First Class on Interisland - avoids long lines?
 

If you fly 1st class on the interisland flights - do you avoid the long wait lines at the airports?

Yes Nancy - first class and premier passengers get to board first (and I think every commuting Hawaiian has a premier pass for this purpose). I haven't checked FC rates, and there aren't many of them.

Depends on the airline. When I flew 1st with them last week children & elderly boarded first (half of the plane), then first class. I don't know what the deal was as this is the first time it happened to us on Hawaiian, if that was just that one flight or if it's all the timne now.

travelinwifey: That boarding policy has to do with seating those passengers that will require extra time or assistance in getting settled on-board. It is basically universal; I just flew American first class and had to wait for the preboarding families, disabled and elderly folk, same as everyone else.

Use the Skycap service at curb side.
They will check you in, take your bags thru Xray and to the counter that sends them direct to the plane. Tip them about $2 a bag unless it is a huge one.
We had 6 pieces this week including a golf bag and a few tiny cases and tipped $10. The Skycap was happy, we walked right by the long lines at Aloha and went directly to our gate, and we were happy. Most inter-island airlines have open seating, so first one to the gate gets the best choice. The flights are only about 20 minutes, definitely not worth coughing up first class fare.
Aloha!

In my experience 1st went before children so I thought this time was strange but then again I really never apy attention. I upgrade a lot but just don't remember families going first.

All five legs I flew earlier in the month, both Aloha and Hawaiian, had First Class board first.

We flew Aloha late November Oahu to Maui. Families w/ children under 5 years and those with special needs boarded first. There were no lines per se-only organized chaos on boarding. The 30 minute flight was one hour late departing.

rjw lgb ca,

I don't know what you witnessed, but AA official policy is to pre-board handicapped people ONLY. No families or elderly board before first/business.

AAFrequentFlyer: Maybe not official policy, but on EVERY leg, gate agents considerately herded in families with small children and special needs passengers before First Class. This usually didn't take too long, except for a PHL-DFW leg with three very large families and six special needs people (including a quadriplegic traveling with his family).

Personally, I'm happy to see the families get on first, since it takes so much effort to get small kids settled in their seats.

There's been a lot of discussion so far about FC boarding, but more importantly, do you get to bypass the security line? The last time I flew interisland on Hawaiian from HNL, the security line wait was about 45 minutes long.

Hawaiian Air FF Premiere Club members get a special security line at HNL -- not a bypass, but no long lines either.

Well rjb lgb ca, I flew 108,000 miles/69 segments on AA and I've never seen families board first. As a matter of fact when a couple with young kids tried it once the GA very sternly told them that they will have to wait till their group gets called. Wheelchair/handicapped people get boarded before there is any announcement, and then it's F, J(if applicable), and then groups from 1(mostly elites flying in coach) to 5. That's the way it always was and to my knowledge still is. There maybe be an exception made to the rule by a GA during very heavy holiday period, but that's all it is, a one time exception.

AAFF: Fine, I hallucinated the whole thing. TSA agents gunned down the parents and herded the tykes off to Reform School. Happy?

And now let's go back to Nancy03 question. I'm not sure which lines she's talking about, but in most cases F does have it's own check-in line. This may be less important in this case just because it's a domestic flight and if you're on an electronic ticket you could use any check-in kiosk. Also, many airlines do set-up a F/J/elite line for security at their major airports. So for example AA has a special security line set-up at ORD, LAX, JFK that I know of. Basically, it's a line that bypasses the regular line and you just blend in once you get to the actual security check.
The airline you'll be flying should have some info about that on their website. If not, post the airline and I will try to find out for you.

rjw lgb ca,

Facts are facts, please don't shoot the messenger! I did state that there may have been an exception, so I'm not saying you are lying/hallucinating, but please don't say that that's the official AA policy, which you did in the earlier post.

Sorry about being snippy, AAFF, but I *know* what I saw. And you give the main reason away yourself: Every leg was 100% full. The GAs obviously used discretion to expedite the boarding process, and preboarding included families with small kids (and I see this all the time-- lately I travel more for leisure than business, which may be the difference), Air Marshals and disabled/elderly with mobility problems. I'm sure Coach passengers were happy to not have to trip over shrieking brats or some poor elderly person with Parkinson's who will take three minutes to get out of a wheelchair into his or her seat. Agreed?

Also, the inter-island boarding areas are very crowded. Depending on which island you're visiting you will be waiting outside in a small area with lots of people. I'm not really sure it's worth it. In fact, some flights may be almost empty anyways as flights run frequently throughout the day. Just depends on where you're going. The planes are small and older, a first class seat may not make much of a difference.

AAFF: Who said it was "official"? The word "official" never was bandied about by me. It was simply "policy"-- whether it comes down from American Airlines or the management of the airport in question, that was standard practice at every leg. Sounds more like practicality to me....

Ok let's stop this.......

I'll take back "you said" and change it to "inferred".

Trust me, no families get pre-boarded on AA(officially).

And on that note, I will move on :-)

OK, AAFF, I trust you. However, at gate agent discretion, one MIGHT see families with large numbers of small kids (or kids traveling alone) preboarded (unofficially).

As for the First Class security line, I wish ALL airports had that. PHL doesn't-- and my li'l ol' homefield LGB sure doesn't. Still, they move really fast in both places. Thank goodness.

rj, got to agree with AA on this one. It used to be that the airlines would announce families with small children board first but most have stopped.

