Hawaii-based Airlines - Interline baggage Island Air - United at HNL

Hi,

I have a flight later this year from Molokai to Honolulu (Island Air) and then to Los Angeles (United).

I believe Island Air and United have a baggage interline agreement, my question is do I interline my bags straight through to LAX from MKK or do I collect them and then re-check them at HNL? I'm scheduled to have just over 2 hours at HNL from when I arrive from Molokai to when I depart Honolulu is that long enough for them to make my flight if I interline them?

Also, if interlining bags, do you say you have bags when checking in online, i.e. in my case do I check bags with United using their mobile app or not, never used it before so not sure what's the right thing to do.

Many thanks.

If you are interlining, you show your e-ticket/boarding passes for your onward flights to the baggage agents at your first flight & tell them your final destination & connections. They will look up your flights to verify, then tag your bags to the final. You would not pick them up in HNL.

If the cannot / will not interline, you will have to collect & re-check at HNL.

Online check in with United, if United is your first flight of the day, you can declare your baggage online, and pay fee if any. When you arrive at the airport you would do as above to get the bags to your final. If your first flight is Island Air, then I would not declare my baggage online with United when I check in, especially if I have to pay a fee.

is it one ticket, one reservation?

Always check your bags to your final destination. Bring both confirmations (printed) with you in order to be able to do that. If it's one confirmation, you won't be able to check in with UA online. You will check in with Island Air.

2 hours is plenty, you should be able to stay airside. They have an airside walkway from the commuter terminal to the inter-island terminal, and from there you can either walk (long walk) or go upstairs and take the wiki wiki shuttle to the United gates at the other end of the overseas terminal. It's a long walk and you will already have walked a little bit just to get from the commuter terminal to the inter-island terminal.

If you are on two separately booked tickets, bring both confirmations with you, and hope that Island Air will check your bags through to your final destination. When you get to HNL, just head over to the UA gates as I described above and either use an easy check-in machine to get your boarding pass if Island Air doesn't do that for you, or see a gate agent or check in at the United Club if you are eligible to use it.

Have a nice trip.

-David

Reminder that all baggage FROM State of Hawaii to U.S. mainland must go thru Agriculture inspection prior to baggage being checked in for mainland flight. Since you're departing from MKK, keep in mind that MKK airport has very limited hours when Agriculture inspector is on duty. If agriculture inspection is open on MKK when you check-in, then IslandAir should be able to thru check your bag to your final mainland destination. However, if agriculture inspection is closed, then IslandAir can only check your bag to HNL. You will need to claim your bag in HNL and take bag yourself to UA where your bags will undergo agriculture inspection in HNL (adjacent to UA HNL check-in area). I believe IslandAir website has agriculture inspection hours listed for MKK (probably under baggage information) but use as guideline only in case hours changed.

There's a critical difference with Molokai: an agricultural inspector has to inspect all bags headed to the mainland, and in Molokai the inspector's office isn't always staffed when flights depart. So, if there's no inspector to stamp your bags, you'll have to pick up your bags in HNL and re-check them.

(This was the case a few years ago - not sure if things have changed.)

Please follow this in the Hawaii-based Airlines forum.


l'etoile
UA moderator

Thanks everyone for your replies they have been really helpful - I now have a good idea on what I should be doing so hopefully will go smoothly.

Online check in with United, if United is your first flight of the day, you can declare your baggage online, and pay fee if any. When you arrive at the airport you would do as above to get the bags to your final. If your first flight is Island Air, then I would not declare my baggage online with United when I check in, especially if I have to pay a fee.

On the way out my first flight of the day is with United so will check in online and declare baggage (no fees applicable, upgraded to F), return leg starts with Island Air so wont declare bags on check in with United.

is it one ticket, one reservation?
No, it's on two separate reservations, one through Island Air's website and the other through United. United's website got a bit confused when I tried to book both through United as I was forcing United to book my LAX-HNL-LAX flights in a specific fare bucket and gave me ridiculous prices so I booked them separately.

2 hours is plenty, you should be able to stay airside. They have an airside walkway from the commuter terminal to the inter-island terminal, and from there you can either walk (long walk) or go upstairs and take the wiki wiki shuttle to the United gates at the other end of the overseas terminal. It's a long walk and you will already have walked a little bit just to get from the commuter terminal to the inter-island terminal.

