http://www.marquisjet.com/img/home/card.jpg

Everything else is essentially a flying bus.

Hawaiian Air.

(or maybe I'm usually so jacked to go to Hawaii I don't even notice its like being on a old bus)

(Which island?)

I watched the Seconds From Disaster (National Geographic Channel show) recently where a huge strip of the top of a Hawaiian Air jet ripped off while it was at 25,000 feet (miraculously only one flight attendant died and the pilots were able to make an emergency landing in Maui despite having no communication whatsoever with the rest of the plane). Turns out the air at altitude in Hawaii is just as cold as the air at altitude everywhere else. So pack a sweater.

Dunno, but the flight attendants have nice hairstyles.

Slave -- what was your gripe with Southwest? I'm never thrilled with their cattle-car boarding process, and it is like riding a bus, but their service is usually* friendly and efficient.

*I had one really bad experience with a Southwest ticket agent while trying to make a connection after a flight had been cancelled, but that was the only one. And the agent at the next airport made up for it.

Last time I was there or next time?

You were one of the frusterated passangers yelling at the ticket counter woman on Airline? Cool. Drunk Packers fan?

Oh, I dunno. That I checked in online the night before to get an "A" - but because I couldn't print out the Boarding Pass, when I got to the airport, they reassigned me a "C".

So I had to sit for 2 hours on the floor - 5th in friggin line I might add - before the flight to assure myself that I wasn't going to have a middle seat for a cross-country 6 hour flight.

Luckily, I score the last possible non-middle seat (window, last row, non-reclining), but then have no room for my bag.

And then the bitch doesn't want to gate check it - has the balls to tell me to squeeze a huge duffle under my seat for 6 hours.

Right as the words "blow me" were about to surface, she realized it may be better to just take the bag.

F Southwest.

Every time I fly somebody besides Southwest, my flight is cancelled, or their computer systems break down so it takes three times as long to check in ("No sir, you have to stay in this line - you can't check in where there's no line, because you don't have bags to check."), meaning that I get glared at for finally making it to the gate as the door is shutting despite getting to the airport 1:45 early and having no luggage.

Then my "reserved" seat is usually changed, usually to a middle seat next to either the biggest or second biggest person on the plane (depending on whether they are bigger than me), while some six year old is sitting in the exit row. And they only serve Pepsi. And maybe they'll put my frequent flyer miles on my account, or maybe not.

I'll take Southwest. Doesn't pretend to be anything fancy, just gets me where I'm going on time.

Yes, please.

I've only ever been to the big island. Kona to be precise. I'm looking for travelogues for the next time I decide to head that way. Especially as most of the more local tropical locales have been blown away by hurricanes this season.

I flew American last weekend. While I have no gripe with the flight itself, the fact that my suitcase arrived almost 24 hours after I did, that all of my underwear that was in said suitcase was wet, that my Ipod charger and digital camera and related accessories were missing from the inside of said suitcase, and that a certain pair of red, patent boots were covered in fingerprints is enough to make me want to never fly American again.

Nonetheless, it's the only way to get there from here non-stop, so if I'm going there again, I'm flying them again. But sending my belongings via UPS.

(One of my best friends is a flight attendant for American too. Well, she's a flight attendant about 20 days a year. Other than that, she's a lawyer.)

Maui.

Developed in parts, but if you want remote, stay in (say) Hana or Makena instead of (say) Lahaina. Bike down the volcano, snorkle next to Molokini, hang out on the beach, all that jazz. Good times.

Oh, one of those weekends. I see.

As noted previously, I'm sure, all I fly is American (exception - Southwest LAX to Vegas - luckily I've managed to not be booked on the 5 hour late flights that I've seen there the times I've taken that route to date). I don't check bags, so I have no input on how they treat your stuff if you give it over to their possession, but I have really no complaints with the airline generally. Flights are rarely cancelled or rescheduled. More legroom than United and I think everyone else (and I travel frequently with a 6'4" person, so this is something that matters in my household). Generally pleasant and helpful flight attendant staff. Etc., etc. I book online and they have NEVER changed my seat assignment on me and they make exit rows available online. Their website is fairly user-friendly.

In fact my only gripes with them are as follows:

- they drove Legend Airlines out of business (was to be a all-business-class airline out of Love Field in Dallas)
- they drive prices up on flights into and out of Dallas generally (damn monopoly)
- they don't do nearly as many non-stops from LAX as they did from DFW (damn non-hub)

I fully understand that gripe number 2 and gripe number 3 are in contradiction with one anouther and I'm fine with that. I'm channeling Sebby here.

Hana is a bit overdoing it on the remote thing wouldn't you say?

I was more into hiking in the crater than biking down it. The road to Hana was hyped a bit more than it was worth, I thought (though I saw the coolest place on all of Maui about an hour or two into the drive - huge pounding surf into tons of black volcanic rock) and one of my favorite things was a not-particularly-touristy hike through the lava fields on the south tip of the island.

bnb, if you decide to go, pick up the guidebook for whatever island you choose called [Island name] Revealed. Burger gave me this tip before my first trip a few years ago and those guides are excellent. I have Maui Revealed and Big Island Revealed (though I didn't actually make the Big Island trip yet because I moved to LA last year instead). I'm pretty sure there is also a Kuaui Revealed, but not Oahu Revealed yet.

I am also available for Oahu tips, if needed.