My $10 First Class Trip to Honolulu, Hawaii: A Travel Journal

My story starts back at home in Los Angeles, California on Mother's Day 2006. I've been having problem with my friends and school so I decided I needed to get away. So at 8:00 am I caught the flight to Honolulu. Now at this point you must be asking how I could even get to the airport with 10 dollars. Well first of all I started off with no money and when I told my best friend I was going to Hawaii with no money, she was nice enough to give me 20 dollars and a ride to the airport. So now I'm at the airport with 20 dollars, I'm up 20. The plane ticket cost me nothing because my mom is a retired American Airlines, which makes me eligible for standby flight until I am 24, and this time I was 20. Standby tickets can be the best thing in the world if first class is available and the worst if no seats are empty. Lucky with the advancement of the internet I can track to passenger loads via the internet. Today's flight is wide open. I walk to my gate with only a days worth of clothes in my backpack and 20 dollars in my pocket.

I received my boarding pass and its first class. I was so excited because I knew I was going to get a hot meal and free drinks, so at least I can have that under my belt for my trip. I sit down next to a business man type and start thinking of what it is I am going to do when I get there. I had researched the flights back and since I didn't have enough money I thought my best bet was to leave later that day on the 9pm flight. So I start drinking glass after glass of champagne and I pass out. Waking up on our descent into Honolulu, and I realize I hadn't even figure out how to get to the beach from the airport. So I turn to the man next to me and ask him how much a taxi is from the airport to Waikiki Beach and he responds 35 dollars, which is 15 over what I have. So I keep asking him about other ways like hotel shuttles or even walking, and right before we land, and I start committing myself for the 6 mile walk, he offers me a ride with his private driver to Waikiki Beach. I was so relieved to hear that I almost hugged the guy.

So we disembark the plane at 11 am, and walk outside and sit down to wait for his driver. At this point we had already been talking and I had given him the back round on my trip. So just as unexpected as the ride offer was he opens his wallet and hands me 100 dollars and says take it you need it more then I do, and I could tell by the amount of money in his wallet he was right. I at first told him I couldn't accept it, but he insisted and took the money. So now I'm up 120 dollars. The driver pulls up and it's this huge guy named Junior in a town car. I get in the car and thats when I knew that today was a going to be a good day. They drop me off at the Hilton Village and head right for the bathroom change into my tropical gear, smoke a quick bowl and hit the beach with 120 bucks in my pocket.

I really don't remember much of the day, but just say for the next 9 hours I was drinking all of that money away. I got a drink at every hotel on the beach I could, and before I was too hammered I made sure to save 20 dollars for the shuttle ride back to the airport. After my day of drinking and bathing in the sun it was time for me to go. The shuttle only cost 10 dollars, and I leave Hawaii at 9:10 first class and I get back into L.A. at 5:30am. I wasn't even gone 24 hours, but I learned a valuable lesson. Life is fun you get lucky and you don't, but always have fun through all of it and things will work out. So I returned to L.A. with 10 dollars in my pocket, which I gave back to my friend with another 10, the only money I spent, to repay my debt. It goes to show you all you need are family, friends and 10 dollars, and they can take you around the world.