Avis Uses Bait, Switch and Upsell Tactics

Car rental firms jack up rates when using AmEx points

I use frequent flyer miles for flights whenever possible, expedient and/or wise, but I've been hoarding American Express points for car rentals for a long time. We are soon going to Hawaii -- first to Maui for a wedding and then to the Big Island for a vacation. Two rental car opportunities seemed like a good use of points. I started with the Big Island, because that will be the longer stay.

I spent a ridiculous amount of time on the Avis website trying to figure out what promotion/coupon codes I could use for Avis, so I finally phoned. The AmEx system is that I could redeem points for several coupons to be used toward (but not in full payment for) the rental, which for one week with Avis was going to be more than $450. I was too shocked to write down the exact quote, but it was high. The reservation agent told me that I would be better off not using the coupon at all. He quoted an economy car rate of $242 for seven days, with unlimited mileage and no extra charge for the second driver. Sold.

Then he told me about a service that Avis offers which would net me a $20 gas coupon and 5 percent cash back on the rental. I asked whether this happens automatically when renting, and instead of answering, he switched me to a fast-talking sales type who "upgraded" the service which I could try for a month for "only one dollar" and "cancel any time." The carrot he dangled over the telephone was a $20 gas coupon plus that 5 percent rebate, but first, he said, I had to sign up. When I balked, he told me that he "has been authorized" to raise the gas coupon to $40. I told him my name, address, etc., but when he asked for my date of birth, I refused and said I wasn't interested in providing personal information. He huffed, "I'm not asking for your Social Security number." I said I didn't want to provide any more personal information, so he hung up on me.

Avis indeed seems to be trying harder -- trying harder to sell a "service" that I didn't really want (although a $40 gas coupon would be nice). No matter what they tried, they succeeded in annoying me. Because I knew that the AmEx coupons would not make sense for Maui either, I simply made the reservation online and ignored the "offer" for the same service that the phone folks tried to force on me.

RIP: Hawaii Superferry

Hawaii Supreme Court decision scuttles high-speed, interisland ferry service

I cheered when I first heard about the Hawaii Superferry. It promised fast, reasonably priced passenger and vehicle transportation connecting the islands. That seemed like good news for both visitors and locals. Besides, I just plain like ferries. But when I heard the backstory and side effects of this service, I had mixed feelings. To borrow a phrase from Peter Pan, I still believe in ferries. They are efficient mass transportation, but there were disturbing aspects to this one.

The $85 million "Alakai" had problems from the beginning. Inspection delays. Environmental concerns about the big high-speed catamaran's interference with humpback whale migration. Local protesters on Maui and Kauai -- some on surfboards and traditional outrigger canoes -- who objected that an additional 866 people a day could land on their shores, adding to traffic and overdevelopment problems. The 2008 spike in fuel costs. Rudder cracks. Unexpected vulnerability to rough winter seas. Legal challenges because of flawed or missing environment impact studies. Ridership that was less than one-quarter of projections. The list goes on.

The "Alakai" had been scheduled to begin service on August 28, 2007, and finally took its maiden voyage on December 13. It lasted just over 15 star-crossed months. It was supposed to begin service on August 28, 2007, and finally took its maiden voyage on December 13. On Monday, the Hawaiian Supreme Court ruled that Act 2, a November 2007 state law permitting high-speed ferry service to commence before the environmental impact study study was completed, to be unconstitutional. The case was sent back to Circuit Court, but Hawaii Superferry president and CEO Tom Fargo threw in the towel, laid off all employees and after one farewell trip to return all vehicles to their islands of origin, pulled the plug on this service.

Fargo's statement:

"We are hugely disappointed with the Supreme Courts decision that Act 2 is
unconstitutional. After a year of operations, including a successful winter
season, we looked forward to the upcoming spring break with great energy and
enthusiasm. The problem before us today is there appears to be no short-term
solution to this ruling. To conduct another EIS, even with the work done to
date, and move it through legal review might take a year or so. Other options
don't provide the certainty necessary to sustain a business. As a result, we are
going to have to go out and find other employment for 'Alakai,' for now.
Obviously, this is not even close to our preferred outcome. We have believed
from the start and continue to believe that there is a clear and unmet need for
an Inter-Island High Speed Ferry System for the state. My hope, our hope, is
that the conditions will eventually be such that we can realize that vision in
Hawaii."

