Yes, indeed, you can now travel to Hawaii once again and forego the 10-day self-quarantine with a pre-travel test. Here is some important information you should know before booking your trip. First, you must be tested for COVID 72 hours in advance. Yes, Covid testing is required.
I’m leaving for Hawaii in a couple of days, and I’m trying to get a COVID test. Any reasonably intelligent person might start at the website of the airlines you are traveling with. At least, that is what I did. Hawaiian Airlines has a whole list of places that you can go to to take your test. For example, they have Walgreen, CVS, Kaiser Permanente, etc… 
Can it really be that difficult to get a COVID test to fly to Hawaii?
You might think this is a no-brainer. At least I did. I soon found out it’s not that easy. For example, a friend’s friend, just went to Walgreens, paid for a test , but didn’t get the results fast enough to fly, and had to pay again at the airport. I think to myself; they probably weren’t the sharpest tool in the shed. But I soon found out, that maybe I belonged in that same shed. LOL And even funnier “the dull tool I was talking about earlier” turns out to be an MD who runs a Covid lab in Wisconsin and Illinois. His own testing lab didn’t meet the Hawaii standards. Unbelievable.
On the Hawaiian Airlines website, it states, “we’ve organized all of the State’s approved trusted traveling partners by departure city so that you can spend less time worrying about your pre-travel COVID-19 test and more time getting excited about your upcoming trip.” I made two different appointments, one at CVS and another at Kaiser.
Covid-19 Testing Centers
I make an appointment at CVS and Kaiser just for hoots and giggles and for this article. I am now at my CVS appointment; they say, “You need a PCR test. This is a different test than the test you signed up for.” You might ask, what is the difference? The difference is one tests the protein and the other tests for DNA , and the PCR appears to be more accurate. Does CVS provide that test? The answer is yes, but they can’t guarantee that you’ll get your results in time to go to Hawaii.
Good thing for me, I had a backup plan, Kaiser Permanente. When you get there, you will be directed to go through the drive-through. It’s not a long line may be about 20/30 minutes. I tell them I’m flying to Hawaii they say that they’re going to have my test results to me on time. LOL, We’ll see.
My boyfriend (he is traveling with me) and of course he’s in the same predicament. He too had set up his rapid testing over at CVS…and it’s the wrong test. He goes back onto the website finds another place, drives to the Covid testing center in Encinitas. It’s a drive-through that takes about 20 minutes and it’s only $69. He goes in there and they say it’s the wrong test, again! They don’t offer that test even though it’s on the website.
Now somewhat irritated he goes about 25 minutes away to La Jolla. He gets to La Jolla no line, no nothing, just really fast really quick. Drive-through is easy, it took longer to run the credit card than the test and the line. It cost him $140. He gets his results back in 12 hours. Wow, that was fast! A+ for them.
You might be scratching your head because you don’t understand how these other corporations such as CVS and Walgreens can’t do PCR test any faster, and the airlines shame on them for not having the correct information on their website. It’s sad but what it comes down to is money just to travel. Very disappointing, just saying Covid sucks.
Back to Kaiser Permanente’s test results. After 39 hours still no test results. I’m leaving in the morning and freaking out. What will happen to me? Will, they even let me on the airplane? On the way to the airport, I make a final attempt. Talk about stress. The good news the test results came in. YAY! The other good news is, they would have let me on the airplane even without the test results. But what happens to you if you get to Hawaii without your test results. Well, that’s another story.
Questions below for my readers, feel free to reply below with the answers. Or simply email me at Heather@theglobalassist.com
If you don’t get your test results in time can you give Hawaii the test results late?
Why do you need to do all of this if you are vaccinated?