Travel Restrictions -- seeking clarity on quarantine and Aulani's closure period

boferguson

Earning My Ears
Joined
Apr 23, 2018
Obviously this is a "grasping at straws" question, but here goes> Our Aulani reservation begins (was supposed to begin) 4/10. Aulani has announced closure through end of March. Hawaii's governor, in an effort to dissuade visitors, has said any visitor will be quarantined to their hotel room for 14 days if they attempt to come to the islands.

So, my two questions --
1) obviously Aulani needs to extend its cancellation period to match, but hasn't done so. Why? I'm sure there is no way they expect guests to come, nor would want to keep to resort open for quarantined guests.
2) I can find no clarification if the governor declared this policy as "14 days from the date of declaration (3/23) or a ROLLING 14 days that begins whenever you arrive."

Before you roast me, we are not trying to go through with this. I work for the government and though it kills me, we know the right thing to do is cancel this vacation we've been planning for a year and help slow the spread of COVID-19. But, I am a stickler for detail, and I like to know the facts around this stuff. If any of you have seen details I've missed, or have some informed speculation, I'm interested.

Aloha.... :sad:
 
14 days from when you arrive. Aulani will extend based on Disney, not based on the state itself. As always, the more restrictive requirement is limiting. Based on the rate of requirements being added here, I would not expect Aulani, or much of the island at all, to be full up round for any of April, likely May as well.
 
PP is correct. Aulani's current closure matches what the rest of the Disney corporation is doing, which is keeping things closed until 3/31 at least. Anything put in place by the respective states is in addition to anything Disney has implemented. In Florida, those that are flying in from the tri-state area must self-quarantine in their hotel room for 14 days as well. Even if Disney opens on 4/1 (not likely), the people coming from that area would still be subject to that mandate by the state.
 


We have a trip planned for Aulani during Memorial Day weekend. I haven't cancelled because I really don't know how I'll use $5k of Hawaiian Air Credit. Not like they go to WDW...

Just saw today on Hawaiian Air's webpage:

"Effective April 1, we will operate one daily nonstop flight between Honolulu (HNL) and Los Angeles (LAX), one daily flight between Honolulu (HNL) and San Francisco (SFO) and one weekly HNL-American Samoa (PPG) flight. In coming days, we will also be also reducing our Neighbor Island schedule – starting with the suspension of ‘Ohana by Hawaiian service between Honolulu and Kapalua in West Maui effective March 25 – but keep a network of passenger and cargo flights that will continue to provide vital connectivity for guests traveling within the state. "

Looked all over their site to get a confirmation that tickets on the cancelled flights would be refunded, but the wording is all pretty cagey, and I don't see the word "refund" anywhere on their site. Right now, Hawaiian Air is only dealing with the month of April, and will likely address May in a few weeks. Since I see no penalty in waiting to cancel my DVC reservation or air tickets(if I'm wrong, please tell me!!), I'll hold off until Hawaiian states that the month of May will also be affected, then go through the process of trying to get a refund...

Edit - Just did some more research and found the following site. Very interesting read in these times for folks cancelling flights: https://thepointsguy.com/guide/refund-for-canceled-flight/
 
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I had an Aulani staycation planned for the same weekend so I feel some of your pain.

At the moment, the quarantine is scheduled to be lifted on May 20 (https://governor.hawaii.gov/wp-cont...ementary-Proclamation-for-COVID-19-signed.pdf ). I hope your flight is scheduled before May 20 *cross fingers* since it's pretty much a given all flights before then will be cancelled.

You are entitled to a full refund if Hawaiian Airlines cancels the flight. If you choose to cancel the flight you will only receive a credit.

Per the Hawaiian Airlines website (https://www.hawaiianairlines.com/OnlineTicketChanges)

If your flight has been canceled, please follow the instructions provided to you via email.

I haven't seen the text of the email but have heard that it instructs you to call Hawaiian Air for the refund. Multiple people on FB who have received the email and called have reported they were denied a refund by the customer service agent . . . but again, this is just anecdotal "news" from FB so take it with a grain of salt.
 


Hawaii News Now, all one word, is a decent mainstream news conglomeration, though like many sites has (benign) ads. It gives a good amount of info on the state of affairs and the general atmosphere as well.
 
We have a trip planned for Aulani during Memorial Day weekend. I haven't cancelled because I really don't know how I'll use $5k of Hawaiian Air Credit. Not like they go to WDW...

Just saw today on Hawaiian Air's webpage:

"Effective April 1, we will operate one daily nonstop flight between Honolulu (HNL) and Los Angeles (LAX), one daily flight between Honolulu (HNL) and San Francisco (SFO) and one weekly HNL-American Samoa (PPG) flight. In coming days, we will also be also reducing our Neighbor Island schedule – starting with the suspension of ‘Ohana by Hawaiian service between Honolulu and Kapalua in West Maui effective March 25 – but keep a network of passenger and cargo flights that will continue to provide vital connectivity for guests traveling within the state. "

Looked all over their site to get a confirmation that tickets on the cancelled flights would be refunded, but the wording is all pretty cagey, and I don't see the word "refund" anywhere on their site. Right now, Hawaiian Air is only dealing with the month of April, and will likely address May in a few weeks. Since I see no penalty in waiting to cancel my DVC reservation or air tickets(if I'm wrong, please tell me!!), I'll hold off until Hawaiian states that the month of May will also be affected, then go through the process of trying to get a refund...

