Hawaiian Booking Adventures

It’s been almost 20 years since I was last in Hawaii. As you might imagine, I’ve changed quite a bit in that timeframe, but the biggest difference between this trip and those previous ones was who was paying. But as we usually do, we try to stretch our travel dollars, and managed to do pretty well on this trip — despite the high prices always associated with Hawaii.

This trip was a another casualty of the Korey travel planning bug… this time courtesy of Scott’s Cheap Flights. Round trip flights still weren’t “cheap,” but just over $400 is about as low as I’ve seen so I do know it was a good deal. When we were booking, we were also able to cash in some credit card rewards which took care of two of the tickets. It also helps that the US Bank Altitude Reserve gives 1.5 times the value when you cash in reward dollars for travel. That meant that we were able to get two tickets for about $500. We booked the flights the same day that the deal became available, so we were committed.

I should have booked our hotel as soon as we made the flight reservations since there was free cancellation up to a week prior, but I was holding off to see what other arrangements we might make. I thought James had originally indicated that we might stay with him for a night or two, but that didn’t end up working out in the end. I incorrectly assumed that I’d be able to go back a few weeks later and find the same offer as I originally saw with Hilton points.

Lesson to be Learned: Book what you want when you can… especially if you can change your mind later.

I could see some of the nights we needed at the lower point amount, but I couldn’t get five consecutive days to go through. Every now and then a person can do other things to make reservations happen, so I figured that was worth a shot. So I tried calling the Hilton desk to try to get the award level I wanted at the Hilton Hawaiian Village, but I struck out there as well. However, they did offer me 500 points to listen to a special offer… aka sign up for their timeshare pitch. As I was already in a sour mood and a little dejected that I wasn’t going to be able to book points directly on the beach, I said, sure why not.

But as fate would have it, that turned out to be a good thing.

As the guy gets on the phone to pitch the sale, one of the places he says you can go is none other than the HHV. So he and I go back and forth on the details, check the availability, etc. In the end, it would be about $800 for 5 nights at the resort we wanted, and he “triple checked” to make sure the dates we needed were available.

So I said yes.

I immediately got off the phone to make the reservation only to be told that those dates aren’t available at the HHV. As you can imagine, I was pissed. Several other calls later, I finally spoke with a supervisor who agreed to try to contact the resort for the dates we needed. If we couldn’t get the dates, he was going to refund my money. The only catch was that it would take a week to find out. He sounded legit, so I took him up on the offer. Nearly a week later, I found out that we could get what was originally promised.

I looked for two additional reward points for the other two days, so we could stay there for the whole trip. Hotel problems solved.

There were a few drawbacks to the cheap flights. First, we had to fly out of Houston rather than Austin which added about 2 hours to the drive to and from the aiport. Second, the flight left early in the morning and had a relatively long layover. And third, on the way back, we had to catch three flights to make our way back.

However, good fortune struck again in that there was a schedule change on our return flights. I called up the American Platinum Pro desk and asked if there was anything they could do because of that schedule change. It sounded like it was a bit of a stretch to do, but the agent I spoke with did change our flights so that we only had two hops on the way back home. I think he may have hooked us up a bit, but I was ok with that.

So long story short, it took some work to make it all happen, but we were well positioned for a great trip. What travel adventures (good or bad) have you had? Let me know @TalkToErik.

Who Wouldn’t Want Personal Surf Lessons?

One of the main reasons we settled in on going to Oahu was so that we could see my good friend Wave Hog. We hung out a few times while where on the island, but my favorite part of the visit had to be the personalized surf lessons we were able to get on Friday morning.
We grabbed our beach gear and hopped in a Lyft to go about a mile down the beach to the Duke Kahanamoku statue where we caught up with James. We helped him unload the surf boards from the illegal parking zone, put on our booties, and hauled them down to the beach.
It was another beautiful day on the beach. After James parked his truck, he walked back and joined us on the beach. He started off with some on shore lessons for Crosby to teach him (and Korey and me for that matter) what to expect.
Here were the four main lessons we learned:

1. Start on your stomach about a third of the way down the board and paddle out.

2. When you feel the wave start to grab the board, you do a push up to raise up on your feet

3. Despite what you see on TV, the best arm position for beginners is perpendicular to the board. It may not look quite as cool as front to back but does provide much better balance.

4. When you need to end your ride, it’s best to do more of a flop because the coral on the bottom of the ocean is sharp.

Crosby wanted to go first, so I helped him paddle out there on the big board. James had me go back towards shore a bit so that I could catch him. I had no idea how this was going to work so I went what I thought was a good ways away and waited.
It didn’t take long until there was a good wave coming. James had hopped off his board and was standing there to push Crosby’s board to get him started. James gave a him a big push, and Crosby caught the wave perfectly. Just as we were instructed, Crosby popped right up and took the position.
And he did awesome. So awesome in fact that he went flying way past me. I started frantically chasing after him, but he hopped off and was just hanging out waiting for me. We paddled back out, and he did it several more times — all really well, but none quite as long as that first one. He was having fun, but eventually wanted to go back in.

