Flight time- What would you pick and why?

[flinkerfrosch]

Honestly we always fly United because DH flies internationally for work and accrues a lot of points, so I don't really have anything to compare it to. Yes, there are outlets at each seat. Comfort-wise we do okay with the economy plus seats, but of course they're pretty tight and not very comfortable for overnight flights. We've always had good service, and the food is decent (but not free). We're taking a direct flight from Chicago to Maui, and nine hours on a plane is long on any airline!

Good to know you've always had good service, thank you!
9hrs is a long time to be on a plane
We don't have any direct flights from Toronto, so ours gets split up a bit which I guess isn't such a bad thing.
The United one I'm watching has us on one plane for just over 3hrs and the 2nd leg is just over 7hrs.
My boys have never done 7hrs before on a plane so we shall see lol (If I pick this one)
The flights with a stopover in Vancouver have us on the 1st leg for 4 1/2 hrs appx and the 2nd leg about 5 1/2 hours...
I'm watching daily on the prices!

 

[flinkerfrosch]

We booked all of our flights around 11am-1pm, which I consider mid-day. We'd leave our hotel around 8:30am and wouldn't get to our next resort until say 2pm-ish. By the time we checked in and our room was ready, it was likely after 3pm before we were settled in our new space. To us, that took a large chunk out of our day and we essentially lost a day with the travel logistics. In retrospect, I would have booked say a 7-8am flight out, even though we would have had to get up early. But at least we'd be settled into our new destination by lunch time with the rest of the day to enjoy. Or the other option would be to take an 9-10pm flight out, which would give you the whole day wherever you are before you'd need to head to the airport.

Will you be traveling from Aulani to the airport or are you staying elsewhere on Oahu? We left Aulani around 12:30pm to head to the airport the day we left, and hit no traffic. Traffic is most prominent around 6am-9am and 3pm-7pm in my experience. If you need to drive to the airport during rush hour, I probably would give myself at least an hour for the commute. We always like to be at the airport at least 90 minutes in advance, anyway. We hit no traffic on Maui, however we stayed in the Kaanapali area which was a good 45-50 minute drive to and from the airport with no traffic.

Great info, thanks!

We're staying at Aulani the whole time, so I'm going to work around the traffic.
I'm honestly torn whether to spend the day at Aulani, and leave at night or leave in the am so we have a good portion of the day in Maui at our new destination? I can never make up my mind lol
Since it's an inter-island flight, 90 mins is good enough? I'm so used to being at the airport for my flights at least 2hrs before we depart. I'm going to guess 2hrs before is over kill if we're only flying to another Island?
In Maui, we're staying in the same area, so good to know traffic may not be as much of an issue.

 

[nkereina]

Great info, thanks!

We're staying at Aulani the whole time, so I'm going to work around the traffic.
I'm honestly torn whether to spend the day at Aulani, and leave at night or leave in the am so we have a good portion of the day in Maui at our new destination? I can never make up my mind lol
Since it's an inter-island flight, 90 mins is good enough? I'm so used to being at the airport for my flights at least 2hrs before we depart. I'm going to guess 2hrs before is over kill if we're only flying to another Island?
In Maui, we're staying in the same area, so good to know traffic may not be as much of an issue.

How many nights are you spending at Aulani and how many in Maui? We spent 6 nights in Aulani which gave us 6 and a half full days. We spent 3 nights in Maui which was about 4 days. That worked out well for us. IMO, there was less to do and see in Maui so we were happy with how we split the time.

I would definitely say 90 minutes is enough time. We flew from Honolulu to Maui on a Sunday mid-day and the airport was not busy at all. Neither airport was actually. We got there closer to two hours before and had about an hour to kill.

 

[flinkerfrosch]

How many nights are you spending at Aulani and how many in Maui? We spent 6 nights in Aulani which gave us 6 and a half full days. We spent 3 nights in Maui which was about 4 days. That worked out well for us. IMO, there was less to do and see in Maui so we were happy with how we split the time.

I would definitely say 90 minutes is enough time. We flew from Honolulu to Maui on a Sunday mid-day and the airport was not busy at all. Neither airport was actually. We got there closer to two hours before and had about an hour to kill.

We have 11 nights at Aulani and 10 nights in Maui.
We arrive at Aulani on a Friday afternoon.
We're flying from Honolulu to Maui on a Tuesday.
My husband wanted to do Maui last for more 'relaxing time' because I have a lot more day excursions booked in Oahu as I too learned their seems to be a lot more stuff to do there.
We thought about doing a 3rd Island, but decided not to.

 

[Psymonds]

It sounds like you're ok but I would double down on avoiding SFO this summer. Runway construction is causing even more disturbance.

 

[flinkerfrosch]

It sounds like you're ok but I would double down on avoiding SFO this summer. Runway construction is causing even more disturbance.

Ok, I will most definitely take that into consideration, thank you