Hawaiian removed free economy meals from its website today without an announcement or warning. If you are flying on Hawaiian today, you may be in for a surprise. We have received reports that, as of yesterday, complimentary Koloa Rum punch was still served.
The airline’s food page now loads an Alaska-style paid pre-order menu. It includes no Hawaii items other than Passion Orange Guava Juice, but does offer a Northwest Deli Picnic Pack, among other choices. The hot sandwich, chips, the Honolulu Cookie Company dessert, and whatever else you may remember from Hawaiian are now gone. Beer in the main cabin is $8.99, wine and spirits are $9.99, and canned cocktails are $12.99.
Updated. Hawaiian/Alaska just said – sorry folks, big error on our part.
“There are no changes to our complimentary meal service in our main cabins. During our PSS transition, several dual‑brand content updates were made to our webpages, and the link referenced in your post was unintentionally directing to an Alaska Airlines pre‑order page. We’re working to correct that now.” — Alaska Airlines.
So now it isn’t clear what this really means for travelers. The Hawaii Airlines meals page (screen shot below) was as found today and now they say these are wrong. But what really is happening, and what the plans are for meals, among other things, is not any clearer.
What changed wasn’t unexpected, but.
Until today, Hawaiian stood apart from every other U.S. airline in this one simple way. You boarded a five or six-hour flight to Hawaii and knew you would be fed something. The meal was still built into the ticket, long after others had removed it, and it stayed there for years after the food itself stopped being anything anyone called special. BOH editors have been flying Hawaiian long enough to have watched the entire tradition shift over the years.
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Now the airline’s food runs on pre-ordered food, paid selections, and the same setup Alaska uses everywhere else in its network. That makes sense. The free meal was not, however, quietly removed or softened around the edges. And there are noticeably no Hawaii themed offerings. We hope that will change. The page that promised food was just rewritten, and the replacement is a paid menu.
What is still free and what is not.
Complimentary options in the main cabin are now soft drinks, coffee, and juices. As we reported on our Alaska flight from Hawaii on Monday, we also received a full-sized Biscoff cookie and were handed an expensive chocolate bar. Those are not on the list, however. In any event, this is one of the moves away from what Hawaiian flyers were used to seeing when they checked the Hawaiian Airlines website before a trip.
The food order requires using the app or website, a stored payment method, and a selection window that closes 20 hours before departure. But you can order up to two weeks in advance. If you miss the window, you can buy from the cart, as we also mentioned yesterday. This is the model used across most U.S. domestic routes, and Hawaii flights are now on it too.
The infamous Hawaiian hot pocket sandwich says Aloha.
Readers were honestly already prepared.
Beat of Hawaii readers saw this coming months ago. One told us to just assume no meal and be pleasantly surprised. Another said she would rather bring her own food. We both concur, and we did. A third called the sandwich basically a hot pocket. Those were not isolated complaints from people nitpicking airline food quality.
And we’ll say, honestly, that Alaska’s paid options are of far higher quality. In any event, travelers were already adjusting to a service pattern they could already see falling apart before Alaska removed it entirely from the website today.
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A smaller group still wanted the meal, especially on longer flights where a snack does not get you very far. Both groups ended up landing at the very same place today. The meal is no longer an automatic assumption. It is now something you plan for, pay for, or go without, and that change may come as a surprise to some who have long flown Hawaiian.
Alaska’s system is now the whole system.
Alaska has not served free economy meals for nearly a decade. Its service is based on pre-order or limited in-flight options, and that is now the way it works on Hawaiian flights, too. The Hawaiian planes look the same as before, with the Pualani still on the tail, and the crews are still Hawaiian, but the food system behind the experience is new.
Passengers should plan to decide and pay in advance or expect few options. Honestly, this is an alignment with other airlines, so it should not come as a big surprise. That’s how Alaska has operated for years, and Hawaiian mainland flights now operate inside that same structure.
The details visitors once cared about have changed.
The sandwich got the attention, but readers were pointing in another direction. They often commented on the Koloa Rum punch, the walk-up galley that opened after main service, and the cookie handed out near the end of the flight. One BOH reader put it plainly by saying the rum punch felt more special than the food, and that probably gets closer to the real loss than all the arguments about the odd sandwich ever did.
None of those details appear anywhere on the new Alaska-branded main cabin page. The rum punch is not even in the beverage list. The walk-up galley is not described. The cookie is not mentioned.
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The shift is already complete.
