Airlines that fly to Hawaii are important to us and to you. See other rankings, plus our thoughts. Criteria include reliability, comfort, fewest complaints, safety, and baggage handling.
37 thoughts on “Airline Rankings On Flights To Hawaii 2023”
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We’ve flown all the airlines listed I can honestly say we don’t prefer one over another. Since we do live on the west coast its all about price and direct flights. Next month we’re flying SW around trip direct to Kona a flight they will no longer offer from Sacramento. So because of direct flights coming October we’re visiting Oahu first time in 30 plus years. Flying SW over Hawaiian back.
The best leg room for non “extra price” seats like MCE is Southwest. Jammed in coach seats with little pitch all the way to Hawaii wasn’t in their formula…neither were the two free checked bags and no charge for carry ons.
HA is a good airline but their fares are too high…whether booking with miles or dollars it is rare for us to find a flight with HA being competitive.
You forgot to mention Hawaiian Airlines serves free meals and complimentary rum punch to all flyers. They are the best.
Article has to be a bit biased since Beat of Hawaii has to support its hometown airline – Hawaiian. Taking advantage of recent low rankings on Southwest from WSJ is a bid disingenuous. SWA’s performance for the Hawaiian Islands are actually better than HA (look up recent articles on 717 training and flight cancellations). Could it be that this article was written to damage Southwest’s reputation? One has to look at the intent of this article. Article also doesn’t mention SWA now provides 35-40 percent of the inter-island available capacity (and growing). And bags fly free!
Hawaiian is in fact the hometown airline and does offer the best service. Throwing stones at HA is like people that come to Hawaii and complain about “the locals”. Hawaiian had an issue with their 717 sim and as a result had A321’s available to provide backup. Ludicrous to say SWA offers better service to Hawaii than Hawaiian. Particularly so with all the problems SWA has had with trying to cover inter inter island with their transpac fleet and their industry leading flight changes and cancellations. They are the airline equivalent of people that move to Hawaii and start speaking pidgin.
Aloha and thanks for the post. Interesting read. We’re all about Hawaiian. We love that the Hawaiian experience begins when you board the plane and continues until you touch down. If you’re lucky enough to fly first class, that’s exactly what it is. First class. We’ve also flown extra comfort and that experience suffers little from First class, IMHO. (That See’s Candy box is worth the purchase)
We’ve flown Alaska just once. We went first class and found it to be a total waste of $$$. Not that the staff experience is lacking because it wasn’t. We just didn’t think that the cost was aligned very well with the benefits of first class.
Safe travels!!!!
Hi Michael.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the airlines. Everyone’s take is different, which makes it more interesting.
Aloha.
We fly Alaskan as they are one of the few that do a direct flight from San Diego to Lihue. We do have the AA credit card, so free bag and a companion pass make it the most competitive cost.
Hawaiian is our second choice but we don’t want to do a layover unless there is no other choice. We will give Hawaiian the ambiance award though, from boarding to landing you feel a Hawaiian vibe.
Southwest makes me nervous – they have cancelled too many flights this year, and many of the planes seem worn.
Southwest’s planes are junk and not well maintained
Great analysis. Hawaiian is my favorite airlines from the Bay Area to Hawaii. Excellent and reliable service. Friendly crews. I wish they’d add more flights that depart later in the AM from the Bay Area. The 7am-9am departures are tough for me. Alaska is also top notch though you don’t get the sense of being in the islands. Recently flew UA SFO to HNL because it had a late PM departure. After all of the reports of bad service, I was pleasantly surprised but it still didn’t have the same level of service on Hawaiian or Alaska.
Hi David.
Thanks. We are enjoying all the different perspectives. Yes Hawaiian is very different in the sense that almost all of the crew are from here.
Aloha.
As always, thank you for your information. For us, flying from the southeast, Delta has been best, especially the ATL to HNL direct flight and then Hawaiian to LIH.
Hi Cal.
Thanks for the feedback on your airline choices.
Aloha.
Aloha,
JulieWe live on Maui and fly to Oregon to see family regularly. Hawaiian is our favorite with Alaska a close second.
Not once has there been an issue coming and going and they unlike SW fly direct from Portland to Maui.
We have flown SW but it’s a long layover in California and the times we’ve flown with them they kept changing the layover times. Also they don’t have charging ports for electronic devices, but 2 bags fly free 😉. Even at lower ticket costs SW doesn’t get our business.
For our needs Hawaiian and Alaska are the best.
Julie
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Southwest has been the best for me in terms of value, on time flights, ease of changing reservations, and customer service.
Alaska Airlines is what I use to get to Maui…usually 2 or 3 times a year. They are always the cheapest, most on time and pleasant on board. They fly direct to Kahului from Portland….gotta love that.