Triangle Trip

1. Pre-Clear at departing airport. We left SJC on Sunday morning. Everyones got TSA-Pre nowadays and they only have one x-ray line but two for normal security that TSA is slower. Across from your gate, you will be able to get a pre clear wristband for Hawaii. Just show them your QR code from Hawaii Safe Travels, COVID vaccine card and your picture ID. Another tip kids 5 and under cannot get a wristband.
2. Arriving at HNL you’ll be split into two lines, wrists bands or not. Follow the signs closely, if you got a wristband, you don’t need to show your QR code.
3. Take pictures of your Vaccination Card on your phone so you don’t need to carry the physical ones. Most restaurants will take the pictures as proof + picture ID.
4. Masks are still required indoor and people here strictly follow.

Update – March 26, 2022 No pre clearing requirements to enter Hawaii! Great news.

For residents in the Bay Area looking to rent a car at San Jose Airport (SJC), you may wonder where do you drop off and pick up a person.  Of course you can walk over to the arrivals/departures area in Terminal B but there is a passenger pick-up area for car rentals.

When driving, follow the car rental return signs which wraps around the building but as soon as you start entering the building structure, you’ll have a sign that points you to go up to car rental return to the left or continue and veer right back outside to wait for passengers.  The best thing there is no traffic cop enforcement so you can wait around for your friend to finish returning his car.

There are four airlines (American, Delta, United, Virgin) that operate nonstop flights between New York JFK and Los Angeles LAX. Each airline has six round trip flights per day out of each airport. This means there are 24 flights per day from JFK to LAX. Assuming each flight can carry around 200 passengers which means there are 4,800 available seats from JFK to LAX. Do we really need that many flights each day between the two cities?

The number gets bigger if you include the Greater NYC and Los Angeles areas. Continental which flies out of Newark has about eight nonstops to LAX, Burbank and Long Beach. Jetblue has four nonstops from JFK to Long Beach and Burbank. This means there are 36 flights a day with 7,200 available seats everyday from the Greater NYC to Los Angeles area.

The among of flights between the two metro areas are way too excessive. This is one of many excess and waste we have in America which is part of the reason we are in a recession. Just like having too many Starbucks on one street, too many Citibanks in a two block radius, we have too many airlines flying half empty planes coast to coast. I can see the demand for the flights during peak travel season and peak travel days such as Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays. I highly doubt the Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday flights are full.

For the record, the same airlines have similar among of flights between the Greater New York area and the Bay area (San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose). Also keep in mine that my statistics are only for NON-STOP flights. There are 200 more options if you decide to connect or use multiple carriers. Below is a simple search result from Kayak with a three week advance purchase search:

Kayak Search Result (JFK-LAX)

As a frequent coast to coast traveler, I have been on many half empty plane for the past month flying out on Monday mornings and Thursday evenings (which are peak travel times). Perhaps this is why my round trip tickets has not been more than $400 when I bought it 24 hours before the flight. This week’s round trip JFK/LAX ticket was $210 which was purchased 5 days in advanced. Competition driving prices down is capitalism at its best. I have benefited as a consumer. However we all should know that these airlines aren’t money on these flights. Here’s a link to a WSJ article (March 12, 2009) about fuel-hedging loses are impacting Cathay, Delta, etc. Eventually the airlines will go to the government to ask for money.

Government needs to step in to manage the airline industry or we will see another bail out request situation – which already happened once if you recalled post September 11. The previous bail out also drove every single major airline to bankruptcy. I may sound like a socialist but I rather be a socialist than paying for it like we are funding Wall Street and Detroit. I don’t want President Obama the US to appoint me as the Airline Czar to manage the bailout funds when he decides to distribute funds for airline failures. The airline industry needs government intervention now.