August. They still need to complete crew and staff training, route familiarization, and final U.S. Coast Guard certification to begin their services. They are offering daily routes to Kaui and Maui from Oahu. Once the second ferry arrives in 2009, we will be able to take the ferry to the Big Island as well. When you make a reservation, remember that 14-day advance purchase web fares are $8 cheaper than the normal fares. The fares are also $10 cheaper if you travel between Tuesday and Thursday. Oh, don’t try to get to the terminal too late since they will close the terminal 30 minutes prior to a departure.

It is true that nowadays we can get unreasonably cheap airfares for interisland traveling in the mist of the fare wars among three island airlines. However, with the declining quality of airline services, I expect that the Super Ferry will make a pretty significant impact on interisland traveling. Of course, there will be a time when we need to get to outer islands faster, but if you do have some time to spare to breathe fresh salty air, Hawaii Super Ferry will be a wonderful option to have.

So are you intrigued? Here is the story done by KGMB that you can watch to get further insight on Hawaii Super Ferry. Enjoy.

Watching the news this morning before going to work, I was surprised to hear another interisland price war among the 3 major interisland airlines. Today, Hawaiian, Aloha and go! Airlines are offering a $19 one way ticket to the interislands as long as your purchase the ticket today.

What are the restrictions for such a low price? Well, the ticket must be purchase today on the respective internet site, and the fares are only good for travel from now until July 12th. The only problem is that we don’t know how many seats are good for this $19 fare. As with the $2 fare offered by go! Airlines, there were only a few seats available for each flight out.

So if you are planning on flying to the interislands soon, maybe for July 4th, or just because, make sure you log on to each airlines’ respective website and book your trip today. Seeing how go! Airlines’ website crashed during their $2 special, the sooner you book, the better.

I just can’t see how any of these airlines make any money. The only thing I can see from the price war is to take the hit now, commit customers to their airline, and bankrupt the opposing airlines. Otherwise, strategically, this will only make them lose more and more money. Oh well, I guess at least it’s good for us. Take advantage of it while you can!