I am sitting in the Honolulu airport right now. Last night Go! airlines which just traverses the islands took off an hour late and we missed all of our connections. By the time we got from Kona to Honolulu it was past 10PM and all the flights were gone. Spent the night in a hotel which Go! refuses to reimburse us for because supposedly they don't have to cuz we got our tickets through Orbitz. Bullshit. They have also lost our luggage, and, I swear, every single counter employee, including the "supervisor" is under 25 and texting, talking on their cell phones, or otherwise finding a way to make you feel as though you're interrupting their important personal business.
Anyway, United kindly straightened all our shit out and our flight doesn't take off until 10PM tonight - right now its barely 2PM Hawaii time - and it is standby so there are no guarantees.
I figured I'd spring the $9 for the 24 hrs of internet access since I'm here for - lets see - fucking ever!
Anyway advise for future Hawaii travelers - within the islands fly Hawaiian airlines - any extra change is probably worth it. Plus they probably won't lose your luggage.
Whilst I see if airports carry a change of underclothing to get me through the next 24 hours, I shall post the one video I have so far uploaded to youtube of myself about getting swept out to sea from the lava flow. (This was actually sorta dangerous and stupid and was worse than it looks.)
The really big wakes start at about a minute and a half in - watch for the dramatic camera jostle as I start to lose my balance.
They actually never said what the reason was. The Go! flight was supposed to take off at 6PM - a 1/2 hour flight from Kona to Honolulu - our connection at 7:10PM. Instead, the Go flight left at 7:30PM...
Oh yeah - we did the whole thing through Orbitz. The kind, helpful United lady said that Go was full of crap and it was their responsibility to reimburse us for the hotel room not Orbitz...
Go did give hotel vouchers to other people and told me that since they made the flight directly with Go, they got vouchers but that we weren't their responsibility because we'd gone through Orbitz. -- The United lady also said that this was bogus. Very crappy airline...
This is the problem with every place I have ever been that labels itself "paradise on Earth". No one wants to work. Which is fine until you need shit done and then you are fucked.
Ha! That looks fun! (The video) I love the big surf but it can be scary. I've been knocked down many a time. It always seems to happen when I have no intention of even getting wet too. You know what sucks worse than wearing steel toed work boots all day? Wearing wet steel toed work boots all day.
I have never flown GO! Airlines for two reasons.
1) A LOT of people have said what you said about them, and
2) I blame them for the demise of Aloha Airlines. I had been flying Aloha since 1989 and had enough frequent flyer miles for a round trip to Jupiter. Maybe Aloha would have gone out of business anyway but, it happened shortly after GO! got here.
C) That's a stupid name for an airline.
I would definately call or send an email to the corporate office and tell them about the hotel issue. The parent company is Mesa Air Group.
One crtiisism for Orbitz though is, they should have made your travel arrangements so that you can check in with any connecting flights at least 1 hour prior to departure. If your flight home was to leave at 7:10, you should have arrived in Honolulu by 5:30. That would have given time for de-boarding the flight from Kona, finding the next check-in counter, and checking in. Realistically, you should have had a flight that left Kona between 4:30 and 5:00. A travel company should know this. Sounds like maybe Orbitz is run by 20 year olds too. Airlines are not as punctual as subways. If they have a maintenance issue with the plane flying your route at any time during the day, it will be late ALL day.
Ginny is SOOO right too! I mean, I'm laid back and easy going but, when something needs to get done at work, I do it. Right then.
My friend who runs an event planning company out here, and has lived in Hawaii since before the Big Island rose from the ocean, told me to pay attention to who really gets things done out here. "It's all mainland USA and Japanese people" she said.
While she is not 100% correct, she pretty much hit the nail on the head.
The local attitude is, eh, I'll do it when I do it.
They get away with that crap here because in many cases, you have no other option but to use them.