For years, flights to Hawaii had different expectations than the rest of U.S. domestic service. There was no app required, no payment screen, and no 20-hour deadline hanging over you before you ever got to the airport. The food showed up, whether you loved it or mocked it, and that was at least still something.
That is over now. Food is optional, planned, and paid. The Hawaii flight planning starts before you get on the plane, and what you eat depends on what you selected earlier, rather than what the airline places in front of you once you are airborne. Hawaii has joined all other domestic flights in that way, as Hawaiian was folded into the same system every other U.S. airline already uses.
Where does this go from here?
First class moves to pre-order in May under Chef Valdez. Tokyo, Sydney, Papeete, and even the long-haul 11-hour HNL-JFK run are not listed on the new international food page at all, leaving those routes unaccounted for for now and giving readers another reason to wonder what else is about to change in the Alaska/Hawaiian offerings.
Mainland economy meal service is the part we can see today, and the change is already notable. Were you booked on a Hawaii flight expecting the meal? What did you find on your tray instead?
Joshua Walker was an assistant coach for the Hawaii men’s volleyball team for seven seasons.
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Joshua Walker was on the Hawaii men’s volleyball coaching staff during its run of back-to-back national championships in 2021 and 2022.
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Former Hawaii men’s volleyball player and assistant coach Joshua Walker will take over as the next Rainbow Wahine volleyball coach, the university announced today.
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Walker most recently was associate head coach for the Baylor women’s volleyball team. He will replace Robyn Ah Mow, who stepped down in April after nine years.
Walker graduated from UH in 2011 after five years on the men’s volleyball team. He spent seven seasons as an assistant coach under Charlie Wade and was part of the staff that won back-to-back national championships in 2021 and 2022.
In 2019, he was named the AVCA Assistant Coach of the Year.
“We are absolutely thrilled to welcome Joshua Walker back to the University of Hawaii to lead our Rainbow Wahine volleyball program,” athletics director Matt Elliott said in a news release. “Joshua embodies the very best of Hawaii volleyball tradition and knows firsthand what it takes to win at the highest level here. His deep roots in our community, combined with his proven championship pedigree as an athlete and coach, and passion for his alma mater, make him the perfect person to lead this program. This is a homecoming, and we couldn’t be more excited that Joshua, Tehane, and their beautiful ohana are coming back to the islands.”
Walker spent four seasons at Baylor and was an assistant coach for USA Volleyball in 2023.
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The Rainbow Wahine begin their 2026 season as a member of the Mountain West Conference on Aug. 28.
The Hawaii County Council voted 7-1 Wednesday in favor of a resolution calling for the acquisition of 3.74 acres of land along Government Beach Road in Puna using eminent domain — a move that has angered the property’s owner.
Resolution 567-26 authorizes the county’s condemnation and acquisition of a long, thin strip of land running along the edge of two separate parcels located in the Keonepoko Iki subdivision just north of the Hawaiian Shores neighborhood from its owner, Lum Family Enterprises LLC.
Vice Chair Dennis Onishi cast the lone “no” vote during a meeting that saw no discussion of the resolution by council members. Puna Councilman Matt Kaneali’i-Kleinfelder was absent.
The measure had unanimous support during committee hearings on May 19, when the Committee on Legislative Approvals and Acquisitions voted 9-0 in favor.
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Together, the two parcels in question add up to roughly 230 acres. The county is trying to seize a 55-foot-wide, 1.5-mile-long strip abutting the road that would allow the Department of Public Works to make improvements.
Introduced by the Office of the Corporation Counsel, the resolution is the final step in a decade-long, protracted fight over the land, which began in 2014 when the county laid asphalt outside of the road’s right of way onto private property on the western side of the winding, one-lane seaside route. Since then, negotiations with the properties’ owner have failed to reach an agreement.
“We paved onto — a little bit onto the mauka property,” Deputy Corporation Counsel Sinclair Salas-Ferguson told council members during the resolution’s committee hearing last month. “And for years, the county has been trying to negotiate with the landowner … and it’s never come to fruition, so in order to resolve the issues, we have to go through condemnation.”
At that meeting, Onishi clarified with Corporation Counsel that the issue began with the county’s error.
“The county made a mistake and paved into their property,” Onishi said.
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Salas-Ferguson replied that the county has authority to take private property for a public purpose, and that seizing land for a roadway is “almost indisputable that it’s a public purpose.”
He said the case will most likely go to court, where the county will negotiate a settlement with the landowner.
In an email to the Tribune-Herald following the vote on Wednesday, Onishi said he changed his mind on the resolution since the last hearing because he felt the county hadn’t done enough to treat the owner fairly.
