iamq trip report: To another hell hole and back!
Mar 3rd, 2007, 07:44 PM
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Dinner has been served, so I guess I can start. Thanks to sistahlou for kicking me in the akahini. 
And I must say that I don't think I could have come up with a better title myself. Mahalo sis. 
A little over a year ago I began scheming a surprise trip for my partner in celebration of his 60th birthday the following Febraury.
Where would I take him? Someplace warm for sure. Mexico? Caribbean? Hawaii AGAIN? I started looking around. After a few false starts I decided on Hawaii AGAIN. Once the islands get in your blood and under your skin, you're toast.
Up until recently, Kaua'i has been our island du jour and that was my first thought, but then I started thinking...Marteen had never been to Maui...and I had not been back since at least 1997. Maui it was, and the planning began.
We flew over on United from SFO to OGG. The trip got off to a bumpy start. We were boarded onto the 777 and everyone was in their seats. This is good! Hawaii! The captain comes on and says, " I have some bad news". He starts off by telling us that our safety is his primary concern, blah, blah, blah...and then says "This airplane has been flying for the last week with only two functioning toilets. I have reported it to maintainence over and over and they have done nothing and will do nothing to fix the problem. I consider flying a plane with 300 passengers with two working heads a health and safety hazard, so I am hereby declaring this plane unfit to fly. We are not leaving." SAY WHAT? WHAT THE %#*&? Then he says, "Our two option are to fix this plane or for the airline to find another. I any case, we won't be leaving anytime soon. I will be back to give you an update in a few minutes. Thanks for understanding the seriousness of the situation."
And I must say that I don't think I could have come up with a better title myself. Mahalo sis. A little over a year ago I began scheming a surprise trip for my partner in celebration of his 60th birthday the following Febraury.
Where would I take him? Someplace warm for sure. Mexico? Caribbean? Hawaii AGAIN? I started looking around. After a few false starts I decided on Hawaii AGAIN. Once the islands get in your blood and under your skin, you're toast.
Up until recently, Kaua'i has been our island du jour and that was my first thought, but then I started thinking...Marteen had never been to Maui...and I had not been back since at least 1997. Maui it was, and the planning began.
We flew over on United from SFO to OGG. The trip got off to a bumpy start. We were boarded onto the 777 and everyone was in their seats. This is good! Hawaii! The captain comes on and says, " I have some bad news". He starts off by telling us that our safety is his primary concern, blah, blah, blah...and then says "This airplane has been flying for the last week with only two functioning toilets. I have reported it to maintainence over and over and they have done nothing and will do nothing to fix the problem. I consider flying a plane with 300 passengers with two working heads a health and safety hazard, so I am hereby declaring this plane unfit to fly. We are not leaving." SAY WHAT? WHAT THE %#*&? Then he says, "Our two option are to fix this plane or for the airline to find another. I any case, we won't be leaving anytime soon. I will be back to give you an update in a few minutes. Thanks for understanding the seriousness of the situation."
Mar 4th, 2007, 04:55 AM
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iamq,
I find your plane incident fascinating because two years ago DH and I flew on a United plane where the one and only toilet wasn't functioning and the pilot, who sounded a tad fed up, said he didn't deem that a safety issue for the passengers and took off. We think he had tickets to a Spurs game that night...either that or a hot date.
I find your plane incident fascinating because two years ago DH and I flew on a United plane where the one and only toilet wasn't functioning and the pilot, who sounded a tad fed up, said he didn't deem that a safety issue for the passengers and took off. We think he had tickets to a Spurs game that night...either that or a hot date.
Mar 4th, 2007, 06:26 AM
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What a bunch of komedian's!
I do admit that in retrospect it does sound funny, but at the time I WAS NOT AMUSED and I went into full-bore-worst-case-scenario-negative thinking pessimisstic mode. Marteen on the other hand was his usual Susie Sunshine-optimistic-"It will be alright" self. UGHHH. If you were a fly on the wall above our seats what you would have seen would not have been pretty.
