JEFF – More info is needed on the new Alaska lounge planned at HNL. And timeline? Read new text under, “Hawaiian Airlines stays true to its boutique lounge roots.” Do we need to say which airlines offer lounges at HNL and any plans they might have (Delta, American, United, etc). Photo and excerpt is needed.

Airlines flying to Hawaii are waging an unusual new kind of battle that is happening not in the air but on the ground. From Honolulu to Seattle and Maui to San Francisco, Alaska, Delta, and Hawaiian Airlines are among those competing to redefine the premium travel experience with upgraded lounges and exclusive amenities.

How lounges became the new Hawaii travel battleground.

The competition for Hawaii-bound travelers has shifted dramatically in recent years. While airlines have traditionally focused on in-flight services and even airfare wars to win over passengers, new priorities have emerged that are focused more on those visitors that Hawaii wants to attract: high-paying ones. And the battleground has, in the past days, focused on premium lounge spaces. These airport retreats now serve as critical touchpoints for comfort and loyalty and comfort, focused on long-haul, premium travelers heading to or from Hawaii.

Travelers increasingly seek more seamless and stress-free experiences before boarding, making these lounges essential. Are you a regular airline lounge person? BOH editors are not members of any airline lounge program. However, we have had our share of premium lounge experiences and can say they have been lifesavers, especially during long layovers.

Airlines are stepping up to the battle with big investments in new and upgraded spaces to ensure their offerings stand out from the crowd—not just when flying but also on the ground.

Alaska Airlines takes the lead.

Alaska Airlines has recently made the biggest waves in the Hawaii lounge wars. The airline recently announced plans to open new lounges at Honolulu (HNL) and San Diego (SAN), as well as its first-ever flagship international lounge at Seattle-Tacoma (SEA). These expansions, with details to follow, align with Alaska’s broader and more premium transformation following its acquisition of Hawaiian Airlines and the widebody 787 and A330 widebody fleets earlier this year that will soon fly far beyond traditional Hawaii routes.

The new flagship lounge at SEA is a ways off at perhaps two years, and will cater not to Hawaii in particular, but rather to Alaska’s soon to grow international network, including, for starters, upcoming flights to Tokyo and Seoul using Hawaiian Airlines branded A330 planes. Alaska’s new Honolulu and San Diego lounges will bring its distinct brand to key markets it has identified and will offer popular enticements, including hand-crafted espresso, local craft brews, and even their signature pancake machines.

These lounges reflect Alaska’s commitment to sustainability and premium as well, with the Seattle location aiming for LEED Gold certification through a design that’s water-efficient and use of low-emission materials. By investing heavily in lounges since its Hawaiian transformation began, Alaska is positioning itself as a major player in Hawaii and global travel markets.

Delta raises the stakes at all-important battleground Seattle.

Not to be outdone by its archnemesis Alaska in Seattle, Delta is doubling down on its premium offerings. The airline’s Delta One Lounge in Seattle, set to open much sooner, in 2025, represents a significant escalation in the lounge wars. This high-end space will cater to Delta’s business class passengers and compete directly with Alaska’s flagship lounge at SEA.

Delta has focused on luxury and exclusivity in its lounge designs, offering elevated experiences including private dining experiences (currently at JFK) and private spaces for relaxation or work. By positioning itself strategically in Seattle—a key gateway for Hawaii and international flights—Delta aims to maintain and sharpen its competitive edge in markets that will otherwise be dominated by Alaska and Hawaiian Airlines.

Hawaiian Airlines remains true to its boutique lounge roots.

While Alaska and Delta are expanding aggressively, Alaska’s Hawaiian Airlines brand have taken a distinctly more boutique approach. The carrier recently opened its second Premier Club at Maui’s Kahului Airport (OGG), providing additional lounge space for premium passengers. Designed to reflect Maui’s landscapes, the lounge features local snacks and beverages, ample charging stations, and a relaxing atmosphere that resonates with travelers seeking an authentic Hawaii experience away from the crowd.

Hawaiian lounges may be smaller and generally less upscale. For example, their Lihue lounge, perhaps the worst, is in a small, windowless, and depressing room that needs help.

Other lounges are more tied to the islands’ culture and unique identity. This approach appeals to travelers looking for Hawaiian’s brand touch. Their two lounges at HNL may soon have reciprocity with Alaska lounge customers. We’re unsure about all the details of that or the status of their very upscale, quirky, Apartment 1929 lounge with showers. Their Plumeria Lounge, next to it, is currently reserved for International Business Class passengers and first-class to New York, Boston, and Austin. The Plumeria is now also available to Priority Pass members for a fee. Their other lounge at HNL is the Premier Club.