“Today I felt the county should do more to help with compensating the landowner since the county did pave the road into their property,” he said.
The appraised value of the land, he said, was insufficient compensation for its seizure.
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“Right now the county is allowed to settle on the appraised value only,” he said. “I feel this situation is different because the county was partially to blame for what happened. I will be investigating how Corporation Counsel will have more of an authority (to) compensate depending on the situation.”
Wayland Lum is the manager of Lum Family Enterprises and travels back and forth between Oahu and his country homestead in Puna located on the properties in question. Lum is a 72-year-old organic farmer and rancher whose land originally belonged to his grandfather and has been in the family since the early 1920s.
Since the paving blunder in 2014, he said he’s been anxious about liability issues since most of the road in that section lies squarely on his property.
“If someone should get hurt … they’re going to find out it’s not county land,” he said. “It’s private land, and they’re going to be suing me because I own the road. I own the land where the road is.”
The council will vote on the resolution for the second and final time on June 17 during a meeting which Lum has said he will fly from Oahu to Kona to attend in order to testify in person.
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“I need to say my piece and to look at these people face to face,” he told the Tribune-Herald after Wednesday’s vote. “It’s passion, in a sense, because we were born there … we didn’t buy it 10 years ago and go start a farm. It’s been a century.”
He said he was told by a council clerk he’d have only three minutes to testify like any other member of the public.
“How do you do that in three minutes?” he said. “It’s impossible. I think I should be receiving an adequate amount of time because we’ve been so cooperative all these years trying to resolve this matter, and at this junction, it’s really a matter of whether we lose our land or not. We should be given an adequate amount of time to state our case on all the different levels, from the history to what the county has done to the liability.”
The kupuna said he’s hopeful that by testifying in person he can convince other council members to oppose the resolution.
“There was no representation for the other side of this issue except good thing for Mr. Onishi. Thank you to him,” he said. “If I can get there and hopefully influence three people and maybe show them a little bit different side of the picture instead of just following the whole program with each other — you know one votes yes and they all vote yes — maybe it’ll create a little bit of thinking on their part so that they can kind of evaluate and see the whole picture.”
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When asked if he feels the county has treated him fairly throughout this drawn-out process, he was quick to respond.
“Not at all. Not one bit,” he said. “They abused their rights as the county on a private landowner who really has no way to defend themselves in this kind of situation except for legal action, which is happening.
“When you have people taking over and coming into your land, it really feels like you’re getting violated,” he added. “You’re taking — you’re ripping out, just ripping out a part of your heart. So, it’s very difficult for me and my family to see this happen.”
Email Stefan Verbano at stefan.verbano@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
It will be much easier to watch University of Hawaii athletics this season, both in and out of the state.
Beginning this season, the University of Hawaii will move its broadcasts from Spectrum Sports to Hawaii News Now, a group of over-the-air stations owned by Gray Media. Gray will also have the opportunity to distribute some Hawaii programming on its stations outside Hawaii.
“This partnership is about maximizing exposure for our programs and ensuring every fan in Hawai’i and beyond can watch our games,” said UH Athletics Director Matt Elliott in a press release.
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Broadcasts on Hawaii News Now will include 110 home sporting events per year, including all available football, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, men’s volleyball, and women’s volleyball games, along with a select number of baseball, softball, and women’s soccer events.
The announcement builds on changes made last season, when football broadcasts moved from pay-per-view to cable on Spectrum Sports. Outside Hawaii, broadcasts moved from the mobile-only Team1 Sports app to the more accessible free Mountain West app. The Mountain West is also in the process of launching a new, and likely paid, direct-to-consumer streaming service through the app for this upcoming season.
The University of Hawaii is part of a long list of sporting entities that have worked to make their sports properties more accessible in recent years. The old pay-per-view broadcasts long helped fund the extra travel required for other schools to play at Hawaii. This new partnership is expected to return the university $7.5 million a year, up from $3.2 million in the previous pay-per-view-focused deal with Spectrum. In addition, the university will receive additional media revenue by moving its athletics entirely to the Mountain West. Outside of football, Hawaii has long been part of the Big West, which has a far less lucrative media rights deal.
Several NBA and NHL teams have made similar decisions in recent years, including the Phoenix Suns and New Orleans Pelicans, which partnered with Gray Media to move all of their broadcasts over the air. Teams that have made the move have publicly expressed satisfaction with their decision despite earning less revenue than was the case through traditional RSNs.
