Honolulu Airport

✅ Verified Review | This entire Airport needs a face lift, bathrooms are in very poor conditions, majority of electrical outlets do not function, some are held together with tie wrap. For the amount of visitors that travel through this airport, this airport should be Primo.

Honolulu is possibly the worst major United States airport. Because it is a major entry point for foreigners visiting the USA, it is an embarrassment, not only to Hawaii but to the country. The airport is massive and sprawling, yet poorly signed. Connecting from inter-island to a mainland flight requires walking down many confusing aisles and escalators and then waiting for a shuttle. We left from Gate 8. The sevices consisted of a shop selling heated-up frozen pizzas and an overwhelmed Quiznos. This, in an airport where every flight is hours long. The bathrooms were so filthy as to be septic - and in poor repair. The public areas are dimly lit and the check-in (united) was a joke. The lines to board crossed the lines of those seeking assistance. Chaos is the only descriptor that fits.

A stressful transit experience. Queues extremely long that did not appear to be moving. Unhelpful Hawaiian Airlines ground staff, some were abrupt and rude. With totally inadequate signage we were forced to ask for help and the response from staff added to the stress. We ran between queues. Two and a half hours should be enough time to change connecting flights - not in Honolulu. We had no time for a drink or toilet stop.

I have no desire to return to Hawaii at this point, this having been my fourth trip there. The TSA pre-check which I was assigned was a total joke. They were merging regular passengers with pre-checked ones which made the line go slow and negated the whole purpose of pre-check. I complained and a not so pleasant exchanged ensued with other passengers backing me. Also American Airlines had no curbside bag check after I stood in line for 15 minutes was rudely told by a Delta employee they couldn't help me. Also all of the televisions in the airport play sports, not one had the news on so I couldn't watch the primaries that day. I read all the other comments and agree with the observations. Like I said, it'll be a long long time if ever I have any desire to return to Hawaii.

This is the most poorly designed airport in the US. It's definitely showing its age. There is only one moving sidewalk from the Hawaiian terminal so you have to walk from one end of the terminal to the other which can amount to more than a half mile. Ridiculous. Everything in the airport looks weathered and worn. It definitely needs to be brought into the 21st Century.

We flew from Auckland to San Jose with a transfer in Honolulu. What a nightmare. Because we rode in the front of the plane, there was minimal wait getting through customs and, for once, we had the good fortune to be interviewed by a human TSA agent. After you collect your bags from the carousel, you have to stand in line again to run all your checked and carry-on baggage through an x-ray machine. They're searching for biological items that could disrupt Hawaii's agricultural balance. Upon exiting x-ray, you hand over your checked luggage, and all the in-transit passengers are directed to a specific exit. Once outside the exit, you have no idea where to go. There are no signs. We asked an airport employee outside, who acted like we greatly inconvenienced her with our question. She waved us off toward another building, and we dodged busy vehicle traffic to cross a road, dragging our bags. Upon arriving at the second building's entrance, we rode an escalator up to the second floor to go through security screening again, in order to board our connecting flight. We were then told that we had to exit the building and re-enter through another door to get to security. Brilliant logistics, whoever planned that mess. So we went outside, walked down to the next door, went back in and breezed through security due to our TSA pre-check status. After security, we inquired where to find the Business Class Lounge and were told that it was in the other building. So to use the lounge, we'd have had to retrace all our steps, undergo security screening in the other building, only to return two hours later to undergo security screening a third time before boarding our flight. Again brilliant planning. While standing in line to board our flight, an extremely arrogant Hawaiian Air employee showed up and began to bark orders about the size of carry-on bags. When a woman near us had the audacity to answer that her carry-on bag had accompanied her thus far, so she knew it fit, he grabbed it and measured it, and declared that it didn't fit. We could all see that it did indeed fit into the metal measuring standard at the gate, but he grabbed it from her, tagged it, ordered her to take any medications out of it, and sent it off to be loaded under the plane. He did the same to her husband. Then he directed his attention at Hubby and me, and I showed him our first class tickets. He retreated, though my carry-on was obviously wider than theirs, and went on to harass other poor souls flying economy class. It's evident that this old airport was thrown together hodgepodge and there was absolutely no planning for passenger convenience or ease of access. I am utterly disgusted with Hawaiian Airlines airport staff at Honolulu.

Arrived at HNL after flight was delayed for 3 hours. Gave up waiting for my wheelchair to be returned to me at the gate. Made my own way to baggage claim with my wife's help. Lots of building work so it was very confusing to navigate. Finally arrived at baggage reclaim to find all of my fellow travellers still there. Only 2 baggage handlers on duty apparently. Finally managed to collect our cases with the assistance of another passenger. Asked one man where my wheelchair would arrive. He smiled and said, "don't know" and that was it. We got it back shortly afterwards. Finally made it to the car rental shuttle bus to take us to the new car hire building. The airport looked like a building site and a poorly organised one at that. Insufficient staff and signage available to help able bodied and disabled passengers alike. It was also deserted, something that I did not expect for an international airport. It took me 20 minutes, with assistance, to get off the plane, get luggage and clear immigration / customs at LAX. It took me an hour just to find baggage claim and get my luggage at HNL. Not acceptable.

Having traveled to and through Honolulu quite a lot over the past two years, I have to agree that it is an older and sometimes chaotic airport but I always found it tolerable and somewhat charming in a tropical sort of way until now (arrival, taxis etc are another matter). Traveling from here to the other islands has sometimes been unpredictable but I have had no real complaints. But now (2015) the usual difficulties of traveling out of Honolulu have been compounded by construction. Problems include crammed lines at agriculture security, no one to deal with priority customers (in my case American Airlines), a long walk and terrible mash up of a line up at the non TSA checkpoint (curiously my line this time around - June - was almost all females with children), one line for everyone, no faster lane as in almost all medium sized or large airports. I am sorry for older folks or folks with disabilities who might have to contend with this. There is one positive thing at HNL and that is that I have always found the Security staff to be polite and usually cheery. That makes the airport experience more tolerable.

I transited HNL twice on my way from San Francisco to Auckland recently and wished I hadn't. On my outbound trip after I got off my flight from SF I searched for information about where my connecting gate was. There was simply none to be had the first screens I found were blank then there were some "arrivals" screens (not very helpful in the departures area). I walked halfway down the terminal to baggage claim in the heat since there was no continuous air-conditioned walkway and the first "departures" screen I found only had about one hour's worth of flights on it; mine was still two hours away. Just then I heard a loudspeaker announcement saying it would depart from the gate right next to the one from which I had just disembarked. The return trip was not much better there was a similar lack of information compounded by the need to go through customs and immigration. It became clear that HNL was never meant as an international transit point - the path of travel was chaotic (up stairs down stairs through various inside and outside corridors to end up close to where I had started in the first place) and the personnel surly. Not much aloha here. It's also worth mentioning that the terminal has birds flying around it to such an extent that some of the seats in the departure lounge had bird poop on them.

It is an old and open-air airport and I imagine it is not like any other you have flown through. It could be larger especially the airport lounges (and they could be closer to the gates). That said it is easy to navigate there are enough shops around the gates though there could be more food options. The gate areas are small and far from the main terminal where security is located. It could do with a massive renovation but I am nostalgic and have been using HNL since the 1970's and it kind of takes me back.