Hawaiian Airlines Baggage Allowance: Carry-On and Fees

Hawaiian's official wording allows "one bag measuring no more than 22 x 14 x 9 inches or 45 linear inches (including wheels and handle), plus one personal item such as a purse, briefcase, or laptop bag." That 22 x 14 x 9 inch footprint is the same standard most U.S. carriers use, and it's free on every fare Hawaiian sells, from Main Cabin Basic through First Class, since the fee table's "Standard bag" row (which covers every fare below First Class) lists the carry-on as free.

Hawaiian does not publish a weight limit for the carry-on bag itself. The only requirement is qualitative: your bag has to be light enough to lift into the overhead bin without help. Hawaiian also doesn't publish official dimensions or a weight limit for the personal item, only that it's free on every fare and has to fit under the seat, so if you see specific personal-item measurements for Hawaiian elsewhere, treat them as unofficial.

For flights ticketed on or after April 10, 2026, a first checked bag on Main Cabin or Saver fares costs $45, and a second checked bag costs $55, for travel between the U.S. mainland and Hawaii. Hawaiian's fee table doesn't distinguish Main Cabin Basic from standard Main Cabin in this row, so the same $45/$55 pricing applies across both. First Class passengers get both bags free, up to 70 lb each.

If you're flying entirely within Hawaii (island to island, not to or from the mainland), the fees are lower: $30 for a first bag and $40 for a second, on the intra-island fare schedule. These are separate, cheaper fee tables from the mainland-to-Hawaii route group covered above, so double check which one applies to your specific itinerary before you book.

Both fee schedules cover the same standard 50 lb, 62 linear inch bag; the intra-island discount is purely on price, not on size. For a family island-hopping trip after flying in from the mainland, that means your existing checked bags don't need to shrink for the inter-island leg, only the fee changes.

A standard Hawaiian checked bag can weigh up to 50 lb and measure up to 62 linear inches (length plus width plus height added together). Go over either limit and Hawaiian charges published, fixed surcharges rather than pricing dynamically the way some budget carriers do.

Overweight fees are tiered: a bag weighing 51 to 70 lb adds $100, and a bag weighing 71 to 100 lb adds $200, per bag. On size, a bag measuring 63 to 115 linear inches adds a flat $200 surcharge. Notably, Hawaiian's 115-inch oversize ceiling is more generous than the roughly 80-inch cutoff many other U.S. carriers use, which is worth knowing if you're checking something unusually large, like sports equipment. If a bag is both overweight and oversized, Hawaiian charges both fees, since they compound rather than replace each other.

Hawaiian does not publish a hard cap on how many bags you can check beyond your fare's included allowance; instead, third and later bags are priced per the fee table's escalating per-bag structure rather than being refused outright. That's a different approach from carriers like Frontier or Allegiant, which cap the total number of checked bags per passenger at a fixed count.

Hawaiian's fee table doesn't carve out a separate, more restrictive carry-on row for Main Cabin Basic the way American or United do for their own Basic Economy tiers; the "Standard bag" row that lists carry-on as free applies broadly across Main Cabin, Saver, and Basic fares. Basic fares do still pay the standard $45/$55 checked bag fees, so the restriction on Hawaiian's cheapest tickets is really about fare flexibility and seat selection rather than baggage.

That's a meaningfully different pattern from several U.S. competitors. Frontier's Basic fare, for comparison, doesn't include a free carry-on at all, only a free personal item, and the carry-on has to be purchased separately. Hawaiian's approach of keeping the carry-on free across every fare tier is closer to how Alaska or JetBlue treat their own lowest fares.

First Class tickets get a materially better checked bag deal on Hawaiian than Main Cabin or Saver. Both the first and second checked bags are free in First Class, up to 70 lb each, well above the 50 lb standard limit. If a First Class bag does go overweight, the first two overages are still free, and only a third overweight bag or beyond triggers the standard $100 fee.

The North America fee table covered in this guide, meaning flights between the U.S. mainland and Hawaii, is the one most travelers booking a mainland vacation need. Hawaiian publishes separate, and in some cases different, fee schedules for other route groups, so if you're connecting internationally or flying a codeshare with a partner airline, it's worth double-checking the specific fee table for that itinerary rather than assuming the North America numbers above carry over unchanged.