526 thoughts on “Hawaii Travel Upheaval: Stakeholders Livid As Adversaries Now Concur”
Rita N.
In fairness to Hawaii and Kauai, the USA has had no uniform guidance from the federal government on how to manage the COVID risk. Here in California we are shutting most everything down again. It might be an abundance of caution, like Kauai, but if it keeps people safe I think it’s the wisest course. We miss our visits to Hawaii so much, and we feel such sorrow for Hawaiian citizens job loss and economic instability. Thank you for keeping us up to date each day.
Beat of Hawaii
Hi Rita.
Thanks for your comment and nice words.
Aloha.
Ralph J
We were scheduled for our annual trip to the islands last March. Hawaiian Airlines was good to refund our reservations. The domestic airline gave us a credit. We will not rebook until we trust the system, and trust that we’ll be welcome. There are too many horror stories of people with negative tests-in-hand who are turned around, quarantined, and/or otherwise abused. No thanks.
Bruce P.
This is the first year in nearly 40 that we have not visited the islands at least once or twice. The chaos associated with pretesting…what’s acceptable testing centers..which labs are not….post testing…14 day quarantine.We obviously cancelled the September 1st visit and glad we did. No future plans for a long time.
Henry
I am a part time resident of Kauai and flew over from Seattle Dec. 3rd on a Delta 757, sad to say there were only 10 people on board,I am doing the 14 day quarantine only because I will be here for 3 or 4 months. Tourist with much less time if they come to Hawaii at all will choose another island with less restrictions.
Debbie P.
We have a month of a time share in Kauai we had planned on using January 7th. Fortunately we hadn’t purchased our plane tickets foreseeing the ridiculous rules Kauai ‘s nutcase Mayor put into effect! We’re not going to Kauai needless to say!
Donald G.
I have a trip scheduled in Feb and trying to comply with your “brillant” Governor’sdemands. I registered my email and phone as required through your Gov’t. You computers are Hacked by Iran. Now mine are. You cost me $2200.00 and a lot of inconvenience. Get a firewall!!!
Steve. W
The safe travels website is overloaded my freind got his Oahu to Kona safe travels QR code an hour after he had already landed .. they did let him leave the airport anyway ! Thank god.
Roger C.
Testing is not efficient thru Kaiser. I tested there 12/2 at 8;40 am. It is now 12/5 8;00 am and no test results. They are using the state provided tests. Shameful.
Charlotte K
My husband was born and raised on Kauai. We have many family members on Kauai, including 2 older siblings. We mourn that we cannot plan a visit to see family. We are in our 70’s, and know that our time on the earth is getting very short. We understand the risk to Native Hawaiians,etc (hubby is NH), but we miss our family!!!
Marsha M.
Three of have taken our COVID test Friday for very early Monday departure which complies with the 72 hour rule. We figured worse case we would land and our results might come while we were flying or a day later. Now with the Nov 24 mandate for hard copy in hand of negative results before departing mainland, if we do not receive results Sunday we have to cancel; at this absolute last minute! I sure hope all our travel insurance works for a pandemic cancel. These impossible changes are affecting people who have complied and planned perfectly and as of 2 weeks before our flight we were in compliance. If your rules get reversed on Monday it will be too late for us to be able fly to Kona.
Mark
What these politicians forget they work for us and voted in by us. They need to be reminded of this. Can you say recall all the bozos in the political bus. ( no offense to all the good clowns)
Malo
Ann D
We had a trip scheduled for Maui this month and cancelled it because, in our small town, there are no “trusted partners” for testing. The closest “trusted partners” are 7 hours away. No guarantees for getting results in 72 hours either. Just not worth coming to Hawaii with so many restrictions and being unable to truly enjoy the Hawaii experience.
