How much time to allow at the HNL airport

[jgirvine Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close jgirvine]

We will be arriving on American Airlines. Will need to claim our luggage and then go to either the Aloha or Hawaiian check in desk. How much time should I allow? I work for American, so that is the reason for the convoluted schedule. I need to book a flight to Lihue and I have no clue how much time to allow for the transfer.
Thanks;
Ginny

[travelfan Member Find all posts View Profile Close travelfan]

Hi Ginny,
I'm the type of person that would rather sit and wait an hour than be running to catch a plane. That said, my thought is after you pick up your luggage, you need to check-in and recheck your luggage with your next airline, go through security and transfer to the inter-island terminal (ask Aloha or Hawaiian where you would check in and recheck your luggage). Personally, I would want at least 1 1/2 to 2 hours between flights. That should be enough for a possible late arrival, pick up luggage, check-in yourselves and luggage, go through security again and transfer to your departure gate. Honolulu has two terminals, international (including mainland flights) and inter-island terminal.

P.S. When you check in with American, show your connecting flight ticket and see if it is not possible to check luggage all the way through. If you did not have to go to the baggage area to pick up your luggage, you could just go the the inter-island terminal without having to go through security again. That would give you more breathing room

[Juleen Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Juleen]

We've flown American to Hawaii and they checked our luggage straight through to Kauai. Unless you have a special situation, that shouldn't be a problem. Since you haven't booked the interisland connection yet, you might ask American what interisland carriers they have baggage agreements with. As far as time, 30 minutes is considered a "legal" connection, but I'd allow at least an hour especially if you can get your luggage checked through. Let us know--you have me curious now!

[kapish Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close kapish]

• Try to check straight through to Lihue. (I think Juleen's problem is the tickets are not purchase together, so checking directly to Lihue may not be possible... for those of us who had booked to HNL on one of the main carriers and then booked seperately on another local inter-island airline- please chime in here and let us know how you had done this...)
• My recommendation is to give yourself 2 or 3 hours transit time at HNL. I had had really good luck in having the connecting airline put me in an early flight to my island destination if another flight is available.
• Have a great time in Kauai - it is our favorite!!

[T. R. Oglodyte Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close T. R. Oglodyte]

It sounds as if you are traveling on two tickets, so you also need to allow for the possibility of delays on your flight into HNL. We're in the same situation next month.

I would allow a minimum of four hours between flights. If you check in with time to spare, Aloha and Hawaiian will allow you to take any earlier flight that has available space. Your luggage will probably go to Lihue on the next available flight regardless of whether or not you are on that flight.

[Juleen Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Juleen]

Hawaiian and Aloha will allow you to take an earlier fight but the last few years it seems as if the flights are full. There is a good chance that an earlier flight will not be possible.

[Juleen Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Juleen]

TR--your cat video on your postings crack me up! We have a new half grown kitten which we adopted with the understanding that when we traveled, the cat would stay at our son's house. (Our son is president of a construction company and people dump animals in the company yard all the time). Our son has 2 big dogs and 3 large cats. We decided to take Nani (Nah nee which is Hawaiian for "Beautiful) on a trial run to see what happened as I was a wee bit concerned about those three large cats. We put Nani on the couch and the three gang member, err, large cats, strutted down the hall. Our poor little Nani made a flying leap off the couch right into the middle of them scaring the living daylights out of all three! They refused to come out until after an hour after we left! <g> Unfortunately, Nani doesn't seem to play well with others so we now have a pet sitter! <vbg>

[T. R. Oglodyte Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close T. R. Oglodyte]

Hawaiian and Aloha will allow you to take an earlier fight but the last few years it seems as if the flights are full. There is a good chance that an earlier flight will not be possible.

We're usually in Hawai'i in August - we've generally not had a problem getting an earlier flight. Sometimes we don't get the first one out, but if we miss the first we've always been able to make the next one.

We've also never had to wait for our luggage on the other hand - it either comes with us or is already there when we arrive.

[Jimbo Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Jimbo]

Kauai - Connecting via Inter Island

We were told that if you were in Hawaii then you could purchase a book of one way tickets for $60 each or so (it was over 8 years ago so maybe I'm off.) The catch was that I couldn't check the luggage all the way through and we couldn't book a flight in Hawaii. I was assured that there were flights every 1/2 hour so I waited until I got to Hawaii before I worried about our connection.

It worked great. We saved tons and the experience was fine. As I remember we pulled our luggage from the Newark flight when we landed in Honolulu. Then we went to the Inter Island carrier (Aloha?) and bought our tickets and re-checked our bags. We were out of there within 2 hours, I think. The airport is open and there was one court yard outside that we went and waited in.

We love Kauai so please post something about your vacation. Enjoy!!!