P_M

I am so upset!!

We booked an award ticket to Kona and we were to arrive at 1pm, but they have changed the schedule and now we will arrive at 8pm!! Our time in Hawaii is so short already, and I am so upset to have lost this first day. I was so looking forward to spending that afternoon relaxintg, snorkeling, or just exploring the are. But no, we will arrive around 8pm and by the time we get to the condo, we will be so tired from traveling and the 5 hour time change we won't be doing anything.

I talked to a supervisor at AA to try and re-route us to get us there earlier, but they only have that one flight into Kona, and all of the other schedules just don't get us there any sooner.

I don't expect anyone to have a solution, but I just needed to vent. Thanks for lending an ear....or in this case, lending an eye.

kmpordagee

Well, I don't blame you for being disappointed. That's the pits.

P_M

Thank you, kmpordagee.

I apologize for all of the typos in my OP, I've been on the phone w/AA all morning trying to come up with a solution and my nerves are frazzled. I had thought of leaving a day earlier, but DH doesn't have any more vacation time. Oh, and here's the icing on the cake--in addition to arriving late in the day, we now have a 4 hour layover at LAX!! ARRRGGGGHHH!!!!

Neopolitan

If you were to arrive at 1 PM, by the time you claimed luggage and got to where you were staying, what time do you think it would have been? Certainly mid-afternoon, I'd think. How much time would that have really left for the things you mentioned. I'd hardly call it a "day" that you lost, but I see why you're disappointed. Meanwhile, wouldn't you have been just as tired from the travel and the time change if you arrived earlier in the day? You probably wouldn't have felt like doing much anyway, would you?

I'm not trying to argue with you, just trying to help give you a way to justify why it isn't so bad as you're trying to make it since there isn't anything you can do about it. When life (or AA) hands you lemons, you might as well make lemonade.

P_M

I hear what you are saying Neo, and you are making some very good points. I appreciate your trying to make me feel better. ><

I know stuff happens when you travel and I'm sorry if I'm coming across as a whiner. I've experienced delays before which cost me a day of a trip, and it usually comes without warning. (like missing a connection) Maybe it's not an entire day we've lost, but it would have been nice to have that afternoon and evening.

Oh well, with that 4 hour layover at LAX, at least we don't have to worry about missing our connection.

I'm trying to be optimistic, but I can't help it, I'm still miffed.

aloha

Hi P_M. I sympathize with your feeling upset. Losing 8 hours in Hawai'i, and those 4 hours that you thought you would be spending in Hawai'i and now will be spending in LAX would upset me, too. It's only a few hours, but it represents a percentage of your total vacation time.

Am I correct that your trip is in Sept.? Hang in there, they may change the schedule again. I have had that happen with AA a few years ago on a Hawai'i trip. I meticulously chose the best times and connections, then they changed the schedule and I was very stressed out about it. Then, they changed the schedule back to close to what it had originally been. so maybe there is hope something like that will happen on your itinerary.

Either way, you can look forward to the glorious feeling you will get when you wake up on your first morning in Hawai'i, probably well before the sun comes up, and savor the possibilities for the day.

P_M

Aloha to you, aloha. Thanks for your words of encouragement. I hope EVERYONE complains about this schedule change so they will have to change it back!! I won't count on that, but a gal can dream, can't she? I will still look forward to the time I will have in HI and I am very fortunate to be going on this trip.

P_M

Sorry I didn't answer your question--yes we are leaving 9/29.

cabovacation

It is a bummer, indeed. But that day traveling west is always sort of horrific because of the dramatic time change. I sympathize. In LAX just try to find a decent restaurant and take it easy. And WALK! Walk around and use some muscles. that flight to HI is kind of long.

In the end, we think you will have a blast anyway.

suze

P_M, man oh man, I'd be cryin' too.

I feel your pain!!! Although I think 4 hours at LAX is a worse fate than a somewhat later arrival in Hawaii (oops, maybe I'm not helping here -lol).

Since it's not until September maybe there will be a possibility for you to somehow reroute or reticket?

I know for me between Seattle to Honolulu, that's one thing I love... leave here 10am and arrive there 2:30pm what with a non-top and the time change working in my favor.

Is it flying into Hilo that's the snaffu in the planning? Any creative reticketing you could do going thru Honolulu or something?

kindly, Suze

joan

Hey PM, one last idea (this happened to us too): Find out if there's a red eye into LAX the night before, so hubby can still work that day, but you fly out at night. Get a Priceline hotel at LAX, and connect to the first HA flight in the morning, thereby getting there EARLIER! That's what we did...oh, and find your own connection first before calling, so you can suggest it to AA. Even if it's a different airline, they *may* be willing to work with you (could even depend on who you get on the phone...)

Hope this helps.

