A new survey from the American Automobile Association lists Honolulu as the most expensive city in the United States for vacationers.

The average price for meals and lodging for two adults per day, at least according to AAA’s 2008 Annual Vacation Costs Survey? $673.

That’s more than second place New York City, which AAA estimates at $606 per couple, per day; and third place Miami at $370 a day.

Of that $673 per day spent in Honolulu, AAA says $546 goes to lodging and $127 on meals.

As longtime residents, we know that Honolulu (and Hawaii, in general) can be pricey. Still, AAA’s numbers seemed hard to believe. There are lots of places to stay for under $546 a night, and we could eat pretty well on $127 a day.

The numbers don’t match Hawaii’s own surveys, given to all visitors leaving Honolulu International Airport. Couples reported spending an average $368 per day on Oahu, in 2007. That number included not just lodging and food, but activities, shopping and ground transportation.

So how the heck did AAA get its figures, which were widely reported? 

The good news for everyone—except, perhaps, AAA members—is that the company’s numbers are sort of bogus.

Spokesperson Marie Montgomery told us that AAA’s Annual Vacation Costs Survey is based solely on numbers provided by hotels and restaurants requesting to be included in AAA’s diamond rating program or 50-state TourBook series. The company did not have a breakdown of how many Honolulu-based hotels and restaurants reported numbers to them, but said that it currently tracks more than 100 of each throughout Hawaii.

This methodology—which is skewed by a large number of luxury properties seeking AAA’s potentially lucrative five-diamond rating—leaves out many hotels and restaurants in Honolulu. It also doesn’t include condos, timeshare rentals and bed-and-breakfasts.

Further, AAA seems to be averaging high-end suites (of which there are only a few) in with standard hotel rooms (of which there are plenty) at each property, in order to come up with its $673 figure.

“I believe that most seasoned travelers realize, ‘Gosh, I don’t have to pay that much.’ By the same token, it would be nice to have a more realistic average,” said AAA’s Montgomery. “It’s just these are the numbers that the hotels themselves give us. They don’t give us the average rate that all of their customers paid for a room in a year. They just give us the rate that they want us to publish in the TourBook.”

State of Hawaii tourism liaison Marsha Wienert found the AAA survey hard to believe.  

“I thought, ‘How could (visitors) spend that much money?’ That makes no sense to me. Not when I know what they really spend. The (actual) numbers don’t come anywhere close to what AAA is saying.”

Of course, if you’d like to spend $673 a day here in Honolulu, that’s fine with us. We’d opt for a cheaper room and really live it up in the restaurants, however.

What do you think of AAA's numbers? Do you spend as much as $673 per day on just room and meals in Honolulu?

  

Aloha Airlines cargo division, shut down abruptly two days ago, is expected to be saved.

Seattle-based Saltchuk Resources, Inc. had previously announced it would buy the company, then backed away on April 24. But Saltchuck said today it had obtained financing and was again moving to buy the company. The contract to purchase Aloha’s cargo division could be approved as early as Thursday morning in U.S. Bankruptcy court in Honolulu, after which service could begin again.

Hawaii suppliers have been forced to scramble for alternative product transport between islands since the Monday shutdown. Aloha handled more than 85 percent of the state’s interisland air cargo business.

Aloha Airlines CEO David Banmiller mentioned a possible buyer for the cargo division in a speech to the Hawaii Publishers Association on Wednesday, but gave no specifics at that time.

Saltchuk, which is also the parent company of interisland shipping operations Young Brothers and Hawaiian Tug & Barge, did not reveal a purchase price. The company had originally bid $13 million for Aloha’s cargo division.

Aloha Airlines shut down its interisland and transpacific passenger service on March 31 after more than 61 years of service. The airline had filed for bankruptcy earlier that month, citing the inter-island airfare war set off by Go! Airlines and the soaring cost of jet fuel for losses of $81 million in 2007 as reason.

UPDATE, 05/01 @ 11:30 p.m.: Aloha Airlines Cargo was back in the air this evening after a federal bankruptcy court judge approved a motion for the company to resume flights. The sale to Saltchuk is expected to close on May 14.
   

I’ve never experienced a Hawaii beach quite like Polihua, on the island of Lanai.

One-and-a-half miles of white sand. Completely devoid of people.

The latter has a lot to do with the 11 miles of unpaved road—half of it accessible only to four-wheel-drive vehicles—one must negotiate down Lanai’s dry, rocky, steep and scrub-brush filled north shore to get to Polihua.

