Flying Hawaiian or Alaska soon? Allow extra time for checked bags

News admin October 5, 2026 0 Comments

Flying Hawaiian or Alaska soon? Allow extra time for checked bags

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – If you are flying Hawaiian or Alaska this weekend or anytime soon, expect changes as new check-in rules take effect Saturday.

Hawaiian said about 98% of passengers already check in via the app well ahead of the Oct. 3 deadline.

But if you are checking a bag, it must be tagged and dropped off 50 minutes prior to departure, rather than the current 30 minutes.

Agents will do their best to assist, but the carrier is not encouraging travelers to voluntarily separate from their bags and bank on them arriving on a later flight. If you have to change your flight, you can do so on the unified Alaska-Hawaiian app.

The change is due to increased traveler capacity between the islands as the airlines prepare new Alaska-branded Boeing 737-800s that carry more people and cargo.

Shelly Parker, head of Hawaii guest operations with Alaska and Hawaiian Airlines, said the 50 minutes helps accommodate the Transportation Security Administration’s bag check process.

“There’s a process behind the scenes that guests may or may not be aware of where their bags have to go through TSA, and so to allow for all of the processes that need to take place, we will be using that 50 minutes rather than 30-minute cutoff,” Parker said.

Hawaii News Now spoke to some passengers to gauge how they felt about the changes.

“I think it’s great people get to the airport on time instead of last-minute checking in and, you know, rushing,” Līhuʻe resident Jocelyn Kelehoma said.

Oʻahu resident Kawika Smith was traveling to Hilo and said he likes to get to the airport early — 2.5 hours before his flight — so he has time to relax and get situated.

Smith said the new check-in rules might be harder to adjust for those who get to the airport closer to their flight time.

“I think for people that like to cut it super close, they might have a hard time adjusting to it. But like everything else once they set the rules, then everybody just kind of follows it and goes from there,” Smith said.

“It’ll be those last-minute things that happen. The traffic on the way to work. Your alarm doesn’t go off and you oversleep so then we’ll accommodate you with the same hoʻokipa that we would today,” Parker said.

The interisland lobby will also change as international check-in moves to Terminal 2, Lobby 4 — that includes guests heading to Sydney, Cook Islands, Tahiti and American Samoa, and Japan.