IS IT TIME TO TRAVEL YET? Or Should You Wait A Bit Longer?

Is it Time to Travel Yet? Or Should You Wait a Bit Longer?

Roger & I have been having a spectacular time here in Hawaii. We spent the week in a deep exploration of Maui, then flew over to Oahu. Although they are now accepting travelers post-covid, so many of the travel systems are still quite broken.

There seemed to be an odd balance between tourists and visitors. Anxious Americans are flooding Hawaii right now, filling every single hotel, inn, and Airbnb. The rates are more than double - even - triple normal rates. The demand clearly outweighs the supply. But considering the fact that in Hawaii, the Rental Car Companies sold their vehicles during Covid. So there are no cars to rent. No matter where we were in the Islands, Uber never answered any of our requests. So people are somewhat stuck in the general area of their hotel. That's fine if you aren't the exploring type...

With the lack of transportation keeping everyone in the town near their hotels, the restaurants are booked to the gills for months out, from what we heard. The food prices are again double and triple their normal rates, and it is difficult to find a place for dinner. How did we manage? Fortunately, we found a couple of Condos complete with kitchens and killer views, so we grocery shopped, cooked, and dined on our Lanai most nights.

EXAMPLES OF TRAVEL BREAKAGE

• When we first landed in Maui last week, it took nearly an hour for our luggage to appear on the carousel. Turns out the guys that empty the bags from the plane loaded them onto the carts, but they couldn't find the other guy's who were supposed to move the carts to the building and throw the bags onto the carousel. So all of the bags sat in the cart on the tarmac for well over an hour.
• the Hawaiian Airlines app wouldn't let me check in the day before going from Maui to Oahu. We had to wait in an extraordinarily long line to find out they had lost us. Even though they had sent me the correct info in an email, they still couldn't find us on their computer.
• The TSA line was over 500 people long, it took over an hour to get to the security check post. Turns out that a couple of the x-ray machines were broken, and there hadn't been anyone available to fix them.
• When we landed in Oahu, we stood in the taxi queue for over a half-hour. We were in front of the line the whole time. When a cab finally showed up, the driver apologized and told us that there hadn't been any dispatchers for a long time. And with no rental cars available in the whole state, the demand for taxis has been exorbitant. He said they just drive around aimlessly until someone flags them down.
• So many of the attractions are still closed with no definite date for reopening.

Some folks feel that this is merely the 'Hawaiian' way. But last month we visited Big Sur, California. Most of the sites had not yet opened, construction still bottle-necked the Coast Highway for nearly 50 miles(!), and many of the shops and restaurants are still Covid closed.

THE POINT?

Even though the world is beginning to open up again, so many of the systems that are related to travel are still broken and may remain so indefinitely, according to some travel industry employees. And this is in the US., where customer services are quite high because Americans have such high expectations. Imagine other countries whose systems may not have been that great, to begin with.

BEFORE TRAVELING, YOU MUST ASK YOURSELF...

As much as you are dying to get back out there to travel, do you possess the personal wherewithal to handle the myriad of obstacles that will certainly be thrown your way? Is it worth spending your hard-earned shekels knowing that customer service everywhere in the world is clearly lacking right now? WILL EVERYONE IN YOUR PARTY BE AS PATIENT AS YOU?

EPILOG

So maybe it's not perfect. We both expected hurdles in advance and we were both mentally prepared for things not to go our way. So, armed with the right frame of mind to protect our sanity, we are having a wonderful time together here in Hawaii.

Another solution is to hire a Travel Agent or Tour Operator who will absorb some of these issues for you.

Aloha!