Judging from the noise and chaos in the plane at this time our little drama was not the only one. People started screaming, yelling, groaning things like, "He's using us as pawns", "What an a*#hole", and other very speeeeschle statements. The poor flight attendants just stood there with uncomfortable looks and did nothing (what could they do). After a few minutes, one did come on the PA and say that there was not another plane available, so the flight would be probably be cancelled. More groans. We could see the door from our seats, and I saw a maintainence guy come on the plane. He did not go to the bathrooms however, he went straight to the cockpit. Hmmm...I'm sure they had an interesting conversation. A first class passenger with friends in our cabin came back to chat with them and said that everyone in first class was on their cell-phones calling United to bitch. LOL! That supplied everyone within earshot a much needed chuckle.
So after about 20 minutes of lovely pre-paradise stress the pilot comes on and says, "Well, there is no other plane available and getting you all onto other flights does not look good, so we've come up with a solution. We will bring bottles of water on the plane and place them in the bathrooms that will be used to "flush" the toilets."
Now...THIS WAS FUNNY!
He went on and invited anyone who felt that this was not an acceptable solution, could deplane. Whatevah! Just get this thing up in the air and get me to paradsie! A few minutes later, bottles of AquaFina were brought on, placed in the bathrooms ans we were on our way. What a debacle. Traveling by air sure ain't what it used to be.
I attempted to use one of the bathrooms once, but there was water all over the floor (I hope it was water). GROSS. But, there was hand santizer by the sink, LOL!
Nothing more was mentioned, we had a strong tailwind and acutually got to Maui just a few minutes late of our originally scheduled arrival time.
more later.
I do admit that in retrospect it does sound funny, but at the time I WAS NOT AMUSED and I went into full-bore-worst-case-scenario-negative thinking pessimisstic mode. Marteen on the other hand was his usual Susie Sunshine-optimistic-"It will be alright" self. UGHHH. If you were a fly on the wall above our seats what you would have seen would not have been pretty.
Judging from the noise and chaos in the plane at this time our little drama was not the only one. People started screaming, yelling, groaning things like, "He's using us as pawns", "What an a*#hole", and other very speeeeschle statements. The poor flight attendants just stood there with uncomfortable looks and did nothing (what could they do). After a few minutes, one did come on the PA and say that there was not another plane available, so the flight would be probably be cancelled. More groans. We could see the door from our seats, and I saw a maintainence guy come on the plane. He did not go to the bathrooms however, he went straight to the cockpit. Hmmm...I'm sure they had an interesting conversation. A first class passenger with friends in our cabin came back to chat with them and said that everyone in first class was on their cell-phones calling United to bitch. LOL! That supplied everyone within earshot a much needed chuckle.
So after about 20 minutes of lovely pre-paradise stress the pilot comes on and says, "Well, there is no other plane available and getting you all onto other flights does not look good, so we've come up with a solution. We will bring bottles of water on the plane and place them in the bathrooms that will be used to "flush" the toilets."
Now...THIS WAS FUNNY!
He went on and invited anyone who felt that this was not an acceptable solution, could deplane. Whatevah! Just get this thing up in the air and get me to paradsie! A few minutes later, bottles of AquaFina were brought on, placed in the bathrooms ans we were on our way. What a debacle. Traveling by air sure ain't what it used to be.
I attempted to use one of the bathrooms once, but there was water all over the floor (I hope it was water). GROSS. But, there was hand santizer by the sink, LOL!
Nothing more was mentioned, we had a strong tailwind and acutually got to Maui just a few minutes late of our originally scheduled arrival time.
more later.
i'2
Mar 4th, 2007, 08:41 AM
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Geez i'2, it sounds like you need a vacation yourself! 