If you are on two separately booked tickets, bring both confirmations with you, and hope that Island Air will check your bags through to your final destination. When you get to HNL, just head over to the UA gates as I described above and either use an easy check-in machine to get your boarding pass if Island Air doesn't do that for you, or see a gate agent or check in at the United Club if you are eligible to use it.

Thanks for the info on getting from one end of the airport to the other, will get boarding pass using easy check-in if Island Air doesn't give me one. Not sure about getting into United Club will need to check, am travelling in F and my travelling partner is Star Alliance Gold so will see where that gets us.

Reminder that all baggage FROM State of Hawaii to U.S. mainland must go thru Agriculture inspection prior to baggage being checked in for mainland flight. Since you're departing from MKK, keep in mind that MKK airport has very limited hours when Agriculture inspector is on duty.
There's a critical difference with Molokai: an agricultural inspector has to inspect all bags headed to the mainland, and in Molokai the inspector's office isn't always staffed when flights depart. So, if there's no inspector to stamp your bags, you'll have to pick up your bags in HNL and re-check them.

(This was the case a few years ago - not sure if things have changed.)
Thanks for that - have checked on Island Air's website, my flight from Molokai is at 10:15 and Agriculture Inspection is available until 10:00 so getting there early enough should ensure Inspection is still available.

2 hours is plenty, you should be able to stay airside. They have an airside walkway from the commuter terminal to the inter-island terminal, and from there you can either walk (long walk) or go upstairs and take the wiki wiki shuttle to the United gates at the other end of the overseas terminal. It's a long walk and you will already have walked a little bit just to get from the commuter terminal to the inter-island terminal.

Does this mean you can skip the agricultural inspection for hand baggage when connecting from the commuter terminal to the overseas terminal?

Also, does go! have an interline baggage agreement with UA?

if you connect FROM the commuter terminal (gates 70 to 79) to the main terminal (gates 6 to 34) via "annex walkway" and inter-island terminal (e.g. Hawaiian Airlines), your hand luggage will undergo agriculture inspection either at the inter-island terminal departure gate (if you're on HA and mainland flight is departing from inter-island terminal) or in the connector walkway between inter-island terminal (gates 49 to 61) and main overseas terminal (gates 6 to 34). Either way, your hand luggage will be inspected by agriculture department before you board your mainland flight (if HA mainland flight departing from inter-island terminal) or as you enter the overseas terminal. Note: if you catch "wiki wiki" shuttle bus from inter-island terminal to main overseas terminal, your hand luggage will be inspected PRIOR to boarding the wiki-wiki shuttle bus in inter-island terminal.

Does this mean you can skip the agricultural inspection for hand baggage when connecting from the commuter terminal to the overseas terminal?

No, that's the first and only time it will be inspected, when you leave the inter-island terminal for the overseas terminal if you are mainland bound. (surfport got the gory details right.)


Also, does go! have an interline baggage agreement with UA?

I believe that they do.

-David

if you connect FROM the commuter terminal (gates 70 to 79) to the main terminal (gates 6 to 34) via "annex walkway" and inter-island terminal (e.g. Hawaiian Airlines), your hand luggage will undergo agriculture inspection either at the inter-island terminal departure gate (if you're on HA and mainland flight is departing from inter-island terminal) or in the connector walkway between inter-island terminal (gates 49 to 61) and main overseas terminal (gates 6 to 34). Either way, your hand luggage will be inspected by agriculture department before you board your mainland flight (if HA mainland flight departing from inter-island terminal) or as you enter the overseas terminal. Note: if you catch "wiki wiki" shuttle bus from inter-island terminal to main overseas terminal, your hand luggage will be inspected PRIOR to boarding the wiki-wiki shuttle bus in inter-island terminal.

Thank you for the detailed response.

Is the hand baggage agricultural inspection comparable to the checked baggage one, for which the bags are just run through an x-ray machine, or is a more rigorous hand inspection also performed?

Thank you for the detailed response.

Is the hand baggage agricultural inspection comparable to the checked baggage one, for which the bags are just run through an x-ray machine, or is a more rigorous hand inspection also performed?

just an x-ray machine, usually no line.

-David