Booking & Travel Tips
Tools, portals & strategy for getting the best value
✈️ Flight Search
No direct flights from Tampa (TPA) to Hawaii. Expect 1 connection (Atlanta, Dallas, Denver, LAX, or Phoenix). Total travel time: 11–14 hours.
Google Flights: TPA → KOA (Jan 6) • Google Flights: OGG → TPA (Jan 18)
Skyscanner: TPA → KOA • Skyscanner: OGG → TPA
Inter-Island Flight
Hawaiian Airlines or Southwest fly KOA→OGG multiple times daily (~45 min, $75–150 one-way). Book flexible — weather delays happen.
🎯 Flight Planning Tips
Search Tools
- Google Flights Explorer — Best tool for cash flight searches. Use the date grid to see if flying ±2 days saves money. Set price alerts — Google notifies you when fares drop.
- Points Yeah Explorer — Best tool for mileage/points redemption searches. Free account shows award availability across airline programs. Check if your miles can get you to Hawaii for less.
Always Book Direct with the Airline
Book through the airline's own website or app — not third parties (Expedia, credit card portals, OTAs). Direct bookings give full flexibility to change, cancel, or rebook. Third-party bookings are often non-changeable or require going through the OTA for changes.
- Credit card portals don't help with award flights — Chase/Amex/Citi portals book revenue tickets, not mileage redemptions. They can't match the value of booking award seats directly through airline programs.
- When OTAs ARE okay: Simple point-to-point economy cash tickets you're unlikely to change. Portal cashback can be worth it if the ticket is cheap and inflexible anyway.
Booking Strategy
- Search Google Flights for best dates and routes
- Check Points Yeah for award redemption value
- Book direct with the airline (Hawaiian, United, Delta, American — whoever has the best routing)
- Set a Google Flights price alert in case fares drop after booking (many airlines offer price-drop protection or you can cancel within 24 hours)
💳 Points & Cashback Tips
- Rakuten — 3-8% cashback on hotel bookings, car rentals, activities
- Capital One Shopping — browser extension auto-applies coupons + earns credits
- CashBackMonitor — compare cashback rates across portals before booking
- Hilton Honors — earn 10x–20x points on direct bookings; redeem 80,000-95,000 pts/night at Hilton Waikoloa
- Capital One Venture X — $300 travel credit (Jan resets), 10x on hotels/cars through portal, Priority Pass lounges
Important: Portal cashback applies to hotels, activities, and tours only — NOT flights. See Flight Planning Tips above for why you should always book flights direct with the airline.
📱 TripIt Integration
Forward all confirmation emails to plans@tripit.com — flights, hotels, rental cars, restaurant reservations, and activity bookings will auto-populate into a single shareable itinerary. Share the trip with your travel partner for real-time updates.
🌟 Personal Recommendations
How This Works
This site loads personal recommendations from a JSON file (my-recommendations.json) via the recommendations.js script. You can also maintain a Google Sheet using the CSV format in recommendations-for-sheets.csv.
- JSON format: Each entry has a category, title, description, link, and optional tags. Edit
my-recommendations.jsondirectly to add/remove recommendations. - Google Sheets: Export from Sheets as CSV and replace
recommendations-for-sheets.csv. The JS file can parse either format. - Recommendations automatically appear on the relevant island pages based on their category/tags.