West Coast connections

[TheHolleys87]

We're trying to help our son (family of 5, kids 11-15) choose their flights from Houston to Kona. Can't change their dates due to TS reservation (my Dad's Kona Coast week) and time off work, so they must fly there on Dec. 28 and return on Jan. 4. Most of the routes we're monitoring connect in either LAX or SFO, and I have no experience making connections in either airport. Any recommendations re which airport is better for making connections, the shortest connection time we should accept, etc.? TIA!

 

[Luanne]

We're trying to help our son (family of 5, kids 11-15) choose their flights from Houston to Kona. Can't change their dates due to TS reservation (my Dad's Kona Coast week) and time off work, so they must fly there on Dec. 28 and return on Jan. 4. Most of the routes we're monitoring connect in either LAX or SFO, and I have no experience making connections in either airport. Any recommendations re which airport is better for making connections, the shortest connection time we should accept, etc.? TIA!

Per my dd, avoid LAX. We usually fly in and out of SFO, as we like to spend some time in the SF Bay Area. At SFO the flights should be arriving and leaving from the same terminal. I would feel more comfortable with a connection time of an hour, but you could probably do it in less, but I wouldn't cut it any closer than 45 minutes.

 

[Passepartout]

I agree with Luanne. Avoid LAX if possible. But add PHX or LAS to the possibilities. You should stick with ONE airline because they cluster the gates (more or less) together. We use www.kayak.com it will give you an overview and you can more heavily weight price, overall time, connection time, etc. If you are tempted to fly Southwest, you have to check www.southwest.com because they don't book through the usual booking engines.

Jim

 

[klpca]

San Diego (SAN) also has a lot of direct flights to Hawaii so you could add that as a possible connection, and maybe Orange County (SNA). Both airports are small and easily navigated.

 

[Luanne]

San Jose also has flights to Hawaii. It's going to be the Houston to whatever airport that may limit the options.

 

[TheHolleys87]

Thanks all. I figured as much re LAX. We will keep them on one airline, and we’re trying to limit connections to one, so it does seem like we’ll be limited to LAX or SFO, based on the possible itineraries I’m seeing on Google Flights and Hopper, but I’ll check Kayak too. I’ve looked at SWA, but they’re not flying to Kona that day!

 

[chellej]

when we lived in Houston, we would take the direct flight to HNL and then get a connection to whichever Island we were going.

 

[Luanne]

Thanks all. I figured as much re LAX. We will keep them on one airline, and we’re trying to limit connections to one, so it does seem like we’ll be limited to LAX or SFO, based on the possible itineraries I’m seeing on Google Flights and Hopper, but I’ll check Kayak too. I’ve looked at SWA, but they’re not flying to Kona that day!

I would also check the individual airline websites. Sometimes there are flights that show up there that don't show on the other sites.

 

[OldGuy]

Wow! Tough dates. I guess trying to save money on air fare is not high on the list.

Speaking of connections, when I booked four of us to Lihue, when it came close to time, close enough to check on flights, I found out we had no reservations. $3000 and no reservations. Our credit card company and a Hawaii state law enforcement agency looked into it, and found the Honolulu guy who was our travel agent turned up dead.

With their help, we got re-booked, and for less.

Same thing happened when I booked four to Grand Cayman, no reservations, and all flights were booked full . . . but no one turned up dead.

Yeah, there have been some interesting times.

 

[Luanne]

Just looked at United. They also have routes through Denver.

 

[OldGuy]

Just looked at United. They also have routes through Denver.

Often not the best route on December 28!

We've slept on the concrete floor there, in the Winter, with teeny, tiny blankets they got off the stranded planes. and an impacted wisdom tooth, thanks to my college fullback dentist, Fumble Fingers.

Most memorable airport line . . . a really obviously gay (that's OK to say nowadays, isn't it? . . . I lose track) gate attendant made one-too-many of those we-really-have-no-clue-when-any-of-you-are-getting-out-of-here announcements, and a guy yelled at him, "FU", only the actual words, of course. Without missing a beat, the gate attendant calmly said, "I don't think we know each other that well."

 

[Luanne]

Often not the best route on December 28!

True. Hadn't thought of that. Stick to the West coast for a connection.

 

[OldGuy]

when we lived in Houston, we would take the direct flight to HNL and then get a connection to whichever Island we were going.

That's what we did, only we started at MCI (Kansas City). It made for a long day . . . or two, especially packed into a metal tube with a bunch of coughing, hacking people.

 

[T_R_Oglodyte]

Any routings through Seattle should be pretty straightforward. The airport is pretty compact. Even easier if not changing airlines - in that case you would be on either Delta or Alaska. Worst case is that one of the flights is in a satellite terminal and the other is in the main terminal. In that case you would just have to take the connector train.

 

[bizaro86]

The only single airline routes on the GDS for that route on Dec 28 are United, American, and Alaska. I didn't check southwest.

Alaska is my favorite of the 3, but connecting through Seattle is out of the way. AA has options through DFW and PHX that will have better weather at the connecting airport then (less potential for delays). If I was booking it I would book the UA via LAX. LAX is terrible but it would be a material savings and good flight times.

