Mahalo Aloha Airlines for a great trip from Maui to Kauai
Written: Aug 18 '02 (Updated Apr 01 '03)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: On time, great security, pleasant crew.
Cons: Worn seats; no snack to speak of.
The Bottom Line: Efficient, on-time flight with pleasant staff and great security.
|
|
|
| jo.com's Full Review: Aloha Airlines |
We recently went to Hawai’i and flew 2 different airlines between islands. We were there for 3 weeks on 4 different islands. The one I am reviewing now is Aloha.
General Information
There are 3 inter-island airlines: Aloha, Hawaiian and Island Air (Which according to the website is Aloha's sister carrier.) We went in June 2002 and Island Air was the most expensive of the 3. I recently wrote a review on traveling on a budget. We missed an opportunity to save $20. If you use my guide and get The Entertainment Book, you will find a $20 coupon for Aloha airlines. Somehow that coupon escaped us!
We originally booked ourselves from the mainland to Honolulu, Oahu since that is where we were leaving from at the end of the trip. At first it made sense. You start where you finish. Financially, this is not the way to travel if you are going to more than one island for an extended time. If you are island hopping doing day trips, then 7-day passes are available.
Since these airlines charge for what they call legs, you want to avoid as many legs as possible. Booking to and from Oahu would have cost us an extra leg so we flew to Maui first using Aloha Airlines and left from Oahu on Hawaiian Airlines. There was a reason for this. Hawaiian will only give you 2 legs using frequent flyer miles. That is right. If you have American Airline frequent flyer miles you can use them for your Hawaiian flights. I will get into that when I review that airline.
It was cheaper to fly one leg on Aloha. We booked the flight on the phone but checked online as well and the cost was the same. It cost us $55.00 each to go to from Maui to Kauai on Aloha.
Customer Service
We had very little need for customer service but the one time I did call was to confirm our reservations before we left. There was another couple with the same last name as we have and the representative said, “Well, you’ll have friends on board.”
Security
Check in was very easy. There was a line and we were told if we wanted to by pass the line we could have a porter take our luggage and we could go directly to the counter. Not wanting our luggage out of sight we chose to wait in line, but it moved quickly.
I am from Boston and as much as I love my city, it is painful knowing the planes that flew into the World Trade Center came from Logan Airport. Our security was very bad. It still isn’t great. Aloha Airlines had some of the best security I have seen in the last year and I’ve been in many airports.
Aloha has an x-ray machine that all luggage goes through. In addition to that, they have and use (versus have and use only sometimes) a device that detects bomb powder. We were asked to have that done and that went quickly as well. I found that since we were always traveling one way, we were more apt to be pulled over to be checked. Remember that your luggage will go through an x-ray machine and there was a sign advising you to take your cameras from your luggage.
Aloha
Kahului Airport in Maui is a small airport and we only found one place to get a bottle of water, which was in the one newsstand there. The waiting area was very nice with comfortable chairs. Aloha has open seating. They do not give out numbers like Southwest does; it is first-come, first-served. It was a short flight to Maui (about 45 minutes) so where we sat didn’t matter all that much. The plane was a 737 with 3 seats on each side and an aisle down the middle. The seats were a bit worn, but it was clean and the crew was very friendly. (My notes say “clean plane, pleasant staff.)
Unlike other airlines getting exit rows was not a problem at all. That may be because there isn’t that much of a difference in leg room between the exit rows and the regular rows. The exit rows only have 2 seats across so that might appeal to some people. We did sit in exit rows. There were signs on the seats at the exit rows that I had never seen before. They told us that you had to be over 15 years old to sit there; you had to be English speaking and you had to be able to lift 60 pounds.
The food
On some long flights these days not getting food is no surprise but I did expect macadamia nuts! I really thought that would be a nice touch. All we got was either guava juice (mostly sugar) or coffee.
Other information
The bathroom I used was clean. There were no pillows or blankets on board that I saw. There was a nice narrative about the islands of Maui and Kauai. Oftentimes you will have the pilot come on and tell you what is off to your right or in the distance, but this was about a 10 minutes talk on the history of the islands and some of the culture. We landed in Lihue, Kauai and waited only a few minutes for our baggage. It was a very easy, enjoyable flight and airline. The tails on Aloha as well as another Hawaiian airline are painted in colorful designs. The other airline has a woman’s face painted on it.
In summary
I found Aloha Airlines to be an overall pleasant experience. It was right on time, in spite of most of the passengers being checked again before boarding and the crew was friendly. My only recommendation would be to redo the seats for aesthetic reasons and hand out small packs of macadamia nuts.
Make sure you look at their website www.alohaairlines.com. There is great information you will want to know, especially about the security you will encounter.
Feel free to leave me a comment or ask any questions. Other Hawaii reviews you may be interested in:
Traveling to Hawaii on a Budget
The Westin San Francisco Airport Hotel
Aloha Airlines
Garden Gate Bed and Breakfast in Maui
Maui
LahainaTown Maui
Hana Highway in Maui
Haleakala National Park in Maui
Hawaii Volcanoes National Park
Hawaiian Airlines
Puff the Magic Dragon Lived in Kauai
Waimea Canyon on Kauai
Poipou Beach Area, Kauai
Na Pali Coast, Kauai
Hideaway Cove Villa, Kauai
Royal Kona Resort,The Big Island
The Island of Hawaii - The Big Island
Pu'uhonua o Honaunau National Historical Park on the Big Island
Oahu
USS Arizona Memorial on Oahu
DiamondHead State Monument on Oahu
Polynesian Cultural Center,Oahu
Wailua River State Park in Kauai, Hawaii
Interested in other airlines?
Southwest Air
Aloha Airlines
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.