Hawaii

What’s the cheapest Hawaiian island to visit?

Published

5 months ago

July 21, 2024

What’s the cheapest Hawaiian island to visit?

Hawaii isn’t known as a cheap destination, but if you’re set on visiting the Aloha state, choosing the right island can make a big difference in the cost of your trip. If you’re looking to save on a trip to Hawaii, head to the island of Oahu.

Of the four main Hawaiian islands for tourism — Oahu, Maui, Kauai and the Big Island — Oahu is the cheapest Hawaiian island to visit by multiple metrics. Oahu has the lowest daily average hotel room rate of the islands and the lowest average daily spending per tourist, according to May 2024 data from the Hawai’i Tourism Authority.

The cost of hotel rooms on Oahu

Though the average room rate in May 2024 across all of Hawaii was $342, Oahu hotel rooms average about 21% less, coming in at $272. That translates to about $70 per night less than the average.

In a breakdown of average daily room rates in May 2024 by island, Oahu shines.

One reason for Oahu’s lowest average room rate? The island also has the biggest supply. In fact, Oahu had more than double the number of hotel room nights than Maui, the next closest contender.

Even when broken down by hotel class, Oahu still has the most affordable room rates across every level, from economy and midscale to luxury options.

Midscale and economy rooms in Oahu cost $151 per night on average. That’s 30% less than the average price for the same class of room across the entire state. And if you have a penchant for the finer things in life, you’ll save on Oahu, too. In fact, you could save about $223 per night by choosing to vacation at a luxury hotel in Oahu versus Maui.

Oahu, like other islands, offers opportunities to book stays using hotel points and credit card rewards. For example, Oahu is the only island with a Hampton Inn & Suites outpost, a midscale brand where you can redeem Hilton Honors points — and avoid pesky resort fees on award bookings.

One of Oahu’s most famous luxury hotels, the historic Moana Surfrider, a Westin Resort & Spa, Waikiki Beach, can be booked using Marriott Bonvoy points. Those can be earned through Marriott credit cards as well as general travel credit cards that accrue points that transfer to Marriott.

On the other side of the island sits another famous property, Turtle Bay Resort. The luxury hotel will soon become a Marriott property when it’s rebranded as The Ritz-Carlton O’ahu, Turtle Bay in August 2024.

The cost of activities on Oahu

More goes into a vacation budget than just a hotel. There’s food, tours, ground transportation and souvenirs. And once again, travelers arriving by air spend less per day on Oahu than any other island.

Across all trip expenditures (including lodging), Oahu is the best bargain in average daily spending per person in May 2024, according to a separate study by the Hawai’i Tourism Authority.

So why is spending on Oahu lower than on other islands? Not only are there more hotels, but also more restaurants and other types of businesses. According to the latest U.S. Census Bureau data, Honolulu County in Oahu had more than 21,000 businesses in 2020, while Maui County in Maui had fewer than 5,000. The increased competition lowers prices for consumers.

There’s also just a lot of free and cheap stuff to do on Oahu. Many of the top activities — including visiting the Pearl Harbor National Memorial, lounging on Waikiki Beach and hiking the Makapuʻu Point Lighthouse Trail — are free. It costs just $5 per person to enter Diamond Head State Monument (though it’s an additional $10 for parking).

And because of Honolulu’s robust bus network and walkability, it’s easy to get around Honolulu without a rental car. For places more difficult to get to, it’s possible to rent a car for just a day or rely on rideshare services like Uber or Lyft.

There are plenty of ways to save on a Hawaiian vacation. Start by finding affordable flights to Hawaii’s cheapest island, Oahu. The higher concentration of hotels and businesses means more affordable options.

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Sally French writes for NerdWallet. Email: sfrench@nerdwallet.com. Twitter: @SAFmedia.

The article What’s the Cheapest Hawaiian Island to Visit? originally appeared on NerdWallet.

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Hawaii

Man surrenders after 5-hour barricade at busy Honolulu store

Published

1 hour ago

December 19, 2024

Press Room

Man surrenders after 5-hour barricade at busy Honolulu store

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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Hawaii

It’s Official: Redeem AAdvantage Miles on Hawaiian Airlines Mainland-to-Hawaii Flights After a 9-Year Hiatus! – View from the Wing

Published

9 hours ago

December 18, 2024

Press Room

It’s Official: Redeem AAdvantage Miles on Hawaiian Airlines Mainland-to-Hawaii Flights After a 9-Year Hiatus!

by Gary Leff on December 18, 2024

American Airlines has long partnered with Hawaiian Airlines. Hawaiian has now been acquired by American’s ‘West Coast Alliance’ and oneworld partner Alaska Airlines. And so a change has been made to using American AAdvantage miles on Hawaiian Airlines: you can now redeem AAdvantage miles to fly to Hawaii!.