Edit - Just did some more research and found the following site. Very interesting read in these times for folks cancelling flights: https://thepointsguy.com/guide/refund-for-canceled-flight/

We are in the same situation. Our flights over for this weekend were booked on United points and we cancelled those and points are back in our account. Our return flights - were two of us on United and two of us a day earlier on Hawaiian due to sports schedule. I would prefer cash refunds, but if we end up with a credit on United that will be ok - hoping we could do a WDW trip over Christmas, but a credit on Hawaiian that would need to be used within 12 months of our purchase date or even 15 probably isn't going to do us much good unless things clear up and we can travel this summer (not likely in my opinion). Our return flight on Hawaiian happens to be the one a week to SFO that they aren't cancelling. :(
 
I have been looking but haven’t seen any travel restrictions past May 20th yet. If they are extended does anyone has thoughts on when we can expect the announcement?
 
I have been looking but haven’t seen any travel restrictions past May 20th yet. If they are extended does anyone has thoughts on when we can expect the announcement?

My guess would be the week of April 20th, but that's just a guess. What will be important is to look for signs of restrictions being lifted. When you see people being allowed to return to work, people allowed to be out and about etc..

I'd think shortly after that you'll see tourism start to come back.
 
I have been looking but haven’t seen any travel restrictions past May 20th yet. If they are extended does anyone has thoughts on when we can expect the announcement?

Even though people have lost their jobs and the local economy has tanked, the 14-day quarantine has been one of the most popular, universally accepted, and supported policies Hawaii has ever seen. I think you can expect to see an extension announced at the end of April or start of May.
 
Even though people have lost their jobs and the local economy has tanked, the 14-day quarantine has been one of the most popular, universally accepted, and supported policies Hawaii has ever seen. I think you can expect to see an extension announced at the end of April or start of May.
Thanks for the response - I understand the appeal of the quarantine and tend to agree with you that barring a major medical breakthrough it’s more likely to get extended than not. We’re supposed to be going to the Aulani beginning May 30th with another family - all booked using my DVC points - and I’m beginning to think it might make more sense to just throw in the towel now and try to rebook it for a later date before the backlog of unused points due to cancelled hotel stays gets too great.
 
@jkips I was supposed to be at Aulani during Memorial Day weekend on DVC points. They haven’t officially announced anything yet, but it seems Aulani will be closed until at least June 1. I first heard this via the local rumor mill. The Aulani site is not allowing new bookings until June 1st so it seems credible.

It’s probably a good idea to rebook now.
 
We are scheduled to be there May 27th with DVC points. We are expecting our vacation to get cancelled but I'm waiting for Disney to cancel the reservation. That way, my 2019 points will be put into 2020.

At this point, we aren't scheduling any travel until March 2021 or later.
 
FYI...I just cancelled our stay at Aulani for May. We have Sept. use year and I not want to chance losing the 2019 points as our banking period is soon up. I just went onto member services, clicked onto their chat line and the agent looked after the whole transaction. It was excellent service I must say.

hugh
 
Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigggggggggghhhhhhhhhh.....

Finally did it...moved our Aulani stay from late May to late October. If they open back up on May 21, my head will explode....or I'll be on DVC and Hawaiian Air scrambling to move the reservations back :)

No worries though. We still get to enjoy it, just a little bit later than expected.
 
I took your lead, capitulated and rebooked earlier today. With the kid’s schedule (assuming school is back in the fall) the best time for us to go is Thanksgiving and that’s falling within the 7 month window in the next few days so decided if I was going to do it now was the time. I’m bummed we’ve gone from being a month and a half away to now being 7+ months out but it is what it is.
 
I'm on the edge as well for cancelling that memorial day week. Even if they were to allow tourist back into the country, my concern would be what will actually be open during that time? Are they going to be opening up the beaches to allow for sunbathing? What about the nightlife and restaurants? I've never been to Hawaii before and I don't want my first experience to be doing nothing but lounging around a hotel all day. I want to be able to experience Hawaii to the fullest.
 
I'm on the edge as well for cancelling that memorial day week. Even if they were to allow tourist back into the country, my concern would be what will actually be open during that time? Are they going to be opening up the beaches to allow for sunbathing? What about the nightlife and restaurants? I've never been to Hawaii before and I don't want my first experience to be doing nothing but lounging around a hotel all day. I want to be able to experience Hawaii to the fullest.
Well IDK how the re-open will go, but if you’re looking for a lot of nightlife outside of Waikiki/Honolulu, you may be disappointed even in the best scenario. Hawaii closes at 7 LOL
 

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