AlphaEcho

Hi,

At the end of December I am booked on HA11 from SFO to HNL. I then need to get to Molokai.

So the question is, what should I do, wait until Ohana by Hawaiian is operational (but who knows when that is likely to happen) and see if the flight timings suit my arrival time in HNL or book with another airline? The same is also true of the return flight from MKK - HNL and then on HA12 to SFO.

As far as I have seen Ohana look like they are possibly only going to have 2 flights a day to MKK. One in the morning and one in the afternoon/evening. If their timings match up with my Hawaiian Airlines flights I'm thinking that it may be simpler in getting my bags tagged all the way through.

Obviously I don't want to leave it too long before booking in case there is lack of availability. Last year I did this flight with United Airlines and Island Air which resulted in a very long wait at HNL to get to MKK as Island Air cancelled the afternoon flight I had booked and put me on the evening flight. I don't really want to wait around at HNL for hours so am worried that if I book with Island Air they could cancel the flight I want again - or is this less likely now the ATR's are in the fleet?

Your thoughts would be most welcome.

Thanks.

HNLbasedFlyer

I wouldn't count on Hawaiian Ohana service until the FAA sequestration issues are cleared up - and the flights to Molokai are in really small planes - you should consider booking now.

AlphaEcho

Thanks for your input - I think what I may do is book an unrestricted ticket with Island Air for the HNL - MKK flight so that if they change the flight times too much I will be able to get a full refund and book elsewhere if needed. At least that way I will have a guaranteed seat to get to MKK with the flexibility to change it if I have to.

UAPremierExec

and Mokulele fills up quick. While they're smaller than the ATR's of Island Air, they are a HELL of a lot more reliable and its a very scenic 30 minute flight.

AlphaEcho

I contemplated Mokulele after sitting in HNL for nearly 5 hours after Island Air cancelled the flight I had for about 2pm and put me on a 5pm flight to MKK. To be honest I'm not much of a lover of small (Cessna size) aircraft hence the decision to go for Island Air and the ATR.

Should Island Air change the schedules around again so that it doesn't suit me I will look elsewhere and if I find any availability on Mokulele I will cancel my Island Air flights and get a refund.

I'm sure it's very scenic, just not yet had the chance to see, last year one of my flights was in the dark and the other one had such bad turbulence and low clouds I didn't get to see much!

DanTravels

Apparently if the return flight gets changed, folks have been known to just swim...

AlphaEcho

Well that will teach me for hanging on so long deliberating on what to do. Went to book the flight today only to discover that there's not a single seat left on it. Checked on flightstats last night and there seemed to be plenty, left it to this morning and went to book but nothing doing. I'm wondering if they plan on pulling the flight from the schedule in the next few weeks which is what they did to me last time.

Anyway, I've booked my outbound flight from HNL - MKK on Mokulele now so I'll see what they're like. For the return I went with Island Air because last year it all went very smoothly, bags tagged all the way through and agriculture inspection done at MKK so stayed airside when arriving at HNL and avoided all the security queues. Leaves me quite a bit of time at HNL but I'll go to the Hawaiian lounge for a few hours.

If I'm that lucky I'll be more than happy to stay put - sure beats the hustle and bustle of London which is where I'm heading back to.

UAPremierExec

holy crap... that's quite the distance to swim, hopefully the surf wasn't too rough.