BOH editors flew back to Kauai yesterday on United Airlines from San Francisco, with every seat taken. We paid about $300 per seat, one-way, and then we bought an extra seat so we’d have more room to spread out. The same day, we were reading comments on our own site from readers saying they were finished with Hawaii. Both things were true at once, and that was what made us wonder.
The cabin we flew to Hawaii in yesterday was completely full.
We’ve been on a lot of these flights recently. This one was packed; the bins were jammed full, and the cabin had that going-somewhere buzz. People with neck pillows and beach reads, many already in shorts, kids who could not sit still. Whatever a plane full of people giving up on Hawaii should look like, this was clearly not it.
Yet comments keep saying goodbye to Hawaii.
Meanwhile our own comment section keeps filling with readers who say they are done, priced out, and worn down. We get it.
One reader canceled a month-long trip over gas and food. Another told us it had come down to Hawaii or helping the grandkids with college, and they chose the grandkids. A few said the cost, the traffic, and the aggravation finally pushed them out for good.
Right next to those are the readers still coming, just smaller. They’ve cut two islands to one, dropped the luau or dinners out, packed the resort fridge with Costco groceries, and started reading every fee line carefully well before they book.
Here is the number sitting under the full plane.
Hawaii’s preliminary April 2026 visitor report puts a figure on it. Visitors spent $278 per person per day, up 14.1 percent from a year ago. That is not some airfare math exercise, and it doesn’t explain every full seat, but it does point in the same direction as the tight 737 Max 8 cabin we were sitting in.
Fewer repeat visitors may be saying yes to Hawaii, and those who come are paying more the second they land. Or even before. The spare seat was just one of our own versions of the same thing, spending more to make the trip work.
Fewer people are coming, and the ones who do keep spending.
The two things grind against each other. Hawaii keeps hearing goodbye while it charges more for the seat, the resort, the car rental, the taxes, fees, and the parking, all at once.
Readers aren’t imagining any of that. Hawaii vacations cost more, and there’s considerably less room to maneuver inside the budget than there used to be.
What the gap tells us and what it simply does not.
We’re not calling anyone out here. We’re in both groups too, the ones writing the goodbye and the ones buckling into the full plane. The goodbyes are real. So are the bookings. Lately they’re coming from many of the same people, and yet we’re among them, complaining about $300 seats while buying an extra one.
The comments say one thing and the cabin says another. We’ve stopped expecting either one to win. So we’ll just ask you straight out.
When you said you were done with Hawaii, did you mean it, or was everyone just bracing before booking again? Tell us in the comments, please.
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In Maui right now. Gas is $4.59 (compared to $6.00+ in California). Prices are the same and since we come to the islands often we know how to be respectful to the land and the people. We will continue going between Kauai and Maui even when flights are high, but we have a Hawaiian card so we are smart and rack up our miles 😉 the islands call us. It is our happy place.
If it were up to me, we’d be done. I’m short, very fair and have blonde-white hair with blue eyes. Hubby is tall, salt and pepper hair with darker blue eyes. If locals are going to be rude, I’m the one they pick. We’ve been coming to Maui since 1998 and have made it almost every year except COVID and the last four. It is more expensive and we’re always on a shoestring budget but thought the area was worth it, at one time. We are quiet, not party people, not entitled, buy local and are respectful of the area with its people. That doesn’t stop the rudeness. Top off the expense with rudeness and I’m done. We are booked for March of 2027. That will be our last trip if folks haven’t remembered their manners. Just because I’m a visitor, am old and white, it doesn’t mean I’m rich or that I or my ancestors stole anything from locals or their ancestors.
Like Dennis A. said, it’s our happy place. We just can’t stop. We are cringing getting our 14 family members out to our daughter’s wedding on Maui in September but it’s just that special to us. ❤️ Napili
Maybe I missed it but I don’t know what the $278 average per day entails, someone please explain. There is no way with air, lodging and rental car that you’d only be at $278, let alone going out to eat or groceries, gas etc. Maybe I missed that part of the article.
So much for the 2 person 3 seat rule for future flights. Packed planes might mandate some 1 person 1 seat maximum per person policy change. in other words only one seat per person per one way or round trip ticket reservation purchase.
So your plane was full. Packed. That don’t say anything. How many flights from any one airport got reduced because of this nationwide airline fuel shortage. Less flights offered means more packed planes. Please look at the total number of planes that arrive in Hawaii’s airports and that will give your a more accurate answer. Fewer trips means fuller planes, Less pilots, less crew members to pay, and of course less half full planes. With airline fuel shortages this is the more efficient option in saving fuel and not wasting fuel when supplies are very limited.
The flights are full because the number of flights have been significantly reduced. This combine with the lack of demand which airlines have to guess on. It is not in the airlines best interest to fly half empty airplanes.
