Lastest news on Southwest schedules and fares. Some routes continue to have great deals for summer. Find out more in today’s post.
1,796 thoughts on “Southwest Hawaii Stiffens Competition: 11 New Daily Flights Exposed”
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Home » Blog » Hawaii Travel News » Southwest Hawaii Stiffens Competition: 11 New Daily Flights Exposed
I’m signed up for your emails. Will Beat of Hawaii be sending out an update email when Southwest announces their flights to Hawaii? They told me to just keep checking their site but I have not found any info there. We are going to Maui from Phoenix In June 2019 and praying SWA will be enroute by then! American flights keep raising in price! Thank you!!
Hi Mary.
We sure will!
Aloha.
No food? 😳🤔. How long will the flight be?
depends on where your flying from 🙂
Probably as long as pretty dollars from your origin to Hawaii. And Alaska doesn’t feed you either. Stop by Subway on your way to the airport.
I fly Alaska all the time, and while I don’t often buy their fare, they do have items for sale. And they have free access to their movie library if you have an iPad. If you don’t, you can rent theirs. They also have seat chargers. So SWA will have to up their game.
LAX – OGG is about five hours, give or take. My UAL 757 did it well under that last November, so routing and weather are factors, but let’s say roughly five hours each way, slightly longer eastbound. I’d just stock up on chow at the airport or bring my own aboard from home, assuming TSA doesn’t take apart my sandwiches! In ‘N Out animal style at 30,000 feet, anyone?
“Pilot and flight attendant labor disputes continued to plague SWA for years.” This is not an accurate comment.
It has been widely publicized that the Southwest mechanics will indeed file a cease and desist order to stop Hawaii service until their is an agreement between the two worked out on ETOPS. AMFA, the mechanics union, has language in their contract that protects and provides that Southwest mechanics will do ETOPS departures. It was reported that Southwest made an offer to the mechanics seeking relief from this language. The mechanics have not had a new contract in over 5 1/2 years. This is what you should be writing about as this will be a contentious battle should Southwest try to violate the mechanics contract.
Aloha! Thank you SWA … for getting ‘on-board’ to Hawaii. We really need an airline to give competition to what we already have. We fly to mainland USA at least 4x a year and twice to Reno via Las Vegas. With SWA coming to Hawaii we’ll be able to fly to Reno direct from Honolulu. Your flight attendants are all so nice and very hospitable. Boarding is a breeze…all passengers wait very patiently to board per category. The “other” airline seem so disorganized. Their boarding notice to passengers are not the same at LV & Hnl terminals causing much confusion. Looking forward to seeing SWA in Hawaii! Congrats & best wishes!
I have a grandson that is now 6. I have only got to see him once due to cost of airfare; this was 2 yrs ago. I really hope I can get there from Lubbock with my favorite SW airline in 2018. Lubbock is a very dry climate and it is hard to breath in the humidity of Maui. I don’t care if I see a beach…just his sweet face. 🙂
I just went to Hawaii for a week, my Daughter & her family moved there 2 years ago. It took me that long to save up round trip airfare to see my only grandchild. When I flew in the past I loved Southwest, I look foward to flying with Southwest again.
Please can you tell me what website I should access to get breaking news & when the flights will start From LAX to Hawaii.
Thank you so very much
I fell in love with the island & oceans & people, I would love to go 2 times a year (to see my family & grandson too, lol)
Hi Deborah.
You’ll probably find the most information about SWA Hawaii here on Beat of Hawaii. Trying searching on Google, and you’ll see we come up first in the search results for that.
Aloha.
Kauai is always mentioned as well as Maui, but you can still get really good fares to those islands. Big island, particularly the eastern island is always left out of these deals with fares from $125 and up greater than flights to Maui/Kaui/Honolulu. State of Hawaii should ʻrecommendʻ that SWA include a competitive fare to and from Big Island to promote tourism and easier travel to the Big Island. Iʻm just saying.
I live in San Francisco and am planning on buying tickets to visit Kauai for March 17-24 2018. I was advised by Beat of Hawaii that it is $250 cheaper to fly out of Oakland Airport. A non stop ticket is $631 right now on Alaska Airlines.
Do you think this price might be reduced in the next 30 day?
Hi Walter.
Not too optimistic about it improving. Reason is those are both Saturdays in high season/spring break. Without changing dates, that may be the best possible. Suggest buying now.
Aloha.
Hey Walter,
I too live in the Bay Area and frequently fly to Hawaii on an annual basis. $631 is actually a high price ticket and likely reflects an added flight with many seats available (supply and demand) Typically, it is cheaper to fly out of OAK as opposed to SFO or even SJC – a quick daily check for 1 week for the same dates would show you that. I tend to check at least once a week for my flights until i find a reasonable fare since i travel with my entire family.
If i were you, i would 1.) Fly out of OAK 2.) Wait for prices to drop especially if you plan to fly alone – there is almost always an available seat for solo passengers that are cheaper than the rush buyer. This is obviously contingent on you getting your flight for a time that permits (Ex. early am flight vs late evening flight).
Hope this helps!
Southwest may have other “issues” with their new Hawaii service that you have failed to talk about. Their aircraft mechanics. Their aircraft mechanics have been working without a labor contract for over 5 years !!! Everything is not hunky dory with labor at Southwest. http://www.amfanatl.org/index.cfm?zone=/unionactive/view_article.cfm&HomeID=675887&page=Southwest20Airlines
Pedro, how do you know so much about AMFA? Just curious
NO, I am not an aircraft mechanic, nor am I a member of AMFA. I follow numerous airlines for investment purposes. I saw this article on the internet. It was a topic that has not been mentioned here. 5 years is a long time to be without a labor contract! There was just another article on the internet recently about this same issue, I’ll see if I can find it again and post it here for an update.
All the media publicity regarding WN to Hawai’i has been very interesting…but, I think very misleading. With all the competition to/from HI with UA/AS/VX/HA you will likely not see lower fares…and if you do see lower fares, they will not be that much lower than they have been in recent days. The “southwest effect”, as has been proven in many studies, only applies when there is little or no competition….which clearly does not apply to the Hawai’i market. WNs cost to operate are also higher than it’s peers, with the exception of AA/DL/UA. And the most important thing that has not been discussed in great detail, will be the increase in hotel and rental car fees that will occur as more people come to the islands. There are simply not enough hotels in Hawai’i and that will only get worse with more seats flying to/from HI. Any savings from the airline ticket will be quickly gobbled up by hotels and car rental agencies.
https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/10/22/the-southwest-effect-may-not-be-all-its-cracked-up.aspx
https://seekingalpha.com/article/3995777-fooled-southwest-airlines-lot-expensive-looks
As always, Mahalo to BOH for keeping us all informed
I live in LA and I remember when SWA started flights to Atlanta. I know a lot of you in hawaii may not believe this but SW made tickets drop to Atlanta from LA. Delta was always asking 4 to 5 hundred and American the same for non stop. I have been flying for 280 or less with all that competition going to atlanta. 600$ flights to hawaii from LA is Stupid, I can pay that and get round trip to Rome from LA. I cant wait until the Hawaii flights that will cost in the 300s from SWA. and those 59$ inter island flights.