GlobalMatt

It took us ~5 minutes to get through the screening in HNL. It took us 30min to get our tests done on a Saturday and we went to brunch after. Not much of an inconvenience.

FlyerBeek

AA certainly can participate - they just don't want to. It's great if you happen to time it right, but that's purely luck for the most part. I've had several friends fly paid F (among the first off the plane) on AA in the last month who all had hour plus long waits on arrival in HNL and OGG.

-FlyerBeek

WiscAZ

Arrived in HNL on 6/15 from PHX in J. We arrived into C gates in the afternoon. Walked right up to a screener and in reality spent 3 extra minutes clearing. No issues on our end.

MCO Flyer

It has helped that AA moved to C in HNL this month. Previously they were in E alongside DL (who also doesn’t do wristbands) and the lines would get ridiculously long when a DL and AA flight arrived around the same time.

Global321

Flew in last Thursday night at 9:30 on AA from LAX... 30+ minutes.

Kacee

We're arriving OGG from PHX next week and really hoping it's not a cluster. It's not just the time in line that's a concern, but also the current scarcity of rental cars - an hour one way or the other can make a big difference on that score.

Of course the real problem here is the State of Hawaii, with its ridiculous entry restrictions. Arguably this all made sense six months ago; now it's just petty tyranny.

MCO Flyer

On a somewhat related topic, the Gov of Hawaii just announced a few mins ago that those vaccinated on the mainland will now be able to bypass pre-travel testing starting July 8th. Kids under 12 and those unvaccinated will still have the option to take a pre-test with a trusted testing partner after that date.

FullFare

Gives me the opportunity to finally vent a long-standing gripe about state of HI health department. Recently, they had their Covid vaccine requirement that had to come from a Hawaiian originated source. Made no sense to me. I mean, I and my partners are on the faculty of Stanford Med Ctr and were Pfizer vaccinated there, literally the day it all came out. Got our documentation cards completed by Jan 5, 2021. So why is our vaccination documentation inferior to that originating in HI? Same thing was true of the Covid nasal testing. You could get a PCR test done on the mainland before a flight to HI, and if not an approved HI dept of health source, they'd quarantine you or send you right home. That was tough enough to take. But not recognizing a vaccine card from Stanford? Not only that, even if you've uploaded the card on to your phone, they still want you to bring the true vaccine card with you.

I don't mind needing the vaccine card, but discriminating against a mainland source needlessly was something that I did not understand (and still don't). I guess now I'll consider going back to HI (used to go every 3 months). Have to admit, going to other resorts wasn't so bad, and I was getting used to it.

seawolf

Depends on what other flights arrive and where you sit on the aircraft. Arrived yesterday at 4PM. OGG airside was a ghost town. According to schedule only two UA 738s arrived ahead of us within prior 30 mminutes.

There were about a dozen screeners right outside the arrival gate which were essentially handling just my flight. Definitely a wait if sitting in last row of economy but no wait for those first to disembark.

Also reported in Hawaii car rental thread zero wait if you are fully enrolled in car loyalty program. Multiple cars to “self serve” for Hertz 5 Star and President Club Ultimate Choice. Two or three people in the Hertz Gold desk. Avis app even allow several cars to “self exchange.”

Rental car having bare lots might have been an issue in the spring but multiple data points suggest that is really no longer a problem especially for elite.

The state has announced what conditions are needed for them to drop testing. If meeting the requirements is too bothersome, go at a later date.

Previously discussed in another thread. Hawaii cannot confirm authenticity of information on CDC cards except if the shots were administered in the state. There is still no way for Hawaii to confirm CDC cards are legit from other states but because more of Hawaii’s population is now vaccinated, the risk of a fake card is more “manageable.” That is why rolling back of restrictions is tied to Hawaii vaccination rate.

As for testing partners, those are the partners they have agreements to validate test results you uploaded as being authentic.

tismfu

It’s a “YMMV” situation.

My March arrival into HNL (E gates) on AA in F: 10 minute wait.

My June arrival (G gates) on AA in F: 30 minutes.

Hopefully when they allow vaccines from mainland there will be a separate and speedier lane.

seawolf

I don’t see how an out of state vaccine exemption screening is going to be any speedier. It could actually take longer to process a vaccine exemption because the current setup in reading test result as negative appears to be automated. As lab results are not handwritten and follows a specific format based on test provider, it can be easily “read” by the safe travel site.

Vaccine cards on the other hand are more than likely handwritten. Safe travel site will have a more difficult time accurately “reading” the card to identify what type of vaccine and when the dose(s) was/were administered. While it remains to be seen how this will be implemented, safe travel site could very well not even bother to machine read the card and have traveller key in type of vaccine/dose date(s) in addition to uploading the card.

This will then require screener to inspect the card upon arrival to confirm information entered in safe travel is accurate (and uploaded card wasn’t photoshopped) leading to a longer screening time.

FullFare

OK. If we upload our vaccination cards (from mainland sources) to the SafeTravels web site, well before a flight to HI, should we not then be able to rely on the state of HI to go check such authenticity (say, 2 weeks before travel) to get around the multiple cheating scenarios and possibilities that have been proposed?

EXPLAT

That would require a lot of people making a lot of phone calls to State/County/City health departments or grocery stores, or the myriad of locations you can get your shots. The current safe travels website does allow uploading of your card if vaccinated in Hawaii and it does ask the name of the facility where you received your shot along with the City and State. You have to pick Hawaii currently, as it doesn't allow saving of the uploaded card otherwise, even though the State will start accepting out of State vaccination cards for arrivals after July 8th.

seawolf

In addition to what EXPLAT describe, the out of state provider/state health department that administered the shot is not obligated to give out information either. Hawaii has no authority to compel them to release this information.

MCO Flyer

Hawaii has no access to verify out of state vaccines as they can only verify in-state vaccines through their health department database. The Gov said in the press conference that you must bring the physical vaccine card with you to be verified either by the airline agent at the departure gate (this won’t happen if flying AA) or upon arrival into Hawaii at the screening station.