The Moving To - and Living On - The Big Island Forum

Getting to Hawaii

Since the airlines are having so much trouble "making a profit" in flying to the Islands and have made visitors and locals pay increasing prices for continuing poor service, maybe it is time for all of us to start a writing campaign. It is time to bring back the liners. Not the cruise ships but the ships that would bring people to the islands and let them off to do what they wanted to do instead of running them around like cattle from place to place. Currently you can not book a passage from the mainland to any of the islands unless it is a tour package let alone book a one way trip. In part this is due to the Jones Act which was enacted to protect American shipping interests, but since there are no longer any American flagged vessels carrying passengers to or from the Islands maybe it is time to have our politicos re visit the Jones act. The cost of air flight to the islands is getting so prohibitive that the tourism industry is suffering but if ocean liners were again allowed to deposit passengers in the Islands with out having to be on a "tour" maybe there would be a little economic help. I know lots of people who would rather board a ship in L.A. or San Francisco and spend three days relaxing so that they are ready to enjoy their time in the islands rather than spend those three days getting ready and wound up for a flight, then the stresses of the day of the flight and then the day post flight doing nothing because of airline burn out.

   Δ Ship travel is fun
    Susan TW -- Saturday, 7 November 2009, at 5:15 p.m.
   Δ Cruise ships need to rethink their services
    Cheryl K -- Monday, 9 November 2009, at 5:22 p.m.

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