84 thoughts on “Dealing With The New Normal In Hawaii Vacations”

  1. Thanks!! Very helpful. I keep reading and hearing about Hawaii, Maui and Oahu. How about Kauai?
    Thanks again!
    Mahalo!

  2. Aloha BOH Bro’s of the “New Normal”

    Could you imagine dealing with covid travel without your laptop and the internet. Sure there’s a few more challenges with the “New Normal” of covid travel, but look at all the tools we have to work with.

    It wasn’t that long ago where you had to rely on an agent to arrange all your travel bookings. I couldn’t imagine doing that today.

    We’re a resort stay couple if you project out travel early enough deals can be found that rival in cost to stays at a condo. My wife or I cooking on vacation? It ain’t going to happen.

    Even before covid I’d make our restaurant bookings way in advance guarantying us sunset seating at some of the finest restaurants on Maui. We’ll be on Maui in early October all restaurant reservations were done weeks ago, I booked Mama’s way back in April. If you end up not going they’re easy to cancel.

    On the flight over I’ve booked the 11’s on Hawaiian, but on the way back we’re flying Southwest where I booked 3 seats with points all I did was pay 50.00 for priority seating, so they wouldn’t be a problem with securing a whole row for just the 2 of us.

    Finally other then Hawaiian Flight all other travel booked for our October is a 100 percent refundable within a 6 days of departure, but I’ve always done it that way.

    New Normal isn’t much different then our old normal.

    1. Hi Richard.

      Thank you. Southwest has said that they do not allow passengers to book an empty seat in the way you indicated. Please let us know if you know something different or how that works out for you.

      Aloha.

      1. Aloha BOH Bro’s of the Southwest Extra Seat Policy

        Thanks for the heads up I’m not the most patient person in the world this could have gotten messy at the SWA check in counter.

        I spoke to Southwest customer service twice I have 3 extra seat options:

        (1) One of us would have to gain 150 pounds to qualify for the extra seat option. I do not see that happening.

        (2) At check in see if you can do a work around with SWA agent. The success of that sounded pretty remote.

        (3) Punt….Cancel the extra seat use the points for another day. That’s the one I’m leaning towards.

        I’m a small business owner there are policies that I’ve put into place here that on occasion an individual will question. My business my policies. While I don’t understand the policy it is their business, so I have to respect their policy.

        Thanks again for the heads up rather embarrass myself here on BOH verses at the airport.

      2. Thank you for the update date. We are planning a trip for the end of September and are very anxious about possiable changes.

  3. I have a flight in oct for 3 weeks but I’m expecting a big increase in covid and with the prices I’m just waiting for the right time to cancel my flight.

    I’m worried what Hawaii will be like in the future 🤔

  4. Aloha We just returned last week from the Big Island. As far restaurants go,
    plan to eat a late lunch rather that dinner – way less busy. Since we rented a house, we also avoided crowds by eating in several evenings. The only thing that was disturbing was pockets of protesters who held signs telling visitors to go home. Mahalo for making us feel welcome.

  5. If HAWAII is getting so overcrowded with tourist and it’s out of control. Why can’t the Governor of HAWAII submit of request to the airlines to only be allowed to sell a certain amount of tickets into HAWAII weekly. They can control the craziness that way

  6. Note that we are on the BI now and have had different groups of people visit. Some got their wristband before they left the mainland and others went through the line here. For those that didn’t get the wristband here they were through the line at Kona in 5-10 mins and in both cases they beat their luggage to the luggage carrousel.

  7. Thanks for the good advice. We went to Maui last April and still have the Safe Travels Hawaii app on our phones. Can we just keep it for our next trip (next April) or will we have to start all over with a new version?

  8. Aloha BOH, concerning the wristbands that are given out at departure from the mainland ( Los Angeles ) where exactly do you get them and from whom? When you check in? At the departure gate? Want to be prepared on all aspects for my trip in October. Mahalo nui Loa.

    1. Hi Debram.

      We suggest you check with the airline that you are flying for their location.

      Aloha.

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