Review of Hawaiian Airlines flight from Lihue to Honolulu in Domestic First

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Lihue LIH - Airport

After 10 wonderful days in Kaua'i, that took the #1 ranking in our Hawaiian Islands Top, it is already time to go back home. I selected the first morning flight since this was the only one that connected with the 767 flight (and lie flat seats) to LAX as codeshare. For that, we needed to drop off the car at …05AM

The check in was done in a matter of minutes:

TSA was a breeze, we had been selected for TSA-pre, no need to remove anything from the bags. A good thing.

The terminal is looking a bit sad, early morning flight, not too much activity and … return from vacation.

Most of the terminal is open air, apart from the boarding gates:

There is a Premier Lounge, we decided to quickly have a look at it:

Self scan to enter:

And … this is the lounge:

Small, very small, but cosy.

About drinks, it is exactly what you would expect from a HA inter-island lounge.

And the same for the snacks:

We took three coffees to go and went to the boarding gate since it was freezing cold in the lounge.
The boarding screens show nice pictures of the islands:

Boarding counter:

The gate:

Our plane was due to land at 05:55 and go back to HNL at 06:23. Really short turn around time for HA.

As hotels are all super expensive in Hawaii, HA has no scheduled overnights planned for their crews. All first inbound flights to HNL leave HNL at around 5 AM to be able to do the first 6A flight to HNL. It is almost the same for the crews doing rotations to the US west cost. They do turnarounds and their shifts are somewhere between 12 and 14H

Here our plane that just landed from HNL:

the flight

Once the passengers have disembarked, our boarding is launched three minutes after. It would be a light load that morning with only 32 passengers on board.

The 717 main door:

The cabin:

No outside pictures it was still pitch dark:

Safety Card:

Seat pitch:

Flight time was 11 minutes, we were offered coffee, tea or water together with Biscoff cookies.

HNL in sight:

HA MRO:

And a nice B717 line up:

Our plane a last time:

And we arrived a bit ahead of schedule:

BONUS KAUA'I

Kaui'a is a fascinating island, we loved it so much. Here the Kilauea lighthouse:

Lots of wind and very high surf:

Closer to the lighthouse:

That lighthouse saved the life of the first aviators that flew from the Western US cost to Hawaii. They were supposed to land in Oah'u at dusk but overshoot the island and if they hadn't seen the light of the lighthouse, they would have also overshoot Kaua'i and crashed into the Pacific.

We then went to Secret Beach that is all but secret, and frankly speaking, not worth a visit there is much better to do:

Anini Beach, that gets less exposure on tourist guides, a bit more north, was much better. Cristal clear water, a wonderful lagoon, we loved it:

Kauai is the island that gets the most rain, no wonder she is called the garden island. We had rain every day during our 10 days vacation but the key is "move around". There is always rain somewhere on the island but there is also always sun somewhere. Just go and look for it.

Speaking about the rain, here Hanalei Valley, under it. A next bonus will show it under the sun :)

This is Wainiha further North:

Here we are almost at the northernmost point of the island:

Maininiholo cave:

Amazing:

Haena Beach Park:

At the far end of route 560 Haena Beach. After that beach it is the Napali Coast that has absolutely no roads on it. You can only see it from the water or from above.

One of the one way bridge north of the Island: