BlueRibbon
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jul 8, 2018
Sorry if I missed it somewhere, but how do we know that the tests that HI approves of are $120? I'm planning to go in October, but for my family of 7 that's a crazy "incidental" cost.
Mandatory 14 day quarantine for out of state visitors has just been extended to July 31st.
It’s all conjecture at this point currently that is price set by CVS. If it flies, some or all of it may be subsidized by the Hawaiian Gov’t. The Lt. Gov and the Gov don’t appear to be on the same page. There was some thinking that they could use federal recovery funds to subsidize the cost. But given the disconnect if you are planning to go to Hawaii:
a) Plan to go somewhere else no chance they get this sorted out any time soon. Any decision before a vaccine or the November Elections could be better predicted with a Quija Board.
b) Plan on your tax dollars paying to fund their indecision.
Thanks for posting this. I rescheduled everything to the last 2 - 3 weeks of August.
Well, with the official extension today, it sure made our decision about out July 7th arrival easier. Managed to get a chat session with Hawaiian Airlines tonight and at first they pressed the "future travel voucher" option. I questioned if our flights were still active because I couldn't find them online for new bookings...highly doubted that they could've been sold out, but possible I suppose. Suddenly, the HA person came back to me with an apology, telling me that the flights were indeed canceled. Full refund in process. Emailed myself the chat session log...which popped onto my Inbox 5 seconds before the flight cancellation email from Hawaiian Airlines arrived. Amazing timing!
That's promising news regarding HA giving money back. If you don't mind me asking, were your tickets originally non-refundable?
Yes, they were "non-refundable" at the time of purchase. I just confirmed on my receipt. As I understand it, the fact that they canceled our flights overrode that status. Glad I double checked to see if the flights still existed before I started the chat session and pushed back on that fact before settling for the credit for future flights. Now I just need to cross my fingers that the refund actually processes correctly and in the time described.
It is absolutely crazy what Hawaii is doing. They have less cases than a major metropolitan area, in fact they have less cases than the county I live in, but have double the people. There virus rate is something like 7 10,000's of a percent. The economy is toast. There is some thought that the commuter airlines will go under because of the extensions. But, worst of all, if you get onto the facebook pages of the Gov. and Lt. Gov. as well as comments to news articles, Hawaii news now, etc., you see people absolutely freaking out because there were 3, or 6, or some other single digit reporting of a new case. The hospitals are not overrun. The Hawaiian government has done a fine job in scarring the living daylights out of their people that they are willing to have 50% unemployment on some islands because of an unfounded fear. The "Plan" to reopen--makes no sense--testing before you arrive? well, what about getting exposed during the days between the test and your getting on a plane and or arriving. What about exposure in the plane, in the hotel, etc. Hawaii is digging a hole that in all likelihood will take a long time to pull out of. They will have lost an entire season of travelers by the time they pull their heads out. They will have a budget deficit that is outrageous and worst of all, the train from the airport still wont be built. In the meantime, their tourist infrastructure -- shops, tours, hotels, restaurants, etc., will have disappeared because of bankruptcy or other financial reasons. The tourists will have found new destinations in the year, which will cause additional issues in the future for the state. There are a fair amount of folks in Hawaii that say good riddance to the tourists. However, I don't think they have run into the economic calamity that may befall the state once the PPP runs out, unemployment increases run out, etc. Come the third and fourth quarters of this year, I think Hawaii will be hurting and there will be a full on revolt by the out of work majority, and, of course, wondering why those millions and millions of tourists who used to come by the hundreds of thousands each day are not coming anymore.
I've had conflicting emotions about pushback against tourists, but when I spoke to actual people today who were helping me cancel, we've had really nice conversations.
Well, we are not going to Hawaii this year, but we are looking to bringing a little of Hawaii to us! Scoping out a few of our favorite Hawaiian vendor sites to place some orders. Hawaiian sweet bread and honey from the Big Island will be nice!
Okay, thank you for the information. I see resident inter island travel as being a separate matter to foreign travel into Hawaii. They are not one in the same. Combined, yes home run case. Separately, not so much.