Detroit to Hawaii

Arrived Honolulu yesterday, all good. DW and I flew DTW to San Diego on Delta 3 days ago, spent 2 nights there to visit close friends, and continued on to Honolulu, where we plan to spend the next 2 months. Aloha!

We wore N95 masks (3M brand) from the time we left our home in Michigan until we we exited SAN airport. We also masked in public areas in our San Diego hotel, from the moment we entered SAN until we exited HNL, and on the Uber ride from HNL to our Waikiki condo. We unmasked inflight for only a few seconds each time to slug down some water and a Larabar. All of this, although a bit inconvenient to be sure, was entirely do-able. If you’re eager to travel, you might consider our strategy. Some may say we’re being overcautious, but we contracted Covid on a flight home from Europe earlier this year after unmasking inflight for only about 15 minutes to eat, and it was an experience we definitely do not wish to repeat.

We’ll take an at-home test, probably later today or tomorrow, as a check before we mix with other people, even though we feel fine. (When we caught Covid on the flight home in early June and even when we felt awful for the first few days thereafter, we tested negative; and so we would not put much faith in a negative at-home test result this soon post-flight.)

Our return trip in Oct. will retrace the route and follow the same drill, unless the situation changes markedly.

Per the title of this (restored!) TMF board, we made this trip inexpensively. DW’s DTW-SAN roundtrip is free, thanks to a companion certificate that comes with my Delta Amex card. (We also got upgraded to first-class for free on the outbound leg. Yay!) We used a $100 discount coupon for the SAN-HNL roundtrip, thanks to my Hawaiian Air (Barclay’s) Mastercard. I also used Hilton Amex points toward our 2-night stay in San Diego, across the street from Seaport Village, so our net cost was $120/night, including free breakfasts–and got upgraded to a nice corner suite, free!

Later today, I’ll walk over to the club where my 1-man outrigger canoe is racked and go paddling off Waikiki Beach. Life is good.

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