Kat K
We had plans to travel to Kauai the day after Thanksgiving. In late September, when the opening hadn’t happened yet, but there were so many uncertainties, we cancelled. There are 4 people in our party, one coming from another state, and the possibility of even one of us testing positive (or getting a false positive result), or not being able to get test results in time, and having to quarantine for 2 weeks when our stay was only 8 days, was too great to risk. Not to mention the risks of being on an airplane for 5 hours with people who could have the virus. We are glad we cancelled in time for a full refund of our trip, and your newsletter was invaluable for the information we needed to make our decision! Thank you!
Beat of Hawaii
Hi Kat.
Thanks for your update. We hope you can return again soon.
Aloha.
Rich
I have been rechecking the rules and I see there is now movement to change to two tests. Some say second at airport on arrival before clearance into Hawaii and some after 3-5 days. The safe travels site currently says 1 test, have the proof on phone and paper and have entered it on the safe travels site prior to departure. Then check in daily. Which all seems fine using an airline partner test facility.
Irrespective of one’s views on travel, testing, visitors, residents, locals, military etc, would it not be of great assistance to travelers, airport staff, the airlines and the hospitality industry if any changes were required to post notice of change at a minimum of 14 days +1. This would allow travelers to do the correct things, allow for new policies to be trained for State Health officials and scanners, give airlines time to retrain staff at check in and also stop Hotels and Rental Cars getting last minute cancelations. I think people would be far more accepting of rules and any changes if a decent notice period was mandated either by State or Federal Government (given it involves air travel and interstate travel which is a Federal matter.
The San Francisco Lihue debacle showed that United had not been able to retrain staff at check in to follow the current procedures. Fortunate that the testing station did follow procedure and informed the KPD.
James M
We had plans scheduled since February to travel to Kauai on Dec. 12th. With the last minute changes we were notified by our resort that we were able to travel to either Maui or Oahu. We chose to go to Maui. We had additional cost involved in changing flights. There are also very limited places to get to approved covid test and expect to get the results in time to travel making travel much more chaotic!
MartinR
Chaos! Just cancelled family (12 members) holiday vacation to Oahu. Too challenging to plan three weeks ahead with the day-to-day quarantine changes, both on the Island, on the Mainland and with the airlines. But, how to obtain partial and/or full refunds…end expect family to look forward to a future Hawaiian vacation?
Jonathan H.
My family and I just returned from Kauai on a 10 day trip. We had our negative tests prior to leaving and once we arrived were careful to follow mask protocols and socially distance. I think another test at the airport on departure and arrival (as they are doing for some europe bound flights now) would be an easy and agreeable solution for most travellers. To be honest I would guess most folks are heading to Hawaii to get away and be distant from folks and be outside, rather than planning to gather in large groups.
It was sad to hear from some of the local business owners who were planning to close and were running “survival” sales to try and claw some revenue back while they could. We supported the locally owned businesses as much as we could but I’m sure that they will be devastated this winter with visitor numbers significantly down. Sadly we also noticed some businesses that had already sucumbed to the financial challenges.
We loved the island and hope to be back in the future. We also hope that the vibrant local businesses can survive this challenge as that’s part of the allure of coming to somewhere like Kauai for us.
JJ
The back and forth is frustrating. I wish there was a more unified approach. Every official talks about their decisions being “science-based” but I don’t see any science behind most of these – both in terms of shutting down and opening up. Still, I can’t say I’m livid over the whole thing. I know it’s a confusing and dangerous time, and I’m not entitled to visit. It breaks my heart that people are suffering, but the solution won’t be me bringing my tourist dollars. The state has also bungled unemployment payments, and small business loans are driving people further into debt. We should be able to shut down areas for health reasons while not ruining people’s lives in other ways, and we’ve failed at that all around the country.
Rob B
We had planned to come to Kauai in November 2020 but bumped it out to March 2021 due to Kauai’s “planning” and uncertainty when/if we arrived. Now we will wait and hope. February is now our decision month. We are cautiously optimistic that the state will have their act together by then. If not, our time and money will go to some other location.
Vicki Lynn P.
