WALK-THROUGH - HAWAII'S NEW TRAVEL POLICY: My experience traveling to Hawaii

[Lv2Trvl]

You can create your account and trips then add your test results when received.

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[csodjd]

You can create your account and trips then add your test results when received.

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So are you saying I can enter everything into the "Trip" except the "Quarantine Exemption Approval ID" and it will save, and I can come back and edit the trip later to add that ID number?

And to confirm, is that ID something you get when/after you upload the negative test results? How long after the upload do you get that?

I think what confuses me somewhat is that at the end it doesn't say "Save", it says, "Submit." But if I don't have all the required information it seems Submit would be a bad choice.

 

[Tucsonadventurer]

After you upload your test it will say approaval pending and soon after it will say yes under quarantine exemption. Save that email as you need it for check in at the hotel.

 

[csodjd]

After you upload your test it will say approaval pending and soon after it will say yes under quarantine exemption. Save that email as you need it for check in at the hotel.

Thanks. Does that email have the Approval ID that I need to put into the "Trip" in the Trip section?

 

[Tucsonadventurer]

Mine didn't I just rechecked my email

 

[Lv2Trvl]

Yes. You create what info you have for your trip. Flight info etc and "submit". It can be edited later. Remember you need a separate trip for each leg of trip. In fact I had to change ours several times in November-December as flights were changed and canceled. I would advise you to create your accounts before the last minute so all that is needed to add is test result. Also carry a printout of QR codes in case problem with phones. One island I needed the paper copy to pickup rental car the next only wanted the phone QR. Timeshare check-ins wanted phone code.
Have a good trip! Aloha

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[csodjd]

Yes. You create what info you have for your trip. Flight info etc and "submit". It can be edited later. Remember you need a separate trip for each leg of trip. In fact I had to change ours several times in November-December as flights were changed and canceled. I would advise you to create your accounts before the last minute so all that is needed to add is test result. Also carry a printout of QR codes in case problem with phones. One island I needed the paper copy to pickup rental car the next only wanted the phone QR. Timeshare check-ins wanted phone code.
Have a good trip! Aloha

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Thank you. For this trip its easy, LAX-HNL-LAX. March will involve a hop to Maui. Cross that bridge later. Like you suggest, I'm trying to get all our Safe Travel info teed up and complete just pending the test results.

 

[csodjd]

One more question. It says something about uploading a picture of yourself.

Is that required? I don't see any other reference to doing that except one mention somewhere that you can upload a "selfie."

 

[Lv2Trvl]

Yes. Selfie time. It's easy to miss. I had to point it out to our son. He missed it for the entire family! Very last minute for them. It was checked in both Kona and Lihue.

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[Henry M.]

I think the Quarantine Approval Exemption ID mentioned in the form is for those that have an exemptions as described at https://ag.hawaii.gov/travelexemption/. This is different than the exemption due to having a negative COVID test. IT doesn't apply to most travelers. I left that line blank. The uploaded negative test results are all that are needed to get an exemption as a tourist.

 

[Lv2Trvl]

Yes Henry M. I agree. My answers have been from memory so kind of forgot about that.

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[slip]

I think the Quarantine Approval Exemption ID mentioned in the form is for those that have an exemptions as described at https://ag.hawaii.gov/travelexemption/. This is different than the exemption due to having a negative COVID test. IT doesn't apply to most travelers. I left that line blank. The uploaded negative test results are all that are needed to get an exemption as a tourist.

I believe this is correct. Some essential workers going between the islands may get an exemption and they can fill that in.

When I went inter-island we left it blank also.

 

[csodjd]

Yes. Selfie time. It's easy to miss. I had to point it out to our son. He missed it for the entire family! Very last minute for them. It was checked in both Kona and Lihue.

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Okay... three selfies it is. Thx.

 

[gejone]

Our last trip to Maui was Oct. 31, 2020, the old rules were in effect. We leave Jan. 17, 2021 for our latest trip, new rules in place. Due to the change in Safe Travel partners our local CVS could not do the test. We are changing planes in DFW so my first thought, do the test at the airport, the airport price is $239. Did some more research and decided to use Vault Health. All started out well, received the test kit on Monday, went online Thursday, took the test, placed my tube and wife's in the same box and shipped it Thursday afternoon and it arrived at the lab 10:00 am Friday. A Tugger suggested use one box marked "2 tests" and the Vault person said that was a good way to keep them together. Last night, midnight, my wife's test arrived, mine didn't. Called Vault, they couldn't find the sample tube. Said the looked everywhere, including the "orphan" stack, which are those the can't match to a name. They offered me a $119 refund. I then requested a refund of my wife's charge, that would then pay for the DFW test. We were lucky that we have a 3 hour layover in DFW. What if we hadn't? They were so sorry. They may look at the hundreds of tubes a day they receive and say, Oh well, it was just one, but what about the loss of my vacation and those funds? Had I been connecting in a city that didn't have onsite testing, we would be SOL. New backup plan, there is a Care Now a 10 minute Uber from DFW, if we have to I'll go off site. I don't mind going to Plan B, but I hate to go to Plan C. Aloha,

 

[csodjd]

