84 thoughts on “New $20 COVID Tests Add to Hawaii Airline Competition”

  1. This is great if you live in California. We have to fly to Oakland on Southwest to connect to our flight to Maui, so we’re stuck with trying to get a timely approved test result in Wisconsin even though we’re both vaccinated. We’re hoping that Hawaii does something to recognize vaccinations before our trip in April.

    1. @Craig R
      GREAT reason to schedule a couple of days stopover in the San Francisco Bay Area. Get off the plane, get the test at the airport (make sure you schedule it now), play a couple of days like a wine country tour, etc, get your results, continue your trip to the Islands 3 days later (from landing in the SF Bay Area)!!!

  2. Thank you for the information about the SWA testing at SMF. I was going to use the Costco option, but I just booked appointments at the SMF location for our Spring Break trip to Maui. We’ve been unable to visit Hawaii since February 2020, but we just got our vaccinations and feel it is safer now to visit again without potentially and unknowingly contributing to any Covid surges on the islands.

  3. Have you heard if Southwest will expand their pre-flight testing option to other airports? We are scheduled from Long Beach, CA to Maui on SWA at the end of May. Their partner sure sounds convenient and reasonable. Thanks!

    1. City Health is at Long Beach now! I think they opened up in March. You can schedule your appt online. Best of luck. Pls keep us posted! Thank you.

  4. That is absolutely enticing!! American charges $249 and there are 5 of us, do the math. It’s horrible. I wish I would have known about this price that Southwest is offering. That’s a game changer! I wish I’d known how restrictive Hawaii is on their inbound travel before booking tickets. There are other places I could have gone that are nearly as difficult!

  5. Mahalo for this important news! Only problem. What do folks like us who are flying INTO SFO/OAK the night before our outbound flight to OGG from the East Coast do about this test? We still have to get the test taken from our “home port” prior to our departure. There’s not enough time to take the test in California. Yes, we are planning to take the test in NJ about 48 hours from our departure as the test is a rapid results NAAT test (24-hour results). Yes, we are also scheduled to have our SECOND vaccine 2 weeks prior to our departure flight. The only concern though (a lot can change between now and April), the State of California has issued a quarantine for all arrivals into CA (via airports too?) and IF that isn’t lifted by our trip date, we may be forced to cancel our SWA flights and fly into Maui from another State other than California.

    1. Hi Steven.

      Yes it is definitely trickier for those connecting. Hope it all works out for you.

      Aloha.

  6. If you test positive for covid on the day, or days before departure will travel insurance reimburse your hotel(condo), rental car and airfare.
    What if it’s a false positive ? If it’s a false positive you are not too ill to travel, but have to cancel your trip.
    If you can’t get reimbursed you can lose ALOT of money.

  7. Southwest has great rates, 2 free checked bags and a $20 covid test. I wouldn’t fly with anyone else!!!!!!!! And they’re really sweet too!!!!!

  8. This is the same entity that has been testing all passengers flying to Hawaii since last fall. No big deal. In reality the sites listed for Southwest are fewer than what is available. If you go to the link at the Oakland Airport site you will see additional sites in the East Bay like Dublin, Livermore, and Pleasanton. Better availability, same pricing, same turn around, and closer than driving to the Oakland Airport, if you live in the East Bay. Same $20 document as for all passengers to Hawaii.

    1. We noticed for the Dublin,CA site, the verbiage states it is not guaranteed to get the test you request. Because of that, we scheduled our testing at the OAK site. We couldn’t find a phone # to clarify

  9. I prefer to fly Southwest whenever possible so I’m thrilled with the $20 option through City Health. Just scheduled our appointments for April 2 at SMF. As a backup we are also going to test at Kaiser after that just to ensure we get results so we can fly to Maui on April 5. We postponed our trip last April and can’t wait to get back to the islands to celebrate our anniversary. Mahalo for all the great information you provide to your subscribers!

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