This year, we here in SoCal, your biggest fans/source of loving and faithful $$ support, have had to listen to residents who honestly, are just like us-from all over the world, who just happen to live in the islands now-gripe about how much animosity you have towards “tourists”. Aren’t we all tourists?? You have the highest unemployment in the United States. I suggest you show love, gratitude and humility towards other Americans who love it there and have gone to grad school there, (me), and surfed there, had weddings there and family events there…
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In fairness to Hawaii and Kauai, the USA has had no uniform guidance from the federal government on how to manage the COVID risk. Here in California we are shutting most everything down again. It might be an abundance of caution, like Kauai, but if it keeps people safe I think it’s the wisest course. We miss our visits to Hawaii so much, and we feel such sorrow for Hawaiian citizens job loss and economic instability. Thank you for keeping us up to date each day.
Hi Rita.
Thanks for your comment and nice words.
Aloha.
We were scheduled for our annual trip to the islands last March. Hawaiian Airlines was good to refund our reservations. The domestic airline gave us a credit. We will not rebook until we trust the system, and trust that we’ll be welcome. There are too many horror stories of people with negative tests-in-hand who are turned around, quarantined, and/or otherwise abused. No thanks.
This is the first year in nearly 40 that we have not visited the islands at least once or twice. The chaos associated with pretesting…what’s acceptable testing centers..which labs are not….post testing…14 day quarantine.We obviously cancelled the September 1st visit and glad we did. No future plans for a long time.
I am a part time resident of Kauai and flew over from Seattle Dec. 3rd on a Delta 757, sad to say there were only 10 people on board,I am doing the 14 day quarantine only because I will be here for 3 or 4 months. Tourist with much less time if they come to Hawaii at all will choose another island with less restrictions.
We have a month of a time share in Kauai we had planned on using January 7th. Fortunately we hadn’t purchased our plane tickets foreseeing the ridiculous rules Kauai ‘s nutcase Mayor put into effect! We’re not going to Kauai needless to say!
I have a trip scheduled in Feb and trying to comply with your “brillant” Governor’sdemands. I registered my email and phone as required through your Gov’t. You computers are Hacked by Iran. Now mine are. You cost me $2200.00 and a lot of inconvenience. Get a firewall!!!
The safe travels website is overloaded my freind got his Oahu to Kona safe travels QR code an hour after he had already landed .. they did let him leave the airport anyway ! Thank god.
Testing is not efficient thru Kaiser. I tested there 12/2 at 8;40 am. It is now 12/5 8;00 am and no test results. They are using the state provided tests. Shameful.
My husband was born and raised on Kauai. We have many family members on Kauai, including 2 older siblings. We mourn that we cannot plan a visit to see family. We are in our 70’s, and know that our time on the earth is getting very short. We understand the risk to Native Hawaiians,etc (hubby is NH), but we miss our family!!!
Three of have taken our COVID test Friday for very early Monday departure which complies with the 72 hour rule. We figured worse case we would land and our results might come while we were flying or a day later. Now with the Nov 24 mandate for hard copy in hand of negative results before departing mainland, if we do not receive results Sunday we have to cancel; at this absolute last minute! I sure hope all our travel insurance works for a pandemic cancel. These impossible changes are affecting people who have complied and planned perfectly and as of 2 weeks before our flight we were in compliance. If your rules get reversed on Monday it will be too late for us to be able fly to Kona.
What these politicians forget they work for us and voted in by us. They need to be reminded of this. Can you say recall all the bozos in the political bus. ( no offense to all the good clowns)
Malo
We had a trip scheduled for Maui this month and cancelled it because, in our small town, there are no “trusted partners” for testing. The closest “trusted partners” are 7 hours away. No guarantees for getting results in 72 hours either. Just not worth coming to Hawaii with so many restrictions and being unable to truly enjoy the Hawaii experience.
We had plans to travel to Kauai the day after Thanksgiving. In late September, when the opening hadn’t happened yet, but there were so many uncertainties, we cancelled. There are 4 people in our party, one coming from another state, and the possibility of even one of us testing positive (or getting a false positive result), or not being able to get test results in time, and having to quarantine for 2 weeks when our stay was only 8 days, was too great to risk. Not to mention the risks of being on an airplane for 5 hours with people who could have the virus. We are glad we cancelled in time for a full refund of our trip, and your newsletter was invaluable for the information we needed to make our decision! Thank you!
