My family and I are traveling to Hawaii in October and flying on UAL. Our return flight leaves Kona at 3pm for Honolulu, then at 10pm for Denver. We would like to get on an earlier flight so we can visit Pearl Harbor. However United will charge us $100/ticket to change this leg of the flight.

My thought is to book an earlier flight on Aloha and skip our booked flight. But I am worried that that will mess with the HON-DEN flight. Does anyone have any advice for me? I haven't called UAL yet because--like many of you--I DREAD speaking to the overseas reps!

Thanks, Kris

I am pretty sure missing the first part of your return flight will indeed jepordize your HNL DEN flight. Call UAL to confirm; don't take any chances with any [including mine] replies you get on here. IMHO

Not showing up for the first leg will result in cancellation of the rest of your flights. Not a good idea. I'm not aware of any exceptions to this. If a UA rep tells you different, get it in writing.

to avoid the $100/ticket change try to show up at the airport for the earlier flight and ask to be waitlisted with no change on your ticket. If they have seats they will check you in also for the second flight HNL-DEN.
Then you take your time for the Pearl Harbour visit.

I have never seen airline staff to refuse passengers on empty seats on earlier flights.

At least you can try !!

Thanks for the replies! Right now I will take Fabio's advice of going to the airport for an earlier flight on waitlist. If we don't get on that flight, maybe the airline can get us on another. There are tons of the KOA-HNL flights. And plenty to do on the BI otherwise!

Thanks again!

we flew San Francisco to KOA. We rented a car in KOA and dropped it off in Hilo airport 5 days later, then we flew Hilo-HNL. If the earlier flight KOA-HNL is fully booked, then ask the airline for availability Hilo-HNL.
Alamo usually does not charge additional fees for dropp of in another location

I am trying to help you, but am a bit confused. Exactly which airline is flying you from KOA to HNL? Is it a UAL flight or is it an ALOHA flight?

Also, how many of you will be needing to get on an earlier flight standby? That might make a difference.

How are you flying your trip? Are you flying DEN to HNL and then continuing on to KOA immediately after arrriving in HNL? Maybe you could delay flying into KOA and see Pearl Harbor when you first arrive in HNL?

Another thought - assuming you are flying on Aloha [or other local carrier but NOT UAL] from HNL to KOA; did UAL book the all of the flights and are the on 1 ticket? If you have a DEN HNL DEN ticket and another ticket HNL KOA HNL that YOU booked yourself on Aloha, you can change that interisland flight for far less than $100 -- I think it is at least half that amount.

Another thought is that if you go to KOA airport early to try and get on standby; you might have to waste a lot of usable, precious last day on BI time to hang at a very tiny airport on the hopes of making flight earlier. Wouldn't better to spend the day doing something fun on BI that sit in airport?

Also, have you thought about this -- you have to get to Pearl Harbour very early to get in line to get the tour tickets. We were there by 7:30 am to ensure we got in, which we did. [Oct 06]

If you were lucky enough to get a 7 am [which means getting up at what time?? to check out, get to airport and do all that stuff] flight out of KOA, by the time you land, gather your luggage, get a taxi dragging all you stuff with you and get to Pearl Harbor and get on line to securea tour ticket; it may be just too late to get one. Oh, and you will have to go an check all your luggage as it can't go with you.

Not trying to scare you, but you need to think of the reality of what you want to do.

If it were me and I really wanted to see Pearl Harbour [and I did and it left me awestruck as did the incredible tour of the Missouri next door] I would fly out of KOA the day before, stay overnight in HNL and go EARLY to Pearl and get those tickets to be sure we could get in.

Last thought -- yes, it will cost you $100 a ticket to make change with UAL [possibly less if its with Aloha] but I am betting you are already spending ALOT for this trip.. so really what's another $100 per person. Suck it up as part of the cost. I assume that this is your first trip to HI. It was ours, and I did not make all the right choices at first and then had to pay some change fees once I got a better feeling for the layout of the islands, what was important to us. Next time, I'll do better!
[I assume your flights are booked? Don't be surprised to find time of flights will change between now and then. It may not be a big change, but it most likely will happend, did to us a couple of time on AA. I booked interisland flights myself and one of AA changes, would have caused us to miss flight to MAui. I got Aloha to change w/out fee by pleading it was AA fault. Normally AA would pick that cost up, but because I booked the interisland myself, AA wouldn't. But Aloha was nice enough to not charge me, but they did say they would charge me for any other changes $20 each I think.
Hope this helps...
Debi

Debi--thanks for the info and a different insight. My DH and I went to the BI a year and half ago as an anniversary trip, now we are taking our 2 sons (age 9 & 5) to the BI, flying in and out of Denver. On our previous trip we flew KOA-LAX-DEN, but with the boys, we wanted the KOA-HNL-DEN return flight, so they could sleep the whole way home.

I booked the flight about a month ago thru UAL because it was showing the flights we wanted were filling up fast, and we are also traveling with another family of four and wanted to be on the same flights. At that time, I didn't realize that Pearl Harbor consisted of a separate tour and visitors center. So even if we only see the visitors center this time, that would be okay too. I am positive that we will be back to Hawaii in the next few years, and the boys will probably appreciate it more then anyway.

DH and I have already decided we could split the flight to HNL if we needed to. He could take one son and I'd take the other if the flights were only and hour or two apart. And since its a connecting flight with UAL, I am assuming that we wouldn't have to worry about our luggage.

Like I said, if we don't get the Pearl Harbor tour, we can find a lot to do. Its just a little bonus to get to another island!

Our flight home doesn't leave until 10 pm, so that leaves us with a lot of time. If you have any suggestions (other then Pearl Harbor), I am always open! It doesn't have to be a beach since we'll be coming off a week on the BI. And I have focused most of my research on BI, and haven't really looked into anything near HNL.

Thanks for everyone's wise words! K