SFO_UGS

When Hawaii announced they would accept a negative antigen test to avoid the 14-day quarantine, I started planning for a 16 Oct departure. For the previous 3 months, I had been moving this SFO-HNL trip forward on the Calendar anticipating when Hawaii might open.

In late Sept, when United announced they would offer testing, I went into planning/action mode. :-) At that point, United (even Global Services) was fairly useless in providing information regarding their arrangement with Color (their testing vendor), appointments, mail-in kits, etc., etc. To circumvent their disorganization and misinformation, I signed up for a free Color test at a local site in San Francisco approximately 10 days before the scheduled flight, but within the 72-hr period. In addition, after much checking United's/Color online information and final receiving an email from United, I secured an appointment (and I took the last appointment that was available within my 72-hr period; though, likely other times became available, but I don't know that for sure) at the drive-in location in the old long-term parking lot location near SFO. The free city Color test swab was taken at 1 PM (yesterday) and the swab at the United/Color drive-in site was done at 3 PM (yesterday). (At the United/Color location, you swab your own nose.) The United/Color result (negative) arrived in my inbox at approximately 9 AM this morning and the free city test result (negative) arrived at 11 AM this morning. I then went to travel.hawaii.gov to fill out the necessary form(s) and was provided information on what I'll need upon arrival (e.g., a QR number, evidence of my hotel, and return flight information).

Through this entire process, it's the timing of the test you'll have to navigate and since the available slots seem to appear and disappear, you have to plan ahead and proactively keep checking. Believe me, I'm not anxious to get to HNL, but a friend isn't doing well health-wise (unrelated to COVID-19) and the isolation hasn't helped. For him, I'm fine jumping through the hoops. But, according to him, nothing is open in Waikiki so unless you need to "get away," the process isn't worth the aggravation. I recognize we're in a pandemic and life is very different, but HNL has never been a destination for me. BUT, Honolulu is driven by tourism and a few casual/distant friends in Honolulu haven't worked in a long time and their jobs may or may not return. Call me anything, but it's important to support economies that depend upon tourism during the pandemic. At least, as much as you can.