When I heard the news, I was a little glad and a little sad. I'm happy for islanders on Maui and Kauai, and I'm happy for the humpbacks. But I'm sad about a little trip I won't ever take that sounded splendid when everything went well. The "Alakai" is reportedly available, so if you know anyone who can use a 340-foot-long catamaran, have them call Fargo. He has one he'd like to lease out or perhaps sell.

Hawaii Promotes the Obama Connection

Visitors are reminded of President-Elect Barack Obama's Hawaiian heritage

In June 2007, when Barack Obama was a fast-rising star on the US political landscape, I was in Hawaii and took a fabulous, fascinating Hole in the Wall Food Tour that led to the real, multi-cultural mosaic of Honolulu. You can read about the tour here. In that post, I didn't mention that as we were driving back to the the highrises of Waikiki, Matthew pointed to a Baskin-Robbins dipping store and said that Obama had worked there as a teenager. Then, we didn't stop to take a picture. Now, perhaps the Hole in the Wall tour includes a pilgrimage to that dipping store too.

Mainlanders have made much of of his African-American roots, but in Honolulu, he's still considered a local. Now, Hawaii Convention & Visitors Bureau, which promotes the state's tourist interests, is pointing out just how Hawaiian the former senator from Illinois and soon-to-be president of the United States is -- and the information the bureau is disseminating even references the Baskin-Robbins that Matthew pointed out. The CVB writes:

BARACK OBAMA’S HAWAII

“You can’t really understand Barack until you understand Hawaii.” ~
Michelle Obama

Hawaii will always be home for President-elect Barack Obama. There can
be no doubt that growing up in this idyllic, multicultural setting was a major
influence in shaping who Obama is today.

KAMAAINA: LOCAL AT HEART
The Hawaiian word kamaaina means someone
who is native born or who has lived in Hawaii for some time. When Barack Obama
returns to Hawaii with his family, he comes as a kamaaina, a local who knows
where to go, where to eat and what to do. Here are a few places Obama has
visited on his trips back to Oahu:

ACTIVITIES:
• Pearl Harbor - Chief historian Daniel A. Martinez gave the Obama family a tour of the USS Arizona Memorial.
• Hanauma Bay – Located on the southeast coast of Oahu, this is Oahu’s most popular snorkeling destination. This is also near Sandy Beach, one of Obama’s favorite beaches growing up, as well as the Halona Blowhole, near the area where his
mother’s ashes were scattered.
• Nuuanu Pali Lookout – This scenic spot atop Oahu’s Windward peaks was the site of a fierce battle lead by King Kamehameha I.
• Golf – Obama has played rounds at Olomana Golf Links and Luana Hills
Country Club.
• National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl – One of the country’s most prominent national cemeteries for the armed forces. Obama’s grandfather is buried here.

FOOD:
• Plate lunch - Like most locals, Obama frequents the restaurants of Kapahulu on the outskirts of Waikiki. He’s been known to get a local style plate lunch from the Rainbow Drive-In and the 24-hour Oahu mainstay, Zippy’s.
• Shave Ice – The Obama family likes to cool off with a shave ice, the local version
of a snow cone. Matsumoto Shave Ice on the North Shore is a famous shop and spots like Waiola Shave Ice in Kapahulu are popular with locals.

New York Times: The Hawaiian Plate Lunch
SF Gate: Where Would Obama eat?

OHANA: BARACK OBAMA’S FAMILY
Barack Obama was born on August 4, 1961
at the Kapiolani Hospital for Women & Children in the city of Honolulu on
the island of Oahu. Honolulu is home to the majority of Hawaii’s diverse population and it was here at the University of Hawaii that Barack’s father and mother, Barack Obama Sr. and Ann Dunham, met.

