Flying from Honolulu to Dallas?

amystevekai&bump

DIS Veteran
Joined
Apr 16, 2007
Hi all,

We are from the U.K., and are visiting Aulani next summer with a 5 day stop over in Texas on our way home.

Whilst we’ve been to Hawaii before, this will our first little taste of Texas and I don’t want to waste a single minute!

We are trying to decide between two flight options from HNL to DFW, and would appreciate advice from anyone familiar with this journey please.

We’ve narrowed it down to two choices :

option 1/ Depart Honolulu at 8am, stopover in LAX and arrive in Dallas at 10.30pm. Overnight in the Hyatt at the airport.

option 2/Depart Honolulu at 8.15pm, non stop to Dallas arriving at 8.30am.

Due to our limited time in Texas we would want to pick up a hire car and go sightseeing straight from the airport if we take the night flight, and I know that will in effect feel like the middle of the night as we will be on Hawaiian time! So I’m slightly worried that this is a bad idea?!

So I am instead leaning towards the first option, but my reservations about that are that we would lose the day in Aulani and also would need to be up at 5am to return the hire car to the airport and catch that early flight.

Has anyone got any experience of these flights and any recommendations on which option we should choose?

many thanks! 👍
 
Hi there! We flew home (we live in Colorado) from Aulani via DFW in June and took that night flight. I personally prefer it because you have that last day at Aulani that is relaxed. I am always sad to have to leave, so that rushing around and leaving while it is still dark is not my preferred way to leave paradise! I also prefer to fly at night because then it feels like you are not "wasting" a day of vacation. I don't know who is in your travel party, mine is a family of 5 adults, so we are able to tough it out a little bit more than young children can. It will make for a rough first day in Texas, but if I had to pick, that would be my choice!
 
Hi there! We flew home (we live in Colorado) from Aulani via DFW in June and took that night flight. I personally prefer it because you have that last day at Aulani that is relaxed. I am always sad to have to leave, so that rushing around and leaving while it is still dark is not my preferred way to leave paradise! I also prefer to fly at night because then it feels like you are not "wasting" a day of vacation. I don't know who is in your travel party, mine is a family of 5 adults, so we are able to tough it out a little bit more than young children can. It will make for a rough first day in Texas, but if I had to pick, that would be my choice!
Thank you so much for replying - that’s such a help.

Our plan after we land would be to collect a hire car, drive to Southfork Ranch (I am an eighties girl who has a dream to visit Dallas!! Lol!!) and then to drive into Dallas to our overnight hotel, hoping to check in and walk to the 6th floor JFK museum & then that will be pretty much it for the day, so we could definitely have an early night I hope to catch up on some zzz!

We are a family of four (two teenage boys will be 13 & 16 - in fact this Dallas day will actually be my youngest‘s birthday), so I’m just hoping we won’t all be too exhausted to enjoy the day?

My DH is the driver and is used to shift work, so I think out of all of us he will manage the tiredness the best, and I guess the boys could always snooze in the car. Actually that’s one important question for those familiar with the area -are the roads easy to navigate in and around Dallas? is there generally a lot of traffic during the middle of the day during the week (I think we will be outside of rush hour traffic times).

Thank you again for your help - this choice is driving me mad - I think I’m definitely overthinking it! Lol!
 
I would take option 2. Sleep on the plane a get rolling in the morning. Dallas' traffic can back up at any time of day but worse during rush hour of course. The area where JFK was killed is near where I30 and I35E converge so things can back up. Middle of the day is better of course. SouthFork Ranch is northeast of Dallas - will be easier to get there straight from airport. Then you would be moving against traffic getting back into Dallas so that may work in your favor.
 


I would take option 2. Sleep on the plane a get rolling in the morning. Dallas' traffic can back up at any time of day but worse during rush hour of course. The area where JFK was killed is near where I30 and I35E converge so things can back up. Middle of the day is better of course. SouthFork Ranch is northeast of Dallas - will be easier to get there straight from airport. Then you would be moving against traffic getting back into Dallas so that may work in your favor.

thank you ever so much - again, that’s a great help and really good info. Really appreciate it 👍
 
Option 2! Direct flight is always more enjoyable. Less things can go wrong with catching a connection, etc. LAX can be messy for transfers depending on the terminals involved. They are in the midst of lots of construction.

Enjoy Dallas! I lived there for work for a few months and it felt like a foreign country...to an American! (probably not my favorite city, but you will enjoy the 80s nostalgia that you mentioned.)
 


Option 2! Direct flight is always more enjoyable. Less things can go wrong with catching a connection, etc. LAX can be messy for transfers depending on the terminals involved. They are in the midst of lots of construction.

