Save Money Flying With Yapta
Posted on January 23, 2008
Planning a trip? Yapta can in two big ways.
- While you’re looking for flights. Yapta has a firefox plugin which allows you to tag flights across multiple websites in order to compare prices and track their price changes before purchase.
- After you’ve purchased your tickets. This is the best feature in my mind. Much like what PriceProtectr does for common online retail stores, Yapta allows you to list tickets you’ve purchased and at what prices so that it can monitor price drops.
Something you probably didn’t know about most airlines is many offer reimbursements for price drops on air flights. The old saying that everyone on your flight paid a different price no longer applies. Everyone can pay the same price if you’re using Yapta!
Direct from Yapta’s FAQ here’s a list of some of the vouchers and refunds available:
| Each airline has a different set of rules and regulations. However, here is a quick look at the policies for each airline. Click each of the airlines for the specifics. |
| Airline | How much it will cost to get a travel voucher? | How much it will cost to get a “cash refund” for a non-refundable ticket? |
|---|---|---|
| AirTran | $75.00 | Not Offered |
| Alaska | Free | $50.00 |
| American | $100.00 | Not Offered |
| ATA | $60.00 Domestic $100.00 Hawaii |
Not Offered |
| Continental | $100.00 | Not Offered |
| Delta | $75.00 | Not Offered |
| Frontier | $100.00 | Not Offered |
| JetBlue | $40.00 | Not Offered |
| Midwest | Free within 7 days of purchase $100.00 after 7 days |
Not Offered |
| United | Free | $100.00 |
| US Airways / America West | $100.00 | Not Offered |
Happy 80th Grandpa Heath!
Posted on October 12, 2007
Saturday we went to Grandpa Heath’s 80th Birthday surprise party. It was awesome because he has relatives all over the country who were able to make it, Florida, Texas, North Carolina, Massachusetts and even Hawaii. It’s very rare that they all get together in one place and its even more rare that he doesn’t know its happening. You could see the joy on his face as he entered the door and saw all these family members from distance places. I’ve met most of the immediate family (Rachel’s uncles and aunts) but there were several that I hadn’t and lots of cousins that I had not met before.
I had the chance to meet Rachel’s uncle Brian, for the first time, who lives in Texas with his wife Carolyn and daughter Kristin. I’m very glad I did, They’re neat people and we got to spend even more time with them on Sunday. Brian owns a paint contracting business near Dallas/Ft Worth. I offered to let him stay busy painting our dining room while they were in town but he declined. C’mon man we’re family now!
I had the pleasure of meeting two more distant relatives, Rachel’s father’s nephews, Matt and Dan. Matt has a house in Hawaii and offered to let us stay (although he assured us he would not guide us around, he draws the line there) the next time we go. That’s fine Matt, we’ll be happy to hire a tour guide with the money we saved staying with you! As it turns out Dan is very much into Genealogy and we got talking about Rachel’s family tree. Apparently he has traced their tree back to a revolutionary war soldier. That means Rachel can join the daughters of the revolution! Not quite sure what that gets her besides a plaque and probably a lot of junk mail though… We traded E-mail addresses and Dan agreed to send us the tree, I agreed to get it into Geni which I’m trying to get all our family to use and I strongly recommend it for those of you who haven’t yet.
I was also able to see some relatives whom I’d met before but hadn’t seen in a while. Among these was Rachel’s cousin Becky, who was pregnant with her second child, Cheyenne, the last time I had met her. This time around she had the third child, Desmond, with her. They were very energetic which meant they probably slept like a log that night and I’m sure Becky is thankful for that.
Towards the end of the day Grandpa Heath opened all of his wonderful gifts and Matt, whom I had met earlier, presented Him with an American Flag which had been ceremoniously flown over the USS Arizona memorial in his name on September 11, 2007. It also came with a plaque with a military seal providing documentation that it was indeed flown over the memorial in his name at the time and date noted. It was all very moving because Grandpa Heath long ago served in the Navy during World War II until his responsibilities at home had called him back. The USS Arizona memorial had always held a special place in his heart but he hasn’t yet had the chance to visit it. I’m sure the flag and plaque will be long remembered by him as well as the rest of his family who was there to witness the gift.