Raised in Hawaii until he was six, Obama spent four years in Indonesia
after his mother remarried. Obama returned to Hawaii at age ten to attend the
prestigious Punahou School, where Steve Case, co-founder of AOL, and golf phenom
Michelle Wie also attended. Far from a Presidential hopeful, Obama dreamed of
becoming a pro basketball player, playing on the state championship basketball
team.

Obama lived with his maternal grandfather and grandmother, Stanley and
Madelyn Dunham, a few blocks from school in the neighborhood of Makiki, just ten
minutes away from Waikiki. He spent his youth enjoying picnics at the scenic Puu Ualakaa State Park near his home and Kapiolani Park in Waikiki as well as body surfing at Sandy Beach on the eastern tip of Oahu. He even worked at a Baskin-Robbins Ice Cream on South King Street that still exists today.

Obama continued on to Columbia and Harvard Law but made frequent visits
back to see his ohana, or family, in Hawaii. His mother, who earned a Ph.D. in
anthropology at the University of Hawaii, died of cancer in 1995. More recently,
Obama’s grandmother “Toot,” short for tutu (Hawaiian for grandmother), passed
away in Hawaii just one day before Obama was elected the 44th President of the
United States.

Honolulu Advertiser: Barack Obama: The Making of a Presidential Candidate

ALOHA: THE SPIRIT OF OBAMA

Beyond Hawaii’s natural beauty, the islands are a place of incredible
diversity. Dating back to plantation days, Hawaii has been home to a multicultural mix of people. It is this culture of acceptance and aloha that has had a profound affect on Barack Obama and will continue to influence him in the future.

“What’s best in me, and what’s best in my message, is consistent with
the tradition of Hawaii.” ~ Barack Obama

Time: My Chance Encounter With Obama in Hawaii

Inter-Island Airline Improvements in Hawaii

In the wake of Aloha's demise, Mokulele Airlines set to fly with larger aircraft

Mokulele Airlines of Hawai’i will begin flying 70-seat Embraer 170 jets on November 19, 2008. The two-class cabin will have large windows, comfortable seating with extra armrest room at the elbow, wider aisles and overhead bins nearly 30 percent larger than standard in most narrow-body aircraft to accommodate large carry-on bags.

Republic Airways Holdings, based in Indianapolis, Indiana, is operating Mokulele Airlines. This airline holding company owns Chautauqua Airlines, Republic Airlines and Shuttle America. I just flew Chautauqua, operating in Texas as a Continental commuter partner, from Houston to Midland-Odessa and from El Paso back to Houston. Previously, Mesa Airlines operated smaller Cessnas for Mokulele.

After all the airline failures I've written about in recent months, I am happy -- really happy -- to report on improved air service, especially in Hawaii, which really depends on reliable air service. The carrier's phone number is 808-426-7070.

Molokai Ranch Closes -- Including Molokai Lodge

Elegant lodge and other ranch properties on Hawaii's most laid-back island to cease operations

Less than a year ago, we visited Molokai, home to roughly 7,500 people, and stayed at a lovely inn on Molokai Ranch, which sprawls across 60,000 acres (roughly one-third of the island). You can read my overview here. We saw plans by Molokai Properties Ltd., a subsidiary of Guoco Group, to set aside 50,000 acres in a conservation easement and develop 500 beachfront acres at La'au Point into a luxurious subdivision for up to 200 mansions -- hardly in keeping with Moloka'i's quiet, spiritual side but offering the promise of jobs to the island with Hawaii's highest unemployment rate.

Locals, with a personal interest in their island, of course also saw the plans, and even after some 150 public hearings, many didn't like what they saw as the ruination of their quiet, non-materialistic way of life. Others would have welcomed the expansive second homes as providing employment (many islanders currently commute to nearby Maui to work in tourism there).

Thinking about the McMansions, Prairie Palaces and gated communities in Colorado and elsewhere on the mainland, I felt sad that a developer was now eyeing lovely Moloka'i for an over-the-top subdivision. According to an Associated Press report, "Molokai Ranch submitted an environmental impact statement to the state Land Use Commission for approval in October. But commissioners said the study inadequately addressed water treatment, potential environmental hazards to Hawaiian monk seals and other issues. The ranch withdrew the study but had said it planned to prepare another one."

