He paid first class to fly down. We understand how it works.
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For us, we have found airfare and lodging to be comparable to prior trips, but the car rentals are out of sight! We’re used to $45 a day for 10-14 days and are seeing $150-250 a day and higher! On Maui, I’ve booked with a legal mom & pop rent a wreck kind of a place, because we just use the car for driving around, not for show and tell…fingers crossed.
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I paid 2X as much for plane tickets and car rental as usual. The VRBO was not quite 2X as much but close.
When are you leaving? I can get an a full size vehicle for $400 total for a week.
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Then I’m feeling “lucky”! Maybe because I booked 6 months out (my usual).
It’s 6 months out for us too. We’re going for Christmas, which might be part of it, but doubtful accounts for the entire differential. It’s crazy. I’d put off the trip for a less expensive time, but we’re celebrating a big birthday so, alas!
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Our trip starts on Monday, Labor Day, so while others are leaving we’ll be going in - and my Feb 2022 trip was actually reasonably priced as well - but that was a year out -
Our past and upcoming trips were also reasonably priced, but we arranged everything in January. Prices have definitely gone up because the demand skyrocketed.
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Maui, Sept 6 - 13th - our legal rent a wreck type of place is costing us $335 for the week - we feel lucky - our Maui/Big Island in Feb/Mar 2022 is costing us (total for both islands) just under $1k for 15 days - but again, I booked these nearly a year out (and they’re paid for so they cannot change the rates).
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Wow!!! Very inexpensive.
Have heard from many (plus it was in our local paper) that reservations for dining are very tough to get and there are long lines at many of the restaurants. We aren’t dining out much, so haven’t experienced either.
Yes, I made our dining reservations well ahead of our trip, and even then we had to be flexible with dinner times. One day we will eat at 4, the next one - at 8. 
We don’t mind. 
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Same thing with restaurants in New Orleans. The most popular restaurants with tourists book up fast. However, the restaurant bench is so deep that you can still get a reservation at a reasonable time at many fine places that are more on the local radar than with tourists.
Our restaurant bench WAS deep but some places have permanently closed and others are short-staffed, so it makes things more challenging.
I’m fine with dining early, before most of the crowd arrives and always have been. Also, I tend to stay away from most places frequented by tourists, so haven’t noticed much impact.
Our road traffic is much worse, especially Kailua and Waikiki, as the tourists are back in force in those areas. Road traffic is heavy nearly all the time again. 
I was just in Hilton Head and overheard a store worker telling the ‘just arrived’ that most restaurants were booked from 4-8 every night, so either eat early or late or cook at home.
I was staying with locals and they would call and say “We’ll sit at the bar” or “the small table on the patio is fine for the 3 of us”. I really was happy with hot dogs at home too. You could tell the tables were still spaced, but often there were more of them extending onto a patio or lawn.
They were also very short on help, everything from bar backs to servers to cooks. The prices are also very high. $5 for a popsicle at the beach (out of a cart) and $6.50 for a single scoop ice cream cone. The ice cream I bought at the airport, with sprinkles, didn’t cost that much! At the airport.
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I posted last week that I was having trouble getting dinner reservations in Northern Michigan last weekend.
I called quite a few places and finally got a 5 pm reservation on Saturday.
It was great, they had a special from 5 to 6, 3 course meal for $25. I had a salad, whitefish (the other choice was a sirloin steak) and strawberry shortcake for dessert. Local strawberries are in peak season. It was delicious and we decided if we go up again this summer (likely) we will make 5 pm reservations again!
I am definitely recommending this restaurant. And they put on their Facebook page that all of their staff is vaccinated. Doesn’t get much better!
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I definitely feel for the other folks on this flight, but otherwise I’m glad the airline took a stand with the teens being jerks:
It’s too bad the teens can’t pay for the disruption they caused for everyone else.
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That page comes with a bonus video of an unrelated incident also at Charlotte airport, where a man was arrested after a scuffle with gate agents who refused boarding because he was drunk. However, the district attorney dropped the charges.
No lawyers among the delayed passengers spending the day writing up a lawsuit?
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Sounds like a bunch of entitled (insert choice words). Curious why no adults were traveling with them if they were high schoolers. Or perhaps they had just graduated and were on some sort of senior trip? Regardless, if my kid had been involved in something like that (though I would like to think mine would never do something like that), he/she would have been coming home, trip canceled.
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Ditto!