Re. I have a HA companion seat for $100 that expires Jan 31, 2026, so I am looking to head out before then.
Yes, you should before it expires. It's hard to predict weather at this time of the year, but it seems to change from week to week, so you may get more sunshine than we did.
Regarding HA, there planes seem to be quite old and having frequent maintenance issues it seems (don't know if it has anything to do with Alaska Air buying them recently). Our flight back home had the engine issue (similar to when going to Hawaii), which got resolved after about 2hrs, but then there was a second delay (also a maintenance issue lasting ~45m) while we sat inside the airplane waiting to pull away from the gate. The plane itself seemed pretty old and worn out. We flew first-class, the seats were comfortable enough but not overly plush and they didn't recline much. My back did hurt a bit after about 5hrs of flight, that's the max duration I can stand in those seats. Can't imagine what it would be like in economy seats. If you can upgrade to first-class, it might be worth it. It's about 6hrs going there and ~5hrs coming back.
During landing, the air pressure inside the cabin changed quite rapidly causing my ears to start ringing and hurt. I may have to look into some flight earplugs for next time I fly.
They also sprayed pesticides inside the cabin when leaving Hawaii, the bathroom was unbearable due to the smell of pesticide. It would probably help to bring a N95 type mask when flying to Hawaii.
The hotel we stayed is called Kaimana Beach Hotel. It's only about a short (20m) walk from waikiki. It was a perfect location for us as staying in Wikiki itself would be unbearable for me due to traffic and music noise.
Waikiki Market is a good grocery store (seemed similar to Whole Foods), it's right across the International Market (where Mitsuwa is located). Mitsuwa in wikiki is pretty small compared to the one I visited in Santa Clara. Then there are also ABC stores at every corner :)
For rental cars, we decided to go with Enterprise rather than Hertz. Both Enterprise and hertz have locations in wikiki, (within the big hotels: Hyatt (Hertz) and Marriott (Enterprise), but enterprise had a much nicer location and easy checkout/check-in process. Hertz office looked more like a dungeon with only one person working and long lines of people waiting for their cars. I also read that Hertz after-hour car return is too complicated and a pain. Parking is expensive at the hotel, we paid $50 per night (valet parking only). |