It appears that the company has changed its collective mind. The ranch owners recently announced the closing of the Molokai Lodge (room shown at right), Kaupoa Beach Village, the Kaluakoi Golf Course, the Maunaloa gas station, the Maunaloa Tri-Plex theater, the colony of casual, economical Tentalows near the beach and oddly, a cattle-rearing business -- and public access to private ranch property will now be denied. According to reports, the owning company, Guoco Leisure's Peter Nichols issued a statement saying that "unacceptable delays caused by continued opposition...means we are unable to fund continued normal company operations."

Tourism Blackmail

It seems as if this international, cross-border corporation is putting the screws on Moloka'i by shutting down the biggest enterprise on the island and directly cutting off some of the few employment opportunities that exist, and then via the ripple effect, hurting small business as well. I feel terribly sorry for the locals like the ebuillient Rudy Dela Cruz , who shepherded us around Moloka'i. Many people indeed have staked their dreams on the infusion of money that they foresaw for their island. Still, I don't get the warm fuzzies about GuocoLeisure, which was established in Hong Kong, is based in Singapore, was once called BIL International, is listed on the Hong Kong stock exhange but incorporated in Bermuda. "In pursuit of prime value" appears to be the company slogan.

"The Group's principal activities are operating the 'Thistle' chain of hotels in the United Kingdom and developing land and properties on Fijian and Hawaiian islands for residential and tourism purposes. These properties include the Molokai Properties and the Denarau Properties. The Group operates in Australasia, Asia, the United States of America, and United Kingdom," according to an online profile. In the six months that ended on December 31, 2007, the company reported HK$1,021,000,000 in earnings, up 36 percent from the previous year. That doesn't give much credibility to Nichols's contention that they can't afford to keep Molokai Ranch going unless they are allowed to create an exclusive, expensive subdivision.

"Molokai, Hawaii's sleepiest major island, is getting sleepier," wrote Jane Engle in the Los Angeles Times. That, depending on which position one agrees with, is either good news or bad news. But in either case, it was big news on this small island.

Homage to Captain Cook with a Hot, Humid Hike

Sea-level obelisk can be seen easily from the sea -- or step by step on a hiking trail

Captain James Cook, the 18th century English navigator who met his end on February 14, 1779, at Kealekehua Bay on the Big Island of Hawaii. Cook's Wikipedia entry is worth reading. An unhappy Valentine's Day for the adventurer who on his third epic voyage. On previous trips to Hawaii, my husband have seen the Cook monument from across the bay, and my son and snorkeled very close it. It was time to approach it one more way -- on foot.

Monday was a cool day (for Hawaii). In fact, Lihue on Kauai registered a record low for the high temperature of the day: 61 degrees. What better day for a sea-level hike? The trail to the Captain Cook monument is off a side road north of the eponymous town of Captain Cook. The unmarked trailhead is across from three tall palm trees (below).


Cars park along the road, which reeks from sewer pipe vents along the way. A few steps and the sewerage strench is mercifully gone. The rail is walled in dense greenery, and rooster and wild bird seranades accompanied us as we descended between old sugarcane fields with trailside trees here and there.
The cane fields give way to open woods and then to stark lava flows, which absorb the heat and blast it back at hikers. The current Kiluea erputon is on the other side of the island.

The vegetation thickens near the shore, where sea kayakers pull up. Authorities are concerned about damage to corral, and kayaking is probably going to be banned soon from Kelalekahua Bay.

A short spur trail leads to the monument, which is officially on British soil to this day. Note to the Queen: Your Majesty, send someone to repaint the monument. It's peeling.

Here is the inscription on the base of the obelisk. A couple of other, small commemorative plaques have been placed around the platform too.

