Update 8/15/19: As part of the schedule extension launched today Southwest has also announced new Hawaii routes. In addition there are flights to/from Hawaii from $99 and Interisland flights from $29. Sacramento is being added as a mainland option and service is also going to Lihue and Hilo (Hilo is only available as interisland for now). Route map now looks as follows:
Update 5/11/19: Southwest has announced that they will start serving Hilo soon.
Big news for the Island of Hawaii! We’re excited to announce that Hilo will be the fifth airport served by Southwest in the Hawaiian Islands.
We’ll let you know when our low fares and interisland flights for Hilo are available for purchase. pic.twitter.com/HkwXSJA9OU
— Southwest Airlines (@SouthwestAir) May 11, 2019
Earlier today we posted that it’s now finally possible to book flights to Hawaii with Southwest Airlines. I thought I’d do a more detailed post and try to answer frequently asked questions. The official Southwest Hawaii page can be found here.
Contents
The Basics
Keep in mind the cheapest fares have already sold out.
- Flights to/from Hawaii start $49 or 1,950 points
- Interisland Hawaii flights start at $28 or 1,379 points. Interisland flights will start from April 28th (HNL to OGG)
- Nonstop service:
- Oakland (OAK) to:
- Oahu (HNL) starts on 3/17/19
- Maui (OGG) starts 4/17/19
- San Jose (SJC) to:
- Oahu (HNL) starts on 5/5/19
- Maui (OGG) starts 5/26/19
- Oakland (OAK) to:
- Early bird check in available from $25
F.A.Q’s
Can the Southwest companion pass be used on Hawaii flights?
Yes it can and people have already successfully booked companion pass tickets.
Final Thoughts
Feel free to ask any questions you have in the comments below. One nice thing about booking via points is that taxes/fees are quite high on Hawaii flights and because of the way it’s priced in points you get better value when this is the case.
Dang..no nonstop from OGG to KOA for the dates I need in Jan. Only via HNL.
Just to clarify – Lihue and Hilo are not islands themselves.
Lihue is the county seat of the island of Kaua
i and Hilo is on the island of Hawaii (aka The Big Island).Let me clarify
Which cities/dates are $99 to Hawaii? Thanks!
> service is also going to the islands of Lihue and Hilo…
For the geographically challenged: Those are not the names of islands. Lihue and Hilo and cities.
Marriott just offered me six nights in Maui if I attended one of their Vacation Club presentations. I’ve sat through worse for less but anyone have particular experience with this one?
Link?
Without regard to if SWN offers a product that you would like to take advantage of. When looking at the fares being offered, have to say that the other carriers in the same market are sighing a big breath of relief at the fares. And just how poorly SWN is executing on this rollout into Hawai’i.
There are likely enough folks who have companion passes and loyalty that it’s okay for a bit. But sometime they are likely to need to make a fare drop. What is being offered is not at all compelling unless you’re a leasiure traveler and get the lowest fare. I get it they have problems with mechanic’s union and can’t get enough of their planes flying. The government shutdown did not help, but they are only 6 months behind schedule and are still not ready to fly to all 4 islands by almost 2.5 more months.
A pretty poor performance compared to what they have been telling people to expect.
Can’t see people paying up for what most of the tickets are going for. High season is going to be here for family’s soon. Still you have a discount airline over the market price right now at least into mid June when school gets out.
Too many other choices in this market. We’re very unimpressed by this start up. I guess Hawai’i is an aggressive move, but for a company as big as they are it seems like they are expecting to have some kind of problems being so timid in how they are adding new flights to this market. When the cheapest tickets are gone the price on one route jumps up to $600 pp ea way.
Without a redemption or companion fare it’s a ticket price that the market will not currently bear IMHO.
I had a lot higher expectations for their debut. What puts me off is that they made no preparations to accommodate cancelled flights. With no codeshare agreements a one day delay in HI on your dime will zero out any fare savings.
Do the inter-island flights offer 2 checked in bags for free as well?
This would be good as HA inter-island flights are always packed with so many carry ons, personal items, and extra personal items.
Without regard to if SWN offers a product that you would like to take advantage of. When looking at the fares being offered, have to say that the other carriers in the same market are sighing a big breath of relief at the fares. And just how poorly SWN is handling the rollout into Hawai’i.
There are likely enough folks who have companion passes and loyalty that it’s okay for a bit. But sometime they are likely to need to make a fare drop. What is being offered is not at all compelling unless you’re a leasiure traveler and get the lowest fare. I get it they have problems with mechanic’s union and can’t get enough of their planes flying. The government shutdown did not help, but they are only 6 months behind schedule and are still not ready to fly to all 4 islands by almost 2.5 more months.
A pretty poor performance compared to what they have been telling people to expect.
Can’t see people paying up for what most of the tickets are going for. High season is going to be here for family’s, But you have a discount airline over the market price right now at least into mid June when school gets out.
Will people have to fly to HNL twice just to get to LIH? Right now that looks to be the plan for KOA. Too many other choices in this market.
I want to take my family over Thanksgiving. Any thoughts of whether future sales would block out that week.? There is some AA award availability and I’m wondering if I should book that now. Thanks.
Pretty upset at myself. I saw the $49/each way price but was headed to the airport…I thought, “I’ll just book it in an hour when I’m on-board and have time to plan dates.” Well, an hour later, everything was sold out. 🙁 So much for being on the first flight to Hawaii.