Just returned from an 8 day vacation to Hawaii which was a little beyond the capabilities of our Class C and all I can say is "Never again!" Don't get me wrong, we had a blast. Our neighbors gave us their condo for a week so our costs were limited to air fare and a rental car (as food and drink are basically a wash).
This was our second trip to the islands and we thoroughly enjoyed exploring all that Hawaii has to offer but the travel (unlike in our coach), was nothing but a nightmare. When flying anywhere you surrender all control to the chuckleheads at the airlines/travel sites.
Despite having booked and paid for our flight months ago Travelocity {NEVER, EVER use Travelocity... but I digress}, :S we found our flight pushed back 8 hours and severely downgraded from American to US Airways {hands down the worst airlines on earth}.
A mere 30 minutes prior to leaving our (seriously overpriced), Phoenix hotel (near as I can tell there was no extra charge for the food poisoning :E that I got at their in house restaurant), for the airport I got a Robo call informing us that our flight had been canceled and they would try and get us out the following day. After 40 minutes on the phone I convinced them that this was unacceptable and they got us on a flight to Maui that came with a 3.5 hour layover before we could connect back to Honolulu.
The return flight was not much better and we spent most of it agreeing that travel in the motorhome was far and away our best option (unless you want to go to Hawaii). :R We love our coach and if it is even possible, appreciate the joy of our motorhome more than
ever. The food is way better and you can eat with out health concerns {Duh, what a concept}.
You won't see many (if any), motorhomes in Hawaii unless you count the hundreds of Prevost 42 - 45' Tag axle tour bus's but given the traffic on O'ahu you really would not want to drive a motorhome there. Gas was running around $3.25 for regular.
So here's to RV'ing... Like that old commercial said "It's the only way to fly". We had a great time once we got there and it was a thrill to get back in the water for a week of Boogey Boarding in the 80* water {especially at the ripe old age of 63} Sorry for the grainy cell phone pic:
Looking forward to lots of trips for the rest of the year but rest assured... none of them will involve an airport. :B
This was our second trip to the islands and we thoroughly enjoyed exploring all that Hawaii has to offer but the travel (unlike in our coach), was nothing but a nightmare. When flying anywhere you surrender all control to the chuckleheads at the airlines/travel sites.
Despite having booked and paid for our flight months ago Travelocity {NEVER, EVER use Travelocity... but I digress}, :S we found our flight pushed back 8 hours and severely downgraded from American to US Airways {hands down the worst airlines on earth}.
A mere 30 minutes prior to leaving our (seriously overpriced), Phoenix hotel (near as I can tell there was no extra charge for the food poisoning :E that I got at their in house restaurant), for the airport I got a Robo call informing us that our flight had been canceled and they would try and get us out the following day. After 40 minutes on the phone I convinced them that this was unacceptable and they got us on a flight to Maui that came with a 3.5 hour layover before we could connect back to Honolulu.
The return flight was not much better and we spent most of it agreeing that travel in the motorhome was far and away our best option (unless you want to go to Hawaii). :R We love our coach and if it is even possible, appreciate the joy of our motorhome more than
ever. The food is way better and you can eat with out health concerns {Duh, what a concept}.
You won't see many (if any), motorhomes in Hawaii unless you count the hundreds of Prevost 42 - 45' Tag axle tour bus's but given the traffic on O'ahu you really would not want to drive a motorhome there. Gas was running around $3.25 for regular.
So here's to RV'ing... Like that old commercial said "It's the only way to fly". We had a great time once we got there and it was a thrill to get back in the water for a week of Boogey Boarding in the 80* water {especially at the ripe old age of 63} Sorry for the grainy cell phone pic:
Looking forward to lots of trips for the rest of the year but rest assured... none of them will involve an airport. :B
mich800 wrote:
"severely downgraded from American to US Airways"
They are the same company.
Not quite...
US Airlines was bought out by American, who will be shutting them down around October. Until then the US Air aircrafts and employees continue to operate and at nowhere near the level of service provided by American. We witnessed enough FAA rules violations on that first flight to justify shutting them down immediately.
Our return flight was the "Red eye" direct into Phoenix and thanks to a nice tail wind from the Jet Stream we arrived in 5.5 hours (vs 6.5 going over). The Red eye was switched from American to US Air. Then the US Air flight was "delayed" and additional 2 hours and ultimately replaced with our original choice of an American aircraft and crew. All the flights were 100% full with far too many of the colorful idiots so well described in a couple of the above posts. :R
We had used Travelocity years ago with good results but have learned our lesson. If we have to fly it will be with a direct booking with the airline of choice. Now back to planning another great trip in our coach to get out of Tucson as summer arrived a couple of days ago and June is the hottest, driest month of the year.
:B
