A strong Kona storm, a sort of seasonal cyclone, has been blowing via the Hawaiian Islands this weekend, inflicting flooding, washed-out roads, wind advisories and flight cancellations, and a few islands have been affected greater than others.
Maui bought the brunt of the storm on Saturday, whereas Hawaii Island is because of get heavy showers and winds Sunday-Monday.
This is a information on what to do you probably have a visit deliberate to Hawaii within the coming days.
Is it protected to journey to Hawaii?
When you’ve got a visit deliberate, we advise checking along with your airline and resort for the standing of your reservations. Many vacationers presently in Hawaii are stranded on among the islands a minimum of till Wednesday because of airline cancellations from the weekend (extra on that beneath).
On Maui, flooding within the common city of Kihei washed out roads, as reported by Hawaii Information Now. There are a number of different highway closures on the island as nicely; up to date data is accessible on the Maui County authorities web site.
It seems the storm is transferring south and hovering over the island of Hawaii at this time, with circumstances there anticipated to persist via Monday. The Hawaii Tourism Authority web site listed a storm warning banner urging all guests to test their flight standing.
In brief, whereas it is typically protected to journey in Hawaii in the meanwhile, circumstances differ relying on the island and particular area, so you should definitely keep updated on climate advisories in your space.
Which islands in Hawaii presently have journey advisories?
Relying on the place you might be planning to journey, it’s best to test in on native climate and particular person island climate websites to see if the areas you can be in are presently or will proceed to be impacted.
Maui County has a flood watch in impact till Monday, March 16 at 6:00 a.m. native time as famous on its emergency alert web site. The well-known Highway to Hana on Maui is closed as a result of storm, permitting native visitors solely, with no estimated reopening date given.
Oahu County (the place Honolulu is positioned) famous a wind advisory in impact, however said that climate circumstances have been enhancing.
Farther south on Hawaii Island, the storm remains to be in full pressure with circumstances anticipated to persist into Monday, in line with the Hawaii Division of Emergency Administration and the Climate Channel.
Hawaii Airport delays and cancellations
Thus far on Sunday, March 15, there are a number of delays and cancellations at Hawaiian airports. In response to FlightAware information by airport, at time of publication, these have been the present circumstances at Hawaii’s main airports:
A number of different smaller Hawaiian airports have been additionally impacted.
Airline journey advisories to Hawaii
As of publication, the next airways have been posting journey advisories and versatile change and cancellation insurance policies to the listed airports.
Alaska Airways and Hawaiian Airways
Hawaiian Airways’ journey advisory web page notes the next versatile journey coverage in impact.
Airports: HNL, OGG, LIH, KOA, ITO
Dates: Relevant to tickets bought on or earlier than March 11, 2026, for journey March 11-21, 2026.
You may change your journey with out a price or fare distinction for brand new journey in the identical cabin, or cancel your journey with out a price and obtain funds deposited into your account pockets or obtain a credit score certificates for future journey.
This is applicable to tickets issued by Alaska Airways or Hawaiian Airways, with flights operated by Alaska (AS), Hawaiian (HA), Horizon (QX), or SkyWest (OO)
American Airways
In response to American Airways’ journey advisory web page, the next versatile journey coverage in impact.
Airports: HNL, OGG, KOA
Dates: Tickets booked by March 10 for authentic journey dates of March 12-15. It’s essential to change your journey by March 15 to fly by March 18, and can’t change your origin or vacation spot metropolis. There aren’t any fare variations in case you rebook in your authentic cabin. You can too change your dates to journey inside a 12 months of the unique ticket date, however a fare distinction would possibly apply.
Delta Air Strains
Delta doesn’t presently have a journey advisory in place for Hawaii on its website, although it has cancelled a number of flights to and from KOA on March 15, together with these between KOA and Los Angeles and Seattle.
Southwest Airways
Southwest doesn’t presently have a journey advisory in place for Hawaii.
United Airways
In response to United’s journey advisory web page, the next versatile journey coverage is in impact for Hawaii.
Airports: HNL, KOA, LIH, OGG
Dates: For tickets bought on or earlier than March 11, for journey between March 12-15.
In case your flight is affected, you may reschedule your journey with no change charges or fare variations. However you will need to ebook a brand new United flight departing between March 11-22 and tickets have to be in the identical cabin and between the identical cities as initially booked.
What to do you probably have a resort or trip rental booked in Hawaii
When you’ve got upcoming journey to Hawaii, you would possibly need to contact your resort or trip rental instantly to make sure that its facilities might be open and functioning as typical.
For now, the foremost resort firms together with Hilton, Hyatt, IHG and Marriott, should not have any journey advisories or waivers in place for vacationers with future plans. Nevertheless, you probably have an upcoming journey that you’re having second ideas about, test your reservation to see in case you are nonetheless throughout the eligible cancellation window so you may regulate your plans in line with your consolation degree.
Should you booked a nonrefundable room charge, you are seemingly out of luck in case you do need to change your plans.
As for trip leases with companies like Airbnb, many of those have main disruptive occasions cancellation insurance policies that embrace extreme climate, although you’ll seemingly have to indicate that your plans have been completely thrown off track (i.e., your flights are canceled or your rental might be inaccessible because of highway closures or main utility outages) to be eligible. If the coverage applies to your rental, you may cancel your reservation and obtain a refund or journey credit score with out further charges.
Will your bank card or journey insurance coverage cowl modifications or disruptions?
TPG has a complete information on bank cards that covers journey cancellation and interruption and what journey disruptions would possibly qualify as a pure catastrophe or because of antagonistic circumstances like a serious storm.
Associated: 4 occasions your bank card’s journey insurance coverage may help with journey woes, and seven occasions it will not
The sort of insurance coverage typically covers nonrefundable bills if that you must cancel your journey (or the rest of your journey) because of a pure catastrophe. Nevertheless, bank card insurance coverage insurance policies differ, so test your advantages information for particular exclusions.
And bear in mind, bank card journey insurance coverage solely applies to purchases made on that card, so in case you used a unique fee technique for parts of your journey, you will not be coated for that.
Backside line
When you’ve got a visit to Hawaii deliberate within the subsequent week or so, proactively keep watch over the information and your airline flight standing as some airways have issued journey waivers extending via March 21.
