How Hawaii Flight Cuts Could Affect Your Hawaii Travel Plans

Are you flying to Hawaii in the next few months and worried the FAA's flight cuts could derail your trip?

With the government shutdown entering day 36 and 10% of flights being eliminated at 40 major airports starting today, Hawaii travelers face a uniquely tough situation because every West Coast hub feeding the islands is being cut.

👉 Hit play now to get the exact steps you need to take in the next 24 hours to protect your booking before rebooking becomes a nightmare.

If you've ever wondered how to prepare for major travel disruptions without losing money or getting stranded, this episode is for you.

You'll learn which airlines are waiving fees, why your travel insurance probably won't help, and what to do right now to position yourself for success.

In this episode of Hawaii's Best Travel, we break down how the FAA's phased flight cuts are impacting travel to and between the islands so you can make informed decisions about your trip.

👉 In this episode, you will:

• Discover which specific airlines are offering full refunds even on non-refundable tickets and how to take advantage of those policies before they change
• Learn why standard travel insurance won't cover government shutdowns and what type of coverage actually works if purchased within the right timeframe
• Get a clear action plan for what to do today, from enabling app notifications to deciding whether to reschedule or prepare for longer airport wait times

_
Scroll up ⬆️ and hit play now to protect your Hawaii trip before the cuts reach 10% next week.

💻Related blog posts:

• FAA Flights Cuts in Hawaii

_

🤓Chapters:

• 00:47 FAA's 10% Flight Cuts Explained
• 1:24 Government Shutdown and Its Effects
• 2:39 Impact on Hawaii's Air Travel
• 3:01 West Coast Hubs and Inner Island Travel
• 4:04 Airlines' Response to Flight Cuts
• 4:35 Travel Tips During Flight Reductions
• 7:28 Importance of Travel Insurance
• 8:45 Final Recommendations

_

👉Get Your Custom Hawaii Trip Plan

📲Connect

• Facebook Group
• Advertise Your Business (Podcast Sponsor Inquiry)

_
This Hawaii travel podcast is for travelers looking to plan a trip to Hawaii. Discover travel tips, itineraries, and traveling tips & hacks with guides to help you explore Hawaii. Whether you’re planning a Hawaii vacation to the islands, dreaming of a Hawaiian getaway, or visiting Honolulu, Maui, Kauai, Oahu, or Big Island we’ll help you travel with aloha.

Edge of the Ocean, Stick Figure (w/ permission)
Ukulele and Chill, Coby G (w/ permission)
Talk Story, Hawaiian Style Band (w/ permission)

Chapters

• 0:47 FAA's 10% Flight Cuts Explained
• 1:24 Government Shutdown and Its Effects
• 2:39 Impact on Hawaii's Air Travel
• 3:01 West Coast Hubs and Inter-Island Travel
• 4:04 Airlines' Response to Flight Cuts
• 4:35 Travel Tips During Flight Reductions
• 7:28 Importance of Travel Insurance
• 8:45 Final Recommendations

Transcript

192_Aloha Friday-How FAA Flight Cuts Could Change Your Hawaii Travel Plans

[00:00:00] Bryan Murphy: Major news coming out of the travel industry and how that affects Hawaii travel, especially this holiday season. In this episode, we're gonna be talking about how the FA a's 10% flight cuts that go into effect today, November 7th, are impacting flights to Hawaii in between the islands. We'll talk about the steps you can take now that you can help position yourself to know what to do if your flight does get canceled and.

[00:00:22] Bryan Murphy: Actually, I just booked my family's flights last week for a trip in two months, so I, I'm starting to strategize what we're gonna do, but it's gonna all work out because today it's still aloha Friday.

[00:00:47] Bryan Murphy: So if you're planning a trip to Hawaii right now, or you're a resident traveling between islands, the deal is the Federal Aviation Administration or the FAA started cutting flight capacity today, Friday, November 7th at 40 of the nation's busiest airport. It's not a small cut. It's 10% of flights, so that's roughly 3,500 to 4,000 flights eliminated every single day across the country.

