We live in a world where there are three types of people in the customer service industry: Those who are naturally good at their jobs and don't have to try to give good/great customer service, those who are obviously trying their best to give good/great customer service, and those who just don't care. Yesterday, while we travelled from Calgary, Alberta to Lihue, Hawaii, we encountered all three types of people.
Unfortunately, the first person we ran into fell in to the last category. The check-in lady at the Calgary airport obviously did not want to be there (ok...GRANTED it was 4:30 am). She KNEW we had a connecting flight in Honolulu (Oahu) to go to Lihue (Kauai). What I didn't know was that all airlines have agreements to transfer luggage, whether or not the passenger booked the entire trip all at once. So, I was under the impression that in Honolulu, we had to go, pick up our bags, get to our new terminal, check in, check our bags, and go back through security. It didn't have to be that way, but because the lady in Calgary didn't care, that's what ended up happening.
Originally, we had just over 2 hours between our flight from Seattle to Honolulu and our flight from Honolulu to Kauai. That would have given us plenty of time. However, when we got to Seattle, we found out our flight was delayed by 1 hr and 15 minutes. That left us with 1 hour between flights in Honolulu to do all of the above (and this is also when I found out that the lady in Calgary COULD have transferred our bags to us). If we hadn't of had to wait for our bags to come out on the carousel (sp?), we would have had plenty of time.
This is where I ran into the second type of people - those who care enough to do their best to make a bad situation better. I spoke with two ladies with NWA (the airline that was 1.25 hours late). They sympathized with me, swore with me at the lady in Calgary and told me my options. There were 2. 1) We could get our bags, attempt to make the flight, and possibly miss it and because I had booked the flights separately, NWA had no liability to ensuring they got me on the next flight out. or 2) We could leave the bags, make the flight, and file a missing bag report when we got to Lihue. The bags would arrive HOPEFULLY within 24 hours.
The last option seemed the most logical, but not the most enjoyable. So I called Go! (the airline from Honolulu to Kauai). For $40 total, I was able to switch us to a 3:35 flight (instead of a 1:35 flight) out of Honolulu. DONE! Ironically, we made it to the gate with about 1 minute to spare for the 1:35 flight.
The Honolulu airport was where we came across the first type of person. This gentleman wasn't trying to be an amazing help. He just was. We walked into the check-in area and he was right there to help us with our bags, he took us to the self-check in and did it himself, he showed us where we needed to go. By that time, we had been travelling for 13 hours with very little food and no sleep. It was a blessing.
Our flight from Honolulu was actually delayed, and we didn't land in Lihue until about 4:45. After picking up our luggage and our rental car (which we upgraded to a convertible! for only $105 more than a midsize car, for a total of about $300 for the week) we were off to the condo. It was everything I had hoped (okay, except for the rotting smell that we got when we walked in, but now with all the windows open and fresh air in here, it's all good). The view is phenomenal. The sound of the waves can easily be heard. The place is clean and beautiful.
We went to dinner at The Lemongrass Grill and Seafood Bar. The food was delicious. Darren had fresh mahi mahi with a very unusual (but good!) sauce. I had shrimp stuffed with crab and a bernaise sauce. And the prices were very reasonable.
After dinner, we drove home, relaxed and quickly fell asleep at about 8:30 Hawaiian time. We were exhausted. Overall, it was a very long and tiring day, however, it was worth it. Hawaii is beautiful and the condo is everything I had hoped for. We'll explore today. Go grab some groceries to have on hand in the condo. Relax and enjoy our first day here. Tomorrow is the Luau and I'm hoping to book the Snuba outing on Tuesday (that way, if we love it, we can go again!).
Now it is day two. I sit here at 6:30 am because I'm wide awake (afterall, it's 10:30 to me!). The roosters started crowing at about 3:00 am. Anyone want to go rooster hunting? ;-)
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