I know there is a Hawaii forum and I know there's a really lengthy thread about connecting at HNL. It was started a few years ago and I'm looking for a more up-to-date response here and I'd like to know what you might suggest.

Here's the scenario:
My partner is flying SEA-HNL on DL2433 Next Friday, 4/9
This flight leaves SEA at 545p and is scheduled to arrive HNL at 8:59pm

He needs to end up in Maui... here are the scenarios/options:

Option 1: Tight connection to Hawaiian Airlines HNL-OGG departs at 9:47pm. I haven't connected in HNL Mainland arrival-interisland in a while. I don't know if :48 minutes is enough time. Keeping in mind the SEA-HNL flight could be late, which could make things tighter. As a "snapshot" today's flight arrived at 9:03p. So I was thinking we could get him either a first class or coach plus ticket which can be changed or cancelled i think, so we could change it to the next morning if he misses the flight (ill have most of his things so he'll just have carry-on, by the way.

Option 2: Book a HNL airport hotel and a flight on Hawaiian the next morning to OGG in the event option A doesn't work.

I'm just curious what in the know people might recommend here. I'll be in Maui already and can certainly call hawaiian and change/cancel the ticket before the flight leaves if hes not going to make it. Hopefully this makes sense.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.