miscrapper

We leave on our first trip for Hawaii five weeks from tomorrow! I still haven't purchased our interisland tickets. I can redeem my 10000 Northwest miles but only have limited times. I was thinking we'd fly out of HNL to Maui around 11 am or so. That way we can enjoy some more time at Ihilani before departing and won't be without accomodations in Maui for long! To redeem free miles we would have to leave at 9 a.m. Coming from EST I imagine we will be waking up early, but not sure we want to leave this early. I assume we'd have to leave hotel around 7 am and would be in rush hour.
We are staying in Hana the last two nights in Maui and our flight to mainland leaves at 10 p.m. So I was thinking of a late afternoon flight so we'd have plenty of time to get from Hana to airport. I can get a free flight around 3 p.m. If we get to HNL between 3 and 4 p.m. do you think we'd have enough time to check our luggage and then take a taxi somewhere to have dinner before getting back for our 10 p.m. flight?

Patty

Coming from the Ihilani in the morning, you'd encounter rush hour traffic heading toward Honolulu. I would say 7:00am is the latest time you'd want to leave the hotel by. Do you have any other choices for your flight that day?

Coming back through Oahu, you should have plenty of time to leave HNL, have dinner, and return for your 10:00pm flight.

Sarah

For the price of the cab to and from airport on your return you just about have a single return ticket from Maui. I don't know how many people you are traveling with and how cost effective it is to wait for that ticket break. Just not sure it is worth the angxiety, time out of your days. I would consider saving miles for another flight. Just a thought.

I travel from the east too. Yes you are up early on that first day but you are sluggish. I would not want the hassle of making my way to the airport, navagating yet another island. Coming back sounds like anoying from your discription. You will have 4 hours but why not have most of the day by connecting directly with mainland flight.

miscrapper

Thank you for your responses. We are spending 3 nights at Ihilani since we fly into Oahu before going onto Maui. I thought this would be one way to save some money but it sounds like we might be better to have our choice of times to fly. So is planning to fly out of HNL around 12 or 1 p.m. a good time? We would then take an evening flight from Maui to HNL to connec to flight home.

Sarah

Ok, than leaving early that third day might not be so bad. I don't think there is traffic for the later (12pm) flight either. Someone living on the island will come online with more details there.

That return from Maui to run and get dinner and leave again sounded like an unnecessary hassle .

anita

Can you drop off your luggage at your Maui hotel and use their facilities while waiting for check-in?
If so, leaving at 9:00am wouldn't be so bad. By the time you get your car, luggage and drive to your hotel it will probably be after 11:00. I myself would prefer a 1:00 pm flight just to avoid the rushing around in the morning.

Just a friendly word of advice, don't overpack your carry on bag for your return flight home. We did that once when we had an 8 hour layover in Honolulu. I was pretty miserable lugging that around for hours.

I also wouldn't wait much longer to book your interisland flight. You're options may become even slimmer. We were on Maui this past December. Have a great time!

Sarah

hi miscrapper always listen to the residents on that traffic situation it is tough.

stevecat

Peak traffic on H1 east from Ihilani to the Airport is from 6am to 8am weekdays... It's usually not THAT bad, since the major bottleneck occurs AFTER the airport as you get off the viaduct and into Kalihi, but the H1/H2 merge in Pearl City can get VERY ugly if there's any rainfall that morning. It's extremely hard to predict the traffic patterns, some mornings it is smooth sailing and others there are times when I just turn around and go back home as it feels hopeless getting anywhere.

Traffic will be all but gone past 9am. Still, you should plan accordingly with PLENTY of time to spare. HPD does not hesitate to shut down the entire freeway in the Aiea corridor (a narrow strip of land with the freeway being the only real link) whenever a major accident occurs; in which case you may literally have freeway traffic backed up all the way near Ko'Olina like it did just last week! Keep in mind when something like this happens there are NO alternative routes!

miscrapper

Thank you for your input. In waiting to get input here from Fodors I lost chance to get freebie tickets - I can't believe they were available on Sunday and gone on Monday. I will probably buy tickets for a 12:30 or 1 p.m. flight on Aloha Airlines out of HNL to Maui. Hawaiian seems to get slightly better reviews for its newer planes but Aloha is about $60 cheaper - and it is only a 30 minute flight! I called Delta and was told we can check out luggage in with Aloha on Maui and we will be in secure area when we arrive in HNL so we are going to take late flight back from Maui and just stay in airport - that gives us over 2 hrs which is a bummer but we'll just have to shop in the airport or something!
I am glad after reading stevecat's post that we didn't get 9 am flight!
Thanks for sharing everyone!

RachelG

I don't think the interisland ticket is a good use of miles (unless you have some that are expiring and you need to get rid of). Interisland tickets are pretty inexpensive, so just get a ticket for the times you want and save the miles for later.

Sarah

For what it is worth Aloha is my favorite. I thought it was a favorite on this forum also. Not too much difference in either though, I would go for the cheaper flight.

In the past you could just hop on the next flight if you missed your initial flight. With this policy you could prolong a day on a whim. This was 8-10 years ago though.

Patty

RachelG,
I think that depends on how you normally spend your miles. Interisland tickets average around $150, so cashing in 5000 miles per roundtrip = $0.03 per mile. That's better use of miles than most domestic US roundtrips. Of course, if you generally use your miles for upgrades or international business/FC tickets, then that's a different scenario. And if you have some orphan miles, it's a great way to use them. Unfortunately, fewer and fewer programs offer the 5000 mile interisland roundtrip anymore (NW, UA, who else?), many have increased the mileage requirement to 10000.