Thread: Lanai in June -*I know, not the smartest move...*

1) begin to pray to the nonrev gods
2) make sure your Plan B includes enough days to complete your mission successfully
3) make sure you have hotel lined up for Plan B
4) make sure you have enough $ to pay for food (ouch it's pricey!)
5) good thing you have S2's because almost everyone else going in/out of Hawaii is using them
6) pray to the nonrev gods again (maybe a sacrifice will help--no, not the children!! just a bug or maybe a flower!)

If you're planning to travel all on Delta, obviously your odds are better than a zed on UA. I personally would not even consider using a zed with 2 kids.
How old are your kids? Can you abandon them?? Just kidding....Delta won't put them up front if they're under 8 (after June 23 it drops to 6 yrs, which I DO NOT understand at all)

Good luck and seriously, I hope it works well--keep flexible and repeat 1 and 6

Lets see, you want to non-rev to/from Hawaii, in June with a husband and two kids; Lisa have you lost your mind?
Ok just kidding, but you know, you do have a steep hill to climb.
As M767 said, the first thing to do is start praying that the non-rev gods are smiling and to hope thay have a terrific sense of humor.
The only things I would add is to

7- plan on splitting up ( your travel group 2 & 2, not you and hubby)
8- flexible home destination ( think "LOST", your goal is to get off the island)

Good luck Lisa, and let us know what happens, I always worry. BTW, did you make it to Croatia? See, I told you I worry.

Seatomypants--I MUST know more!!
I will start a request/info thread and beg for help. We're thinking Croatia mid june 2010--8 adults--only 2 nonrev.

PS--regarding suggested sacrifice--is there any chance husband will want to put you at the top of the list?

On DLnet the seat count means absolutely nothing until you find the "hard count" on the page of activated listings the day of flight and who's actually there. Many a time it says only 2 seats but some NRSA's haven't even arrived at the departure airport much less at the gate, so they count could be off by alot. That being said, there are sadly all those people who just show up. Case last week--hubby trying to NR early out of JFK--I was on the final hard count of the net listings with minute to departure--said 2 seats--he was # 2. Somehow, someone actually did an empty seat inventory and VOILA!! 2 more NRs got on. I don't get it some days.

I'd go for the nonrev and use the miles another time--If you're willing to have a little back-up and split (based on #'s in 2 more days) you could be fine. You apparently aren't the damsel in distress type and know your way around some tkt counters.
Thanks for the Croatia info--I get great deals on luxurylink.com and the Adriana (+sister resorts) have been up for auction frequently. We're thinking 2 cities with a villa stay somewhere for 4-5 nights--where to choose most ideal spot for side travel/excursions?? Just starting to do the research. We considered flying in/out VCE and so on.
PS--I have sometimes been lucky to have the FF dept shift the res to another 24-48 hrs (maybe not for Hawaii??) but it's worked before for ICN and NRT--gave me a little breathing room to confirm. Just a thought

Y'all think that's crazy? When I was with NW last summer, my girlfriend and I flew to HNL from SEA in late June. My seniority was literally a month, and I had lower priority with a companion. Got one of the last flights of the night from MSP-SEA, stayed overnight in SEA, then tried to catch the early of the two NW SEA-HNL flights.

By the time we woke up, there were about 20 people listed on the flight, and only 7 seats left. Figured we'd have to hope for OGG, which had 15 spots and no standbys, then buy a ticket to HNL. After seeing the flight board, waiting for the plane to be pushed back, the gate agent asked if my girlfriend and I still wanted to go if only one of us could get on. I told her to board my girlfriend, since I could figure out plan Bs better than she could. She was taken down while they checked to see if seats were available. Then they had me and another nonrev (retired pilot's daughter, I think it was) get on. We were the last two. Just as I step on the jetbridge, a family comes running up. Turns out it was just 2 kids getting on. They still had me run up to see if we could find anything. There was my girlfriend at the plane's door, waiting for a seat assignment. Gate agent or FA or someone yelled out our seats, and they closed the door as I sat down. Girlfriend and I got the last two seats. I didn't even have a chance to call my family to say that we made it on.