Originally Posted by
KristenNix
For us, it was a luxury experience as compared to the alternative of flying on Hawaiian Air. Here are the details along with a few pictures:
- Cost is $250 per person, each way. Plane holds a max of 6 passengers.
- As soon as you deplane from your arriving flight in HNL a VIP agent is waiting to greet you at your gate.
- The VIP agent escorts you to baggage claim to retrieve checked luggage.
- From baggage claim we were immediately escorted to a waiting Cadillac Escalade, and transferred to the private jet section of HNL. The ride is 5 minutes.
- Lanai Air has its own private lounge with refreshments, snacks, restrooms, etc.
- After 5 minutes in the lounge, they were ready for us to board the plane for the 20 minute flight. We departed 1 hour earlier than what had been scheduled :-)
- We landed on LNY and the plane pulled up to a Tesla Model X that was parked on the tarmac waiting for us. Within minutes we were on our way to the resort.
We thought the Lanai Air experience was excellent… it is seamless, removes all potential stress, and it feels like your vacation starts as soon as you arrive in HNL. It also saves a lot of time and gets you to the resort more quickly than the commercial Hawaiian Airlines flights (which have been known to experience delays). We met a couple of other guests at the resort that also flew Lanai Air and they were raving about the convenience and overall VIP experience.
Thanks for the pics. Maybe VIP experience not having to do the terminal thing for sure. But it's a real stretch to consider flying in a PC-12 a luxury charter. Private jets can be fun and save you time but until you get into the super midsize ones, they are fairly utilitarian once you are in the plane. I just did a 2.5 hour flight in a CJ3. Same deal using FBOs and not having to got through a terminal but I could never describe it as a "luxury charter." I would say that's a more PR description you might find on a website. Not really reality.
I think I prefer the Lodge back in the old days. Typical luxury resort rates in beautiful mountain settings and a good golf course. The gardens and main buildings were fantastic back then. We used to also rent the Land Rovers and do sporting clays and various activities, eat nice dinners at the restaurants there and Manele, and again it wasn't cheap, but it also can't imagine running up that type of spending in real dollars. I'm pegging an entry level room generously at 1k per night, meaning 3k per day in other inclusive charges.
I'm sure I will be proven wrong, but I believe a year from now me thinks it will be back to a more typical non-exclusive approach. 4k for a standard room is ridiculous (Maybe I misunderstood?). Bless Larry and FS if they get it.