Comments on: Hawaii Vacations News Roundup for April 3rd

By: Sheila

Sheila — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 13:28:44 +0000

David – What’s strange to me is trying to understand why anyone would not want to purchase tickets with a credit card? Credit cards offer so much more protection. Oh, and don’t make me jealous that you live closer to Hawaii than me.

By: jim

jim — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 01:40:26 +0000

Sheila: No I hadn’t but it’s hilarious, thanks for posting it!

David: Unfortunately every airline that goes under does it the same way…

Skybus just joined the bankruptcy bandwagon, fortunately they didn’t run any service to or from Hawaii.

By: David

David — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 22:52:30 +0000

Sheila,

It is scary. One lesson learned is to always purchase your airline tickets with a credit card. That way you can at least get a refund for the ticket if the airline goes under.

One surprise, I used Kayak to price tickets from San Francisto to Maui for May 8th and they were actually still quite reasonable. $401 round trip including tax. Hopefully there’s enought flights to keep fares competitive.

David

By: Sheila

Sheila — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 23:02:03 +0000

David – It’s kind of scary how two airlines close up shop so abruptly.
I’m glad you were able to change your seats on that ATA flight as 4 rows behind the tail could have been windy and cold.

By: David

David — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 22:56:59 +0000

My best ATA story. Flying home from Maui to Oakland on ATA my wife and I had confirmed seats together. The ticket agent insisted on changing our seats before issuing our boarding passes. I told her we were happy where we were. She said, “I don’t think so sir, we’ve had a plane change and your seats are now 4 rows behind the tail.” We changed.

We never had a bad flight on ATA and the price was right. My understanding is they went under after losing their Military contract. They transported troops to Iraq and back.

Could have handled the shutdown better though. There’s no excuse for leaving people standing at the gate with no warning whatsoever.

By: Sheila

Sheila — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 22:18:00 +0000

Jim – speaking of nickel and diming, have you seen this video? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSJwzYiB_Pc

By: jim

jim — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 20:11:24 +0000

We flew ATA to Hawaii out of Oakland the flight wasn’t too great, I’m not surprised they’re going under. I really don’t understand the nickel and diming they go through when they should just scrap it and charge people $5 more per ticket. Plus, all the advertising? Ridiculous.

What’s funny is I swore I wasn’t going to fly ATA again, though I probably would if the price was right, but now I don’t have to hold myself to the promise.