We're flying NWA from OGG to SEA on a Saturday evening in May, and wonder how much time we should allow for return of rental car, short shuttle ride to airport, and check in. Also, do you have to go through an agricultural line before joining the check in line? Thanks for any advice.

nicci2 - We flew NWA from OGG to BOI in December. Yes - you have to go thru the Ag line first. I would be at the airport dropping off the car between 1.5 to 2.0 hours early. The Ag line can be long sometimes but doesn't take very long to go thru. If you are going to purchase pineapple at the airport to check with your luggage be sure and buy your pineapple first, before you go thru Ag line or you will have to stand in line again for the pineapple. The NWA counter is the farthest counter from gift shop at the very end. My husband drops me off with our luggage and he turns in the car and rides shuttle back while I am buying the pineapple and then I am usually thru Ag with luggage and pineapple buy the time he returns on the shuttle. Works out well. Then we check in our luggage and have alittle time to shop or have a drink before boarding. Have a great time!

If you are staying in Ka'anaali, the taxi takes 45 minutes to OGG. Your first step at OGG is to take you bags through the Agriculture exam - about 60 seconds tops. Ask the taxi to drop you near AG (it's near the sidewalk, but inside 10 feet).

After AG, rather than stand in a long, slow line to check your bags at your airline, simply hire the private attendants standing nearby to do that for you, at $2 a bag. They will also give you your boarding passes and claim checks.

You then simply walk to security (5 minutes in line, tops), then to your gate, another 60 seconds. Getting to OGG more than one hour before your flight is a waste ... unless you want to grab a bite and chop (but there's not much in OGG).

I have gotten through in a matter of minutes, and I have spent a lot of time in the TSA line. You can never tell, really. When I flew out of OGG in October (1 pm departure) the lines moved relatively quickly, but in January (7pm departure) we were queued up in the TSA line for nearly 40 minutes, and then both my husband and I were randomly pulled out of our respective lines for further screening. Thank goodness I am always early at the airport.

I don't know what SoBeTraveller means by the private attendents. If I recall correctly, on our two most recent flights out of OGG our bags were inspected by hand and we were required to stand behind the white line at the inspection station while the screener went through each piece of our checked luggage. SoBe, are you saying you can pay people to check your luggage?

A month or so ago, someone drove their car into the Kahului Airport -- severely damaging one of the two luggage scanning machines.

As a result, when we traveled thru the airport 3 weeks ago, we noticed that the line of outbound mainland travelers was exceptionally long.

Not sure if the machine has been repaired, but I'd urge you to get your rental car returned and plan to be _at_ the airport at least 2 hours prior to departure.

If you have not flown out of OGG before I would go 2 hours early. If you have and are familar with the airport than 1.5 hours is fine. We flew delta out of Ogg on March 20, 2004 and we were also told to stay with our luggage through TSA and check in. Here are the wait time for Ogg from Delta.

Kahului, HI Location

Ticket Counter
Peak: 10 mins.
Off Peak: 5 mins. 2:30pm

Security Check
Peak: 50 mins.
Off Peak: 5mins 5:30am

Peak days: Friday, Saturday, Sunday

Peak traffic times: 7:30am - 11:30am; 4:00pm - 6:00pm

Sounds like SoBe is talking about curbside checkin. Second that recommendation - having a porter check your bag saves a ton of time compared to standing in line to check luggage. We actually gave them our bags before the AG check and they just waited with us while it was checked and then off they went.

There is no curbsude check-in at OGG. There are freestanding inspection stations inside the terminal, but they have to first go through the USDA inspection machines, then the TSA where they will check your bag by hand and then issue a boarding pass. But this does not normally take but a few minutes. It's waiting in line upstairs that takes the most time, as shown by the info Riggsie posted.

We go every year and our trick is to have one person drop off the rental car while the other takes all the luggage through the ag inspection line. By the time I've gotten to the ticket counter the other person is always back from the car agency. I would say allow at least 1.5 hours.

Thank you all for your great tips and information, from Nicci

Riggsie, it doesn't take 30 minutes to get familiar with Kahulie Airport!! It is not LAX or o'Hare.