Enjoy Dallas! I lived there for work for a few months and it felt like a foreign country...to an American! (probably not my favorite city, but you will enjoy the 80s nostalgia that you mentioned.)
Thank you ever so much for posting- I’ve read all of your comments to DH and I think he’s definitely set on the direct flight, so thank you 👍
 
Option two would be my choice. by the time you get your luggage and pick up your rental car it’ll be 10 AM or so, and you should not have any traffic issues in the drive to Southfork. Depending on traffic it’s about 45 minutes up to the ranch. After spending your time there, it’s about 45 minutes down to Dealey Plaza, again, you shouldn’t have much of a traffic issue at that time of day. Southfork should have plenty of availability, but if you are going on a weekend, I would recommend getting your tickets ahead of time for the 6th Floor Museum. You didn’t mention the other plans, but I can’t recommend the Perot Museum, it’s not far from Dealey Plaza and excellent for kids, teens and adults. Klyde Warren Park and Reunion Tower are also worth a visit.
 
Option two would be my choice. by the time you get your luggage and pick up your rental car it’ll be 10 AM or so, and you should not have any traffic issues in the drive to Southfork. Depending on traffic it’s about 45 minutes up to the ranch. After spending your time there, it’s about 45 minutes down to Dealey Plaza, again, you shouldn’t have much of a traffic issue at that time of day. Southfork should have plenty of availability, but if you are going on a weekend, I would recommend getting your tickets ahead of time for the 6th Floor Museum. You didn’t mention the other plans, but I can’t recommend the Perot Museum, it’s not far from Dealey Plaza and excellent for kids, teens and adults. Klyde Warren Park and Reunion Tower are also worth a visit.
Thank you so much for posting! That’s all really reassuring.

We have as long as we need in Dallas the following day (we are making the short journey to the Fort Worth Stockyards for the rodeo the following evening). So I will definitely check out all of those suggestions, thank you so much👍
 
Definitely the evening flight out of HNL (option 2). Morning traffic from Aulani and getting into Honolulu can be a bear.

Yes, DH was really not keen on driving back to the airport early morning - hence my car hire question in another thread - as he wanted to drop the car off at Alamo in Aulani the day before and get a taxi to the airport if we had to take the morning flight. (But that’s a headache it itself as it seems Alamo only want to allow one way rentals to Aulani in pick up trucks ??!! So I’d have to ring them to see if they would consider renting us a car instead!).

But actually, having listened to the great advice I’ve received on this thread, I think we will opt for the night flight!👍 thanks for posting 👍
 
Thank you so much for posting! That’s all really reassuring.

We have as long as we need in Dallas the following day (we are making the short journey to the Fort Worth Stockyards for the rodeo the following evening). So I will definitely check out all of those suggestions, thank you so much👍

You are definitely doing the highlights of DFW! And please ignore the typo about the Perot, that definitely should’ve said “can” recommend.
 
Yes, DH was really not keen on driving back to the airport early morning - hence my car hire question in another thread - as he wanted to drop the car off at Alamo in Aulani the day before and get a taxi to the airport if we had to take the morning flight. (But that’s a headache it itself as it seems Alamo only want to allow one way rentals to Aulani in pick up trucks ??!! So I’d have to ring them to see if they would consider renting us a car instead!).

But actually, having listened to the great advice I’ve received on this thread, I think we will opt for the night flight!👍 thanks for posting 👍

Aulani also has a shower and bathroom area that you can use after check out if you wanted to stay at Aulani later in the day on the day you fly out. You can get a pass key at the front desk. They gave us a pass key the last time we checked In because our room wasn’t ready. It was really nice to be able to shower and change after flying in. A lot of folks use it on the way out—check out, swim, enjoy the resort, clean up, and then head to HNL.
 
Aulani also has a shower and bathroom area that you can use after check out if you wanted to stay at Aulani later in the day on the day you fly out. You can get a pass key at the front desk. They gave us a pass key the last time we checked In because our room wasn’t ready. It was really nice to be able to shower and change after flying in. A lot of folks use it on the way out—check out, swim, enjoy the resort, clean up, and then head to HNL.
Oh that sounds terrific - thank you 👍
 
Being from DFW there are so many places to go,
Southfork is far north its a journey just fyi. And there is nothing else out there as far as tourism stuff.
Dallas fort worth traffic can be crazy but if you stay away from peak driving times in the morning and late afternoon you should be fine. Look up Grapevine, tx they have a lot of stuff to do and the airport sits between Grapevine and Irving
Fort forth stockyards are fun
 
Being from DFW there are so many places to go,
Southfork is far north its a journey just fyi. And there is nothing else out there as far as tourism stuff.
Dallas fort worth traffic can be crazy but if you stay away from peak driving times in the morning and late afternoon you should be fine. Look up Grapevine, tx they have a lot of stuff to do and the airport sits between Grapevine and Irving
Fort forth stockyards are fun
That’s really helpful thank you 👍

I don’t mind there not being anything else at southfork -I’m just so thrilled to be finally visiting it! Lol!
 
Thank you all for all of your really helpful advice 👍

One more question if I may - how early do you all book your flights to HNL?

Looking at the seat plans for both flights (we are booking them separately as delta have good times from Seattle, and American is the only direct flight to Dallas and they don’t flight direct from Seattle), the availability is really open right now.

ive already booked my international legs as I got a really good price booking at the 11 month opening day, but the HNL internal flights don’t seem to be that cheap, and so I wondered whether you guys had some ‘insider info’ aa to the best times to book to get the best prices?! 😂👍

many thanks for any advice👍
 

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!





Top