How to Get Hawaii COVID Pre-Clear Safe Travels Wristband For Traveling to Hawaii

Mauna Kea Beach Resort – Autograph Collection

Hawaii Announces End to Safe Travels Program on March 26, 2022

We started the Safe Travels program to protect the health, lives, and livelihoods of the people of Hawaiʻi. The program put in place safety protocols that included a multi-layered screening and testing approach that kept our communities safe during the COVID-19 surges that endangered the most vulnerable of our citizens. Right now, we are seeing lower case counts, and hospitalizations are coming down.

Hawaii’s Vaccination Exception Program

In summary, if you really don’t want to deal with the pre-travel testing hassles to enter Hawaii, you simply must be up to date on your vaccination to be exempted from the mandatory self-quarantine. 

How to Upload Your COVID Vaccination Record Card to Hawaii’s Safe Travels Program Website

UPDATE: Hawaii Announces End to Safe Travels Program on March 26, 2022. See the first section mentioned above. 

• Go to Hawaii’s Safe Travels Website
• If this is your first time dealing with Hawaii’s Safe Travels website, you must create an account first. 
• Please note that the name must match, including your middle name/initial on your vaccination record card. Just to be on the safe side – if your COVID vaccination card does not have a middle name/initial, then don’t include it on the safe travel site when you create an account. 
• Sign in and follow the screen to create your profile, such as your name, occupation, etc., and accompany travelers under 18 if applicable.
• Enter your trip details, such as flight and lodging information. 
• After your trip details are submitted, click on Home at the top, which will take you to a page where you will see Apply for Exemption/Exception from Quarantine icon. Click on it! See the screenshot below.
• This part is important!
• Hawaii’s Safe Travels site fails to mention this, but there are a couple processes when it comes to vaccination verification:
• Pre-verified before arrival
• Verifying on arrival
• If you do not perform this step correctly, your vaccination record may not receive pre-verification before you arrive in Hawaii. Therefore, you will not receive the pre-clear wristband from the airlines. You will still be able to enter Hawaii; however, you will need to join the long queues to show your vaccination record to be manually verified on your arrival.
• To get your vaccine record pre-verified and receive a Green QR code, you will need to use a Trusted Testing and Travel Partner or Health Pass Partner such as AZOVA, CLEAR, and CommonPass or SMART Health Card.
• I used CLEAR Health Pass because I have a complimentary membership with CLEAR through my Amex Platinum Card. However, you can use any Health Pass Partner that you can upload your vaccination record to, free of charge, such as the SMART Health Card. 
• Once you are completed with the above step, you can go back to Hawaii’s Safe Travels site and look for the icon that shows the Health Pass exception. See the screenshot below.
• Click on that icon and follow the screen to link your Health Pass with Hawaii’s Safe Travel to start the automatic verification process. 
• Once the verification process is completed, you will receive an email with a Green QR code and two (2) green checkmarks underneath it. The 2 green checkmarks are essential to show that email to the airline staff at the boarding gate to receive the pre-clear wristband that allows you to skip the long queues when you arrive in Hawaii. 
• On the other hand, if you do not use Health Pass to verify your vaccination record with Hawaii’s Safe Travels, you can still enter Hawaii. However, you will not receive the wristband. You will need to join the queues on your arrival to have your vaccination record manually verified by personnel at the airport in Hawaii.  

How to Upload Your COVID Vaccination Record Card to Hawaii’s Safe Travels Program Website

Get Pre-Clear Only When You Upload Your Vaccination Record Correctly

Interisland Travel Testing/Quarantine Requirement

Hawaii’s Pre-travel COVID Trusted Testing Partners

Suppose you are not vaccinated or do not meet Hawaii’s vaccination requirement. In that case, you can still do pre-travel COVID testing to enter Hawaii without being subject to the mandatory self-quarantine.

While Hawaii accepts several COVID testing partners, I personally find that Walgreens Rapid Diagnostic Test (ID Now) is the simplest and fastest way to get COVID test results for traveling to
Hawaii.

With Walgreens, you can typically have the result back in less than 24 hours, giving you ample time to fulfill Hawaii’s 72 hours before departure requirement. The downside about Walgreens COVID testing is that not every town or major city offers the Rapid Test type, and Walgreen just recently offered the Rapid Testing in my town. You can also try to travel to a neighboring town too if possible. You don’t have to be a resident in a state to get the test with Walgreens.

How to Get Walgreens COVID Test

First of all, go to this Walgreens website and see if Rapid Diagnostic Test (ID Now) is offered in your area. You want to see the Red Dot that says Rapid Diagnostic Test (ID Now). This type of test is accepted by the Hawaii government. 

