Most flights to the US Mainland leave late in the day while most hotels require that you check out at noon. Most likely, you’ll want to do some last minute sightseeing with your last hours in Hawaii, but wise readers know that you shouldn’t go sightseeing with your luggage in your car. So, this situation creates a challenge. What do you do with your luggage on your last day? Here are three strategies for what you can do to protect your luggage on the last day of your Hawaii visit.
1. Politely request a late hotel check-out. It never hurts to ask, though the chances aren’t great that your request will be granted. I’d estimate that we’ve been successful about 30% of the time when we’ve requested a late check out.
2. Explain your situation and ask the hotel bell staff or condo management to hold your luggage. I’d advise you to lock your luggage when you leave it with them and offer a gratuity to the person assisting you.
3. Consider checking your luggage at the airport. Most airlines allow you to check your luggage the day of your flight – even if it’s several hours before your flight. Before heading to the airport, do call the airport to determine when your airline’s counter opens. For example when we were flying out of Kona last March, our flight didn’t leave until about 10pm and the American Airlines counters didn’t open until around 7pm. Please note that when you check your luggage, a checked baggage fees may apply, so verify the fees with the airline. Again, I’d advise you to lock your luggage with a TSA approved lock.
How have you stored your luggage on the last day of your Hawaii vacation? Please comment with your advice.
Sheila Beal
3 comments
We’ve flown the red-eye back out of Maui a few times, and although we were given a late checkout by the Sheraton (until 12pm), we still ended up driving around with our luggage and getting to the airport way too early. We would mostly just drive to different parts of the island and not wonder too far from the car, but even things like going into K-Mart and leaving a rental car full of all our stuff made me uneasy.
The Sheraton offered us the ability to check our bags with them for the day and even offered us the use of the showers in the fitness center locker rooms if we wanted, but we took a pass. Might be something to inquire about if you’re at a full service resort (versus a condo, B&B, etc.). At the time, we just didn’t feel like having to come all the way back to the resort before heading to the airport.
Checking the bags early with the airline isn’t something we’ve tried before, though. Might be worth a shot if you don’t have to return your rental car in right away.
Hi Kris – thanks for sharing how you’ve tackled this problem.It kinda seems like there’s not a perfect solution, huh?
We’ve been lucky to have very late check outs a few times – as in 5pm or after. One thing I should add about late checkouts is that the earlier that you can request it the better off you’ll be.
In 2019, when we were last there and flew out of Honolulu on the Red-Eye, we found a company that was actually advertised in the Hawaiian Airlines terminal, and used it. It was easy, we called when we arrived in the airport terminal on our flight back from Kona, made the arrangements, the gentleman arrived and we paid cash and received a receipt and he left with our bags. It did make us a bit nervous, when we realized we had just handed our bags to a stranger who took them to a van an drove off, but we figured if he had a professional ad in the terminal, hopefully he was legit! LOL. And really, there wasn’t anything overly valuable in them (just clothes…I kept my camera and tablet with me).
When we returned to the airport in the evening and called him, his van was already waiting there, and he dropped the bags off; it was great, and made it nice for us to enjoy one last afternoon at a nice restaurant, and a sunset, before leaving.