How much time to travel inter-island? (Honolulu, Hilo: rental car, 2015, rental)

[jobaba]

I'm wondering if someone can help me with this.

I'm travelling to Hawaii and I'm thinking of travelling from Oahu to Kona/Hilo, or vice versa. A two-island trip.

My question is ... how much time does it take to get in and out of the airport? Like if the flight from HNL-KOA is 12:20PM to 1:09PM, then what time do I need to get to the airport? Not quite as worried about how much time to get out of the airport but comments are welcome. How much time would this take?

Would it be smarter to start at KOA and fly to HNL, as I assume it takes more time to check in there?

[Grassyknoll]

KOA is a breeze depending a bit on what time you get there. I alot anywhere from 30 minutes to 1.5 hours to park, check in and clear security depending on what time my flight is. Honolulu is going to take longer to get through, at least in my experience.

[hotzcatz]

Hilo is less crowded than Kailua-Kona, if speed through the airport matters. Actually, the fastest one is Kamuela airport since that just has the tiny little planes, but that one has no ground support so no rental cars there. It's kinda a locals only airport since you have to know someone to get picked up or dropped off there.

We usually try to arrive at the airport forty five minutes to an hour earlier than when the flight starts to board.

[whtviper1]

Between 10am to 1pm it’s not uncommon for 1+ hour TSA lines on Hawaiian without pre check, especially Sunday. The lines can wrap from the Hawaiian terminal back to the other terminal. Plan accordingly.

[bus man]

As of the last time I was there (in 2015), the check-in procedure at both KOA and HNL (and presumably other Hawaiian airports as well) was slow and painfully convoluted. I was annoyed enough to start a thread about it:

https://www.city-data.com/forum/hawa...-airports.html

Most of the responses were less than sympathetic to my concerns, but no one ever bothered to explain to me why they do things the way they do.

[whtviper1]

Originally Posted by bus man

Most of the responses were less than sympathetic to my concerns, but no one ever bothered to explain to me why they do things the way they do.

I went back to the thread - it seems you want a coordinated check in experience and while that has an element of common sense it isn't going to happen. You have a Federal Agency (TSA), a State Agency (Ag inspections), and a Airline who all work independently of each other - they don't play nice with each other. Ultimately, Airlines have no control over the State and Federal Agencies and that won't be changing anytime soon.

[bus man]

Originally Posted by whtviper1

I went back to the thread - it seems you want a coordinated check in experience and while that has an element of common sense it isn't going to happen. You have a Federal Agency (TSA), a State Agency (Ag inspections), and a Airline who all work independently of each other - they don't play nice with each other. Ultimately, Airlines have no control over the State and Federal Agencies and that won't be changing anytime soon.

Here is the relevant part of my original post from that thread:

Just as annoying is the process that you have to go through even before you get to meet Officer Unfriendly of the TSA. To check in for your flight, first you have to wait in line (in a non-air conditioned building, of course) to get your boarding pass from a kiosk. Then you have to wait in another line to get your destination tags for your luggage. Then you get to shlep your bags (and did I mention the lack of air conditioning?) over to the agricultural inspection station. And then, after they clear you through, you get to haul your bags again, over to the security inspection, where at long last you can relinquish them. Are there any signs explaining any of this? Not that I could see. You just have to know, or else get lucky enough to grab the attention of the lone agent working the crowd.

Someone, please tell me, why can't all of this be accomplished in one fell swoop? One line to a single check-in station to get boarding passes and destination tags, and then let the security workers put your luggage through the agricultural inspection and then from there directly to the security scanner? You know, like pretty much every other airport in the entire country? (Not counting the agricultural inspection.) Who designed this process -- the Soviet Union Airport Design Directorate?

Perhaps you have not had occasion to travel to the Mainland, but in every airport I've ever flown out of -- except in Hawaii -- the check-in process is handled all at once. (Almost. In a couple of airports I've used, the security scan is separate from the rest of the check-in process.) In theory, the agricultural inspection could be integrated into this process as well, but even if it weren't, that still leaves just two steps. But in Hawaii, it's four steps.

[whtviper1]

Originally Posted by bus man

Perhaps you have not had occasion to travel to the Mainland, but in every airport I've ever flown out of -- except in Hawaii -- the check-in process is handled all at once. (Almost. In a couple of airports I've used, the security scan is separate from the rest of the check-in process.) In theory, the agricultural inspection could be integrated into this process as well, but even if it weren't, that still leaves just two steps. But in Hawaii, it's four steps.

I travel to the mainland every month - although from Honolulu.

You aren't going to get your optimal process.

As I mentioned before, the airlines have no control over the agricultural inspections. They do whatever they want to do - it is managed by the State, not the airlines. It is why, it is what it is.

[jobaba]

Thanks for the responses...

BTW, I'd like to mention something funny I noticed on Trip Advisor and other travel sites.

Most people advise visiting one island if you have 10 days or less (and we may do that) and pretty much imply that you're crazy to try more. But I notice the same people mention stuff like, "On our 5th trip to Hawaii, we split 12 days between two islands and it felt rushed, so on our 6th trip, we spent 10 days on Big Island and that was perfect."

LMAO, like I have the $ and time to spend 12 days in Hawaii, and then anticipate that I'll be able to come back next year and spend another 10 days on another island. It was hard enough to get the time off work and this trip is probably going to cost us at least $4000 easy.

Might be the first and last time I see it ever, so it'd be nice to get 2 islands in. But we'll see.

[jobaba]

Says the ticket from Maui to KOA is $39.

Is that really accurate? Costs almost that to drive from Jersey to Queens, lol.