Hawaii Tourism Cool Down Looms - good or bad?

[HiloJulie]

Gary,

While I can't speak for "the dude," I can tell you that both my husband and I are very frequent flyers - to mainland as well as oversea destinations and have been for almost 30 years now. So much so, that both my husband and I are as high as you can get with United Airlines. (Not interested in bashing/promoting United, it's just when our careers and moving here to Hilo started, United was the only game in town that worked)

First off, regardless of airline frequent flyer status, getting an upgrade for a person such as yourself who may fly every 5 years is not an expectation to really look forward to. Obviously, the higher up the ladder you are on any given airline, upgrades can be easily obtained, but the chance of really getting one comes down to the actual plane being used. Also, the fare paid has some involvement on an airline granting an upgrade. Buying a premium coach ticket versus the cheapest price ticket matters as well as program status.

As for the type of plane - for example, you may want to go to SFO. There are many ways to do that - either via Kona, Maui or Honolulu. United uses a 737, a 757, a 777 and a 787 to SFO from one of these Hawaii airports.

A 737 may have 12 to 16 first class/business seats where a 757 may have 16 to 20 seats whereas a 777 or a 787 may have 60 plus seats - thereby increasing the chances of an upgrade tremendously. You also have to consider time, price and yes inter-island to go to Maui or Honolulu. Also - you may find a morning flight with 10 open seats showing but an afternoon flight with less than 1/3 of the plane sold - book that one!

I have never bought a full fare first class ticket in my life, yet for the last 20 plus years, I've always flown first class - husband too!

Also, nothing to do with getting an upgrade, but getting TSA Pre-Check, not so much for here in Hawaii, but everywhere else - can be a godsend!

Now one novel approach I saw tried to be used was a few months ago while in O'Hare at the gate awaiting boarding to go to LAX, a very enterprising young adult lady was trying to convince the gate agent that she was this huge Instagram influencer who, if given a free upgrade, would write a very positive glowing review, or otherwise trash United to all of her followers!

For some reason, the gate agent did not agree, and said to her, "If you're that big on Insta, you would be flying private!"

[terracore]

I can't speak for the other airlines, but with Alaska you have to requalify for their MVP programs every year unless you make it to their million mile club or whatever its called.

I remember one year, I flew over 100 segments with them. They sent me a box of cookies with fancy gift wrap for Christmas. Eventually my job changed, and I didn't have to travel all the time (thank God) and POOF! All the benefits expired after the following year.

So I've been consuming a dwindling pile of miles since. At first I would travel first class with them, but as they got consumed it was clear they weren't going to last forever. So now if I go to the madland, I travel first class on the way there, and back with the cattle on the way back. I got maybe one of those left and then it will be moo! MOO! both directions until those are gone and I have to start paying out of pocket. Fortunately I don't travel much. At one point I gifted a bunch of miles so family members could visit. Those days are over.

I knew a guy who paid for first class, but only if it worked out to where it cost $50/hour or less over the bovine rate. That was the figure that he had calculated out that made it "worth it".

[garymatt]

Oh my. Thank you for the information. It seems my usual tactic of looking sweet and harmless but pitiful has no chance. That does work at least a third of the time to get in the TSA Pre-Check line.
An aside. I used to think the TSA Pre-Check short line meant you had registered with the government providing background information to be investigated and therefore certified ahead of time as NOT being a terrorist. I looked up what it took to complete that process. It boiled down to paying a sum of money to the government who would then certify you as being Pre-Checked. It seemed logical to me that all terrorists would do this to be Pre-Checked.
Except for the poor terrorists of course.

[Punatang]

Gone are the days when you could gift a high dollar bottle of spirits to what was then referred to as a "stewardess" and elevate oneself to prize bull status.  Moo.

[kalianna]

TSA pre-check did do a background search before certifying me initially, but not when I renewed. Hence, a future terrorist with a clean record upon applying, once cleared is good to go. At least weʻd be dealing with amateurs. Hmmm, maybe thatʻs not such a good thing.

[HiloJulie]

TSA pre-check did do a background search before certifying me initially, but not when I renewed.  Hence, a future terrorist with a clean record upon applying, once cleared is good to go.  At least weʻd be dealing with amateurs.  Hmmm, maybe thatʻs not such a good thing.

Well considering that to get TSA you must be an American born or naturalized citizen, the possibility that a terrorist may get thru upon TSA renewal is possible, but then the chances of that terrorist being some radicalized religious lunatic from some other country is very low compared to that possible terrorist being a regular radicalized American citizen.  

So yeh, that’s a possibility that might not be good.

[Durian Fiend]

From the opening post:

" Mullen said he thinks rising Hawaii hotel rates, when combined with other fees and taxes, are dissuading some customers. For instance, Pleasant Holidays’ wholesale package pricing for the Hilton Hawaiian Village Waikiki Beach Resort shows daily room rates of $495, which rise to $715 per night once resort fees, parking fees and taxes are added.
“That’s about a 40% increase,” Mullen said, adding that all-in nightly costs for hotel rooms in Jamaica are $436 and $411 in Mexico."

Wow. Some people are being priced out of vacationing in Hawaii. Frankly I'm stunned by the numbers for Jamaica and Mexico too.

[HiloJulie]

Gary,

A little secret to always get to the front of the security line is when you book your ticket, order a wheelchair. 

Not only will someone push you around anywhere you want to go, including finding out where all the secret elevators are in any airport you go, but you will be whisked to the front of the line and in most cases only run through the metal detector instead of the full body X-Ray scanner!

Not that I’ve ever done this, but just saying!

[kalianna]

Oh, thatʻs great advice. Then when someone who needs a wheelchair has to wait around for one, youʻll be sitting smugly in your seat.

[terracore]

I knew an airline employee and one of their jobs was rounding up the wheelchairs. This was back when direct airline employees did stuff like that. He said that a lot of the people who need wheelchairs... "leak". And no, they don't sanitize them between users. You don't want to sit in one unless you have to.

Of course, they also sit in the same aircraft seats as everyone else, so there's really no escaping "it".

Another friend who worked for an airline was traveling non-rev, so standby. One of the first class passengers died in their seat during boarding and it delayed the flight departure. But then she got The Offer. She could either sit in coach or... a seat just opened up in first class.

She said it felt a little weird at first, but went on to explain that people die on airplanes a lot more than the industry wants their customers to know, so chances are anybody who's flown a lot has already sat in chair that had a dead person in it. They don't (or didn't at the time) normally replace seats, they "clean as necessary".