P_M

Joan, I had just typed the following, and when I hit preview, I saw your post about flying out the night before. Our great minds were working together!! Unfortunately staying in LA won't work, but staying near the HNL airport just might. Read on:

Hi, Suze. Actually I've been looking at re-routing w/AA on the phone and there's not much they can do. We looked at flying into Honolulu, then on to Kona but that wouldn't be a huge time-saver, as we'd still arrive in the late afternoon. Right now I'm on AA's web page and I'm considering the possibility of flying into HNL a day early, arriving 11pm, then flying out the next morning from HNL to Kona. On this route we could leave Austin at 6:15 pm and DH could work that day (as he has no more vacation time). But then we would have to spend the night in an airport hotel near HNL, at our expense of course. I'm trying to decide just how badly we want that day in Kona. Personally I want it pretty badly and it might be worth a little more $$ out of pocket. <sigh> Thanks for your nice thoughts.

DebitNM

PM--
Thanks so much for posting this. I am sorry for your dilema -- but maybe misery loves company -->>

I got to thinking that maybe I'd better check our reservations to HA in October... and sure enough...our flight was changed too. We are flying from ABQ [via DFW] to HNL and then onto to Maui that same afternoon. With this change, we will now miss our flight to Maui!! I am sure there are other flights as I remember having many to pick. We specifically allowed sufficient time in HNL to connect to Maui...all for naught it appears. I will now have to see if I am going to have to pay a penalty to change flight on Aloha Air.

To add insult to injury, AA never even emailed me with the change!! Had you not posted this, I wouldn't have know about the change.

And of course, if I rebook Aloha now, what's to say AA won't change things a few more times between now and October? I should have known AA would do this -- earlier this year they did the same thing with our trip to St. John USVI.

Thanks....

Debi

joan

PM, excellent! Go for it. There are surely Priceline hotels at HNL...what can it cost? $100? You won't remember how much anyway, after the Mai Tai's!
Have fun!

P_M

Oh Debi, I'm sorry this happened to you too!! Be sure to ask for a supervisor if the agent who answers the phone can't help, and please post back with the results. Here's a hug for good luck!! ><

suze

I like the Honolulu idea, to get things going for you a bit sooner. It wouldn't have to be an airport hotel... even if you stay in Waikiki that one night. It's real easy to get to hotels from the airport on the Waikiki Hotel Shuttle bus ($9pp one-way I think). It's about 1/2 hour from the airport. That way you could have dinner on the beach. Or using taxis (~$30 each way). Best of luck!

DebitNM

IT get's even better!! The flights AA have us on now...only have 40 minute connection in DFW!!

Thanks for the hug PM <<<<<h>>>>> back at you!
Debi

P_M

Debi, I'm so glad things worked for you. Please read on:

UPDATE--GOOD NEWS!!

I called AA again and here's the latest news:

We are going with the original plan for the outbound flight, arriving at 8pm. However, instead of flying home from HNL on 10/6, we are now flying home from Kona on 10/6, which is what we wanted when we originally planned this trip. The reason we didn't fly home from Kona in the first place is they didn't have availability for FF awards on that flight. However because of this situation they will make an exception for us, so this gives us even more time in Kona! This change was made by AA with no charge to us. WOOHOO!!

My only regret about this change is that we will not see Pearl Harbor unless we do it on a day trip, which is still a possibility. Also, we had already bought our one-way tix from Kona to HNL. But here's the bright side--the tix from Kona to HNL only cost $88 for BOTH tickets, so it's not a huge loss. And here's the other bright side--we now have more time to explore the BI, and now there's time to spend one night at Volcanos National Park, and hopefully see a lava flow at night. After hearing so much about VNP I was very sorry we would only have time for a day trip, but now we can really see it and not be rushed.

Oh geez, what a day!! But all's well that ends well, and I'm even more exicted about this trip than before. I'm sure we will return to HI someday, and we will see Pearl Harbor then.

THANK YOU ALL from the bottom of my heart!! Your kind words meant a lot to me. You are the BEST, and that's why I love this board. <sniff, sniff>

And I'm no longer mad at American Airlines!!

Hugs to all on this thread, >< and please join me in doing a happy hula dance!! \/

LoveItaly

Hi P_M, I am so glad you got everything worked out to your satisfaction.

A question, can you do a happy hula dance and yodel at the same time?? Inquirying minds want to know!

DebitNM

MANY thanks to PM! =D>

I managed to get our AA flights to Hawaii moved a bit closer to original times [ with more than the 50 minutes connection time their revised flights had given us] but still had a problem with Aloha Air flight to Maui, which we were to take 2 hours after arriving in HNL.

Aloha said it would charge us $40 to change to a later flight. I explained that the change was due to AA flight schedule change that I had nothing to do with and that it didn't seem fair that I should have to pay change fee. Aloha told me to have AA call them with details and there would be no charge to me.

When I called AA, they said they don't do that since Aloha isn't a code share/partner and that the inter-island flights are not on my AA ticket. Called Aloha back, they said it was AA responsibility to call Aloha and if it were reversed..Aloha would call AA.

So I call AA back, get shuffled around 3 times [having to repeat the whole thing each time] and am told that this is not AA's responsiblity but they would call for me. {I wondered if this had anything to do with the fact that AA tickets were AAdvantage Award tickets}. They did call Aloha and I got the flight to Maui changed, but was told that IF {read that WHEN} any further changes needed to be made, Aloha would charge me, per their policy. And I know that between now and October...AA is sure to change flight schedules again.

So once again a HUGE thanks to PM and have a mai-tai on us

Debi