The point your subscribers are making here is the value is not in Hawaii. More cost for less when your dollars can do better elsewhere = less visitors. After all, isn’t this what the locals (or at least some of them) want?
The Hawaii tourism authority and your website have posted numerous articles and stats on Hawaii vacationers spending less days on the islands while spending more money.
Can Hawaii continue to demand increased costs to vacationers with lessening value or will the number of visitors to Hawaii continue to decrease? Will there be an impasse ?
We live in Maui part time at our condo. Eating out is fair at best, even at the top restaurants, and the quality does not compare to the cost, as other readers have pointed out.
Our last RT from LAX – Kahului was May 19-28. We generally fly the A330 from LAX, flt 933, 934 returning. On the flight to Maui I would say that we had about an 85% load. My daughter had one open seat next to her aisle seat. Returning it seemed to be the lightest load we had seen since flights resumed at the end of the covid lockdown. My entire row in front of her, 16 was empty. She was in 17 D, the aisle seat and the rest of her 3 seats were empty as was the center section of row 18. We are fortunate that we usually stay with family in Napili so housing isn’t a big cost, but we tend to do the weeks Costco run when we land. For thos from California, I sure wish we had that “cheap gas” at only the $4.59 I paid at Aloha Fuel in Kahului. It would have been even a few cents cheaper at Costco but I did not want to sit in a rental car with the typical Costco gas lines.
Can you really set a price limit on your “happy place”?
If you want to save money, stay home!
If you want to experience some of the worlds best beaches, sunsets, restaurants and oceanfront accommodations where you can hear the ocean 24/7, fly to Hawaii!
I’m not quitting Kauai because I live here, and as a resident, I am experiencing the high cost of everything, too. As for not coming anymore, well, if I had been going to the same place over and over, I might look elsewhere as well. But Hawaii is still a dream vacation for a lot of people, I know, I meet them all the time. If people are citing expensive hotels, food, and activities, I’ve got news. Those cheap places to go aren’t nearly as cheap as they used to be. That Mexico vacation with a great price probably isn’t so cheap anymore, either. Prices have gone up worldwide.
More 737s, fewer 777s, 767s and 757s. Of course its going to be full
Yes, we said our good bye’s few years ago. Our money is now going to other places. Hawaii travel has not got any better…
We’re not done with Hawaii and still plan to stay our usual month… but we have taken two trips to Europe and one to the Caribbean since our last Hawaii visit. I expect we’ll continue to explore other places before returning to Hawaii in 3 or 4 years instead of visiting every second year.
We’re glad we had the opportunity to visit regularly over the past 40 year and experience Hawaii as it was.
I think I am done with Hawaii. I was there 18 months ago & itwas ridiculous what. You had to pay for food. We stayed at the Grand. Wailea. Yes, very expensive but even worse was the cost att the restaurants. Then you have the the chefs there offering only uber gourmet food at a ridiculous price. Even the drinks were crazy. Yes, we paid for all to have a great vacation but at $12.000 for the trip ( we,also went to the big island) I will probably head to Europe next year.
Twice you chastise us for *commenting* that we aren’t coming … which seems to imply that we say it but don’t follow up. Yet, you also state “Fewer people are coming”. So that seems quite contradictory, all within the same post.
Yeah, we aren’t coming as much. Yeah, we aren’t doing as much (for more money) when we do come to Hawaii … because we can’t afford to do what we used to be able to do. Or, what we can afford and do elsewhere … which we do spend elsewhere.
We love our fellow citizens that live in Hawaii. We attempt to spend our money on locals. Wish we could spend more time and money there, but alas … money is finite … for most of us.
Just sayin’
Done for now. Waiting for normal prices to return. If not, I’ll go back to Tahiti, which was also expensive but I expected it.
What is going on with Southwest Airlines? The return flights are all overnight to Oakland.
Yes, SW went the way of the Red Eye, like most others. They claim it works to facilitate more distant connecting flights.
I think you’re missing the comparison on the seat capacity going to/from Hawaii today vs years prior. It feels that there are less flights over all with the Hawaiian/ Alaska merger as well as Southwest dropping routes. This leads to less total seats, so now the flights that do go may 100% full. This seems optimal for the airlines so why would they change it. In terms of cost, jet fuel prices have skyrocketed and that fuel is even more expensive to get to Hawaii for the planes to refill for their return. Finally, when visiting Hawaii, the $300 seat each way is still less than the hotel, food, car, Ubers to the airport etc..
$300 seat each way is cheaper than the hotel/rental car etc, hmmm please explain. Even from Cali it’s more than $300, throw in rental car at $50/day minimum I don’t quite understand the math.
Higher costs, fewer visitors. Those whi can’t afford it don’t come. Makes sense.