Beat of Hawaii's Special Picks for You

131 thoughts on “Testing Approved As Hawaii Visitors Demand Essential Information”

  1. John A

    Governor Ige should implement testing programs at the airports and major hotels. He should have thousands of test kits by now. Open Hawaii.

  2. Thomas S.

    First: I recall you are based on Kauai. How you and your neighbors doing? We are in the St Louis area of Missouri. In our suburb, residents are being quite respectful. However, I haven’t been to a store in 7 weeks or even put in gas so I don’t know how that’s going.
    Second: I read the email from Southwest about what to expect as they prepare to ramp up. I read comments from the CEO of Ryan Air about the distances between people even with the middle seat empty. I’m thinking that the thought of pre-departure testing doesn’t sound that unreasonable to protect the residents of Hawaii. Logistically, a nightmare just even thinking about we from the midwest who would have to be tested at the at a hub or the west coast; I can’t imagine testing out of St Louis as the airport functions primarily as a regional airport albeit are large regional airport.
    Third: For me, I’m in for testing. I’d be less anxious on the plane and I’d feel “next to normal” as a tourist knowing that visitors had been tested.
    Again, our travel is booked for January, I’d be willing to postpone even at the last moment knowing that, there will probably be another opportunity. I’d be willing to accept credit as opposed to a refund as if I was willing to spend the money in January of 2020, I’d be willing to spend that amount at a later date, and would say thank you if there was a “perk” for taking the credit.

    1. Beat of Hawaii

      Hi Thomas.

      Things are fine on Kauai. We are weary of the situation, that’s for sure. But knowing there are no health concerns here at the moment, certainly feels good. Thanks for asking. We appreciate your many comments!

      Aloha.

    2. Colleen

      We, too, are from the StL area.

      I am not sure about anywhere else, but you cannot just say “I want to be tested” around here and then get tested. You have to actually think you have symptoms and get a doctor’s order.

      If very recent testing is required before coming to Hawaii, and especially if it is after departure from StL and perhaps before leaving the ‘West Coast’ – we will cancel our trip early next year. Once there are too many hoops – it is just easier to stay home. :0( It might be time to give away the timeshare :0/

      Bugs will always be with us. Illness is a part of life. The fearful and vulnerable should self quar antine. Others should be allows to ‘live.’ My 2 cents.

      There are no easy answers. But the more complicated it gets, the more inviting a ‘stay – cation’ sounds. May have to switch back to summer vacations to the Mountains of Colorado. Much less hassle.

      Thanks for the updates Jeff. Always appreciated. Hope we haven’t made our last trip to Hawaii. Who knows?

      1. Beat of Hawaii

        Hi Collen.

        Thanks for your comment – that makes an even 200 to date. Mahalo!!

        No you had better come back as we’re really looking forward to seeing you.

        Aloha. R/J

  4. Elizabeth A

    We already received cancellation for our May 9th thru 20th trip. We are waiting for restrictions to lift to reschedule. So if we have to be tested first, do we do it at our drs office or where are we suppose to get it done? And if we have to get tested to fly into Maui, then Hawaii residents need to be tested before they can leave the island to go to another state. If visitors have to do it coming in, then Hawaii residents should do it to leave. I’m considering just giving up on Hawaii and going to Florida. Testing is such a waste of time. There are so many “what ifs” to getting tested and getting results in time for our flight. My husband has already gotten tested at his work. So can he use those results? So many unanswered questions and things up in the air. We are contacting our travel agency to go to Florida instead.

    1. Sue H

      Quite a bit of Florida is a hot spot right now. They have very little social dist ancing enforced.

  5. Pat C

    Thanks for this info. opportunity ‘Beat of Hawaii’! All 12 of us are looking forward to our 50th Anniversary family trip. The time and $’s invested is nothing compared to a loss of a once in a life time experience. I too have felt the frustration and fear of the locals, its real. But just think how many of us visitors are waiting to know if and when we can travel to your beautiful State. Tough job for the governor but thousands are in the same situation we are. Let us know sooner than later and keep the Aloha spirit!

  6. RIch

    I have a visit back to HNL booked for early June. Keeping in touch with Hotel and Airline. Would be nice to have more certainty but I figure that many people have a lot more at stake than me worrying about my travel arrangements so I just have to wait and see. Mind you as regular almost commuter it is simply an inconvenience. I can imagine for those planning a honeymoon or the trip of a lifetime, it must be very very disappointing. But it will be a question of waiting for things to get right. Hawaii is not going anywhere and the Hawaiians are not going to stop being a welcoming and cultured people. So wait it out and your trip will be worth it when it does happen.

  7. Mardi s

    Hawaiian Airlines says that my 5/30 flight from Boston to Honolulu is on Schedule! My friend tried to book the same flight on the same day and they said there were no flights! What the heck is going on here! They’re lying through their teeth because they said my flight is on schedule for 5/30! What gives? Be honest Hawaiian Airlines. You just don’ t Want to give refunds! It’s obvious! 😩

    1. Felice

      Hawaiian Airlines notified me that my flights had been changed just one week prior to travel. I requested a refund online and didn’t receive a response after a week. I called and they would only offer me credit. You have one more data point that HA is not wanting to give refunds like they are supposed to under the DOT clarification on April 3.

  9. Mickael K

    It’s seems the Governor is keeping the local residents in the dark as much as the future visitors

  10. Tom F

    This is not Austria and not Dubai. We in the USA have sick and first responders in the USA who cannot get tests. Our government seems to be unable to do anything to ramp up the testing to help slow down the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans. I doubt we’re going to see perspective Hawai’i holiday makers being able to test for anything less than a small fortune anytime in the near future. (I guess the cost of the Austria test is 119 euros. ) Most would argue that we shouldn’t even think about testing holiday makers until this Unimaginable and intolerable death rate at least slows. If testing is the condition for visiting Hawaii then Hawai’i should get ready for a long, long wait before tourists and their wallets return.

    1. Jared L.

      Is the death rate in Hawai’i from the flu this year REALLY “Unimaginable and intolerable”?

      Let’s do the math.

      In Hawaii, as of this moment, there have been 621 known cases, and 17 deaths. That’s a death rate of 2.7%–of KNOWN cases. Virtually ALL health authorities and immunologists/etc agree that the infection rate is MUCH higher than the KNOWN cases (which require a positive test result). MANY people have/had no symptoms at all–or symptoms so mild they never even know/knew they have/had it. Some estimates are 10x more infected than have tested positive. but lets just cut that down to 1x more–so, twice as many ACTUAL infected than KNOWN cases. That cuts the death rate down to 1.37%. Which aint bad. I’d take a 1.37% death rate over total global financial collapse any day of the week.

      Which doesn’t mean the state and counties of Hawai’i should take all reasonable and prudent precautions IN ORDER to OPEN the state back up to ALL (reasonably healthy) visitors as soon as possible. Even BEFORE the flu season this year Hawaii County was $500,000,000 dollars in debt–and the state was $5 BILLION dollars in debt. With tourism–and therefore tax revenues–essentially at zero right now… where do you think the money to operate the government is coming from right now??? (Answer: MORE DEBT)

Comments are closed.

Home » Blog » Hawaii Travel Tips » Testing Approved As Hawaii Visitors Demand Essential Information
Scroll to Top