Hi Kat.
Thanks for your update. We hope you can return again soon.
Aloha.
I have been rechecking the rules and I see there is now movement to change to two tests. Some say second at airport on arrival before clearance into Hawaii and some after 3-5 days. The safe travels site currently says 1 test, have the proof on phone and paper and have entered it on the safe travels site prior to departure. Then check in daily. Which all seems fine using an airline partner test facility.
Irrespective of one’s views on travel, testing, visitors, residents, locals, military etc, would it not be of great assistance to travelers, airport staff, the airlines and the hospitality industry if any changes were required to post notice of change at a minimum of 14 days +1. This would allow travelers to do the correct things, allow for new policies to be trained for State Health officials and scanners, give airlines time to retrain staff at check in and also stop Hotels and Rental Cars getting last minute cancelations. I think people would be far more accepting of rules and any changes if a decent notice period was mandated either by State or Federal Government (given it involves air travel and interstate travel which is a Federal matter.
The San Francisco Lihue debacle showed that United had not been able to retrain staff at check in to follow the current procedures. Fortunate that the testing station did follow procedure and informed the KPD.
We had plans scheduled since February to travel to Kauai on Dec. 12th. With the last minute changes we were notified by our resort that we were able to travel to either Maui or Oahu. We chose to go to Maui. We had additional cost involved in changing flights. There are also very limited places to get to approved covid test and expect to get the results in time to travel making travel much more chaotic!
Chaos! Just cancelled family (12 members) holiday vacation to Oahu. Too challenging to plan three weeks ahead with the day-to-day quarantine changes, both on the Island, on the Mainland and with the airlines. But, how to obtain partial and/or full refunds…end expect family to look forward to a future Hawaiian vacation?
My family and I just returned from Kauai on a 10 day trip. We had our negative tests prior to leaving and once we arrived were careful to follow mask protocols and socially distance. I think another test at the airport on departure and arrival (as they are doing for some europe bound flights now) would be an easy and agreeable solution for most travellers. To be honest I would guess most folks are heading to Hawaii to get away and be distant from folks and be outside, rather than planning to gather in large groups.
It was sad to hear from some of the local business owners who were planning to close and were running “survival” sales to try and claw some revenue back while they could. We supported the locally owned businesses as much as we could but I’m sure that they will be devastated this winter with visitor numbers significantly down. Sadly we also noticed some businesses that had already sucumbed to the financial challenges.
We loved the island and hope to be back in the future. We also hope that the vibrant local businesses can survive this challenge as that’s part of the allure of coming to somewhere like Kauai for us.
The back and forth is frustrating. I wish there was a more unified approach. Every official talks about their decisions being “science-based” but I don’t see any science behind most of these – both in terms of shutting down and opening up. Still, I can’t say I’m livid over the whole thing. I know it’s a confusing and dangerous time, and I’m not entitled to visit. It breaks my heart that people are suffering, but the solution won’t be me bringing my tourist dollars. The state has also bungled unemployment payments, and small business loans are driving people further into debt. We should be able to shut down areas for health reasons while not ruining people’s lives in other ways, and we’ve failed at that all around the country.
We had planned to come to Kauai in November 2020 but bumped it out to March 2021 due to Kauai’s “planning” and uncertainty when/if we arrived. Now we will wait and hope. February is now our decision month. We are cautiously optimistic that the state will have their act together by then. If not, our time and money will go to some other location.
This year, we here in SoCal, your biggest fans/source of loving and faithful $$ support, have had to listen to residents who honestly, are just like us-from all over the world, who just happen to live in the islands now-gripe about how much animosity you have towards “tourists”. Aren’t we all tourists?? You have the highest unemployment in the United States. I suggest you show love, gratitude and humility towards other Americans who love it there and have gone to grad school there, (me), and surfed there, had weddings there and family events there…