Originally Posted by
ankc
Thanks for the insight- that 11-13 hour flight would be very painful for my boys! I think we want to get out to the island in one day as we have a condo rented and i want to avoid extra hotel costs etc...
I think a 5-6 hr fligh is going to be tough but they should be ok with that. I hadn't even though about battery life for their iPods and iPad and all the other electronic crap they have! I may look into a southwest flight out to the west coast as and maybe we can get a decent layover in CA then fly onto OGG.
let the digging begin!
Im not sure how they are but there are some solar plugs you could purchase but they may not provide enough juice to charge the electronics.
If you fly Southwest to LAX, PHX, SEA, OAK, SJC and then fly the same day you need a longer layover because you will need to go back out through security and recheck your luggage.
For the flight a good idea would be to try and fly through something like Denver, KC, dallas (not on Southwest) because it balances out your cross country portion of your flight. If you fly through BWI or Chicago-Midway then the second leg of the flight will be 4-5 hrs.
With Albany being a smaller airport you may need to be willing to fly out of NYC, BOS, PHL, or BUF.
With the need to travel to a farther airport you may need to travel as I mentioned where you fly to a west coast city get in around 8pm, stay overnight at an airport hotel, then fly out the next morning.
The return flight you could do a day time flight to the west coast then do a red eye from the west coast. Thus no hotel needed on the return. Southwest doesnt do red eye flights.
Something to watch for with the hotel...Marriott does a regular promo of stay 2 nights get one free. If you need to travel for work or other reasons (visit family) you use this free night hotel for the west coast to hawaii overnight stay. In the current promo going on now (I think it ends in mid January) is you stay 2 separate stays (2 non consecutive nights) get a free night good for one year from the time it was completed through their rewards program....you dont need status for this reward...just have a rewards number.
If you are planning on traveling in Octonber 2013 you can use this and get the free night to cover when you would leave and thus not have to pay extra for the hotel.