Hawaii - Alaska commute?
03-12-2008 | 11:28 AM
#21
Gets Weekends Off
Joined: Jul 2007
Posts: 3,203
Likes: 0
From: Gear Monkey
Hawaiian used to fly a charter service a few times a week and Alaska has HNL-ANC service as well. The flights are full most all the time. I'm not sure if Alaska's service is seasonal or not.
You can try riding to the mainland and then up to ANC, but those flights are full most of the time as well which means competing for a jumpseat against all the other pilots both on and offline who are trying the same thing (and that includes the large number that are just out in Hawaii visiting).
The average person who moves to Hawaii from the mainland stays for 18 months and then moves back. We have the world's largest moat around us and many just don't understand just how far away from friends and family you really are. It's just not for everyone. The commute to the mainland is bad enough for me (I've been doing it for 3 years) -- I won't even consider bidding the ANC domicile for FedEx.
As for prices, the Hawaiian real estate market is till very firm and little sign that things are slipping at all. The over 1 million dollar market is extremely hot and is definitely a sellers market. If you want a view and a 'normal' sized house plan on over a million easy. On the big island 1 million dollars will get you no view and a nice (1800 sq or so) mostly average nothing spectacular house. If you want views think 1.7+. On Oahu things are bit better but the houses with a view in nice neighborhoods are still going to be in the 2 million dollar range. If you're going to build you can easily get into the nosebleed altitudes fast.
My wife, cat and I live in a small 2 bedroom 2 bath single family home on a "California" sized lot (small). We have ocean views front and back. We're at the 500 ft elevation outside of Tsunami inundation range. The house would sell at a fire sale for almost 700k. It's 1100 sq ft. We bought before prices reached the ludicrous range (even Californian's suffer sticker shock when they come out here)
Gas varies from about 3.70 a gallon or so atm, to well over $4.00 (almost 5 in some spots). On the bright side, my 6 cylinder pickup is 2 years old and has 7300 miles on it. It's an island where am I going to go?
Food costs are higher as well to the tune of 20-30%. Most everything comes on a ship from California. At any given time there's only a 10 day or so supply of food on the island of Hawaii. Think west coast port strikes.
We also have the highest utility rates in the nation by far. Public schools are a mixed bag, some are rather good, some are very bad. Most of the folks I know with school age kids have them in private schools (HPA on the big island, St Andrews and Iolani on Oahu etc).
If you're extended family oriented it can be a real burden. getting people to the islands is a major undertaking for most people. They like the visit but it's a long ways away. If you get a middle of the night phone call about elderly parents your answer can easily be, I'll be there in 2 days.
As for the culture and the locals (the real ones not us malahini), some people adapt. Others never do and grow to resent the place and the people. Then they leave.
That's the more or less unvarnished truth. I tell people that if they want to keep Hawaii a special place for them, to visit on vacation and it'll stay that way. It's not for everyone, in fact it's not for most people any longer.
I've been doing the commute for more than 3 years now and it gets old in a huge hurry. Run ins with your usual and unusual TSA personnel to get getting bumped at the last minute from a jumpseat by an online rider can quickly turn the commute into a nightmare. I start looking for what flights to ride about 2 days or so before I have to be there. There aren't a lot of back ups.
My wife is a local girl so Hawaii is more or less home for her (family is on the mainland though). I like the place, as do others. We pay the price (financially and otherwise) for living here, but I like the climate, the culture, the people and scuba diving. I also like the isolation and being out in the middle of nowhere. So where else would I go? But a lot of Hawaii (the state not just our island) is fast turning into Los Angeles on an island.
Sorry the answer is so long, but I'm sitting in El Segundo for 24 hours before my trip and apparently I'm bored and chatty.
Good luck and Aloha.
You can try riding to the mainland and then up to ANC, but those flights are full most of the time as well which means competing for a jumpseat against all the other pilots both on and offline who are trying the same thing (and that includes the large number that are just out in Hawaii visiting).
The average person who moves to Hawaii from the mainland stays for 18 months and then moves back. We have the world's largest moat around us and many just don't understand just how far away from friends and family you really are. It's just not for everyone. The commute to the mainland is bad enough for me (I've been doing it for 3 years) -- I won't even consider bidding the ANC domicile for FedEx.
As for prices, the Hawaiian real estate market is till very firm and little sign that things are slipping at all. The over 1 million dollar market is extremely hot and is definitely a sellers market. If you want a view and a 'normal' sized house plan on over a million easy. On the big island 1 million dollars will get you no view and a nice (1800 sq or so) mostly average nothing spectacular house. If you want views think 1.7+. On Oahu things are bit better but the houses with a view in nice neighborhoods are still going to be in the 2 million dollar range. If you're going to build you can easily get into the nosebleed altitudes fast.
My wife, cat and I live in a small 2 bedroom 2 bath single family home on a "California" sized lot (small). We have ocean views front and back. We're at the 500 ft elevation outside of Tsunami inundation range. The house would sell at a fire sale for almost 700k. It's 1100 sq ft. We bought before prices reached the ludicrous range (even Californian's suffer sticker shock when they come out here)
Gas varies from about 3.70 a gallon or so atm, to well over $4.00 (almost 5 in some spots). On the bright side, my 6 cylinder pickup is 2 years old and has 7300 miles on it. It's an island where am I going to go?
