First Trip to Aulani - How to get from ATL to HNL March 2024 on SW

[hayesdvc]

Planning to take DW to Aulani in March of 2024 and have already booked the room at the seven month mark.
Trying to splurge once we get there and as such wanting to use Southwest points to fly from Atlanta.
There are no direct flights. Looking for this wonderful group's suggestions on planning this flight. Any first hand knowledge will be extremely helpful.

TIA

 

[_auroraborealis_]

Flying Southwest from the East Coast you'll likely need to figure out which west coast cities offerr flights to HNL and book your flight ATL to that city separately. Most of the flights to the islands leave before noon West Coast time, so if your outbound from ATL is too late you'll be overnighting somewhere.

The HNL flights leave from Vegas, Long Beach, LAX, Oakland, PHX, Sacramento, San Diego, and San Jose. There are limited non-stops to those airports from thee East Coast. If you do a very early flight to Vegas it might work. But most of the others require connections to get to a city where they fly to HNL.

You might find yourself better off using another carrier for at least part of the trip. Southwest for Hawaii is most workable for people leaving from Mountain or PAcific time.

 

[WDWLODGE]

We have a trip planned next year as well. We are flying from Pittsburgh to LA, going to DL for a few days. Then flying from LAX to HNL.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

Note that if you do the Disneyland hop, you can at least fly into John Wayne if you want, then out via LAX.

Same is true with SFO and Oakland. If you want to hang in the Bay for a day, you can fly into whichever, you just have to leave via Oakland.

It's probably worth looking at flights on Hawaiian from a few west coast airports as well and mixing points on Southwest with cash on Hawaiian for the hop to the island.

 

[Disbug]

You can get to HNL from ATL on Southwest via Phoenix leaving at 6:55 AM and arriving at 1:15 PM. Return flight leaves at 7 AM arrives at 30 minutes past midnight!

 

[MsChristy12]

I think your top flight options from West coast to HNL might be these ones: LAX, SFO, SEA. There are plenty of nonstop flights from these airports and I choose them mainly because of the price and schedules/availability.

It depends on which airline you prefer more for this leg. LAX and SFO will have more flight/schedule options mostly with Hawaiian, Delta, United, AA. From SEA, the main carriers to HNL will be Hawaiian, Delta, Alaska. If I were to do this, I would choose an airport that has more options, just in case something happens to my flight (which it happens A LOT these days). The hope is nothing will happen, but you never know.

Alaska has a flight that leaves SEA around 8pm nonstop to HNL, so if you catch first flight out of ATL, you should be able to make it and you won't have to do an overnight stay. But again, that can be risky if your flight at ATL runs into any issues. Personally, an overnight stay gives me peace of mind. Even though it's a bit of hassle and spending extra time/money at a hotel, I don't wanna get stressed out and money down the drain before I even get to my destination!