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Next time look into a direct flight from Honolulu to Newark, New Jersey, and then to Richmond.
I flew using United miles, so I had to take what was available.
I think what I will do from now on is stop, stay and visit family/friends for a few days in S.F. or L.A. before continuing either to the east coast or back to Hawaii.
Yeah, we visited the East Coast a couple of times and it is a brutal flight whether it gets screwed up along the way or not. Massive jet lag when we got there, too, with lots of difficulty adjusting to the time differences. I think heading East makes for more difficulty in adjusting to the time differences than heading West does.
Hawaii is very isolated so whenever you go ANYWHERE (other than to another of the islands, of course) it is a major trip. If you live on the mainland you can hop on a plane and go several states away and it's no big thing. I suspect most folks would just drive their car several states away. Here we don't have that option. It will be a minimum of a five hour flight no matter what your destination is other than to another island. Many of the mainland flights leave in the evenings, too, so you are basically trying to sleep on the plane. Ick!
Several years ago the airlines changed how they charged airfares, too. It used to be you could start out on one "outer" island and for not much more than flying to Oahu get to another "outer" island. Now, to go from say Maui to Kauai, you have to get one flight from Maui to Oahu and then book another full price flight from Oahu to Kauai and then reverse the procedure to get home again. It basically doubled to the costs of flying from island to island unless you live on Oahu. There are a few flights between Maui and a few of the other islands, but other than that, all the flights go to Oahu.
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