The hike isn't too long (a tad over two miles each way, with about a 1,300 elevation difference), and there certainly is a lot of oxygen at sea level. However, the heat and the humidity made it feel much longer. In fact, coming up was miserable and ennervating. No matter what the thermometer registered, it felt beastly hot -- at least for people like us who live in a low-humidity place. But even as we took sweaty step after sweaty step, it was the least we could do to recognize one of the important early navigators who began mapping the world as we know it. I won't get into the political aspects of these voyages, "discoveries" and conquests. I'm just honoring the curiosity and courage required to make the months-long voyages to unknown places.

Aloha Airlines Grounded for Good

Long-time Hawaiian carrier to cease operations tomorrow

"Aloha" is Hawaiian both for "hello" and for "good-bye," and now, as the island state says "aloha" to its namesake airline, it seems to be "good-bye" for good. Just eight days ago, I posted news that 61-year-old Aloha Airlines had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy but was continuing to operate. That was then, and this is now.

The Hawaii Convention & Visitors Bureau sent out the following sad news: "Aloha Airlines announced today it will be shutting down its interisland and transpacific passenger flight operations on Monday, March 31, 2008. Only momentary disruption is expected as other interisland and transpacific airlines have the capacity to accommodate Aloha ticket holders."

"We simply ran out of time to find a qualified buyer or secure continued financing for our passenger business," said Aloha president David Banmiller in a statement. "We had no choice but to take this action."

The Hawaii Tourism Authority issued a press release about the situation.

• The Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau (HVCB) is also keeping Hawaii travelers updated on the situation with information on its website.


• Aloha Airlines' announcement: Aloha Airlines to Shut Down Passenger Operations After March 31, 2008, Ending a 61-Year Tradition of Service to Hawaii


• Aloha Airlines Customer FAQ website


• Hawaiian Airlines' Information for Aloha Airlines Ticket Holders. Hawaiian said that it will add capacity and take Aloha passengers on a standby basis free through April 3.


• United Airlines' Help for Aloha Airlines Customers

In addition to interisland service, Aloha flew to four destinations in California and two in Nevada with a fleet of 27 Boeing 737 aircraft. Some of these planes carry only cargo and will reportedly continue to operate, at least for now, because Seattle-based Saltchuk Resources is interested in buying the freight service, a business it is already in.

Air Travel -- Fun or None?

One short delay and one long one from Denver to Maui via San Francisco

I have a refrigerator magnet showing a woebegone Charle Brown saying, "Someday, my ship will come in, and with my luck, I'll be at the airport."

Just call me Charlie Brown.

Dateline: San Fransciso International Airport, May 15, 2009, 4:15 pm. PDT

United Flight 415 - DEN-SFO

Boeing 767, fully loaded,departed from Denver 40 minutes but landed in San Francisco on time. So far, so good. We arrived at Gate 87, which is the same gate our Maui flight was departing from. Hooray, we thought. They can't lose our luggage -- assuming it was on our plane to begin with.

United Flight 37 - SFO-OGG

Boarded aircraft, scheduled to depart at 1:1o p.m.. Sat and sat and sat. Captain announced a "small drip" from the left engine cowling. Mechanics going to check it out, and "we should be on our way shortly." Hah!

Flight attendants passed out water and started the movie. Then we were told to get off the plane with all our carry-ons. They didn't say, "change of aircraft," but that is what it turned out to be. We moved from Gate 87 to 85, where eventually, a smaller aircraft pulled up. United started prospecting for volunteers to leave tomorrow (free roundtrip ticket, free hotel in San Fransciso). We're going to a wedding tomorrow so couldn't accept.

Rescheduled Flight 37 was supposed to depart at 4:00, then 5:00 and now 5:30. It is supposed to arrive in Maui at 7:40. United still needs to offload 14 people and asked for volunteers willing to "leave in 20 minutes" for Honolulu and transfer to an interisland flight from there, arriving in Maui at 9:00-something p.m. And bags would not be transferred but would be waiting at the airport. In theory.

Right now, I have a confirmed seat on Flight 37, while my husband -- according to the status monitor -- is #12 on the list awaiting seat assignments. If we only have one seat, I'll give mine to him and try to join him tomorrow. It's his brother whose wedding we are going to.

Just call me Charlie Brown.