Anyone ever fly Island Air for inter island flight in Hawaii?

[jeromedawg]

I found cheaper tickets compared to Hawaiian air but a lot of people seem to prefer Hawaiian over them due to general comfort, luggage restrictions, as well as flights being on time.

Tickets I found were $62 one way and there's also decent awards redemption costs (6600 chase UR->United miles) so I booked. But now I'm considering canceling.

Thing is, Hawaiian Air (for the times we want, mid-late morning) are $119. They have cheaper flights but they're either super early or super late at night.

[dandarc]

Time in the air isn't much between the islands, so why worry about comfort?  Luggage should be factored in if you need it, but otherwise, take the cheapest flight.

[tarheeldan]

I've only flown Aloha, and maybe Hawaiian, but I'm with dandarc - it's just a puddle jump :-)

ETA: Whoah, looks like Aloha shut down in '08.

[boarder42]

6600 chase UR's are worth 66 dollars when converted to cash so why wouldnt you just convert to cash and pay or just book the 62 dollar flight thru the chase portal and save 25% on the points.

[jeromedawg]

6600 chase UR's are worth 66 dollars when converted to cash so why wouldnt you just convert to cash and pay or just book the 62 dollar flight thru the chase portal and save 25% on the points.

That's what I was about to do. The problem is that they ran out of the $62 fare (I apparently scooped up the last two last night). If I added more than two, I noticed the only fare available for the time we wanted was $79 :( Of course, I think there still would be the option to leave HNL at 8:20am and get in around 9:10am. I would be OK with that but my wife and in-laws probably would have trouble... not to mention we would have our infant with us and that always adds more time getting ready to go out. Point is, I'm anticipating early morning travel to be pretty rough. So the next best option if we want to keep this time is to reserve the remaining two seats using the Chase UR->United transfer and then buy the Island Air flights with United.


Besides the issue of comfort and luggage limitations, which I don't think would bother us much if we had to deal with those for the lower price, my main concern would be over potential delays with Island Air. They say we'd get in at 11am... 1 hour isn't bad for a puddle jump. But if there are delays, it's more than a "puddle jump" - I don't want it to turn into us waiting at the airport for hours and then getting to Kauai late in the afternoon - this sounds like something that isn't that uncommon with Island Air at least. Keep in mind, we're only on Kauai for a few days (leaving on 1/10) so our time there should be considered limited and precious...

[boarder42]

so why ask the question sounds like you've made a choice already. ... you could use chase to get the hawaiian flight for 8925 points which is 25% less than the cash value

[jeromedawg]

so why ask the question sounds like you've made a choice already. ... you could use chase to get the hawaiian flight for 8925 points which is 25% less than the cash value

Because I want to know what Island Air's track record is for flights being on time. If I'm going to pay the cheaper fare but wait hours before getting to the next island, then it's not worth it to me versus paying more and getting there on time (because in this case, our time there is limited and we want to maximize and make sure we get there on time).  I booked two tickets but I'm within the 24hr cancellation window -so if people advise against Island Air due to a good chance of flights being delayed (this is in early/mid Jan when there might be more rain and intermittent bad weather), then I will call them and cancel the reservation.

The Hawaiian air flights that are 8925 points are for the super early morning flights or super late at night flights. If we wanted flights around the time we are wanting to go, the point cost jumps up to be equivalent or worse to what the cash cost is (so might as well pay cash)

[jeromedawg]

Actually, using Chase UR points to book the travel on HA during any of the times we are interested in would cost 10,720, which is cheaper in the context of point-cash value than the $119 on HA's site. I would only be able to buy at that rate for my wife and I though, and my in-laws would have to each pay the $119 rate

[dandarc]

Which flight specifically are you looking at?

Flight Stats might have the information you are looking for - plug in your flight and click on the "On-Time Performance" tab.

If it is very important you be somewhere at a specific time, then the answer is to fly at least 1 or 2 days early - weather happens even in Hawaii sometimes.

[dandarc]

Also when reading reviews, keep in mind that people vividly remember when the flight was delayed a long time.  Not so much when things go smoothly.

My best story was connecting through Memphis during the Delta-NWA merger.  All of the passengers were there.  The plane was there.  TWO flight crews were there.  Multiple gate-agents were there.  Still delayed by over 2 hours due to a computer problem.  Oh and the airport was more-or-less closed down, so even getting a cup of coffee required going through security.  Captain gave us free beer once we were finally on our way though, so all good.

[jeromedawg]

Which flight specifically are you looking at?

Flight Stats might have the information you are looking for - plug in your flight and click on the "On-Time Performance" tab.

If it is very important you be somewhere at a specific time, then the answer is to fly at least 1 or 2 days early - weather happens even in Hawaii sometimes.

I believe this is the one - https://flightaware.com/live/flight/MKU103

They have a good track record for the past week but it's summer. Who knows how things will look come January.

My other option is to just bite the bullet and schedule the 8:23am flight for everyone at the $62 price with Island air (we'll all have to check-in baggage which is $15 extra per bag + potentially more) but it would still be cheaper than Hawaiian. If there are risks of delays, then we'd just have to deal with it - hopefully the delays wouldn't be for more than several hours if there do happen to be any

[dandarc]

WP103.  96% on time.  Average delay 5 minutes.  Maximum delay 71 minutes.

You might get unlucky, but odds are you'll be OK in terms of time.

http://www.flightstats.com/go/FlightRating/flightRatingByFlight.do?airlineCode=WP&flightNumber=103&departureAirportCode=HNL&arrivalAirportCode=LIH

[jeromedawg]

WP103.  96% on time.  Average delay 5 minutes.  Maximum delay 71 minutes.

You might get unlucky, but odds are you'll be OK in terms of time.

http://www.flightstats.com/go/FlightRating/flightRatingByFlight.do?airlineCode=WP&flightNumber=103&departureAirportCode=HNL&arrivalAirportCode=LIH

Yup, looks good for June. Who knows though 6-7 months from now though... oops I didn't click your link at first - different flight stats. I guess that's the overall historical stat based on all known flights

I think I may call to see if they can change my reservation to the earlier time and add more tickets for my in-laws, that way we'll lock-in to the $62 price and I won't have to deal with reward mile redemptions etc

[jeromedawg]

Sidenote: turns out the $62 fare is a "senior" fare for those 62 and older, but the catch is that the fare can apply towards multiple people in your party so long as one person is a senior. Given that, I had to cancel the flight since my wife and I are well under 62. So we can either book all four of us on the earlier flight, or I can book my in-laws for this later flight and I use reward miles to purchase our tix.