Once we guided our Jeep through a final canopy of kiawe trees hugging Polihua, skittered across the warm sand and dipped our feet in the cool Pacific waters, though? Check out the video below for a 360 degree view of what we experienced.

I’ll be writing about my tour of Lanai’s beaches in a future issue of HAWAII Magazine.

   

Another unit of Aloha Airlines lost its fight to stay alive this afternoon as the company announced it was shutting down cargo operations immediately.

Attorneys for the company informed a bankruptcy court judge that two companies interested in buying the cargo operation had pulled their offers today, leaving Aloha’s primary lender GMAC unwilling to continue financing the company. The decision to shut down was announced at a bankruptcy court hearing determining whether Aloha cargo pilots could strike over a continuing contract dispute.

The impact of the company’s demise is expected to be as severe on Hawaii interisland cargo service as the shutdown of Aloha’s passenger service in March was on interisland travel. Aloha’s cargo service accounted for more than 85 percent of Hawaii’s interisland cargo business. Its customers included the United States Postal Service and major food and product suppliers on all islands.

The sole unit of Aloha Airlines still operating is its contract services division, which was recently sold to Pacific Air Cargo for $2.2 million.

Aloha Airlines shut down its interisland and transpacific passenger service on March 31 after more than 61 years of service. The airline had filed for bankruptcy earlier that month, citing the inter-island airfare war set off by Go! Airlines and the soaring cost of jet fuel for losses of $81 million in 2007 as reason. 
 
 

One of the cooler things about my job is escaping the office on Oahu every couple of months, flying to one of the neighbor islands and getting to call what I do there work.

I’m on the island of Lanai this weekend, taking in some scenery, activities and food. You’ll see everything I collect while I'm here in future HawaiiMagazine.com Web posts and HAWAII Magazine articles.

For now, though, some photographic evidence of what I was up to on Friday.

Vog from Kilauea enveloped most of Hawaii on Friday, obscuring views of Oahu and Molokai on the morning flight to Lanai. The effect it had on the view of the manicured gardens at the Four Seasons Lodge at Koele when I checked in, however, was wonderfully dramatic.

A view of the island's only town, Lanai City, from a bluff above the Lodge at Koele. With just over 3,000 residents, a handful of businesses and comprised mainly of homes, it's not your classic definition of a "city." But you'll meet some of the friendliest people in Hawaii here.

I rented a Jeep 4x4  to explore the island's beaches for a future HAWAII Magazine feature. With only 30 miles of paved road on the island, Jeeps are pretty much the only rental available. Fortunately, they're the best way to see Lanai (other than on horseback, which I'm also doing a bit of this weekend for a HAWAII feature). This is a beach road on the island's north shore.

Polihua Beach, on Lanai's north side, is your reward after a lengthy and extremely bumpy drive down a single-lane Jeep trail. Stretching more than two miles, it's Lanai's longest white sand beach. It's also one of the island's most remote. On a typical late afternoon visit, you'll find about as many people exploring its breathtaking grandeur as you do in this photo.

My dinner after a long day of "work"—a meat lover's pizza at Pele's Other Garden in Lanai City. It's always a joy visiting owners Mark and Barbara Zigmond, and sampling their terrific homemade Italian entrees, pizzas, deli sandwiches and desserts. Great people. Must-have-food on Lanai. Check out Mark's must-read "My Corner of Paradise" feature in our Jan./Feb. 2008 issue.

 

One of the joys about HAWAII Magazine is that our readers love to talk story with us. As a result, we’ve created a section in our magazine called, “Your Hawaii”—an assortment of short stories about our readers’ Hawaii experience.

In our May/June issue, HAWAII Magazine reader and geologist Lawrence Galiano and his wife, Lori, of Hammonton, N.J., tell us what it was like to spend an afternoon hiking over lava flows at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.

Here’s an excerpt:

“We were so close to it all—fresh lava was slowly moving just below the surface beneath our feet. … It was amazing to think that this was where the island was growing larger and larger each day.”

You’ll find the rest of Lawrence’s “Your Hawaii” story—along with tales from three other HAWAII Magazine readers—in our May/June 2008 issue, on newsstands now.

Interested in sharing your Hawaii experience with us? Submit your story and photos to yourhawaii@hawaiimagazine.com.