In September 2015, American stopped allowing AAdvantage members to redeem miles between Hawaii and the mainland U.S..
Airlines frequently partnered with Hawaiian for their intra-Hawaii flights, and to some extent their route network beyond Hawaii. However awards to Hawaii are popular and partner redemptions there are expensive.
Hawaiian is on its way towards being integrated into Alaska Airlines. They will achieve a single operating certificate, at which point the carrier will be part of oneworld. Alaska will retain a separate brand identity for Hawaii flights, but it will be one airline. We’re going to get these redemptions eventually, anyway – likely 2026. It’s good to see it now!

Hawaiian award availability, especially from the West Coast (and Austin, while it lasts), is better than award availability to Hawaii on American or Alaska. I do expect Alaska’s revenue management to change this over time, as well as to better sell these flights.

You can use Honolulu as a one-stop gateway across the Pacific as well. Hawaiian currently flies to,

Auckland and Sydney
Fukuoka, Tokyo Haneda and Narita, and Osaka in Japan
Seoul
Papeete, Pago Pago, and Raratonga

One thing American needs to do is fix mileage-earning on Hawaiian Airlines. I’ve heard from several readers who are affected by Alaska and Hawaii shifting their flying between the two airlines.

American AAdvantage members were encouraged to travel on Alaska Airlines, because that earned both miles and status credit in the AAdvantage program. However, schedules shifting such that Hawaiian will now operate a planned flight means this changes.

There are people purchasing tickets for a flight on Alaska, who will learn that the flight is going to be a Hawaiian flight. This is going to happen more and more prior to a single operating certificate on the two carriers. But they only bought the ticket because it was going to earn them credit with American.

Unfortunately, Hawaiian Airlines flights with a Hawaiian flight number do not earn Loyalty Points (credit towards AAdvantage elite status). That’s a gap which should be addressed.

Nonetheless, it’s great news today that there’s more mileage-earning and much more flexibility with mileage redemption on Hawaiian Airlines now than there’s been in the last nine years.

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Hawaii

Who is Kamaka Air? Here’s what we know

Published

16 hours ago

December 18, 2024

Press Room

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – Kamaka Air Inc. was founded in 1993 as a local airline.

It is certified by the Federal Aviation Administration as an inter-island airline and logistics company for per-pound air cargo services and non-scheduled charters.

Its recent history is an example of consolidation happening in the general aviation industry across the country.

In February 2022, RLG Capital and Trinity Private Equity Group acquired an 80-percent majority stake in the airline.

Most of its aircraft are single-engine Cessna Caravan’s like the one that crashed on Tuesday. These are extremely reliable aircraft with the capability of short landings and takeoffs needed to serve airports especially on Molokai and Lanai, so they are essential in serving those small communities.

The one that crashed on Tuesday was not particularly old. It was built in 2011.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE:

When Mokulele airlines — which provides essential air service to Molokai and Lanai — had trouble meeting its schedules last year, Kamaka Air began offering charter flights for passengers as well.

In January 2023, a Kamaka Air flight crashed near the Molokai airport. The plane was totaled but the pilot and copilot walked away with minor injuries.

In May 2024, Kamaka Air put out a press release saying it was under new ownership and new leadership with complete support of the existing leadership of Kamaka.

It promised a smooth transition but ran into trouble filling key jobs, including a chief pilot and director of flight operations.

That made the FAA uncomfortable, so the company shut down temporarily and returned to service within a couple of weeks.

Kamaka Air is proud of its history in serving during hard times. Their planes were used to deliver emergency supplies of COVID tests to Lanai and food to Kauai during the pandemic, and food and other emergency supplies to Maui after the wildfires.

As federal aviation authorities investigate, the airline will be scrutinized for its operations and safety protocols, and whether it was fully in compliance with FAA certification requirements.

David Hinderland, Kamaka Air CEO, issued the following statement:

“It is with heavy hearts that Kamaka Air confirms the loss of two members of the Kamaka Air family in an accident at 3:13 this afternoon near the Daniel K. Inouye International Airport. We are not releasing the names of the pilots until family members have had a chance to process this tragedy, and we hope the media will give them the same consideration.

In the meantime, we are making ourselves available to the Hawaiian Department of Transportation, the National Transportation Safety Board, and the Federal Aviation Administration for investigation into this accident, and we will also share appropriate information with the media as it is confirmed over the coming hours and days.

At this time, we ask for your patience, as you know the urgency of getting correct information that not only offers a clear understanding of what happened, but to assure that the information is handled appropriately.”

“It is with heavy hearts that Kamaka Air confirms the loss of two members of the Kamaka Air family.”

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