[00:01:14] Bryan Murphy: Now, why is it happening? Why now? Well, I mean, we're staring down the holiday season right now. Halloween is over and Thanksgiving's gonna be here before we know it. But it all goes back to the government shutdown yesterday, Mark Day 36, making it the longest shutdown in US history. You've got about 11,000 air traffic controllers who've been working without pay since October 1st.

[00:01:40] Bryan Murphy: And on top of all that, the FAA is already short, about 3,500 controllers from where they need to be to operate at full capacity. So to sum that up, controllers are picking up side jobs just to pay bills. And the FAA is seeing reports of fatigue and stress, which obviously is something that you don't want in the FAA or the traffic controllers.

[00:02:02] Bryan Murphy: The cuts are gonna be phased in. So today it's 4%. Tomorrow 5%, so it goes pretty quick, and then Sunday 6%, and then it hits the full 10% by next week, and it stays there until the shutdown ends, hopefully sooner rather than later. The FAA administrator. Brian Bedford, which is kind of cool because he spells his name with a Y like I do.

[00:02:25] Bryan Murphy: But anyways, he's been in the aviation service for 35 years and he says he's never seen anything like this. His quote was, we're in new territory with this. And you know, when someone with that much experience and who has seen a lot, that's pretty serious. So, but here's the thing about Hawaii and Hawaii travel in general.

[00:02:43] Bryan Murphy: The islands are almost entirely dependent on air travel. I mean, you got a few cruises just about every visitor arrives by plane and Honolulu Airport. Daniel K in Oe Airport is on the list of 40 airports to see cuts. But honestly, that's not really the. Biggest problem. The real issue is what's happening on the continent.

[00:03:01] Bryan Murphy: All major West Coast hubs that feed into Hawaii are being cut. So you got la, San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, Oakland, San Diego, every single one of them are gonna see these percentage of cuts. So like when LAX cuts 10% of its flights, you're talking about hundreds of seats to Hawaii disappearing every day.

[00:03:20] Bryan Murphy: And when you multiply that across all those airports, you can see why it's such an important topic for. Travel to Hawaii, and it's not just about getting to Hawaii, you're talking about also inner island travel is already being affected. Alaska and Hawaiian Airlines have already canceled four inner island flights today, so that's a round trip between Honolulu and Maui.

[00:03:42] Bryan Murphy: In a round trip between Honolulu and Kona, they're still running 20 Honolulu, Maui round trips and 15 Honolulu Kona round trips daily. So it's not like everything is being shut down, but you can see how quickly that this is starting to impact the islands. I mean, they run every, like, feels like every half hour like a bus.

[00:04:00] Bryan Murphy: They're running these inner island flights. So, but that is impacting travel. And to talk a little bit about the specific airlines. So Southwest, they use the same planes actually for mainland. To Hawaii and inter island flights. So if mainland service gets cut, inter island capacity shrinks with Southwest and Hawaiian Airlines has the same challenge.

[00:04:19] Bryan Murphy: Now don't even get me started about what it was like booking our recent flight. Maybe I'll see that for another episode. Anyway, these airlines, their inner island schedules, they depend on connecting passengers from mainland flights. So one delay or one cancellation, and it creates a domino effect across the islands.

[00:04:35] Bryan Murphy: So all that to say, what does it mean if you're traveling? So three things. I kind of boil it down to three things I think is important to note first, airfares are more than likely gonna rise honestly, especially for holiday season. But in light of this announcement, there's just gonna be fewer flights.

[00:04:52] Bryan Murphy: The demand is gonna be higher, you know, three weeks before Thanksgiving peak travel, and suddenly there's way fewer seats. So supply and demand. Second, if your flight does get canceled. Rebooking is gonna be pretty tough. Probably. You're competing with thousands of other passengers for limited seats, so some people are gonna be stranded for a couple hours at best, and then a day or two at worst and third, 60% of Americans have already reconsidered their travel plans.

