Then Hawaiian Airlines are a VS partner for the trip across the water the other side. AA and UA both price cheaper, but if you want the miles/TP's [:w]
Hi Decker, Either one sounds good to me; if the prices are similar (Paul?) perhaps you'd be influenced by aircraft type? Given the length of the trip I'd be tempted to take the 744 LGW/LAS. The other advantage is that while you are changing planes, you can drop some $$ in the slots and win enough on Wheel ... of ... Fortune!!! to pay for a good meal on Maui![^]
BTW, when you're ready to go I have a couple of restaurant and tour recommendations for you if you like.
Thanks peeps! We're looking at it for January - basically one of the gurus in our field is based down there so we're looking at spending a weekend at his feet while he dispenses pearls of wisdom
LAS would make a nice stop over if you are allowed one. HA flight to HNL is either at 10 ish in the morning or in the middle of the night so its will be a long transit time from the VS flight which gets in at 1pm-ish. The good bit is that both HA and VS fly in/out of T2. However there is nothing much in T2 (most flights use T1) so dont think it is a good idea to hang around for too long a time.
HA food is great especially if you fly in F. Beef melts in your mouth which is rare for most restaurant much less planes. Recline is not that good. You get an interesting digi-player for entertainment in F which is rentable in Y. However, the airline takes this away a full hour before landing and this is only a 5 hour flight.
LAS flights also tend to be more expensive than LAX and SFO flights given there is no other airline competing for this flight.
United and AA fly direct from LAX/SFO to Maui but on a smaller 757 about once a day. Most other flights are via Honolulu. VS will let you connect on the Maui flights via LAX with AA and via SFO with United. However as most Maui/HNL flight lands early morning, you will have a long lay-over on the way back. You can also work flights with Delta but the timings may not be as good.
My preference is an overnight lay-over in LAS to break the journey.
If ya more interested in the points you could use the CO to Houston then I think they have a direct Maui flight from there, plus there first service is the international BizFirst seat.