Our last trip to Maui was Oct. 31, 2020, the old rules were in effect. We leave Jan. 17, 2021 for our latest trip, new rules in place. Due to the change in Safe Travel partners our local CVS could not do the test. We are changing planes in DFW so my first thought, do the test at the airport, the airport price is $239. Did some more research and decided to use Vault Health. All started out well, received the test kit on Monday, went online Thursday, took the test, placed my tube and wife's in the same box and shipped it Thursday afternoon and it arrived at the lab 10:00 am Friday. A Tugger suggested use one box marked "2 tests" and the Vault person said that was a good way to keep them together. Last night, midnight, my wife's test arrived, mine didn't. Called Vault, they couldn't find the sample tube. Said the looked everywhere, including the "orphan" stack, which are those the can't match to a name. They offered me a $119 refund. I then requested a refund of my wife's charge, that would then pay for the DFW test. We were lucky that we have a 3 hour layover in DFW. What if we hadn't? They were so sorry. They may look at the hundreds of tubes a day they receive and say, Oh well, it was just one, but what about the loss of my vacation and those funds? Had I been connecting in a city that didn't have onsite testing, we would be SOL. New backup plan, there is a Care Now a 10 minute Uber from DFW, if we have to I'll go off site. I don't mind going to Plan B, but I hate to go to Plan C. Aloha,

Scary. We go on Jan 28. It's costing a bit more, but I've opted for a local site that does quick-result tests. Doing that the morning of Jan 26. If there's any hiccup, we have all day the 27th and can go down to LAX and get the test there.

 

[Henry M.]

I used Vault too. We sent my wife's and my test tube in one box, marked that there were two test samples on the outside. UPS reported the test arrived around 9:00 am the following day. Vault sent me an email for each test around 10:00 am. My wife got her results around n 6:30 pm, but mine didn't show up until 5:35 am the next morning. We had to leave the house at 6:00 am so it was cutting it close. Still, we got our results less than 24 hours since Vault received them.

If I were doing it again, I'd try to find a Walgreens location that can do the rapid test. There is only one where I live, and is a bit of a drive. Still, results come back quicker. Note that not all Walgreen's do the rapid test. The normal one takes up to 72 hours, just like Vault.

 

[zentraveler]

One wrinkle I had not expected is that as smooth as the QR code reading was at OGG, for some inexplicalbe reasons Hertz and Westin (and I have to imagine the other car rental companies and resorts) do NOT have QR readers (??) so you need to be able to pull up the Safe Travels QR email on your phone so they can read the writing and not just see the code.

I had trouble with my password for some reason, had to reset it was more hassle than I had counted on. If anyone has speculations as to why neither Hertz or the Westin had a QR reader I would love to hear it. It can't be for lack of money but I can't imagine what possible reason it could be.

 

[controller1]

One wrinkle I had not expected is that as smooth as the QR code reading was at OGG, for some inexplicalbe reasons Hertz and Westin (and I have to imagine the other car rental companies and resorts) do NOT have QR readers (??) so you need to be able to pull up the Safe Travels QR email on your phone so they can read the writing and not just see the code.

I had trouble with my password for some reason, had to reset it was more hassle than I had counted on. If anyone has speculations as to why neither Hertz or the Westin had a QR reader I would love to hear it. It can't be for lack of money but I can't imagine what possible reason it could be.

Can't the camera on most smartphones function as a QR reader?

 

[zentraveler]

Can't the camera on most smartphones function as a QR reader?

Yes as far as I know. That is why I am flumoxed as to why the car/resort folks won't read a QR code issued by the state of Hawaii. They were both looking for print when staring in the face of a QR code that the airport had just read to let us through!

 

[Henry M.]

I just had to show Hertz and the resort (Westin Ka'anapali Ocean Resort Villa) the pink form that I got at the airport right when I got off the plane. I don't think I had to show the QR code.

 

[zentraveler]

I just had to show Hertz and the resort (Westin Ka'anapali Ocean Resort Villa) the pink form that I got at the airport right when I got off the plane. I don't think I had to show the QR code.

I know you have been there for a while Henry M and I think the procedures are quite in flux.We did not get pink slips or any paper, just our QR code that was scanned at the airport.

 

[Henry M.]

Things do change quite a bit. I find the change of procedure more of a problem than the actual hoops you need to jump through. They also just added the requirement for a contact tracing app on your smartphone.

Sorry about the weather! It has been great until now. Hopefully it will blow over by tomorrow afternoon.

 

[zentraveler]

Honestly, both are fine with me. We don’t get enough rain in California these days so I’m happy to see it wherever I can get it. And happy to be here looking at the ocean and a change of scenery even though in a real piece of irony, it is warmer and sunnier in San Francisco right now than it is here.

And even though the Covid tracing doesn’t go into effect until tomorrow, we signed up for it right away. I’d be happy for the information to be available.

 

[Henry M.]

I got the app too. Contact tracing doesn't keep your information. It uses a random number ID to determine that one device has been near another device for a certain amount of time. If the owner of one device reports being COVID positive, the system can use the list of random IDs to notify all devices that have been near it. There are safeguards in place to not store personally identifiable information. It is up to you to then do something about it. I don't mind getting notified about having been near someone COVID-positive.

 

[csodjd]

I got the app too. Contact tracing doesn't keep your information. It uses a random number ID to determine that one device has been near another device for a certain amount of time. If the owner of one device reports being COVID positive, the system can use the list of random IDs to notify all devices that have been near it. There are safeguards in place to not store personally identifiable information. It is up to you to then do something about it. I don't mind getting notified about having been near someone COVID-positive.

Why would I NOT want to know if I was exposed? Why would I NOT want others to know if I was tested positive and they may have been exposed? Contract tracing is about as evil as donating food or money to a charity or giving up your seat to a disabled person.