Just got back last week so I just wanted to follow up on my long ignored thread. My travel dates were from 4-26-14 through 5-7-14. The first seven days were spent in Oahu and remaining four were spent on Maui. I accumulated miles and booked 3 coach class tickets from PIT to HNL on AA. 3 coach class tickets from HNL to OGG on HA and 3 coach class tickets from OGG back to PIT on AA. Overall the flights were pretty comfortable as I got the main cabin extra seats for the longer flights.
The trip was awesome and well worth the effort. We stayed with our relatives in Kailua while on Oahu and booked a garden view room in the Grand Wailea totally using HHonors points. I put a request in for the chapel wing during booking and they accommodated us as well as upgraded us to the ocean/beach/chapel view free of charge! I do have gold status with HH with my Amex card so that may or may not have helped with my complimentary upgrade.
Both Islands were amazing and beautiful. Personally I'm glad we stayed the full seven days in Oahu. I'm not sure how anyone could possibly do that island in just two or three days without being insanely rushed. Perhaps for a re-visit I could see it but we did do a lot of touristy things there which we thoroughly enjoyed (May not be everyone's cup of tea I guess). Just to name a few we hit some beaches in Kailua, Waikiki, the North Shore, and Sandy Beach. We hiked Diamond Head Crater, Visited Pearl Harbor, The Polynesian Cultural Center and swam in Waimea falls. We also stopped at aloha stadium for souvenirs and at many scenic overlooks around the island in between the main events. No regrets at all.
That being said we did not spend enough time on Maui! We wanted our time on Maui to be a little slower paced and a little more relaxing and we achieved our goal. We spent a lot of time on the beach at the resort. My wife and I enjoyed paddle boarding there and my son really loved the pools at the Grand Wailea. We also went on a snorkeling trip to Molokini crater on the Kai Kanani which was awesome and did some shopping and sight seeing in Lahaina before spending our last night at the Old Lahaina Luau which was relaxing, entertaining and delicious! We will definitely make a return trip to Maui to explore the island further along with the Big island or Kauai in the near future!
Just wanted to send out a thank you to the flyertalk community and to the contributors of this thread for all of the wonderful resources you provided!
Last edited by Tsukikage; May 17, 2014 at 9:51 am
Reason: Return date was wrong, I don't actually have a time machine :P