Capt Steve
US Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 17, 2008
- Messages
- 1,678
- Reaction score
- 3,014
We do most of our traveling quite comfortably in our Class C motorhome but when our neighbors gave us their condo in Waikiki for a week it was an offer too good to refuse. We hadn't flown commercially for a number of years and having successfully used Travelocity in the past I booked our roundtrip from Phoenix to Honolulu, including a rental car several months ahead of our trip.
Pulled up our trip confirmation a couple of days before leaving and lo and behold our 0800 direct flight to Honolulu on American Airlines has been pushed back to 1400 and downgraded to US Airways (now just an inferior subsidiary of American). I booked a Park and Fly overnight at the Phoenix Radisson so we could leave our car for the week.
About an hour before we were to leave the hotel for the airport I get a Robo call from US Air announcing that our flight was canceled. Travelocity said they would try to get us out the next day which was completely unacceptable.
I called US Air and after 30 minutes got them to book us on a flight to Maui but it came with the same 1400 departure and a 3.5 hour layover in Maui before we could get back to Honolulu. Arrrrg!
Like all flights these days the plane was 100% full with an extra allotment of idiots. We saw enough FAA flight reg violations to shut down the entire airlines. The guy across the aisle from me drank so much wine that he passed out on his girlfriends lap and she couldn't wake him up. A number of morbidly obese folks felt that since they did not fit in their seats with the armrest down they were entitled to raise it and spill over into the next seat.
The flight crew ignored all of this in addition to the overloaded (full of oversized, not even close to the regulation carry on requirements), storage bins with several being left open for an hour or more. Any surprise turbulence would have been a disaster especially for the folks, about half a dozen, who set up their cocktail hour in the aisle despite the seat belt sign being on for the entire trip.
Yep, when you fly you are completely at the mercy of the airlines/travel sites and the great unwashed from the shallow end of the gene pool. We finally got to Honolulu and then had a blast for week enjoying the craziness of Waikiki and exploring the rest of Oahu. Got to surf/boogey board every day and logged 450 miles on our little compact rental car (A Mazda 3 which was very nice and great on gas).
The return flight was a little better as after again downgrading us to US Air and delaying the flight by 2 hours they canceled that flight altogether. Happily American stepped up with one of their aircraft and crew and got us out on time. A favorable jet stream enabled our Redeye to shave and hour off of our return to Phoenix making the flight just 5.5 hours most of which we slept.
It will be a long time before we fly again (if ever), and do yourself a favor and avoid Travelocity/US Air like the plague. Glad we went and glad we are back. It's a little grainy/cell phone shot but here is this 63 old guy having too much fun on the Boogey board I rented for the week at Kuhio Beach:
Pulled up our trip confirmation a couple of days before leaving and lo and behold our 0800 direct flight to Honolulu on American Airlines has been pushed back to 1400 and downgraded to US Airways (now just an inferior subsidiary of American). I booked a Park and Fly overnight at the Phoenix Radisson so we could leave our car for the week.
About an hour before we were to leave the hotel for the airport I get a Robo call from US Air announcing that our flight was canceled. Travelocity said they would try to get us out the next day which was completely unacceptable.
I called US Air and after 30 minutes got them to book us on a flight to Maui but it came with the same 1400 departure and a 3.5 hour layover in Maui before we could get back to Honolulu. Arrrrg!
Like all flights these days the plane was 100% full with an extra allotment of idiots. We saw enough FAA flight reg violations to shut down the entire airlines. The guy across the aisle from me drank so much wine that he passed out on his girlfriends lap and she couldn't wake him up. A number of morbidly obese folks felt that since they did not fit in their seats with the armrest down they were entitled to raise it and spill over into the next seat.
The flight crew ignored all of this in addition to the overloaded (full of oversized, not even close to the regulation carry on requirements), storage bins with several being left open for an hour or more. Any surprise turbulence would have been a disaster especially for the folks, about half a dozen, who set up their cocktail hour in the aisle despite the seat belt sign being on for the entire trip.
Yep, when you fly you are completely at the mercy of the airlines/travel sites and the great unwashed from the shallow end of the gene pool. We finally got to Honolulu and then had a blast for week enjoying the craziness of Waikiki and exploring the rest of Oahu. Got to surf/boogey board every day and logged 450 miles on our little compact rental car (A Mazda 3 which was very nice and great on gas).
The return flight was a little better as after again downgrading us to US Air and delaying the flight by 2 hours they canceled that flight altogether. Happily American stepped up with one of their aircraft and crew and got us out on time. A favorable jet stream enabled our Redeye to shave and hour off of our return to Phoenix making the flight just 5.5 hours most of which we slept.
It will be a long time before we fly again (if ever), and do yourself a favor and avoid Travelocity/US Air like the plague. Glad we went and glad we are back. It's a little grainy/cell phone shot but here is this 63 old guy having too much fun on the Boogey board I rented for the week at Kuhio Beach:
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Oh, and at least one congress-critter wants to allow them back on again.
