OGG to LIH via HNL Question (Honolulu, Kahului: island, schedule, reservation)

[psychofan]

I will be flying from Maui to Kauai via Honolulu in January on Hawaiian Airline. My concern is how big is the inter-island terminal? Based on the purchased itinerary, we leave OGG at 9:18am and arrive in HNL at 9:52am. THEN we leave HNL at 10:25am to arrive at LIH at 11:02am. Is 30 minutes between landing and take-off enough to get on the flight AND have our luggage loaded onto the LIH flight?!?!? I know how incredibly tight this schedule is (I had an attention lapse when I was booking), but has anyone done it before?

I T I N E R A R Y :
DEPART: Maui - Kahului (OGG) 09:18 AM
ARRIVE: Oahu - Honolulu (HNL) 09:52 AM
CLASS/ROUTE: Coach/Nonstop
FLIGHT: HA133

DEPART: Oahu - Honolulu (HNL) 10:25 AM
ARRIVE: Kauai - Lihue (LIH) 11:02 AM
CLASS/ROUTE: Coach/Nonstop
FLIGHT: HA139

If not, I have no idea why the airline made this reservation available to begin with. What happens if either the passengers or their luggages miss the connection?

[whynot?]

Call Hawaiian (800-367-5320) to be sure, but it's possibly the same plane, just with a stop in HNL. That's what we did the last time we flew from OGG to LIH. A lot of neighbor-island flights go through HNL to consolidate there.

Also, I think Hawaiian flies into the regular domestic terminal at HNL. The inter-island terminal serves Go!, IslandAir, and others that fly smaller craft.

Others may know specifics, but I think you'll be fine.

[raisun]

I've done connections like that before at HNL and it usually works ok. Hawaiian does operate its inter-island flights out of the inter-island terminal and that walk is very easy between gates. Its also entirely possible that its the same plane. My experience is that that their turnaround times are quick.

As far as baggage goes, that shouldnt be an issue either. In fact, more often than not, if I check in at OGG early enough, they put my bags on the next flight out. in March with I went to LIH from HNL, my bags were already waiting for me at baggage claim.