When I booked our flight home from Honolulu, I didn’t think about lounge access. From our trip years ago, I remembered that HNL airport wasn’t a place you’d want to spend extra time.
We arrived at the airport extra early and had no wait to check in since the Orlando red-eye flight leaves at an odd time for Hawaiian Airlines flights.
I had checked ahead of time and saw that Priority Pass members have access to Hawaiian Airlines Plumeria Lounge. The following Hawaiian Airlines passengers also have access to the lounge:
- Business Class guest departing Honolulu to one of our international destinations.
- First Class guest departing Honolulu to New York, Boston, or Orlando.
- Pualani Platinums departing Honolulu to one of our international destinations. Platinums may bring up to 1 guest.
- A day pass can also be purchased at the lounge through an agent.
After the TSA security checkpoint, the lounge is located inside Terminal 1 on the third floor. Take the nearest escalator/elevator up to the third floor, and the lounge is located near the Wiki Wiki shuttle pick-up area.
We needed to take the Wiki Wiki shuttle to our gate, so visiting the lounge was convenient. As we entered the lounge, we noticed it was not crowded. Most of the people there were on the Orlando flight, either having a Priority Pass or flying in Business Class.
The lounge is very basic, offering several seating areas and a single television.
Refreshments include packaged food items.
For drinks, they have fountain soda, juice, water, coffee, beer and wine. It was nice to see them stock Maui Brewing products.
While the Plumeria Lounge would be OK as a third-party contract lounge, it was disappointing as the main lounge for Business Class passengers at Hawaiian Airlines’ home airport. For us, the experience was fine, as we were able to arrange our things for the long flight, grab a drink and some food and charge our devices.
I’ve seen other reviews that said the lounge was crowded and it doesn’t look like a comfortable space.
However, the Plumeria Lounge was a better place to wait for our flight than the gate area, which had limited outlets and no food or beverage for sale within a 15-minute walk.
Getting access to the Hawaiian Airlines Plumeria Lounge with our Priority Pass membership didn’t add anything to our pre-flight experience. It was better than sitting at the gate and we did get some snacks and a beer while we waited. However, I wouldn’t pay for additional guests to enter the club. If you get limited entries with your Priority Pass card, I’d save them for a different lounge unless they’re otherwise going to go to waste.
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1 comment
I also recently traveled from Honolulu to LAX and tried to enter the Plumearie Lounge. It was approximately 12:30 pm and yes there was a line. I was the only individual in line as most people in line had 3 people in their group. The attendant came out and ask if anyone had 2 people only. Everyone before me stated no, so I told them I only had myself. The attendant turned around and went back inside the door. I waited a few minutes and with encouraginment from those in line, I decided to go to the door to question why I couldn’t enter as a single individual. I went inside and showed my pass and asked could I come in to at least get water. I was still turned away and was told to go wait in line. I hate using the word throwing around discrimination, but I was the only African American female in line. I ended up purchasing water from the store and waiting at my gate for my flight.