• Step 1: Check your flight information. Note down the airport, departure date, and time of your last flight into Hawaii. For example, if you leave from Salt Lake City to
  Seattle to Honolulu, the flight information you need to note is the final segment from Seattle to Honolulu. 
• Step 2: Use this calculator and determine the earliest date and time based on your Hawaii-bound flight’s departure time zone that you will be doing the COVID testing to comply with Hawaii’s 72 hours before departure requirement. Remember that it is within 72 hours (including time zone) of your last segment Hawaii-bound flight. 
• Step 3: Once you know the necessary date and time, it is vital to
  understand how scheduling Walgreens Rapid Testing works. 
• You can only schedule online here, and you can only schedule 3 days before your desired testing date. 
• It is also
  possible that some testing site’s appointments can be filled up pretty fast. So be proactive and set a reminder. I noticed that the appointment slots can open 4-3
  days prior, so I would check 4 days beforehand, especially in the evening. This is to ensure you see a lot of time slots that work best for you. 
• On the Walgreens COVID testing website, click on Get started button to go through a series of questions and your health insurance information. If you do not have insurance, the system will still allow you to proceed. According to Walgreens, if the state or your insurance company does not cover your testing fee, it will cost you $129 for the Rapid Diagnostic Test. 
• Step 4: After the scheduling is complete, you’ll receive two emails. One email is just an acknowledgment of your appointment, and the second one is your actual testing appointment’s confirmation. The second email is the one that you will need. 
• Step 5: Be sure to bring an ID and your confirmation email to the testing site on the day of your testing. You can either print out that email or show it on
  your phone. 

That’s it! The testing process is straightforward and well streamlined. You must do a drive-through, and you can’t walk into Walgreens to do the test. You’ll be
instructed accordingly by the Walgreens agent to perform the test.

Wait for your test result via email. If it’s positive, you should cancel the trip. If it’s negative, congratulation! But you are not done yet; you must upload the result to Hawaii’s safe travels website that I’ll walk you through below.

How to Upload Your COVID Testing Result to Hawaii’s Safe Travels Program Website

Once you have received your negative COVID testing result, you must do the following:

• Download and save your lab’s negative test result in a PDF file from your email. 
• Go to Hawaii’s Safe Travels Website
• Create an account. Please note that the name must match, including your middle name/initial on your lab result. Just to be safe, if your lab result does not have a middle name/initial, don’t include it on the safe travel site when you create an account. 
• Sign in and follow the screen to create your profile, such as your name, occupation, etc., and accompany travelers under 18 if applicable.
• Enter your trip details, such as flight and lodging information. 
• After your trip details are submitted, click on Home at the top, which will take you to a page where you will see Apply for Exemption/Exception from Quarantine icon. Click on it and go to COVID NAAT/PCR Test Exception to start uploading your negative COVID test result pdf file that you downloaded in the first step.  

Complete Mandatory Health Questionnaire

I promise this is the last step!

24 hours before your Hawaii-bound flight, you must complete a mandatory travel health questionnaire. I love that Hawaii’s Safe Travels site also sends a reminder when it is time for you to complete the health questionnaire. This step is required to receive your “clearance” QR code. 

• 24 hours before your Hawaii-bound flight, go to Hawaii’s Safe Travels Website
• Click on Health Questionnaire
• Answer each question on the questionnaire, such as are you sick, have you had a flu vaccine, have taken medication within the last 24 hours to treat fever, and so on. Accept the signature and click Submit. 
• It is worth mentioning that if you have had flu vaccine recently, there’s no need to worry about saying Yes on the questionnaire. 
• Once the questionnaire is submitted, a QR code will be generated and sent to your email address. 

What happens if my flight is delayed? Will it impact the 72 hours validity of my COVID test results?

If your flight delay is within same-day travel, due to the airlines’ decision, i.e., weather or mechanical, you will not need to do anything in Safe Travels. Your test results will be accepted on the same day. Test results need to be uploaded in Safe Travels or printed out and in hand PRIOR to departure to Hawai‘i.

How Does Alaska Airlines COVID Hawaii Pre-Clear Work?

If you are flying with Alaska Airlines, they partner with the Hawaii government to offer COVID Pre-Clear program. The program allows you to clear COVID results screening before arriving in Hawaii. Once you are successfully pre-cleared, you can simply skip airport arrival screening in Hawaii.

To qualify for Pre-Clear before the departure of your Hawaii-bound flight:

• Every adult traveler must have a Safe Travels profile.
• All flight details and lodging info have been added.
• Negative test results from a trusted testing partner or vaccination records are successfully uploaded and pre-verified by Hawaii’s Safe Travels. 
• You can identify whether you are pre-verified or not to receive the wristband by looking at the QR code in your email. If you see two green checkmarks underneath your QR code, you are good to receive the wristband and can skip the lines to have your vaccination record manually cleared upon arrival in Hawaii. See How to Upload Your COVID Vaccination Record Card to Hawaii’s Safe Travels Program Website
• If not, you will not receive the wristband, and you will need to be manually cleared upon arrival in Hawaii. The line to have that checked sometimes can be tediously long before you can exit the airport. 

For more frequently asked questions, check the official website here.