After we got back in, Korey took her turn while I stayed in with both kids. We could see her a little bit, but I couldn’t watch too much since I had to keep an eye on them. From what I saw, she was doing pretty well too.
Then it was my turn. I have only tried real surfing one other time (and that was in California with John Abbott). I never did very well there, and all I remember was a lot of paddling. I’m not sure if it was better instruction, better waves, or just better luck, but I did much better this time.
I still probably didn’t do as well as Crosby did, but I later learned that was almost to be expected. The bigger the board, the easier it is to catch a wave — or more accurately, the bigger the ratio is of the size of the board compared to the surfer, the easier it is to surf. So the fact that I’m five times bigger than he is means that I’m at a severe disadvantage. All that aside, we all still had a blast (and no one got hurt).
Thanks again James for an awesome morning of surfing!

An Unexpected Surprise at the Hilton Hawaiian Village

As I mentioned in our booking adventure, we had an early flight out of Houston, so we drove over Monday night to stay with Stephanie (Thanks Stephanie!), so that we could just get up and go to the airport. The kids were super excited, so despite it being really early, they were ready to go.

We got to the airport with enough time, but not as much as we were planning for, since it was a bit farther than we originally heard. The routing for this flight was a bit odd, as we had to drive to Houston to catch a flight to Dallas, but it got the job done. When we arrived in DFW, we knew we needed some breakfast and also wanted to let the kids run around for a bit. The only problem is that nearly all of the kids play areas in the airport have been turned into new shops. So we went terminal to terminal only to be disappointed. This was also the first time that I’ve ever seen the Skylink stop working, so we had to take the long way around the airport.

We did eventually find a mini-play area in Terminal D and got the kids some breakfast from McDonalds. This was also the first time I had a chance to use one of the Priority Pass lounges. That was another side benefit for the Altitude Reserve card, and I usually don’t book long layovers where it makes sense to use. We went with the Minute Suites option which was a nice break. Korey got a chance to lay down for a bit and the kids watched some TV before the flight.

Before we knew it, it was time to board, so we walked over to the gate and there were already a bunch of people getting on board. We had a row of four in the middle of the plane which worked out well. The flight to Honolulu was about 8 hours, but the kids really did great. I half watched a few movies and read a little bit as well. Carlyn played on her tablet a bunch and Crosby played hours of Plants vs Zombies. I had never played it before and will admit I was pulled into help and was having some fun with it as well.

We got into Honolulu mid-afternoon and were able to get our things pretty quickly. We had decided against renting a car due to the $43 a day parking fee and opted to use Uber and Lyft instead. Looking back that really turned out to be a great option. I used some Samsung Pay credits and even got some free rides for us as well. We brought boosters for both kids which was so much easier than the car seats.

Despite having some issues booking the hotel initially, I did finally sort out everything so that we could stay the whole time at the Hilton Hawaiian Village.  When we got to the hotel, we were greeted by a really long line to check in. Korey and the kids walked around a bit while I waited, but the wait turned out to play to our advantage. When I finally got up to the counter, they were very apologetic and super nice. I mentioned the two reservations I had and Rita was looking and looking at ways to string them all together. It took her a bit, but in the end she said that she was able to get us an upgraded room. It wasn’t until we got to the room that we realized how much of an upgrade it was!

We got a nice big (and updated) room in the Ali’i Tower with a full ocean view. That tower also had it’s own special pool (which we would frequent), had special desk staff, and it’s own private areas at some of the other pools. And most importantly, we were able to stay there the whole week!

It had been a long day already, but that didn’t hold us back from wanting to go out and enjoy the rest of the day. We walked over to the Paradise pool and tried out the water slides. We went down the big one first which goes surprisingly fast. Carlyn went under a bit and wasn’t too happy about that, so afterwards, she and I spent more time on the little slide. That one was short and slow, but she was still having a lot of fun. Crosby and Korey stuck together and did more of the fast ones.

After that, I went to check in on our timeshare pitch and get info about the luau for later in the week.

The hotel also built a large lagoon many years ago which is separated from the ocean and is therefore nearly still. The sand there is more coral based, so it’s a bit more coarse, but the kids still had fun playing in it for a bit.

It had been a long day, so we decided to call it quits a little bit early, but needed to eat first. We took the easy route and ordered some Thai takeout which was right up the road, pretty reasonable and very delicious!