A great event and I wish there were more like it.
You Can’t be Late Until You Show Up
Posted on June 27, 2007
Sadly, we’re home. What do we miss most? The view. I couldn’t help but notice on my drive in yesterday how there’s absolutely nothing to look at. In Hawaii, there’s always scenery to look at, even when you’re driving through the endless sugarcane fields you can watch them harvest it.
Speaking of sugarcane we learned that they burn it first before they harvest it. Weird Huh?
Well, we’ll be creating a ‘best of’ Photo Album and when we do we’ll post it here so stay tuned. We haven’t done much since getting home, still trying to recover the 6 hours we lost. We got home and the Dining room is mostly done though, all that is left is painting, the flooring and a counter top. Its looking great.
And its back to the grind :(.
Big Beach
Posted on June 23, 2007
Our last full day in Hawaii, how sad. We spent it in true Hawaiian fashion by just relaxing and ‘taking it easy mon’. We hit up
Whaler’s Village and popped in and out of a few shops before lunch. Then we were off to Makena and Oneloa Beach.
Because its over 100′ wide and over 3,000′ long, the natives call it ‘Big Beach’ not to be confused with ‘Little Beach’ next door where the nudists hang. Big Beach is probably our favorite beach thus far. Its golden sand, perfect crescent shape and sparse population all make it a perfect spot. We swam in the clear waters, tried to catch a few waves and played in the sand.
As the evening passed we picked up and moved south along the beach to get a good view of the sunset. We can safely say that tonights sunset was the most beautiful we’ve seen since arriving in Hawaii. This is saying alot as our previous posts have mentioned the other sunsets we’ve had the privilege of seeing. What a great way to say goodnight and goodbye to Hawaii.
With Aloha,
Randy and Rachel
From Sunrise to Sunset
Posted on June 18, 2007
Haleakula, House of the sun. aparently the best way to see it is: to be picked up at 2am by bus, taken up the 9,740 feet to its overlook and wait for sunrise. the 2 am part was brutial but Boy it was worth it. When walking out to the edge you don’t see much except the top of a few clouds (because you’re well above them). As the sun begins to rise the horizon begins to take form around you. Purple, blue, orange and red bounce off the surrounding cliffs making it more and more aparent what 9740 feet up really looks like. A few couples thought it was a good idea to cozy up on a rock outside the protective gaurd rail. once there was enough light to see the distance to the bottom of the crater they were gone, hopefully by choice. Once what we and many others besides us called the most beautful sunrise on earth was completed it wAS time to make our decent.
The company we rode up with, Maui Mountain Cruisers, specializes in the cruel game of roll the tourist down the mountain. They dress you up in a bright blue jump suit, give you a goofy helmit and a rickety bike probably older than the mountain itself and push you down the guiness book of world records steepest road. It’s like a high school science experiment gone bad. As a matter of fact the question is on the Hawaii state regents exam. All kidding Aside it one of the best thing you could ever do, as long as your breaks work (and Randys didnt at first). the ride down the mountain is literally a coast. only 400 yrds of pedaling in the whole 40 mile ride. The views were amazing. The cold wind on your face while you zip around sharp bends really made you feel alive.
At the bottom a hot breakfast was waiting for us (it was only 10AM although we had been up for 9 hours). after about an hour the bus brought us back to our hotel. It was just before noon and we decided to take a short nap. about 430 we woke up and got ready for dinner.
A few minutes walk from our room was the barefoot bar at the Hula Grill. we got a table in the sand so we kicked off our shoes and enjoyed a few drinks before the meal. Our table was up front near the hawaiian band and hula dancer. We listened to the musice, sipped pina coladas and ate as we watched another spectacular sunset over the beach.
wish you were here (but on a different island :-)),
Rachel and Randy