My turn for a rant...

[Richard K]

We have American Express/Costco. We use it for everything and got $1,000 cash back this year. I pay the balance in full each month and have no debt.

[RCCrawler]

Just walked in the door. Glad to be home.

[jhood001]

Just walked in the door. Glad to be home.

Welcome home!

[Graves]

Just walked in the door. Glad to be home.

Get some gawdamn rest, bro, you're home now!
What a friggen headache.

[TheGrey]

Welcome back! Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home.

[SouthPark]

The joys of modern vacations!

I did a lot of biz travel and we do Hawaii annually. Airline options are declining in quality and ony a few are like the good old days, e.g. Hawaiian and the internationals. Domestic, I hate it. I do like Alaska.

If you don't have a credit card, a lot of travel is going to be a bitch because a requirement for a credit card is universal now, such as hotels and rental cars. There is no reason not to have a credit card, particularly if you can find a no fee or rewards type. Not having a card is like not having a social; it's the modern era.

We had a six hour delay on Hawaiian due to engine trouble. I am OK with waiting to fix mechanical issues. Cancelled flights, no; they used to move heaven and earth to get you on another fight; now the planes are sold out and you are screwed if you miss the one you booked. You are also screwed if you want to fly to a location served by only one airline, such as United which is horrible with fare gouging.

When airlines were de-regulated, a lot of competition went by-by. Quality went by-by. Service the same. United has the only non-stop to Maui from Denver, which in itself is bizarre in the winter. The shrunk the plane from a 767 to a 757, jacked up the fare, reduced the comfort, and it's packed, sold out, months in advance. Bah humbug.

[OtterbatHellcat]

Just thinking outside the box here a little bit.....I wonder if having looked into renting a truck or a van from U haul or one of those type moving rental folks could have worked out on the one way rental thing.

[Aloha_Shooter]

When airlines were de-regulated, a lot of competition went by-by. Quality went by-by. Service the same. United has the only non-stop to Maui from Denver, which in itself is bizarre in the winter. The shrunk the plane from a 767 to a 757, jacked up the fare, reduced the comfort, and it's packed, sold out, months in advance. Bah humbug.

A lot of cost went bye-bye too. Airfares between Hawaii and the mainland were north of $2000 for coach in 1970s dollars. So yeah, you got a hot meal (which still wasn't great by any standard) and a higher likelihood of having an empty seat next to you but you paid 2-3 times the cost of flying first class today for a coach fare then.