Matt S NYC
Level 2 Member
I just got back from Hawaii with my wife and I found an interesting trick to save on baggage fees if you are using Hawaiian airlines to fly inter-island and connecting to another airline back to the mainland. We flew from Kona to Honolulu on Hawaiian and then back to NY on United.
If you check in to Hawaiian online, you can upgrade to First for $50. Since my wife and I each had 2 bags (we were scuba diving so we each had a dedicated dive bag), we would have had to pay $35 for the bags ($50 if we weren't Hawaiian FF members.) Instead, I paid the $50 for First class and and got the bags free + upgraded seats, etc. $15 extra net for first class seats, even for a 40 minute flight, seemed like a good deal. What I didn't know was that Hawaiian airlines will check your bags through to the mainland (no need to pay baggage charges on the second carrier) even if you are flying on a different airline. Thus, if you have bags, you can use the $50 Hawaiian upgrade and pay no additional fees to get 2 pieces of luggage per person all the way back to the mainland. If this were not true, someone flying in economy without any free bags from credit cards would have to pay for 2 bags on Hawaiian and then 2 bags on the second carrier, which would approach $100.
This is of limited usefulness unless you have multiple checked bags and are flying economy back to the mainland, but I did think it was cool that there is a way to avoid the second set of bag fees.
If you check in to Hawaiian online, you can upgrade to First for $50. Since my wife and I each had 2 bags (we were scuba diving so we each had a dedicated dive bag), we would have had to pay $35 for the bags ($50 if we weren't Hawaiian FF members.) Instead, I paid the $50 for First class and and got the bags free + upgraded seats, etc. $15 extra net for first class seats, even for a 40 minute flight, seemed like a good deal. What I didn't know was that Hawaiian airlines will check your bags through to the mainland (no need to pay baggage charges on the second carrier) even if you are flying on a different airline. Thus, if you have bags, you can use the $50 Hawaiian upgrade and pay no additional fees to get 2 pieces of luggage per person all the way back to the mainland. If this were not true, someone flying in economy without any free bags from credit cards would have to pay for 2 bags on Hawaiian and then 2 bags on the second carrier, which would approach $100.
This is of limited usefulness unless you have multiple checked bags and are flying economy back to the mainland, but I did think it was cool that there is a way to avoid the second set of bag fees.
