After a hurried run through the Big Island thanks to losing a day from our previous fiasco getting to Hawaiʻi, I was hopeful the rest of the trip would go smoothly. It did not start off that way when I went to check in for our flight from Hilo to Kahului for the second part of the trip.

After pulling up the app, I was greeted by a message saying our reservations had been canceled. Crap.

My first thought was that the agent screwed up yet again when we didn’t take the first flights after that 14-hour delay, so everything had been auto-canceled. But before I jumped to conclusions, I picked up the phone. I decided not to call Hawaiian at all and instead called Alaska to get some help this time.

A Boise-based agent answered and told me that everything looked fine on his end. That was a relief, but… what was going on with the app? After he investigated, he said it was because the original Hawaiian agent had done something she was not supposed to do. (SHOCK!) She refunded our original coupons before the trip was finished, and somehow the app interpreted this as our itinerary having been canceled.

Let’s forget about how stupid this is for the app to work this way. What really bugged me was when he said that this meant we’d have to see an agent at the airport to check in. No kiosks. An agent. Ugh. But then, I decided I didn’t trust anything, so I went on the website. Sure enough it let me check in. The app? It absolutely wouldn’t even admit these reservations existed, but the website worked. Alaska’s technology really is… something.

The next morning we were off early to get to the airport, and that’s when I discovered that traffic in Hilo can get very, very bad. Google Maps didn’t seem to know what to make of it, and our arrival time kept climbing and climbing and climbing. We had to skip the gas station visit and swallow the sky-high prices from the rental car agency. We weren’t worried about missing our flight, but we were worried that our eventual ETA of 7:39am was going to give us six minutes to get those checked bags tagged.

Fortunately, the rental car drop in Hilo is right across from the terminal. So, I pulled in, and the family jumped out to run across and get the bags tagged. I joined them shortly after, and only then could we all take a deep breath.

We walked through the empty security line which offered only TSA Precheck-light where you get the piece of paper giving you permission to go through the metal detector. On the other side, we found one of my favorite, relaxing airport terminals. It just feels so welcoming with those chairs and couches.

To get to the gates, you have to head upstairs where it is decidedly less spacious.

We found a couple spots to sit, and they called for boarding. I’m not sure why, but I was in B and everyone else in my family was in C. You’d think people in the same reservation would at least be put together, but I guess that’s not how it works. The agents said we should just board in B, so we did… until we got to the end of the jet bridge. That’s when my daughter panicked, saying she had forgotten her suitcase in the waiting area.

A quick swim upstream and one of the agents offered to go get it for her. He brought it over (along with her sweatshirt, oy vey), and then we could go back down to the airplane.

Hawaiian 1019
August 5, 2026

They seem to be trying to set a record for the number of stickers on the side of these airplanes.

Onboard, the flight attendants were cheerful even though we had been a bit late to start boarding. The relatively light load made it easy to finish up on time, and then we were off.

They taxi these airplanes like they work for Southwest. We headed over to the end of runway 26 for a westbound departure, which seems like it’s probably rare since it goes against the tradewinds. We made a right turn to give enough room between us and the clouds gathering around Maunakea.

Soon after, the flight attendants sprang into action. Naturally, I had a cup of POG juice which is just the right amount of that sweet beverage. Others had coffee.

We hit a cruising altitude of 12,000 feet which was remarkable since that meant we stayed a couple thousand feet lower than when we were at Maunakea’s summit the night before.

After a short crossing of the Alenuihaha Channel, we were descending into Maui. Sitting on the left side, we had a stunning view of Kahoʻolawe, the island formerly used for military ordnance testing which remains off limits. Then it was a straight shot into Kahului.

Despite the check-in hiccups, everything else went well. It would be one week of finally being able to relax before heading back home.

The day before it was time to go home, I went online to check in since the app still wasn’t going to work. I got us checked in, put the boarding passes in my Google Wallet, and then hoped for a 14-hour delay like on the way out. I’m only half-kidding, since a really lengthy delay would give me one more night before heading home. It did not materialize.

We dropped off the rental car, and then took the silly train to the terminal instead of what the airport itself says is a 3 minute walk. I find just about everything about this little train to be annoying. We waited for 3 minutes just for it to take us.

