HNL airport - how much time to make a connecting flight?
 

Hi, we will be going to Kauai in June for a week. On the return I would like to check our bags through & take a 12pm flight that gets into HNL at 12.35. Our flight from HNL to the mainland leaves at 1.30. I am not sure if we can check in all the way at Kauai as well, but is that cutting it too close? How reliable are the Hawaiian airline flights? Since they will be separate tickets, I don't know how Delta would view missing the flight because of our inter-island Hawaiian Airlines flight being late. The earlier flights are much mre expensive, will have to take one at 9.30 am which I would rather not do!

One hour is probably OK.

Hawaiian Airlines and Aloha Airlines are always in the top airlines in being on time.

Never cancelled for snow. It rains a lot, but very few thunderstorms in Hawaii. So rarely any postponements or cancellations.

You also won't have to go through the security checkpoint.

I suggest you call Delta and your interisland carrier for the minimum time requirement to check your bags all the way through from LIH to your final destination. It probably is more than 55 minutes.

If that is the case, you may have to claim your bags in HNL and recheck to your final destination. IMHO, 55 minutes is not enough time.

Have a great trip!!

don't forget that your flight leaves at 1:30 which means the doors close approximately 10-15 minutes before that (and some airlines if you are not there in a specified time, you lose your seat to the standby people). if you are at the back of the Hawaiian flight, it could take 10-15 minutes to deplane. so you don't have 55 minutes, more like 30 minutes and that is cutting it close especially if the quarantine line is long and your gate with Delta is the farthest from the interisland terminal.

They are real sticklers at the HNL airport. I missed a flight once because we didn't make the 1 hour cutoff (by 3 minutes) when connecting.

I did not know you could check bags through using 2 different airlines. Every time I've done that I've had to claim and recheck the bags. Is this something I've just never heard of?

I just flew back from Kona yesterday. I also had 2 separate tickets (KOA-HNL on Go and HNL-OAK on ATA). We were able to check our bags all the way through by printing out our ATA boarding passes before we got to the airport and presenting them to the Go agent and asking for them to be checked to our final destination. Call Hawaiian Airlines and ask if they have a similar agreement with Delta to do so, as I've heard that not all airlines do. The Interisland terminal is at the far end of the airport and is not at all condusive to hauling luggage to the terminal where Delta is located. The easiest way to get from the Interisland terminal to your Delta flight is to take the Wiki Wiki shuttle. It comes every 15 minutes or so and the stop is right outside of the Interisland terminal. If you take the Wiki Wiki shuttle you WILL have to go through security again. Personally, I would probably take the earlier flight.

Unless it's a budget airline (Southwest, JetBlue, etc.), most other major airlines do have an interline agreement. I don't know for sure if Hawaiian and Delta do, but if I had to guess, I would bet on YES! :-D

Jenni & Excited, That's the key. You need to find out if the two airlines have baggage arrangements with each other.

You can easily walk from the gates that Hawaiian Airlines uses to the ones that Delta uses. You do not have to go through security again if you can check your bags straight through. If you have to get them from baggage claim & check them again, then you will have to go through security check again.

Just for clarification from kwil's reply:

go! uses the smaller unattached commuter terminal. Island Air also uses that terminal.

Best thing to do is call Hawaiian airlines. It all depends on their contract service agreement to interline bag check-ins. Last that I knew, Aloha airlines has the contract so.... If it's still with Aloha Airlines you should fly the earlier flight to HNL.

Dusty,
Thanks for the clarification. After I wrote the reply late at night I started thinking that maybe Hawaiian and Aloha were not in the same terminal as Go. Sorry for adding to the confusion!