[00:05:22] Bryan Murphy: That's really uncertain how things are right now as far as air travel goes. So if you do have a trip booked, and especially in the next couple months, what can you actually do? First thing is download your airlines app if you haven't already, enable every notification. For example, one thing that I've always been good at is using the Hawaiian Airlines app, and when I booked this last time, there was already a flight change to our Honolulu to Long Beach.

[00:05:47] Bryan Murphy: And I happened just to see it like buried in an email. So those notifications, at least for me, weren't working. So I'm not sure how the system works yet, but I need to go through it and figure it out. And then I'll probably give it to you in a couple months after our our trip. But anyway, do you want to enable push notifications, texts, all the good stuff, and make sure your contact info is current on your reservation?

[00:06:10] Bryan Murphy: That's how you're gonna get the fastest updates about any cancellations, rebooking. And second, be as flexible as you can. I know that's, uh, that's hard advice because we're looking at our dates and we're like, we're not gonna be flexible because that's just when we can go. But if you can, you know, consider rescheduling or just be aware that things could get kind of bumpy in the next couple months.

[00:06:34] Bryan Murphy: Hopefully this all gets resolved in the next couple weeks or so, but. United Delta, American, Southwest, Alaska, Hawaiian, they're all waiving change fees and offering refunds from what I've been able to gather. But you want to just double confirm that and do some of your own research on that for who you book with and the type of ticket you're booking and all that good stuff.

[00:06:56] Bryan Murphy: Third, if you're gonna travel, you're gonna do it just. Be prepared because I haven't even talked about the airports yet. Get to the airport early. You wanna, if you can, I think I've said it in my past couple episodes. My goal for our next trip is to pack carry on only, and especially in light of all this, this is kind of the push to actually do that because I think check bags is gonna be tough.

[00:07:17] Bryan Murphy: Getting through TSA is gonna be tough and longer than normal. So just get there early. I know right now it's recommended for like, you know, two hours is kind of the standard. Maybe plan for three hours to get there. The next tip is, um, it's really important travel insurance, but here's the deal with that.

[00:07:34] Bryan Murphy: Standard trip insurance policies will not cover government shutdowns or FAA mandated flight cuts. Once the shutdown was announced, it became what they call a known issue. From what I gather, standard policies won't help you with that. The only coverage that might work is cancel for any reason or CFAR, but you've gotta buy CFAR within 14 to 21 days of your first trip payment.

[00:08:00] Bryan Murphy: And even then, it only reimburses up to, I think it's 75% of non-refundable costs if you cancel at least 48 hours before departure. If you've already bought standard trip insurance before the FAA announcement, call your provider, ask if your policy covers government related disruptions. But honestly, it doesn't seem like it does.

[00:08:19] Bryan Murphy: And like I mentioned, I bought travel insurance for the very first time. I don't know why. I just had that feeling like, ah, maybe I should buy it this time. After, you know, 20 plus years and 30 however many trips. But I'm not even sure if that's really gonna matter in this situation, but I'm just praying and hoping that, uh, for my family's sake, but for your sake as well, if you're traveling soon, that this all gets resolved, uh, rather quickly.

[00:08:42] Bryan Murphy: And the final thing I'll just leave us all with is. Have patience and be as kind as possible to airline employees. I mean, I can't imagine this has gotta be tough for them as well. They didn't cause this. They're dealing with the same stress, probably more than most of us are. And you know, kindness really does go a long way showing that aloha wherever you go.

[00:09:04] Bryan Murphy: So that's kind of the blowdown, everything that's going on. The cut start 4% today. They hit 10% by next week, and they stay there until the shutdown ends. Hopefully the shutdown ends on Monday. That'd be awesome. Check your airlines policies, update your contact info, have a backup plan, and I've got a full article where I go into more details and updates linked in the show notes below if you want to go deeper on this and do some of your own research.

[00:09:28] Bryan Murphy: But Hawaii is still there. It's still Aloha Friday, it's still paradise. Get in there. Might just take a little bit more patience right now. So until next time. As always, live with Aloha Mahala for listening to this episode of Hawaii's. Best to stay up to date on future episodes. Hit follow on your podcast app.

[00:10:00] Bryan Murphy: Been working so hard.