I get why you’re thinking about it. When the next nonstop is 4 days later, it suddenly feels high stakes.
First, 4h45 in HNL is a very healthy buffer. That’s not tight at all. You’d need a pretty major delay out of PDX to miss it.
If something did go wrong and it’s all on one Hawaiian ticket, they’re responsible for getting you to PPT. They wouldn’t just shrug and say “see you Saturday.” If they know before departure from PDX that you’ll misconnect, they’ll usually try to reroute you earlier in the journey.
Most likely scenarios:
If delay is known in PDX: they could rebook you PDX–LAX–PPT on a partner instead of sending you to HNL.
If you misconnect in HNL unexpectedly: they might look at partner options via LAX rather than making you sit 4 days.
Worst case, yes, you could end up stuck in Hawaii a few days, but that’s usually not their first choice if other routings exist.
Airlines generally try to avoid multi day misconnections when there are reasonable partner alternatives.
Your wife is probably right that you’re overthinking it a bit… but I also get wanting to understand the downside before booking something that only runs once a week.
Honestly, with a 4h45 layover in March, I’d feel pretty comfortable.
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