Once we crossed the curbs, we put our checked bags into the machines to make sure we weren’t sneaking anything agricultural off the island. Then we went to print out our bag tags and drop the bags off. Lines were short, so we were at security quickly.

The brand new, giant checkpoint at the south end of the terminal is well underway (and will further make the silly rental car train useless), so eventually security will be better.

But for now, it was just a long line that moved fast through the checkpoint.

Up top, we headed toward the gate. Except for a new outdoor area to sit, the entire southern end of the concourse has now been enclosed, and there is air conditioning throughout, which is very welcome. In addition, there is one brand new gate 7.

That looks nothing like the other gates.

They started to board on time, but there was some difficulty since Southwest’s boarding announcements could be heard in our gate area. There were a lot of people walking up to say, “they called groups 1 and 2, but I’m in group C, so when do I board?” The agents made more than one announcement telling everyone this was a different airline. Eventually, we all got onboard.

Hawaiian 972
August 12, 2026

We found our preferred (but not Premium) seats and settled in. I still like the cloth seating. It feels much more comfortable to me.

Boarding finished up a few minutes early, and that’s when the cold war with my seatmate began. My son was in the window, so I got the middle. Next to me was an older woman who kept putting her arm on my armrest. Normally, I don’t really care that much. There was room for both of us. But the armrest was loose, and she moved a lot. So every time she would move, it would shake me. That wasn’t pleasant. (I reported the loose armrest, so they could write it up.)

This is the first time I’ve heard a pilot announce on pushback, “flight attendants, this is going to be a quick taxi so take your seats.” And indeed, it was. We climbed around some clouds and then it was mostly smooth. Despite that, the pilots kept the seatbelt sign on for more than an hour, probably to keep the aisles clear for service.

The flight attendants came through with a drink service and a bag of Maui chips for all. Then, after a few more minutes, they came through with the meals. I loved my corned beef hash from Chef Sheldon last month, but this was the moment of truth

I had ordered the vaunted Mochiko chicken. When I was on Maui, we went to Tiffany’s which is a restaurant Chef Sheldon took over, and I had an incredible crispy chicken.

But doing something like that at altitude? That’s impossible.

To solve the issue of the chicken not being crunchy when reheated, Chef Sheldon came up with the idea of putting a little spice/crunch packet in the meal which you pour on the chicken which in turn sits on a bed of noodles. There are no instructions, so be warned. (My wife put it on the mac salad.)

So how was it? It was good. It wasn’t an absolute rave like the corned beef hash, but maybe my expectations were too high. The whole family said they liked it though, and that never happens. So I’ll take that as a win.

The real test for me, however, was the mac salad. I love a Hawaiian mac so much, and this one… didn’t do it for me. It was a good consistency and all that, but the flavor just wasn’t there. It seemed really bland, which is a problem for all food at altitude. Bummer.

I had set up my phone in the device holder, so I could stream the end of the Diamondbacks game. (We lost the series to the Rockies? Come on….) It took awhile for the trash to be picked up, but once that happened, I broke out my computer.

About five minutes later, the guy in front of me reclined. This was very cramped. I had my water in the tray table cupholder, so my computer was skewed to the left. The screen was bent forward when the seat reclined, and my t-rex arms came out. Don’t forget the armrest that would shake when the woman next to me moved. It wasn’t great, but hey, that’s coach.

To make things even more annoying, the woman on the aisle asked us to close the window shade. We would do no such thing, but we did lower it a bit to get the direct sun off. She seemed satisfied.

The flight attendants came through with the chocolate-covered macadamia nut “sweet treat” about 50 minutes before arrival. Unfortunately, they didn’t bring through any more water. We only had one water service in the middle of the flight.

At the top of descent, the pilots came on and again said something else I’d never heard. They asked us to get off the airplane quickly when we landed, so they could get to their hotel since they had an early morning the next day. That seemed odd since we were landing just a couple minutes late. (And yes, the flight went on time the next day.)

We had a very nice descent in as the sun set quickly behind us, the lights of Long Beach growing closer by the minute.

It was a routine landing and quick taxi to the gate. But by the time we got off the airplane, we saw this.

I had initially thought something must have gone wrong, but they do scheduled maintenance in Long Beach, so maybe they were just eager to move fast. Or maybe something was wrong and they were quick on the draw.

Either way, we grabbed our bags and then it was a 10 minute Lyft home. Remind me why I fly out of LAX again?