Hawaii non-rev advice from east coast

Hello!

I am just in the beginning stages of planning a trip to Kauai for my husband 50th birthday. We are looking to go in either April, May, or June. I am a WN employee and live in DC. I would really prefer a nonstop if possible and avoid the west coast. (will be travelling with my 5 yr old). Does anyone have advice about the east coast non stops. I.E. UA does a IAD-HNL and a EWR-HNL daily. Anyone ever tried for these? Do they ever run into weight restrictions, etc?

Any help would be very much appreciated!

Mahalo

Sorry I can't answer your question. Just wanted to say welcome to another WN emp. Too many DL people here! :cool:

We (DL) only have the non stop from ATL-HNL FLT 837, but that flt can be very unpredictable for nonrevs. If you have to go to the west coast you would probably have alot more options to get to the islands than from the east coast.

If WN has a zed agreement with Hawaiian Airlines, they have a non-stop from JFK. Other options to avoid the west coast would be ATL (DL), ORD (UA), DFW (AA 2x/day), IAH (UA). MSP, SLC, DEN & PHX are also options but not sure if that is too far west for you. LAX has the most options with all the Hawaii-bound airlines offering several flights a day. You may want to consider a west coast connection as a back-up especially for the return trip. Hawaii is a popular destination, with many non-revs saving their highest priority non-rev pass (D1 in the case of AA) for a trip to the 50th state.

Not sure if we have any HA employees here but there are a few UA folks here who might have better insight on the IAD & EWR flights as far as loads or weight restrictions go.

I'm sure it depends on the day, but I have seen some IAD-HNL flights that were wiiide open. In fact, tomorrow has 50 seats AFTER weight restrictions and after all listed NRSA (about 20 of them) are cleared. Right now it's showing 5 held seats, but that could change for better or worse day of departure. On the other hand, HNL-IAD tomorrow has only 8 seats, 9 NRSA after the 5 seats are set aside for the weight restriction on that flight.

Yes, we have zeds on HA at WN.

Take your passports with you, if you get stuck, it can be helpful to have a passport. Many non-revs don't think of that so when flights start cancelling, you have the option to go through Japan and you may be much higher on the priority list. You must be doing ZED since WN doesn't have any flights so you'd be near the bottom of any list but the list will be shorter on international flights. I ended up flying through Japan both ways my first time to HNL, I would have never made it otherwise, too low on the list. I know it's not ideal with a 5 yr old but it is better than being stuck in the airport for a couple of days.

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Originally Posted by ATG-DL

We (DL) only have the non stop from ATL-HNL FLT 837, but that flt can be very unpredictable for nonrevs. If you have to go to the west coast you would probably have alot more options to get to the islands than from the east coast.

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Always a difficult leg. We get this question alot. Wait till October, have hotel money in place and patience..