when to call the cab?
 

I am not sure of the check in requirements or the time a cab will take from Waikiki to HNL. Departure to ORD is scheduled at 5:22pm - what would be a good time to reserve a cab or the roberts shuttle for?

Wirelessly posted (slippahs iPhone in HNL: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5F136 Safari/525.20)

This depends greatly on what day of the week you're flying out on. If the weekday, I'd allow at least three hours prior to departure for a cab (one hour for transit with a little leeway built in for traffic) and on the weekends, I'd allow 2 1/2 hours. But if this was my first time transiting through HNL, I'd still allow three hours just to be on the safe side. Do you know if you'd be entitled to the gold lane (HNL priority screening)?

For the shuttle, you need to call 24 hours in advance. They will ask for your flight time, then tell you what time they will pick you up, depending on where you're staying.

I would agree with slippahs.

The biggest thing (after the traffic on a weekday) would be the time through check-in/security, plus the ag machine/check-in/TSA baggage drop routine that can confuse first-timers.

If you're flying HA, then being able to use the priority security line is enormously helpful, and if another airline being able to use the Gold lane in the main terminal, per slippahs, is also helpful.

Thanks for the suggestions. I am travelling in Economy but have *Gold status - would that entitle me for the "Gold" check-in lane?

Not sure; a UA flyer would be able to answer that. Generally, airlines only give out Gold Lane stamps if you're flying up front. Some airlines, CO a noted exception, provide Gold Lane stamps to all elites regardless of class.

The Gold Lane stamp is sometimes a wash. You don't get a priority TSA screening lane but instead are allowed to cut to nearly the front of the general screening line. If there is no line, there is no real benefit.