Say it’s not so!!

It appears that Hawaii residents can kiss off future flight upgrades using all those accumulated United Airlines Mileage Plus program miles. The airline has announced it will eliminate most free upgrades using program miles on flights to and from Hawaii beginning July 1. Instead of just cashing in accumulated Mileage Plus program miles for upgrades on purchased tickets, flyers who live in Hawaii will have a co-pay of $250-$500 in order to upgrade to most economy tickets to business class or first class. And the those cash co-payments will be in addition requiring more miles for each upgrade.

Only full fare economy tickets (United codes them as “Y” or “B” fares) will be eligible for miles-only upgrades without a co-payment, according to the airline announcement.

Details of the plan are still sketchy and lots of questions remain unanswered. But clearly this is not good news for frequent flyers.

A Honolulu Advertiser online poll last weekend asked readers whether they would support Neil Abercrombie for governor in next year’s election. Nearly 13,000 votes were cast in the unscientific poll. The results

> Would you vote for Neil Abercrombie for governor?

> Yes – 31.3%

> No – 58.5%

> Don’t know – 10.1%

> Number of votes: 12,745

The results aren’t an accurate reflection of the electorate, but it was probably still not what the Abercrombie camp would have hoped for, even at this early stage of the campaign.

I should note, for the record, that we recently completed our 13th full year of getting up early and walking down to the beach to watch the sun rise. I figure that we’ve walked over 13,000 miles over that period of years. And that’s where we’re heading in just a few minutes. Hopefully I’ll be back soon with another photo to share.