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What it's like to fly Southwest to Hawaii: Impressions & thoughts

pedro47

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Thanks,:thumbup: . Richard this thread is very close to my heart.
 

rickandcindy23

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Good article. My sister flew United to Maui non-stop to/from Denver, and when she arrived at the airport to visit with me (while I was waiting at the airport for Rick to bring the rental car, which took 3 hours!) before heading up to West Maui, she was ravenous. She said United offered one bag of peanuts. She didn't know they stopped all meal services on those flights. They used to give a substantial snack. It's like 7.5 hours without anything to eat.
 

SandyPGravel

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Good article. My sister flew United to Maui non-stop to/from Denver, and when she arrived at the airport to visit with me (while I was waiting at the airport for Rick to bring the rental car, which took 3 hours!) before heading up to West Maui, she was ravenous. She said United offered one bag of peanuts. She didn't know they stopped all meal services on those flights. They used to give a substantial snack. It's like 7.5 hours without anything to eat.

OTOH I was totally amazed to be served an entire boxed meal on American from Maui to Dallas last year. I didn't realize American did that. (We flew United to Oahu on the way there.) It was a pleasant surprise although I wasn't ready to eat a full meal when I was trying to force myself to sleep. Food wasn't too bad either. We were originally supposed to fly on Alaskan airlines to Oahu but that completely fell apart. Alaska was serving food as well.
 

Passepartout

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This article was eerily similar to my report here on TUG about our being on the inaugural SW flight San Jose to Maui. We will fly home on SW to Oakland all too soon.

Yep, it's still Southwest, and if you like flying Southwest, taking it to Hawaii is just a longer SW experience.

If you don't like SW, you won't like taking it to Hawaii, either.

Jim
 

Luanne

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This article was eerily similar to my report here on TUG about our being on the inaugural SW flight San Jose to Maui. We will fly home on SW to Oakland all too soon.

Yep, it's still Southwest, and if you like flying Southwest, taking it to Hawaii is just a longer SW experience.

If you don't like SW, you won't like taking it to Hawaii, either.

Jim
I love SW. I will probably use it to fly to Hawaii if I can use miles, or if the price is significantly less than other carriers. I'm used to bringing food on board.
 

slip

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Good article. My sister flew United to Maui non-stop to/from Denver, and when she arrived at the airport to visit with me (while I was waiting at the airport for Rick to bring the rental car, which took 3 hours!) before heading up to West Maui, she was ravenous. She said United offered one bag of peanuts. She didn't know they stopped all meal services on those flights. They used to give a substantial snack. It's like 7.5 hours without anything to eat.

I fly Denver to Maui or Honolulu or Lihue on United all of the time when we go to Hawaii. Once in a while we go though LA but there is always food available. It’s not free. The only free things are soft drinks and pretzels. We had one flight where they ran out of some things but never no food. I don’t think it’s correct that they stopped all meal services on those flights. We just flew that route two weeks ago.
 

andysnovel

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I love SW. I will probably use it to fly to Hawaii if I can use miles, or if the price is significantly less than other carriers. I'm used to bringing food on board.
SW would be too cramped for me on long flights. I constantly fly with them to ISP from RDU, mostly connecting flights. Flight staff is always friendly, but seats are tight and cramped. I want food options and more comfortable seats, there is no upgrading on SW. They are ok for short flights and no cancellation fees are huge, but not enough for long haul flights.
 

rickandcindy23

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I fly Denver to Maui or Honolulu or Lihue on United all of the time when we go to Hawaii. Once in a while we go though LA but there is always food available. It’s not free. The only free things are soft drinks and pretzels. We had one flight where they ran out of some things but never no food. I don’t think it’s correct that they stopped all meal services on those flights. We just flew that route two weeks ago.
I am sure my sister expected it to be free. She flies to Europe a lot for work and doesn't have to pay for meals, so I guess that is just her expectation. Plus, I remember flying Hawaiian and getting free food in Feb 2004. Now we fly 1st and always get food, such as it is.
 

slip

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I am sure my sister expected it to be free. She flies to Europe a lot for work and doesn't have to pay for meals, so I guess that is just her expectation. Plus, I remember flying Hawaiian and getting free food in Feb 2004. Now we fly 1st and always get food, such as it is.

Ok, that makes sense. I just didn’t want others to think there was no food. :thumbup:
 

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The best part is Southwest also doing island hopper service. I never pay for bags on United or Alaska because I'm Gold on both but then I have to shell out to Hawaiian for a short hop.

I was able to snag the $29 intro fare from Maui to HNL during our October trip and free bags!
 

