Flying from the East Coast to Hawaii

[amanven]

Heading to Maui in late November. Trying to decide how to handle the 11+ hours of air travel from either Toronto, Detroit or Buffalo. Considering either just doing the long haul or breaking up the trip with a stop over for a night (or possibly two) in Vancouver, LA, Las Vegas, or San Francisco.
Any suggestions/insight from those from the east coast who have done the trip either way?

 

[lynne]

Prior to retirement, I was commuting for 9 months between Hawaii and New York. My recommendation is to fly straight through from east to west as you will be gaining 5 hours making the flights bearable.

On the return, I would highly recommend a stopover on the west coast for a day or two before returning home. It also depends on the airline you are taking. Most flights home from Hawaii to the east coast are red-eyes with stops in SFO/LAX/SEA....before an early morning flight to points further east.

Once you are here in Hawaii, relax and enjoy! You will forget about the time it took to get here....

 

[Honeydew]

Any suggestions/insight from those from the east coast who have done the trip either way?

I've done it only once from RI and if I recall correctly, it was about a 9 hr flight. On the way there, we went in one day. It was exausting. We were told Not to go to sleep but we were so tired from flying, we had to lay down. With the 6 hour time difference, it was late to us. We wanted to sleep for just an hour or 2 then go eat, but that didn't work. We woke up in the middle of the night. So by say 3am I was ready to go...somewhere but couldn't! Needless to say, it took me about two full days for my clock to change.
On the way back, we stopped for 4 days in Las Vegas. With a 3hr time change, it was much easier. If I'm lucky enough to get back there someday, I would definately stop both ways.

 

[slip]

We go from Wisconsin and prefer to go straight through on the way there and
on the way back. We sleep and/or rest on the flights. We're tired when we
get there but most of the time, we're fine for a walk around or at least a stop
at the grocery store. This is something that very s from person to person
though. Straight through works for us but we're always in a hurry to get to
Hawaii.

 

[Patri]

If I had the time, I would stop over on the way to Hawaii. It took me probably three plus days to get back to normal. Woke up very early each day, and couldn't go out and do anything!
Coming home and getting back to normal wasn't a problem.

 

[Gussie]

We went straight through both ways but found the return more difficult. Sorry we didn't stop over on the way back.

 

[Dori]

If I had my druthers, I would fly straight there. When we flew to South Korea from Toronto, we changed planes with a short layover in Vancouver the first time and San Fransisco the second time. From there, it was still a 12 hour flight. We were so excited to arrive to see our son, that the 14 hour time change didn't affect us too badly. But...we had more trouble adjusting when we arrived home. It would be nice to stop in Las Vegas for a few days on the way back. That way you could have incremental time adjustments.

Dori

 

[Dollie]

Direct Flight

We fly United from Burlington, VT and our favorite flight is BTV to Chicago then straight through to Maui. The first couple of days you do wake up early in the morning but this is a great time to take the morning tours (whale watching, snorkeling, kayaking, etc) which may require getting up early to make the trip.

On the way home, we are usually leaving from Kaua’i. There is no direct flight to Chicago from there (when the runways are lengthen, this flight should become available). We try for an evening flight so we can spend another day on the island. Our timeshare has lockers and showers available after we checkout, so we can spend the day at the pool or beach, cleanup, and have a nice meal before heading to the airport.

 

[anne1125]

We flew from Newark to Hawaii and I swore never again. Sitting in coach for about 13 hours was torture. Next time we will stop somewhere on the west coast, hopefully for a couple of days and then move on.

Anne

 

[loafingcactus]

I pay for all my domestic continental flights and then use my points for upgrades. No &@#* way I would fly coach to Hawaii or Europe. I flew straight through to Hawaii.

 

[MommaBear]

We have done it both ways from Maine and we prefer the straight through approach. I am just as tired at either end even if we stop, so I would prefer to be at my final destination. I do try to have one day off between my arrival home and going back to work, however.

 

[slip]

We have done it both ways from Maine and we prefer the straight through approach. I am just as tired at either end even if we stop, so I would prefer to be at my final destination. I do try to have one day off between my arrival home and going back to work, however.

I do the same thing by having day off before I go back to work. It also comes
in handy if you get any delays in your flights.