 

There's been so much bad airline news lately, we thought we might mention that on May 1, Hawaiian Airlines is adding a daily flight from Honolulu to Oakland, CA.

For travel between May 1 and June 6, there's an introductory fare of $420.
 

Alaska Airlines is stepping into the void left by the departure of ATA and Aloha Airlines.

It will add a daily flight between Seattle and Kahului, Maui, to its Hawaii flight schedule beginning July 17. 

From Oct. 31 through April 25, 2009, there will also be a flight from Anchorage to Maui, twice a week.

• The Seattle to Kahului flight will depart daily at 8:20 a.m. (PDT), arriving at 11:35 a.m. (HST).

• Kahului to Seattle, will depart daily at 1:05 p.m. (HST), arriving at 9:45 p.m. (PDT).

• Anchorage to Kahului, will depart Fridays/Saturdays at 2:20 p.m. (Alaska time), arriving at 6:35 p.m. (Hawaii time).

• Kahului to Anchorage, will depart Fridays/Saturdays at 8:45 p.m. (Hawaii time), arriving next day at 5 a.m. (Alaska time).

Anchorage time is two hours ahead of Hawaii time.

Alaska Airlines will offer a $249 introductory one-way fare on both routes for tickets. You have to purchase by April 24, 2008, and travel by Dec. 17, 2008.

Interested? Tickets go on sale at 9 a.m. (PDT), Thursday, on Alaska Airlines Web site, or by calling (800) 252-7522. Click here for more details.

The Seattle-based regional carrier began routes to Oahu and Kauai last year. Alaska Airlines’ new Maui routes were added in reaction to the loss of seats following the closures of Aloha Airlines at ATA Airlines last week, company officials said in a statement. 

Alaska Airlines is also studying possibilities for other Hawaii routes.
  

The Hawaii Tourism Authority, working with Panda Travel and Hawaiian Airlines, has secured three additional flights for displaced ATA and Aloha Airlines’ ticket holders.  

•    Tue., April 8:  Kokua Flight #7515 departs Honolulu at 3:30 p.m. for arrival in Los Angeles;
•    Wed., April 9: Kokua Flight #7516 departs Los Angeles at 11:00 a.m. for arrival in Honolulu;
•    Wed., April 9: Kokua Flight #7517 departs Honolulu at 9:30 a.m. for arrival in Los Angeles.  

Kokua, of course, means help in Hawaiian. If you are an ATA or Aloha Airlines ticket holder, you will need:

•    Original date of travel (only valid for passengers scheduled to travel from April 2-10, 2008);
•    Record locator number; and
•    Ticket number.

And you need to make a reservation today …

•    By calling Panda Travel at (808) 734-1961, then dial 0
•    By emailing Panda Travel at: packages@panda-group.com

One-way tickets on these flights will cost $300 (Coach) and $400 (Business Class).

 

ATA Airlines announced late Wednesday, Hawaii time, that it was shutting down nationwide passenger service.

The airline had Hawaii routes from Oahu, Kauai, Maui and the Big Island to Los Angeles, Oakland, Las Vegas and Phoenix.

If you are holding tickets for ATA flights, you can contact other airlines here. If you would like a refund or wish to purchase a ticket on another carrier to complete your travel, contact your credit card company or travel agent for a refund. If you purchased an ATA ticket by cash or check, you will have to file a claim for a refund with bankruptcy court here.

ATA code partner Southwest Airlines said it will honor or refund any tickets issued to its customers who were booked on an ATA flight to compete their Hawaii travel. Click here for more information.

Northwest Airlines has announced that it will honor ATA tickets until May 3 for flights to and from Hawaii. Unfortunately, it will charge a $100 (for stand-by flights) to $200 fee (for confirmed reservations) per flight leg for the service.

The Hawaii Visitors & Conventions Bureau has set up a Web page with updates for ATA's Hawaii customers here.

Founded in 1973, Indianapolis-based ATA blamed the shutdown on the loss of a contract for military charter flights, and high fuel prices. It filed for U.S. Bankruptcy Court protection for the second time since 2004 last night.

Callers to ATA’s reservations line 800-435-9282 last night were greeted with an announcement that the airline would cease all flights as of 4 a.m. Eastern time today.

ATA’s sudden shutdown arrived just days after the announcement that longtime Honolulu-based carrier Aloha Airlines was closing after 61 years of service. Aloha ended all operations, except for its air cargo unit, on Monday.