kar120c

We flew San Jose CA to Maui on March 9, flight 803, left at 7:00 am, arrived about 10:30 am. There did not appear to be a lot of other arrivals around the same time, Maui airport was not very crowded, no big line to get our luggage or rental car. My recollection/understanding is same plane returns to San Jose an hour or two later as flight 812 but I didn’t check its timing that day.

We returned a week later, March 16, on that return flight 812. Note that the mainland went on Daylight Saving Time on March 10, Hawaii does not do so, so the time difference is now 3 hours rather than the 2 hour difference when we left.

Flight 812 was scheduled to depart at 2:30 pm on March 16. As we are sitting at the gate, I’m noticing that there is no plane. It finally pulls in at 1:30 pm, and I check and see that the arriving flight is in fact flight 803 from San Jose, which was now scheduled to depart San Jose at 10:47 am, nearly 4 hours later than the week before (and not surprisingly arriving about 4 hours later). This appears to be the new schedule going forward.

At 1:30 there were also at least two other planes arriving, one at the gate right next to ours, and it was so crowded in that wing of the terminal that passengers from that flight could barely get out into the hallway to exit (you will appreciate this if you know the Maui airport layout). From seeing so much more crowding in the gate areas, I would guess that baggage claim & rental cars were also more crowded than when we arrived.

So my curiosity is peaked. Why would Alaska make such a dramatic schedule change? Seems to result in less convenience for arriving passengers (& 4 hours less of the day spent in Maui ). Does it have anything to do with DST, & if so why?

Anybody know or care to guess?

diver858

To maximize revenue and profits, airlines must maximize utilization of their planes, scheduling must balance demand, fares and available equipment. AS, other carriers cut back on flights during slower winter months, are now ramping up due to spring break, etc. AS is primarily a leisure carrier, State of Hawaii is primarily a leisure destination, accommodating business travelers is not a concern.

jmiyazawa

AS tinkers with the timing of 892 (SAN-HNL) all the time and it makes me crazy (I go every quarter to visit family). It used to leave around 0730 and land in HNL before lunchtime. Now it leaves at 1000 and arrives around 1400 (if not later in the winter because of fuel stops in OAK or ONT). I have noticed that the return (892) used to leave HNL around 1500, arriving just around midnight, and now leaves around noon.

PDXPremier

That actually works better for connections....I flew PDX-SJC-KOA last November due to GGUs being available for our entire family of 4 on the SJC-KOA segment but the early morning departure from SJC required an annoying overnight layover.

kar120c

While I would agree with both of those things, neither really explains the time shift last week. We’ve taken flight 803 to Maui for years, & its almost always been at 7 or 8 IIRC, I can’t recall it ever being as late as 10:47. Interesting that you mention PDX, flight 803 non-stop to Maui used to be daily, now only on Saturday (yeah, I know Maui traffic is way down after the Lahaina fire) and on other days we would have to connect through PDX or Seattle or San Diego I think. If they wanted to delay it for better connections, why wait until now? But maybe the timing is completely arbitrary, & they just used the change to DST to make schedule changes overall, Just thought I’d ask. Thanks for responding.

Kacee

Flight scheduling is for the convenience and perceived best interests of the airline, not its passengers.

Eastbay1K

And what about accomoding leisure travelers? AS has been swinging SFO/HNL flight times around, too, and what might have been a leisurely morning in Waikiki and perhaps a nice lunch when one plans a trip turns into not so much, or planning on getting to your hotel by noon for the better part of a full day in town turns into "I hope I make it for dinner." Or perhaps you like the flight times that I don't like, and expect to get back to SFO in the mid-evening, with a full night's sleep before tomorrow's workday and end up with a midnight arrival, in bed by 2am, or you planned on taking BART to the airport, but your flight has changed to 7am, making it impossible to risk from the East Bay.

UAPremierExec

It seems 852 (SJC-OGG) is an 856AM departure in May; then 1030AM in June. HA seems to depart around 8:30AM and WN at 9:05AM. In September, WN is at 855AM, HA at 10:35AM, and AS at 10:50AM. November, sheesh. Alaska - 745AM, Hawaiian at 10:55AM, and Southwest at 1:25pm.

Network planning knows what its doing - its not just like a chicken guessing fares.

Eastbay1K

AS is still paying for the K to get unstuck from the A. So that explans things now.

skunker

Look at SAN-LIH-SAN. Used to leave around 7:30am and come back around 2pm. They shifted the outbound later and kept the return about the same, so a same day turn wasn’t possible. Now it’s an afternoon flight at 3:20pm and a redeye back! At least a same day turn is doable again.