Ahh, I almost forgot! This was the first time we've flown since the new carry-on liquid rules. We don't like checking baggage and almost always carry-on everything. We pack lite. No hiking boots...only one mumu...two bathing suits instead of six, that sort of thing. So I started searching around for 3oz containers. Wow. I had a hard time finding things that would work. Even Nalgene, who makes almost every kind of bottle you can think of, makes 2oz and 4oz, but not 3oz. Finally I came across this product. http://www.easytravelerinc.com/ I bought one and it worked very nicely. The tubes were an interesting alternative to bottles.
So, we landed in OGG! That first whiff of warm, moist air is the best antidote for just about anything, even stinky, germ riden toilets that don't flush.
We were on the rental car shuttle in no time and we at Thrifty waiting to get our Sebring Convertible. I reserved the car through Discount Hawaii Car Rental. I've never used a middle man before. I had my paperwork and showed it to the guy at the counter and he went to work. After a minute he produced the contract, tried to sell me the insurance, and then gave me the contract to sign. Whoa Nellie! The botom line said $485.00! My quote was around $300. I handed it back to him with my quote and said there must be some mistake. He grumbled and mumbled and disappeared. About this time a cute and perky haole girl who had been standing around behind the counter with the other clerks came forward and asked how we were doing, blah, blah, blah. Where are staying? First time to Maui? How long? What will you be doing?
At first I thought she was a superviser or something and chatted her up until she said, "I can arrange a whole range of activities for you while you are here and save you a lot of money, get you on the best boat to Molokini, get you front row at OLL, etc. if you agree to sit through a 90 minute..." Oh brother! We were being timeshare ambushed while a captive audience at the rental car counter! You expect the timeshare song-and-dance that at activity desks in Lahaina, but here? That was a first for me. Anywone else ever experience this? Anyhow, amazed and amused by the ingenuity, I told her no, no, no several times, she backed off, the clerk came back, not as friendly as before with the correct amount and we were on our way. Jeez, that was not a very pleasant experience. Screw it. We got the keys, the car, the map and hit the road! AAAAAAloooooohaaaa!
Ahh, I almost forgot! This was the first time we've flown since the new carry-on liquid rules. We don't like checking baggage and almost always carry-on everything. We pack lite. No hiking boots...only one mumu...two bathing suits instead of six, that sort of thing. So I started searching around for 3oz containers. Wow. I had a hard time finding things that would work. Even Nalgene, who makes almost every kind of bottle you can think of, makes 2oz and 4oz, but not 3oz. Finally I came across this product. http://www.easytravelerinc.com/ I bought one and it worked very nicely. The tubes were an interesting alternative to bottles.
So, we landed in OGG! That first whiff of warm, moist air is the best antidote for just about anything, even stinky, germ riden toilets that don't flush.
We were on the rental car shuttle in no time and we at Thrifty waiting to get our Sebring Convertible. I reserved the car through Discount Hawaii Car Rental. I've never used a middle man before. I had my paperwork and showed it to the guy at the counter and he went to work. After a minute he produced the contract, tried to sell me the insurance, and then gave me the contract to sign. Whoa Nellie! The botom line said $485.00! My quote was around $300. I handed it back to him with my quote and said there must be some mistake. He grumbled and mumbled and disappeared. About this time a cute and perky haole girl who had been standing around behind the counter with the other clerks came forward and asked how we were doing, blah, blah, blah. Where are staying? First time to Maui? How long? What will you be doing?
At first I thought she was a superviser or something and chatted her up until she said, "I can arrange a whole range of activities for you while you are here and save you a lot of money, get you on the best boat to Molokini, get you front row at OLL, etc. if you agree to sit through a 90 minute..." Oh brother! We were being timeshare ambushed while a captive audience at the rental car counter! You expect the timeshare song-and-dance that at activity desks in Lahaina, but here? That was a first for me. Anywone else ever experience this? Anyhow, amazed and amused by the ingenuity, I told her no, no, no several times, she backed off, the clerk came back, not as friendly as before with the correct amount and we were on our way. Jeez, that was not a very pleasant experience. Screw it. We got the keys, the car, the map and hit the road! AAAAAAloooooohaaaa!
