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Phyllis DeLancey
Senior Member
Username: Phyllis
Post Number: 2425
Registered: 06-2003
Posted From: 99.68.199.9
| | Posted on Thursday, December 10, 2009 - 08:37 pm: | |
Kim, you learn some good lessons on this trip. Be flexible and friendly. So many folks get mad at the staff, and they are most times, just doing their job. Hope you visit with Mickey Mouse went as well. |
Kimberly Nicole Hunt
New member
Username: Jkhunt2000
Post Number: 1
Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 98.105.151.194
| | Posted on Thursday, December 10, 2009 - 07:53 pm: | |
After my husband got back from Iraq in October, we decided to visit the Mainland during his deployment leave which fell right in the middle of the Thanksgiving holiday. We had not been to the Mainland since being stationed in Hawaii nearly 2 years ago, primarily because of the cost of flying. We decided to try Space A for our vacation.
Our plan was to fly from Hawaii, either Hickam or MCB Kaneohe, to Dallas to spend Thanksgiving with family. We bought tickets from Dallas to Orlando so we could to to Disney World for a week following Thanksgiving. Then we were going to try to fly Space A from Florida back to Hawaii. At the last minute I was able to snag some really cheap one-way tickets from Orlando to Honolulu, so all we needed to worry about was our trip to Dallas from Hawaii.
After a few weeks of nothing coming out of K-Bay, a flight appeared on their schedule to depart the day after my husband's leave started. The C-40 would be going to Travis and then to Jacksonville and had 60 seats available. We decided to take it and had no problems getting on. We couldn't decide whether we should get off at Travis or continue on to Jacksonville. We decided that since we needed to be in Orlando within a few days it was safer to fly to Jacksonville and try to get on a flight to Dallas from there than to find something from Travis. That way if nothing came up we could just rent a car and drive to Orlando for our Disney Trip.
As soon as we arrived in Jacksonville (on Sunday) a flight showed up to depart to Dallas in two days (Tuesday). We were so exhausted we decided to get a room at the Navy Gateway Inn on base. We spent $45/night and got a rental car for $60/day. We spent the time eating out and shopping and getting caught up on sleep. The day the flight to Dallas was going to depart, we showed up at the terminal only to be told that the flight 'might' be cancelled. We left and kept calling for status updates. We were finally told at around 5 pm that the flight was delayed until the next day, but may still be cancelled. We went back to the Navy Gateway Inn and got another room for the night. During the day, my husband had gotten to know the guy who ran the terminal in Jacksonville. He was from the Dallas area as well and was sympathetic to our problems getting a flight. The terminal staff told us not to call back until the next day for an update on the flight which would now tentatively be leaving on Wednesday. We had just settled into our room for the night when the guy from the terminal called and said the flight would be leaving within an hour. We threw our stuff together and raced to the terminal where we turned our rental car in and boarded the C9. We ended up being the only people on the plane.
All in all, our first experience was great! Both planes we flew on were extremely nice. The crews were great, and we spent a minimal amount of money on a hotel room and rental car.
I definitely see the importance of being prepared and flexible....and of making friends with the staff at the terminals!  |
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