I’m posting from my favorite Presidents Club, the behemoth in Houston’s Terminal E. 3 floors of privacy and showers with clothes pressing closets! Although the Cleveland club this morning did have a better selection of kosher cereal and fruit (I picked up a nice stash of my new favorite honey nut chex).
The total miles required for Cleveland-Houston-Oahu (Stopover-2 nights)-Kauai (Stopover- 7 nights)-Maui (Stopover-4 nights)-Oahu-Newark (Stopover-2 nights)-Cleveland in international BusinessFirst Class was 85,000 miles.
It’s hard to explain the appeal of Hawaii to someone that’s never seen it, but I fell in love with it back in 2006 during a mistake fare when I went for $85 for airfare with lodging. It just feels like paradise! Like a place you always dreamed of but never knew existed…I’ve been back every year since then!
Honolulu and Oahu can be skipped entirely without missing much, but the other islands are just incredible. Unfortunately arriving some 4 hours before shabbos means a weekend stay in Oahu.
Plus your cell phone works just like from home, and you don’t need to change money or clear customs!
Expect full trip notes with this trip and I’ll keep on posting the deals as well as time permits!
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16 Comments On "Shaloha Folks!"
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Hey Dan, Shalom and Happy Chanukah. As I recall, there is a Beit Chabad in Honolulu with Minyan on Shabbos.
I noticed that Hawaii is exactly opposite JLM (i.e. note the time difference JLM is 7 hours ahead of NY and NY is 5 hours ahead of Hawaii.
Enjoy your stay.
MW
do they have 2 days of shabbos??
Do you have to keep Sunday as shabbos also?
i was in honolulu and maui this past summer and i wish i got to vacation as much as you!! do you or your wife work? bc thats my biggest problem with vacations never able to get off enough time from work ;(
Not bad
I had no idea that you could make stop-overs with Hawaiian on a free tkt, nor that CO would let you do a stop-over on the way back in NY
But then based in NY means its not something Id need to do and LAX & SNA are now 737s so would rather stay away from them. And as I have said before , Hawaii has a few problems regarding when Shabbos is so Id rather not be there over Shabbos
But a great way to use 85k. Im waiting for the reg HNL fare sales of $400 and will book my 3 trips for 1-3 days each. 10k EQMs for $400 and I fly UA so its automatically E+ and usually Biz using my CR1s
Enjoy
Did you become Gold from this trip?
there are some nice parts of Oahu, especially away from Honolulu. Each island has its own charm. Don’t discount Oahu.
@aaron: since the majority of opinions hold the dateline is on the other side of hawaii (2/3) therefore you can rely on the majority and keep shabbos with the rest of the world. The same thing would apply in australia some say that you hit shabbos as soon as you hit the coast of sydney on sunday however that’s a lone opinion and you can’t include a whole land mass together and therefore the commonly accepted opinion is the dateline is where it is.
For those who understand, good! v’dai lmaivin
How much are the hotels and accomodations? Would love to go there — very interested. Please let us know.
nice! keep us posted.
hope you didnt travel alone
are there minyamin there? im sure u have whom to rely on . but my rebbe said to avoid going to hawaii for shabbos because you would have to keep 2 days ( sunday only torah prohibitions)
@steve2:
I actually originally had CLE-IAH-HNL-LIH-OGG-KOA-HNL-IAH-LAX-CLE booked but changed it to the itin. in the post due to a few factors. Point is, backtracking to LA for a stopover was also allowed by Continental without a problem!
@bb:
There are chabad houses on each of the major Hawaiian Islands.
As I understand it (but don’t take my word for it!) Chabad opinion for the kav hatairich, or halachic international dateline, follows the accepted international dateline and local custom.
Regardless, as the majority of opinions place Hawaii east of the international dateline shabbos is held on the local Saturday.
@Dan
Id say concerning Shabbos you are probably correct if you ask Chabad or a Modern Orthodox YI type of Rabbi.
I doubt youd hear the same if you asked at say a Main Stream Yesiva including Telshe. I havent heard too many Yeshivish people who will agree with your opinion, not that they are about to go to Hawaii anyway even w/o staying over Shabbos.
Some of the Islands are OK I think its the Northern ones that have the main problem. Hawaii is on a slight its not simply a vertical State going straight up & down.
As Ive said before if a person follows Chabad for everything they can surely rely on what they Hold. But to simply hold what Chabad holds regarding Shabbos alone isnt so Simple.
Thats I usually suggest that the person asks their Local Orthodox Rav and go with whatever they told them, that doesnt mean if you were told its OK that its OK for Me as well. I must ask my own Rav.
Bb you right are all my rabbis told me to avoid going for shabbos and its definitely different then going to Australia and you can’t prove from the people living there unless there is a Jewish community and not just tourists
Rabbi Krasnjansky, head of the Jewish community on Oahu, just told me that the bottom line is that tourists need to only keep shabbos on Saturday as the local community does.
@Dan
is Rabbi Kransnjansky your Rabbi? if he is then by all means you are OK, if he isnt then SOL,IMO
sort of like holding 1 day in Israel although you are only visiting. There are some who say You can do like the Romans when in Rome, most dont say that. Will you hold only 1 hr between eating meat and milk when in Amsterdam as is the custom over there.
if a person is apart of the local community thats 1 thing, its completely something else if you arent. If you asked your Rav in CLE and he told you to ask Rabbi Kransjanky and go with whatever he says then thats OK. But simply asking Rabbi K,IMO isnt OK