 

[Dottie]

We flew from Newark to Hawaii and I swore never again. Sitting in coach for about 13 hours was torture. Next time we will stop somewhere on the west coast, hopefully for a couple of days and then move on.

Anne

We fly from the east coast and greatly prefer a stop over in Lax or someplace on the coast on the way over. We are doing the trip again next year, hope to do it on frequent flyer miles so Alaska Air looks like the best choice going. They have online choiced that get you to the Seattle area and then the Hawaii segment the next day. Our return will be from Sidney. American allows a free stopover in Lax on that flight. We are hoping to get business class with miles but that will be a challenge. I figure that since we are now in our 70s, we need all the help we can get. I have heard too many stories about people sitting too long and getting leg blood clots that break loose and do damage.

 

[travelguy]

I pay for all my domestic continental flights and then use my points for upgrades. No &@#* way I would fly coach to Hawaii or Europe. I flew straight through to Hawaii.

I totally agree. We fly from PA to Hawaii at least once a year. We find it much better to invest a few extra FF miles and fly First the whole way out and back. Not to mention saving the baggage costs!

We tried the stop over in CA but it was too much trouble to deplane, check-in, unpack, repack, check-out, replane, etc.

FWIW - We always stay two full weeks in Hawaii to make the costs and effort of the flights worth it. We used to travel to a different island each week but now don't even bother changing resorts during the two week trip.

 

[djs]

Did it once BOS - SFO - OGG. Maybe a 2-hour layover in SFO, but left Boston around 6:00 AM and was in unit in Maui by sometime around 4:00 in the afternoon. Stayed up that evening until about 10:00 or so local time and didn't have any jetlag the whole time.

Key (for me at least) is to get myself adjusted to local time ASAP.

 

[danb]

Flying to Oahu from the East coast

This is our 7th trip to Hawaii from the east coast. Previously we flew from Bradley in CT and it was always a 14 hr trip. This time we flew from Newark on the Continental non stop and wiil always try to do this flight again. We are a party of 8 with 2- 4 yr old grand children. They handled it great. Although our checkin was later we had little problems. The kids have traveled before and it is routine to them. Keep the kids busy and you will not have many problems. No mater what flight you take some adjustment is required so learn to deal with it.

 

[Talent312]

From Florida, I could not sit in coach any further than California.
By that time, I'm ready to get out of that tin-can and have some time to myself.

I have done it straight thru, but only in 1st class.

 

[matbec]

Stopped over in Vancouver

Heading to Maui in late November. Trying to decide how to handle the 11+ hours of air travel from either Toronto, Detroit or Buffalo. Considering either just doing the long haul or breaking up the trip with a stop over for a night (or possibly two) in Vancouver, LA, Las Vegas, or San Francisco.
Any suggestions/insight from those from the east coast who have done the trip either way?

Hi. We went to 3 islands last summer (sigh ... was it already a year ago?!) and flew from Toronto to Honolulu with a 2-day stopover in Vancouver. We did quite a bit of sightseeing, including Whistler, then flew from Vancouver to Honolulu. It was great spending the weekend in Vancouver and I wish we'd done something similar on the way back. We only had a 3-hour layover in Vancouver on the way back to Toronto and we found it a much harder trip back. We left Honolulu at 8pm on a Friday night, and arrived at Pearson airport 6pm Saturday night. We were all exhausted and were glad we had an extra day before going back to work. Next time, we'll probably try and spend a few days in a west coast city (maybe San Francisco) on the way back.

Hope that helps.

 

[CapriciousC]

Prior to retirement, I was commuting for 9 months between Hawaii and New York. My recommendation is to fly straight through from east to west as you will be gaining 5 hours making the flights bearable.

On the return, I would highly recommend a stopover on the west coast for a day or two before returning home. It also depends on the airline you are taking. Most flights home from Hawaii to the east coast are red-eyes with stops in SFO/LAX/SEA....before an early morning flight to points further east.

Once you are here in Hawaii, relax and enjoy! You will forget about the time it took to get here....

I would agree with this approach - it's how we do it from coastal Georgia. Coming back we'll usually take a couple of days in southern California to visit family, but there are obviously other options. Makes the return jetlag (which is always worse for me going forward in time) much less brutal.