What this means for Hawaii travelers.

For Hawaii-bound travelers, the lounge wars can potentially become a win-win situation. With more premium options available, passengers can find ways to enjoy enhanced comfort and amenities before their flights. Whether it’s Alaska’s expansive spaces, Delta’s luxury offerings, or Hawaiian’s locally inspired retreats, we’ll wait to see what types of offers, such as Alaska’s new credit card, may yield access to these premium spaces.

However, the influx of new lounges and offers to access them could also lead to challenges, such as either overcrowding or, at the other end of the spectrum, increased exclusivity for premium passengers. Hawaii travelers must wait to see what factors prevail regarding lounges and credit cards when choosing an airline, especially as the Hawaii competition heats up.

The future of Hawaii travel competition.

The Hawaii lounge wars are the beginning of a broader transformation in the Hawaii air travel experience. As airlines continue investing in premium services, which will extend somewhat to Southwest in 2025, the focus may expand beyond lounges to other aspects of the journey, such as in-flight dining or ground transportation. For now, one thing is clear: the battle for Hawaii travelers will no longer be confined to the skies.

Are you all in or feeling left out by the airlines’ approach to Hawaii premium travel?

Lead photo new Alaska lounge at SFO.

The Queen’s Health Systems plans to build an 80-bed hospital next to the Kailua-Kona Costco on Hawaii Island that would include a helipad to cut travel time to its trauma center on Oahu and, critically, construct adjacent, below-market-­rate housing to recruit and retain some of the estimated 300 hospital staff, nurses and doctors.

The campus, including a medical office building, would start to go up in two to three years on 30 acres of land Queen’s owns, with it opening perhaps five years from now, according to Queen’s President and CEO Jason Chang.

The project would cost $400 million to $500 million, with possible funding from private investments and philanthropic contributions, Queen’s said.

“What we’re trying to do is create a regional health system for the Big Island, so this is in partnership with our existing hospital, Queen’s North Hawaii Community Hospital,” Chang said. “We’ll be bringing more access, better care and more specialists to the north and west sides of the island.”

Queen’s plans surprised officials at the 94-bed Kona Community Hospital, located south of the Queen’s site closer to Captain Cook.

Hawaii Health Systems Corp., which operates the Kona Community and Kohala hospitals, had been looking to build another hospital closer to the main population center in Kailua-­Kona, including potentially on the land where Queen’s plans to build its still-­unnamed hospital, said Clayton McGhan, HHSC West Hawaii regional CEO.

Because of the health care needs of the west side of the Big Island, McGhan said he supports Queen’s plans, especially its goal of building workforce housing for hospital staff.

While some refer to the neighbor islands as providing “rural health care,” McGhan said that in Kona, “I actually think we’re remote or frontier health care.”

Based on a needs assessment funded by the state Legislature, West Hawaii’s population is expected to grow 11% over the next decade.

Last year, 22,000 patients were treated in the Kona Community Hospital’s emergency room and the number is on track to jump to 24,000 this year McGhan said.

But the 50-year-old Kona Community lacks the volume of specialized cases to justify full-time specialists. So it relies on specialists at Queen’s to consult via telemedicine technology on stroke and neurological cases, along with helping with a new electronic medical records system, McGhan said.

A new Queen’s hospital in Kailua-Kona would be welcomed, he said.

“We don’t look at it as competition,” McGhan said. “I know what our community needs. We have to celebrate that because it’s going to meet the community’s demands. The main thing is we’re supportive of any additional resources that would come here.”

• • •

Kona Community Hospital needs 25 more doctors trained in psychiatric care, cardiology, adult primary care and pediatric specialties, according to McGhan, who applauded Queen’s plan to build 150 condo and apartment units that would be rented to hospital staff at below-market rates, with the option to also buy at below-­market prices.

When it’s time to sell, owners would have to sell to another hospital employee at similar rates, Chang said.

McGhan called the concept “fantastic. It’s hard to attract staff here. So we’re going to be supportive of any new workforce housing.”

Gov. Josh Green started his Hawaii medical career at a rural hospital in Ka‘u. As lieutenant governor, he worked weekend ER shifts at the Kona hospital while running for governor.

“It’s very exciting to see health care weigh in on the need for affordable housing. I’ve always said that housing is health care,” Green said.

For Queen’s, Chang hopes to finish building the housing before the hospital itself opens to ensure it has long-term staffing.