It pisses off frequent flyers and it was getting out of hand because parents were abusing the nicety. Does a mother with a nine and twelve year old really need special assistance?

Then, certain times a year like summer vacation June - August, it is mostly parents with kids.

Ever flown in and out of Orlando? If they boarded families with children, it would be a free for all.

Not saying it doesn't happen to you but most of the airlines have stopped announcing this.

You can go to the gate agent and ask nicely but it is usually up to their descretion.

Think about it, wouldn't you be pissed if you paid $1,200 for your seat in FC and mom, pop, and junior gets to board first because of a stroller?

Just my opinion.

Here was my main concern in posting this question.

We have our First Class tickets (using FF miles) booked on American West from Tampa to Phoenix then on Hawaiian Airlines into Honolulu.

Now I need to book Honolulu to Kauai and would like to have our bags checked all the way to Kauai so will get tickets from HNL to Kauai on Hawaiian Air.

I've alot about people standing in long lines waiting to board on the interisland flights. Sooooo... I was wondering if I bought First Class tickets, it would be less trouble and we could more easily move from our Phoenix-HNL flight over to the HNL Kauai flight at the airport.

We will then move on to BI, Maui, Molokai and Oahu over the rest of our 23 day trip I can hardly wait!!!!

It's really hard to say. As mentioned above I have done some inter-island flights with just a handfull of other people and at other times it was pretty full. On the HA flight I took from HNL to Molokai there weren't any first class seats availible. I guess if you want to be "safe" go ahead and do it, but don't expect much. And again, the planes are older than dirt. And like I mentioned above, my last HA flight kids boarded before 1st. That flight was to the mainland and sold out, I just don't know. Good luck.

GoTravel: Look, I don't doubt that seating families with small children isn't official policy; but whether it's a fair policy to First Class/Business Class pax or not, it HAPPENS.

And yeah, I was a bit put off at first when I saw the preboarding herd-- then I thought about it and decided that the extra few minutes to have GAs get the kids (who were all under 5 years of age) on board AND IN THEIR SEATS, out of the aisle(s), were worth my not feeling oh, so very special with the "FIRST" designation on my ticket. And I still managed to get on the plane quickly without being mooooooved along with the herds in Groups 1 through 5. I'm sure I'll be roughing it in Coach next time (I see JetBlue in my near future for the next several flights), so I appreciated the little bit of special treatment.... :)

Nancy03 - Didn't realize you'd cause such a ruckuss did you? See, Kal goes off to Kauai and all H... breaks loose!!

Seriously, I flew FC on Northwest into HNL and then a separately issued Aloha economy ticket for the first interisland leg (mine was to Hilo). Northwest was nice enough to check the bags all the way to Hilo. Since Hawaiian will for you also, you will NOT have to clear security again in HNL, just take the Wiki Wiki to the Interisland terminal, proceed to the gate and wait in line. There are NO preassigned seats, and NO groups called. FC passengers AND Premiere Club board AT THE SAME TIME. Then persons in economy with special needs (they called out families with kids five and under) then the rest of the passengers. This scenario was identical at Hilo, again at HNL waiting for Kauai and in Lihue. Boarding process for both Aloha and Hawaiian was identical. If you don't want to but a FC ticket, just be sure to be in line 45 minutes ahead of boarding time. You could also join the Premiere Club for around $150 and board early on any Hawaiian flight for the next year. There were not any special FC screeing lines in Lihue - but there was NO wait when we were there.

Oh yes that's correct. I do remember flying interisland when everyone just got on at once with no pre-boarding. Everyone group was announced at the same time. Once when hubby & I were running late we literally walked right through and boarded the plane and no one even collected our boarding pass. Now that's spooky.

Nancy, back to square 1. The real problem with long lines at all airports is security. Nobody gets past that in any class. If you scroll back to my thread, I gave the most valuable hint to avoid the lines at check in counters in Hawaii= how to avoid them by using the Skycaps. On your first flite from Tampa check your bags thru direct to Kauai. That way you don't have to mess with luggage lines in route. Buy the CHEAPEST inter island fare, the inter island flites are only 20 minutes average and definitely not worth the cost of 1st class. On our inter island flites last week, only wheelchair peeps got on the flite first. If you have a ticket, you'll have a seat.HANG LOOSE and Aloha!!!

Sorry Deloris, but you're wrong about the security line. F or J or elite status does have special security lines. The major airlines set it up for their best customers at their major airports. As I stated before, AA has them at many airports and the way it works is that you enter a different line which by-passes the regular line and only blends once you are actually ready to go through security. It saved me a total of hours this year at LAX, ORD and JFK. Especially at LAX, where I've seen lines as long as 3 football fields long and I was able to get in one that was only about 10 minute wait before hitting security. At ORD it was never really bad but the F line was only 1 or 2 people deep, whereas the regular line as about 50 people deep. JFK seems to work ok, so sometimes it really did not matter which line you got into.

Even in the smallest airports FC always has its own security line. Of course it feeds into the same security but the line takes a fraction of the regular line.

Hey Go Travel and AA FF, what airports are you hanging out in? As a AAFF, I'd love to find your special lines, but THEY DO NOT EXIST IN HAWAII. 6 days ago, in Kona, EVERYONE went thru security in the same line and only wheelchair people got on the plane first.Same goes for Maui, LAX, John Wayne, Long Beach, Heathrow, Milan, etc. etc.
We were second, because of the suggestions I gave on my previous thread.Always be at any airport at least 1 1/2 hours ahead as security has been very thorough and slow, even in Hawaii!