747FC

The answer to your question is completely dependent on how risk-averse your are.

You will need to get through immigration and customs, get your bags to another terminal, check in, get through security, find your gate, etc. What is the on-time record of your originating flight? Do you have expedited entry privileges into the USA? How much do you care if you miss your HA flight? While HA probably will book you on a later flight without too much hassle if you miss your booked one, they don't have to extend the courtesy. Personally, if I were in your situation, I would leave at least three hours between flights. But we may differ on risk tolerance.

kamchatsky

Thanks for that. What about the other way, say HA OGG-HNL and separate HA ticket HNL-SYD? Would say 2 hours transit at HNL be enough? I assume that there is no exit immigration, right?

747FC

No exit immigration.

Again, it depends on your risk tolerance. Under normal situations, two hours is more than enough, and there are numerous flights between OGG and HNL. While HA is an "on-time" airline, there are occasional equipment malfunctions that have the effect of causing system-wide backups. Rare, but I have experienced a few that caused me to wait at OGG and be late for my plans in Honolulu.

While HA should check your bags through, with separate tickets I would hesitate. Were they both purchased directly from HA? Is one on another carrier's card stock? If for some reason they did not check it though, that might make a 40 minute wait for your luggage, and a god-knows-how-long wait to recheck and get through security. Make sure you are positive that your bags will get checked through.

jperiod

We are flying OGG>HNL this saturday afternoon. The OGG airport had announcements monday about getting to the terminal 3 hours before our flight. 4 out of 6 of us have precheck, but will it be open? I wondered if the 4 of us could arrive later at the airport and be ok.

747FC

The non-PC line can be very long, but the PC usually line moves quite quickly.

jperiod

Do you think they will need 3 hours then? Or do you think 2 hours should be ok (when we were originally planning to drop them off)?

747FC

mscala

Hi all,

I read through as much as I possibly could but still have a question for anyone who is experienced enough to answer it!

I have a HA flight from JFK landing in HNL at 2:55pm (were sitting toward the front of the plane) Ticket information says we will arrive at terminal 1. My husband booked a HA flight from HNL to LIH for 3:30pm (also at terminal 1). I DO realize how short this is, but my question is, is it possible? We will be checking luggage and already confirmed with HA that we can check it all the way through so retrieving luggage won't be an issue. So a few questions
1. Is it possible and how insane are we for even thinking about trying it?
2. If we miss our flight, it seems based on what else I've read, since i'm over the MCT of 30 min, i'd be able to get on the next flight free of charge. Is this correct? If not, any idea of what I'd have to do if we missed it?
3. If we do make it, I also realize its not super likely our baggage will. If our baggage doesn't make it with us, how exactly do we retrieve our bags at LIH (do we have to wait? do they deliver them to the hotel for us?)

Thank you all very much for taking the time out on this forum!!

nishimark

When arriving on international flight and transferring to another flight, there is no way to directly return to the gate area after clearing immigration and customs from the customs area. Rather, you must exit out onto the sidewalk and make your way to your next departure gate by going through security with everyone else who is departing at that time. It's a hassle if you don't have much time and want to get something to eat or shop on your short layover.

I arrived from Japan on Delta the other day and then transferred to a domestic flight to LAX. After clearing immigration, I picked up my bag to recheck it at the designated area inside of customs. However, no one was there at the Delta counter. Talked to someone working for JAL doing the same job and he said "Oh, they should be back soon". After 5 or so minutes of waiting and looking and wondering what to do, talked to the JAL guy again and he directed me to go back to the luggage carrousel, as they were probably there. Sure enough, hauling my bag back to where I came from, I found the Delta lady "talking story" with other employees. She laughed when I told her that I was looking for her or someone, and then finally took care of my bag and boarding pass for the next flight. Frustrating, but so Hawaii.

ILuvParis

You had me at "talking story."

adambadam

Flying in from NRT to HNL and then need to book a separate ticket to get down to KOA. Am I crazy to book the ticket with only a 2-hour layover? I have GE/Pre and only carry-ons.

747FC

Depends on your risk tolerance. Flight could be late, you could be selected for random enhanced screening, you could forget that there is a banana in your carry-on that alerts a dog, etc. Otherwise, if all goes as planned, you should be fine.

kahuna613

Is an hour enough time to transfer in Honolulu from Maui to San Francisco? I am on the 7:55AM United flight to San Francisco and could in theory take the Hawaiian flight from Maui which arrives in Honolulu at 6:49AM. Otherwise Ill have to fly to Honolulu the day before and get a hotel.

747FC

It really depends on your risk tolerance.

Delays happen. Even under the best of circumstances, you will need to get from the HA gates in the Interisland terminal to the UA gates, most of which are clear through the other side of the International terminal. Probably a 15-20 minutes walk. Are you booked on both flights with UA, or on separate tickets? Are you in F on the HA flight, or in the last row of Y?

HNLbasedFlyer

I'd add, that 15-20 minute walk would not be a leisurely walk - you'd be clipping along at fairly brisk pace. If you are pulling a bag and carry-on, you also might be a sweaty mess when you get to the plane.

What you do have on your side, that first OGG-HNL flight in the morning would take some sort of extraordinary circumstance to not be on time.