Southwest Airlines is launching what I’d argue is the carrier’s most uncomfortable flight to date, though it makes for great aircraft utilization, and I’m sure some customers will gladly book this.
In this post:
Southwest’s new 2:45AM flight from Las Vegas to Honolulu
Southwest has announced a bunch of new routes for the spring of 2027. The airline specifically calls out how it’s “slated to begin its first ‘reverse redeye’ with a 2:45 a.m. local time departure from Las Vegas to Honolulu.”
That’s right. While eastbound redeye flights are common, this is a westbound redeye. Specifically, this flight will depart Las Vegas (LAS) at 2:45AM, landing in Honolulu at 6:10AM, with a block time of 6hr25min. Keep in mind that up until a couple of years ago, Southwest didn’t operate any redeye flights, so to see the airline go from no redeyes to reverse redeyes in such a short period is quite the evolution.
In fairness to Southwest, the airline is simply replicating a schedule that’s also operated by Hawaiian, as the carrier has a flight that takes off from Las Vegas at 1:55AM and lands in Honolulu at 5:25AM. However, Hawaiian flies a wide body plane with flat beds in first class, and it’s also a global carrier, used to operating flights like this. It just “feels” different when you see this route on a one-cabin Southwest 737, rather than a two-cabin A330.
This is a very efficient schedule, brutal as it may be
For both passengers and crew, this schedule sounds absolutely awful. It’s one thing to be on a five hour redeye from the West Coast to the East Coast departing at 9PM. But to only board the flight and depart at 2:45AM, and then to have an even longer flight, only to land so early in the morning, is rough.
I also imagine many travelers on this flight will be tourists going to Hawaii, and they probably won’t book a hotel for the night before, so they may then end up still being stuck waiting for their room until the afternoon. That’s not a very relaxing way to start a vacation!
In fairness, this routing is also extremely efficient for passengers looking to maximize their vacation time. Admittedly, I think that for most people, a “regular” early morning flight (around 7AM) that lands around 10AM sounds more pleasant.
But the real reason for this route is what brilliant aircraft utilization this is:
- Presumably the plane would otherwise spend the night on the ground in Las Vegas, so to be able to keep it flying adds to the schedule without needing extra planes; this has been one of Southwest’s goals with introducing redeye flights
- Typically if an airline wants to offer a morning flight from Hawaii to the mainland (which is a popular schedule with travelers, so that they land in the afternoon), the plane would have to overnight in Hawaii, and that involves parking a plane for eight plus hours
- So to be able to do a direct turn in Honolulu with a painful schedule in one direction and an optimal schedule in the other direction is a nice new option to have
Bottom line
While Southwest Airlines has now been flying to Hawaii for several years with all kinds of different flight schedules, the carrier’s new reverse redeye from the mainland to Hawaii is a first. The carrier’s new Las Vegas to Honolulu flight will depart at 2:45AM, only to land in Honolulu at 6:10AM, with a block time of 6hr25min.
While this schedule is brutal for passengers and crew, the aircraft utilization is spectacular, as this plane will be able to turn right around, and operate a well timed morning flight back from Hawaii to the mainland, without having to overnight at the airport.
What do you make of Southwest’s new reverse redeye? Would you consider flying it?
MaxPower's comment, "Las Vegas is Hawaii's 9th island," explains the appeal. Think of the hotel/casinos on Fremont Street with restaurant menus featuring Spam -- morning, noon and night -- because it's an island delicacy. This flight allows a full final day in LAS for Hawaiian visitors, and then arrival in HNL early enough to make connections to the other islands.
glad you found this little gem in all of the other new routes and flights WN announced, Ben.
As I have said, their revenue performance is rapidly improving and they are ready to start aggressively growing again.
heck no, I wouldn't take this flight but WN doesn't need me to make this flight work. They have a large hub at LAS and can pump all kinds of connections onto the flight in addition to the...
glad you found this little gem in all of the other new routes and flights WN announced, Ben.
As I have said, their revenue performance is rapidly improving and they are ready to start aggressively growing again.
heck no, I wouldn't take this flight but WN doesn't need me to make this flight work. They have a large hub at LAS and can pump all kinds of connections onto the flight in addition to the local market on both ends.
WN doesn't appear to be afraid of taking on AS in other markets. Not sure if the shark is still hanging in the crew room on the west coast but WN has succeeded at making HA's life miserable and AS is now in their scope
In my experience I can't fall asleep well on a bus or plane until well after midnight departure time, and many overnight flights arrive only a couple hours after this. Then I'm super tired after arrival. This flight schedule does not have these problems, and seems much more attractive to me than a traditional red-eye schedule.
The cost of having dedicated extra ground handling agents, check-in staff etc working at 3am just for this flight might be significant. Does LAS have many other flights at this time of night or will these staff only be here to service one flight?
The timing is clearly for the VFR market rather than the tourist market. You see the same thing with all the redeyes from the US East Coast to Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, etc
This may not work for other markets but it’s perfect for Las Vegas!
Remember the is no gambling in Hawaii so Hawaii gamblers can leave after their weekend play and party in Las Vegas late night and still make it to the flight and be home early morning on Sunday to rest before the start of the week. It’s an efficient use of your weeknd gambling time!
If I lived in Hawaii this would actually be my first preference!
Charging more for Choice Extra than Hawaiian 1st is wild.
The reason is that passengers leaving Las Vegas are broke and drunk , and wouldn't like the sunlight .
I think this is pretty keenly targeted at Hawaii residents heading back home. There may be some local LAS traffic, but not much.
That makes sense. They can just go home. Tourists will have to bag drop and wait 8 hours for a room. That sounds brutal to me.
I guess I could go look, but I'd imagine this is much more catered toward Hawaiian locals vs Nevadans.
What's the saying? Las Vegas is Hawaii's 9th island? Something like that
The Hawaiian LAS-HNL is a popular flight with Hawaiian locals going to/from LAS. Called midnight madness at HA.
I don't even understand how they get to charge more than AS.
There is a market for this. I personally wanted more options to Hawaii that follows this schedule to maximize my time there. The one downside to this is the hotel check-in time like you mentioned. Hawaii is already as expensive as it is so it would be a lot to add another night cost-wise. I do see this also being popular for the large population of Hawaiians living in Vegas to visit family.
I guarantee there will be people happily booking it so they can fully maximize their time in Vegas, fly home, and suffer through work that day so they can have another half day on vacation.
Wow, unless you’re drunk and broke post-Vegas, you’d really need to be a glutton for punishment to willingly pay anything, cash or points, to take that slog of an itinerary. Brutal.