 

[Luanne]

The only single airline routes on the GDS for that route on Dec 28 are United, American, and Alaska. I didn't check southwest.

Alaska is my favorite of the 3, but connecting through Seattle is out of the way. AA has options through DFW and PHX that will have better weather at the connecting airport then (less potential for delays). If I was booking it I would book the UA via LAX. LAX is terrible but it would be a material savings and good flight times.

I looked at the Alaska flights for those days and the times for the return flight were terrible.

Were the UA flights through LAX considerably less than connecting through SFO?

 

[bizaro86]

I looked at the Alaska flights for those days and the times for the return flight were terrible.

Were the UA flights through LAX considerably less than connecting through SFO?

Yes, I only checked one way, but it seemed to be about a $200 difference per person.

I wouldn't be too worried about flying the same airline there and back either.

 

[bizaro86]

Looks like the best price with reasonable connections is $1283 per person right now.

AA through LAX both ways -

AA1638 and AA247 on the way there
AA246 and AA1638 on the way back

 

[Luanne]

Looks like the best price with reasonable connections is $1283 per person right now.

AA through LAX both ways -

AA1638 and AA247 on the way there
AA246 and AA1638 on the way back

Oh well, at least the OP has options.

 

[JIMinNC]

Thanks all. I figured as much re LAX. We will keep them on one airline, and we’re trying to limit connections to one, so it does seem like we’ll be limited to LAX or SFO, based on the possible itineraries I’m seeing on Google Flights and Hopper, but I’ll check Kayak too. I’ve looked at SWA, but they’re not flying to Kona that day!

If you are staying on the same airline, then connecting in LAX shouldn't be a problem as most of the airlines occupy just one terminal each. In the case of American, they are split between two terminals, but there is a direct connector underground, so almost like one terminal, just a little farther to walk. Not 100% sure about Delta and United's terminal configuration, but I'm pretty sure they are all in one terminal or have some sort of a direct connector like American does. Where LAX can be a pain is changing airlines, which often means changing terminals and that can mean a shuttle ride.

The other thing to consider is weather. I know SFO can have fog that can really slow things down there and cause connection issues. Not sure how likely fog is in December. The flying weather might be more predictable in SoCal.

 

[TheHolleys87]

Again, thanks everyone. It looks like we’ll be choosing from AA or UA and staying on one airline, given current schedules. It’s a matter of checking fares every day and hoping they’ll drop a little, as predicted. Besides trying to keep fares as low as possible, I’m watching arrival time to Kona and trying to limit connections, since the kids are not very experienced flyers.

The frustrating thing is that we told them a couple of weeks ago that fares were relatively low that day (just over $1000pp) and to book that day, and they said they would, then they let DH know a few days later that they had “decided to wait a little longer” - and of course now fares have been running $300 higher!

Anyway, thanks, I’m glad to know that connecting in LAX or SFO shouldn’t be too bad!

 

[OldGuy]

The distance to Hawaii, the long flights, and the high fares, keep a lot of people from going, or, in some cases, going back.

When we started timesharing, Hawaii was a bucket-list destination, something I told RCI we would give 2 or 3 deposits for each week. Then, one day I was messing around on RCI.com with our next door neighbor, and I saw we could get December weeks one-for-one. Four us us did two weeks and two resorts.

But, 14 hours on a plane going out, and longer coming back, took the wind out of our Hawaii sails. Coming back we got up at 6:00 AM, checked out, flew to Honolulu, took the bus to sightseeing places all day, got on a late flight to Houston, made connections to Kansas City, and got there at 7:00 AM the next day.

Only one of us was awake when we got to our house.

 

[JIMinNC]

The distance to Hawaii, the long flights, and the high fares, keep a lot of people from going, or, in some cases, going back.

Or for others, we look at it as a small price to pay for getting to Paradise. We've made the 12-14 hour door-to-door trip from Charlotte to Hawaii 11 times over the last 30 years or so. We were just there for 3.5 weeks this past Feb/Mar and are headed back for two weeks next February. Now that we own two EOY Odd weeks at Marriott Maui Ocean Club and Marriott Waiohai on Kauai, we'll be going at least every other year and, as we are doing next year, we'll probably use our points to go in some even years too. The flights really don't seem that bad to us since the connecting stop tends to break up the trip. If we connect in Phoenix or LAX each leg is about 5 hours or a little more; if we connect in DFW then its a 2-3 hour leg and a 8 hour or so leg.

Less than two months ago, we also flew to French Polynesia (Tahiti, Bora Bora, Moorea) - that's 4-5 hours to LAX then another 7-8 hours to Papeete, Tahiti. That place is even more spectacular than Hawaii. We won't make that trip EOY - too many other places to go, so we can't have too many regular destinations - but we'll go back there in 3-4 years I'm sure. French Polynesia is also paradise and well worth the long flight.

 

[OldGuy]

Well, anyway, I think it keeps it from getting too crowded.

 

[Luanne]

Well, anyway, I think it keeps it from getting crowded.

Have you been there lately? There are plenty of people from the west coast, Canada and from Asia, who go to Hawaii.