Luanne

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SW would be too cramped for me on long flights. I constantly fly with them to ISP from RDU, mostly connecting flights. Flight staff is always friendly, but seats are tight and cramped. I want food options and more comfortable seats, there is no upgrading on SW. They are ok for short flights and no cancellation fees are huge, but not enough for long haul flights.
The cramped part is my biggest concern. We try to get exit row seats whenever we can when we fly SW, but even with their regular seats I feel they have more room than most other carriers economy seats. But we do purchase United's economy plus or Alaska's seats with more room when we go to Hawaii.
 

Passepartout

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The cramped part is my biggest concern. We try to get exit row seats whenever we can when we fly SW, but even with their regular seats I feel they have more room than most other carriers economy seats. But we do purchase United's economy plus or Alaska's seats with more room when we go to Hawaii.
That's kind of the thing. The 'standard' seats on SW have almost as much room as Economy Plus on other carriers. Again saving more money, along with no baggage charges. We also found that SW had better East bound schedules too. We will be able to leave Maui about mid-day and sleep in our bed at home that night. All the other carriers require a red-eye or layover on the West Coast to connect to home. More savings!
 

chalee94

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The cramped part is my biggest concern. We try to get exit row seats whenever we can when we fly SW, but even with their regular seats I feel they have more room than most other carriers economy seats. But we do purchase United's economy plus or Alaska's seats with more room when we go to Hawaii.

Just got back from Kauai and American was extremely cramped. Word is that they are planning to add even more seats to their plans. American had pay-only meal options and their 6.5 to 7 hour flight from PHX to Kauai didn't have wifi. They also didn't assign me a seat at check-in, despite charging extra for me to supposedly choose a seat when I booked the flights originally.

Needless to say, I won't make that mistake of choosing American next time...
 

Passepartout

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Just got back from Kauai and American was extremely cramped. Word is that they are planning to add even more seats to their plans. American had pay-only meal options and their 6.5 to 7 hour flight from PHX to Kauai didn't have wifi. They also didn't assign me a seat at check-in, despite charging extra for me to supposedly choose a seat when I booked the flights originally.

Needless to say, I won't make that mistake of choosing American next time...
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention... On SW, wi-fi is $8 for a whole day (still too high for me) and movies, live TV, music, and access to SW.com on your device is free.
 

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I think it's funny that the airlines are concerned about hungry passengers from the west coast to Hawaii. They think nothing of flying us cross-country with short connections and no food and longer flight times than to Hawaii. We have to bring our own food if we want to eat.
 

davidvel

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Good article. My sister flew United to Maui non-stop to/from Denver, and when she arrived at the airport to visit with me (while I was waiting at the airport for Rick to bring the rental car, which took 3 hours!) before heading up to West Maui, she was ravenous. She said United offered one bag of peanuts. She didn't know they stopped all meal services on those flights. They used to give a substantial snack. It's like 7.5 hours without anything to eat.
As others have noted, this is not accurate at all. Lots of food options on that flight. And I can't imagine why someone would be on a plane for 8 hours and not eat anything, arriving to Hawaii starving, to avoid paying $10 for a meal.
 

Ken555

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I flew AA LAX to LIH last week and it was a great flight overall. It was crowded due to a DFW flight that missed the earlier connection to LIH but otherwise good. And this trip I did carry on only, so was able to quickly get out of the airport and move on...


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Luanne

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That's kind of the thing. The 'standard' seats on SW have almost as much room as Economy Plus on other carriers. Again saving more money, along with no baggage charges. We also found that SW had better East bound schedules too. We will be able to leave Maui about mid-day and sleep in our bed at home that night. All the other carriers require a red-eye or layover on the West Coast to connect to home. More savings!
But you still have to change planes on the west coast don't you? Is it just a shorter connect time?
 

Passepartout

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But you still have to change planes on the west coast don't you? Is it just a shorter connect time?
Yes, we will change in Oakland. 55 minutes between flights.
 

Luanne

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Yes, we will change in Oakland. 55 minutes between flights.
Oakland is a nice little airport to get in and out of. That's where we fly into when we come to the San Francisco Bay Area since we can get a nonstop flight from Albuquerque.
 

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Not Southwest, but from Kansas City to Kauai, and back, me and mine found the flights out and back to be grueling. We were exhausted.

There's nothing more enjoyable than being cooped up in a metal cylinder with a bunch of coughing and hacking people. :(

Because of the flight times from Lihue to Honolulu to Dallas to Kansas City, the day coming back started at 6:00 AM and ended at 8:00 AM the next day. I was the only one awake for the drive from the Kansas City airport to our home. Good thing I was the driver.

Probably why we have not gone back, that and Scotty's transporter being so unreliable. Beam me to Lihue, Scotty.
 

jjking42

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I am A list preferred with SW and have lots of miles but won’t fly with them to Hawaii until they get the 737 Max back in the air. The older planes are too cramped. We fly SW to the west coast then get on Alaska or Hawaiian Airlines in either premium class or first class.





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