Food costs are higher as well to the tune of 20-30%. Most everything comes on a ship from California. At any given time there's only a 10 day or so supply of food on the island of Hawaii. Think west coast port strikes.
We also have the highest utility rates in the nation by far. Public schools are a mixed bag, some are rather good, some are very bad. Most of the folks I know with school age kids have them in private schools (HPA on the big island, St Andrews and Iolani on Oahu etc).
If you're extended family oriented it can be a real burden. getting people to the islands is a major undertaking for most people. They like the visit but it's a long ways away. If you get a middle of the night phone call about elderly parents your answer can easily be, I'll be there in 2 days.
As for the culture and the locals (the real ones not us malahini), some people adapt. Others never do and grow to resent the place and the people. Then they leave.
That's the more or less unvarnished truth. I tell people that if they want to keep Hawaii a special place for them, to visit on vacation and it'll stay that way. It's not for everyone, in fact it's not for most people any longer.
I've been doing the commute for more than 3 years now and it gets old in a huge hurry. Run ins with your usual and unusual TSA personnel to get getting bumped at the last minute from a jumpseat by an online rider can quickly turn the commute into a nightmare. I start looking for what flights to ride about 2 days or so before I have to be there. There aren't a lot of back ups.
My wife is a local girl so Hawaii is more or less home for her (family is on the mainland though). I like the place, as do others. We pay the price (financially and otherwise) for living here, but I like the climate, the culture, the people and scuba diving. I also like the isolation and being out in the middle of nowhere. So where else would I go? But a lot of Hawaii (the state not just our island) is fast turning into Los Angeles on an island.
Sorry the answer is so long, but I'm sitting in El Segundo for 24 hours before my trip and apparently I'm bored and chatty.
Good luck and Aloha.
I had visited Hawaii for business and pleasure over 10 times before moving there for 4 years (...with all the military COLA, housing allowance and commissary/BX benefits).
It may seem like "paradise" during a 7-10 day vacation, but after you start living there on a day-to-day basis a little bit of the shine begins to rub off --- especially if you have school age children and want to seek a quality education.
I found it sad that so many local folks were not only dual income families, but quite often at least one spouse or both had second jobs --- and many cases where young adult age children were also living at home and pitching in to cover the rent/mortgage.
If you can live small and don't need to worry about school age children, it's a beautiful place to live.
A'o Aloha
03-16-2008 | 04:36 PM
#23
Line Holder
Joined: May 2007
Posts: 88
Likes: 0
From: MD-11 Captain
Well, that's a good question and the answer is a bit complicated as I like Anchorage and the domicile. I have classmates from Tigers there and know a fair number of people. First, it's a double commute (or triple commute if you count Kona-Honolulu) and the seats are limited. That means being online at the two week point or having the computer set up to try and autobook. Also at my seniority on the MD-11 I don't have a schedule that far in adavnce most of the time, I'm in solid VTO country.
Right now I can ride UAL to LAX on a nonstop most of the time, or to SFO for the OAK/SFO originating trips w/o heading to the HNL FedEx ramp. Although after my run in with a bad apple (a very very bad apple) Kona TSA agent last Monday that may change.
Also I don't like crash pads in general, been there done that. The hotel situation up there in the summer cruise ship season can be quite tight (I half jokingly wish the darn things would just sink on their way to/from Hawaii for the winter cruise ship season btw).
Did I mention the triple commute?
For now I'm happy enough with the LAX commute. We'll see what happens with the fall out from the age 60 change before I make any decision about changing domiciles.
10-18-2011 | 08:23 PM
#25
Line Holder
Joined: Oct 2008
Posts: 88
Likes: 0
From: Serving the chicken and taking the first break.
Why would you want to bid ANC? I guess you must be single, or shortly on your way!!!
Maybe you haven't heard but the commute up there can be tough. There aren't alot of trips that start with a D/H.
With the commute you can figure half of the time you need to leave a day or so early for a seat up here (have you not seen AM's slides). On the way home sometimes you may need an extra day to get a flight out of here. That adds two days to an already long two week block from home.
If you look at the grand scheme of things the commute can actually add another two weeks to a month away from home a year to work out of ANC, and thats commuting out of the lower 48!
Thats a pretty small price to pay to tell youre buddies you fly a 747.
Maybe you haven't heard but the commute up there can be tough. There aren't alot of trips that start with a D/H.
With the commute you can figure half of the time you need to leave a day or so early for a seat up here (have you not seen AM's slides). On the way home sometimes you may need an extra day to get a flight out of here. That adds two days to an already long two week block from home.
If you look at the grand scheme of things the commute can actually add another two weeks to a month away from home a year to work out of ANC, and thats commuting out of the lower 48!
Thats a pretty small price to pay to tell youre buddies you fly a 747.
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