“We believe housing’s such a huge need and you can’t recruit nurses, doctors, technologists, social workers if you don’t,” Chang said.

Because of the difficulty recruiting health care workers — let alone specialists — to the neighbor islands, Queen’s 35-bed North Hawaii Community Hospital relies on traveling nurses and doctors.

It’s hired four full-time oncologists over the last 10 years who all left after a couple of years, Chang said.

“It takes a year to bring someone new in,” he said. “Traveling physicians don’t plan to stay. It’s a real challenge in rural communities. We can’t hire permanent people because they can’t find housing — affordable or just inventory, period. If we don’t address housing ourselves, we’re going to have the same problem.”

By providing below-market-rate condos and apartments, Chang hopes to retain some traveling health care workers for the new hospital.

Queen’s physicians also work closely with medical students at the University of Hawaii’s John A. Burns School of Medicine, including students who already work with patients at Queen’s. They also could rotate through the new hospital, along with one or two post-­graduate medical residents every couple of years.

With Queen’s residents, he said, “I just need one or two to stay every few years. That would be fantastic and it makes them appreciate the need for rural health care.”

• • •

Many details of the new hospital campus still need to be worked out, such as how many stories the facility would have. But the hospital probably will be around 250,000 square feet in size, Chang said.

The community wants a trauma center and specialists to treat heart attacks and strokes, but West Hawaii doesn’t have the volume of cases to attract or retain “a top-notch cardiologist,” Chang said. “Just treating 30 heart attacks a year, they’re going to leave.”

Instead, the hospital will focus on “diagnostic cardiology, diagnostic neurology — state-of-the-art diagnostics — and general surgery,” he said.

There also will be an emergency room “to stabilize you and fly you to Queen’s.”

For some neighbor-island patients flying to The Queen’s Medical Center in Honolulu on an airplane, it can sometimes take three to four hours between when they call 911, get taken by ambulance to their local hospital, diagnosed, driven by ambulance to an airport, put on a plane to Daniel K. Inouye International Airport and then taken by ambulance to the hospital, Chang said.

“You end up with a massive amount of transfer time,” he said.

Instead, a twin-engine H145 helicopter is scheduled to be delivered to Queen’s in 2026.

It’s being paid for by philanthropists Lynne and Marc Benioff, who have a home on the Big Island. Marc Benioff is co-founder, chairman and CEO of Salesforce and owns Time magazine.

The couple already have donated $5 million, dedicated solely to Hawaii island health care workers, to augment $30 million in state funds to pay off student loans to keep health care workers from leaving Hawaii.

Once the helicopter goes into use at the new hospital, Chang said Hawaii County crews will staff it to fly patients to Queen’s trauma center.

“How do you get somebody to the trauma center, which is Queen’s Medical Center Punchbowl, as fast as you can?” Chang asked. “If you can go rooftop to rooftop, you cut out all that ambulance time.”

Benioff, Chang said, “recognizes that air transport is a real issue.”

Queen’s plans help address the growing need for health care in the area, according to Green.

In a follow-up statement, Green said: “The West Hawaii community truly needs a new hospital as Kona Hospital has aged, and is now further away from the region’s population center. It’s exciting to see Queen’s begin the process of raising capital and building relationships to launch this new facility. There is certainly a pathway for the state to either support or even partner with Queen’s on this project, once all of the stakeholders have come to a consensus on how to move forward.”

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – After five hours, a barricade at the Don Quijote store on Kaheka Street ended peacefully Wednesday night.

The incident started just after 5 p.m., prompting the evacuation of shoppers and employees at what is one of the busiest stores at any time of year, but especially during the holidays.

We’re told that the man started a disturbance and then attempted to start a fire, which activated the fire sprinkler system.

Sources said he barricaded himself in a storage room at the back of the store.

He surrendered and was taken into custody without incident at 10:10 p.m.

Dozens of people waited in the parking lot — a mix of shoppers whose search for bargains and holiday gifts got interrupted, those arriving to shop, and employees.

Many only heard about what happened, or were caught by surprise by the huge police presence surrounding the building.

Michael Brewster said he was on his way in when “one worker down the road at the restaurant said, ‘You can’t go in. Somebody went cuckoo, throwing bottles in the aisles and stuff.‘”

The police department had a large presence at the scene, including someone who appeared to be a crisis negotiator and Specialized Services Division officers.

There were also Emergency Medical Services personnel in full protective gear.

Kaheka and Poni streets were closed during the incident.

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