Oh boy! I’ve been working on this trip report for nearly a year now! Alas, it’s time to wrap it up with a review of my flight home: Southwest 851 Hilo to Honolulu.
Since I made a similar review not long ago, I’ll keep this one fairly brief. After all, not much would’ve changed from August 2022 to May 2023. Hilo Airport, while better than Kona Airport, still isn’t good. Also, like last time, Hawaiian’s jets were still breaking down in Hilo, causing them to fly an A321neo to pick up the slack.
Any way, given the chaos of our rental car experience, we headed back to Hilo from Hawaii Volcanoes National Park a bit earlier than I would normally have. I covered how things went during the return in my overall rental car review, but it was a bit of a pain. Not as bad as our pick up, but definitely not as smooth as with Alamo or National. I have to remember to avoid Avis/Budget/Dollar as much as possible.
TSA was busy again, but moved fairly quickly. The main waiting hall was more crowded than last time, and it seemed like people had less manners, too, though the mix skewed more out-of-state visitors than locals tis time around. Look, just because you’re on vacation doesn’t mean you need to be obnoxious, ok? This especially goes to the half-dozen ladies that decided to occupy the space immediately in front of us.
Having an inkling they’d be on our flight, Mrs. Island Miler and I headed up to the boarding area a bit earlier – about 20 minutes prior to the call time. Sure, it’s hot up there, but, man, it’s a good thing we did. I don’t know what it was, but as the initial announcement to begin making your way over there was made, people RUSHED the area. Our friends from downstairs even tried to jump into the A group, but was shooed away by the gate agents when they discovered they were in C.
And that brings us to the of Southwest 851 Hilo to Honolulu’s boarding process!
Southwest 851 Hilo to Honolulu Boarding Process
It wasn’t just our friends that tried to jump the line – many people did. Some of it was probably out of confusion, though. For example, there were a lot of (seemingly) Korean nationals on our flight, and they were so lost. I’m sure the language barrier didn’t help, either. Regardless, the gate agents did a good job keeping everyone in line,
At any rate, the pre-boarding call for Southwest 851 Hilo to Honolulu was made at 5:47 pm, just a couple minutes behind schedule. Group A followed a minute later.
Despite our flight being absolutely filled, and the chaos of people trying to find places to stow their carry-ons and try to remain seated in their groups, boarding wrapped up relatively quickly and the door was closed at 6:10 pm.
While I still prefer assigned seats, this would certainly suggest that open seating is faster than assigned seating.
Aircraft
On this day, our flight was being operated by N8780Q – a Boeing 737 MAX 8. This particular was delivered on July 12, 2022, making her just under a year old during this particular flight.
Say what you will about these birds, but they’re very quiet – especially up front. Yes, A320s are quiet, too, but 737s in general don’t have that weird “dog barking” hydraulic pump noise the little tend to have.
Southwest 851 Hilo to Honolulu Departure
Our crew on Southwest 851 Hilo to Honolulu was outstanding. Not only were they extremely efficient, but they were fun, too. Our purser made the more seasoned travelers laugh during her announcement, especially as she doled out warnings about behaving poorly (not necessarily fighting, by the way, more just not listening to the crew and doing things you aren’t supposed to in general).
Speaking of efficiency, we began pushing back one minute after the door closed, a full four minutes ahead of our scheduled departure time. We did have to hold near the terminal for a bit, but eventually made it to Runway 8 at 6:19 pm and immediately began our takeoff roll.
It was a lovely evening flying out of Hilo. Per the usual, we rocketed off towards the east out over the Pacific before banking left back towards Hilo.
Flying back past Hilo Airport, we then made our way back up the Hamakua Coast, retracing the path our inbound flight took.
When we reached Mauana Kea, we then made a turn westward and began flying over the Big Island.
Despite being May, patches of snow were still visible atop Mauna Kea.
Eventually, we made out way over the island, heading back out over the Pacific somewhere around Kawaihae – slightly further south than our approach into Hilo, which went around Hawi.
Southwest 851 Hilo to Honolulu Service
Since the Honolulu-Hilo route meets Southwest’s minimum threshold for service, full beverage service was on offer, along with little bags of snack mix. Interestingly, our flight crew came around to take drink orders, then served them up.
Southwest 851 Hilo to Honolulu Arrival
As is typical of intra-Hawaii flying, we began our initial descent at 6:35 pm – soon after reaching our cruising altitude. Descent into Honolulu is a long affair, as you have to fly well past the airport to line-up with the arrival runways (during normal wind conditions), and about 10 minutes into our initial descent, things began to get a bit choppy.
At 6:47 pm, just a minute before we began our final descent into Honolulu, our crew came around to collect trash. Interestingly, we stayed well off-shore for our approach, but that’s probably because we were using 4R instead of 8L.
Shortly before touchdown, we glided over a Hawaiian Air Boeing 717 holding on 8R, followed by an Amazon Boeing 767.
We touched down at 6:59 pm and quickly made our way over the the bustling Central Concourse. This was also the last time I got to see Alaska’s gorgeous More to Love livery in person!
As we made our way back, we made our way over the newly redone Runway 8L.
We eased into our gate a full seven minutes ahead of schedule at 6:03 pm. Three minutes later, the cabin door was opened and we began filing out.
Luckily, baggage service was quick on this day, and we secured our bag at 6:22 pm. That’s quick enough to qualify under Alaska’s and Delta’s 20-minute guarantees!
Final Thoughts
What can I say? I got lucky this time around and had two relatively timely (our Hawaiian flight was a tiny bit late, and our Southwest flight arrived early) that were mostly without incident. Sure, the overall experience on Southwest isn’t as nice as it can be on Hawaiian, but I love that they have a sense of humor, and really do enjoy their snack mix. I do also like the larger, more comfortable MAX 8, even though the 717 holds a special place in my heart.
If any thing, this trip served to solidify my decision to stick with Southwest for inter-island travel – at least for now. This may change if Alaska’s acquisition of Hawaiian closes, but we’ll see.
Big Island Bird-Watching
- Introduction
- Hawaiian Airlines 212 Honolulu to Hilo
- Avis Car Rental Hilo
- Big Island Chocolate Adventure
- Grand Naniloa Hotel – a DoubleTree by Hilton
- Na’au Hilo Round 2
- Revisit Hawaii Volcanoes National Park
- Kusano Sushi
- Atebara’s Famous Chips
- Ken’s House of Pancakes
- Southwest 851 Hilo to Honolulu