I think that’s correct. You cannot vote with your wallet when you do not get to choose where the event is hosted, and you do not get to choose from alternative flight options readily.
On the positive side of things, I was able to begin my heat training for next year on the plane.
and I’ll say this one more time: delays are not the issue. Being left on a plane with unsafe temperatures for over 5 hours was, in my opinion, the primary issue.
You were in Kona for work (presumably), but most people go for entertainment. It’s part of the package.
In jest and slightly facetious: I understand that it can feel rewarding to jump onto a public online forum with a tough guy attitude, but it doesn’t necessarily indicate critical thought.
Addressing your first tough guy stance, when we look at market forces and the economics of the situation, there are limited providers, and so we are unable to vote with our wallets aside from boycotting Kona altogether.
And addressing your second topic that you switched to in a bit of a landscape shifting strategy without wrapping up your first tough guy topic, sitting on a runway for 5+ hours with no air-conditioning in unsafe heat is not a part of the package, and should not be a condition of attending the Kona venue. That is an unreasonable consumer demand, in the same way that when someone orders one of my products, they can expect that I do not force them to sit in a tin can at 85° with 90% humidity for 5+ hours before they can use that product. But then again, with your tough guy logic, maybe they should suck it up buttercup…
and accept that a little bit of non-consensual torture is a part of the consumer experience.
I know it’s fun to label everything as woke and whiny, but let me say, from a real life tough guy to online tough guy, … I can’t even finish that ridiculous sentence
To be honest,the treatment of the travelling public in general from USA based airlines is pretty crap. That doesn’t mean all other airlines around the world are off the hook but the USA for me always requires a different approach and different expectations…and dont get me started on Customs and Immigration
Did anyone, uh, pull a Knibb and take their core temperature to demonstrate how unsafe it was?
One guy did take a shirt off.
And from my understanding, the medical emergency that led to a woman being taken off the plane on a stretcher may have been a heat stroke. But I guess that was part of the package..
Please don’t be angry at me! I’m, as you correctly pointed out, a keyboard warrior. Not worth it. Also, supply and demand. But never mind!
If it happens every year - why not stay an extra day or 2? It is Hawaii. Not a bad place to be on vacation….
That is good advice for any Ironman. Stay a couple of extra days to let the departing crowd thin out.
I’m not so sure about the sentiment of the last paragraph. I for one hate flying and would never fly with my triathlon gear anymore - I think a lot of triathletes feel similarly. For starters I’m very tall and broad, so unless I splurge for an aisle seat (used to not cost more) I’m super cramped the whole time. Then with my introversion and neurodivergence, the whole experience is way too overstimulating for me. And of course like everyone else i have a ton of personal stories similar to the one told here. Being stuck overnight in the Charlotte airport because of flight delays, no hotels available within an hours drive, all restaurants and food services closed etc, being a recent one of them. And I did have a carbon bike frame cracked and destroyed by an airline before.
I don’t care about doing a race like Kona or others that would necessitate a flight. If I did I would probably make my peace with it and fly with my equipment but I would still hate and dread the whole experience. Most of my races are within a 2-3 hr drive, but as long as it’s a one day drive it’s in the end way better than flying.
I was thinking about this thread on yesterday’s gravel ride (my time to get lost in thought) and I came up with what I believe is a “novel” idea to solve most of the travel and logistics problems with Kona.
Ironman should charter a cruise ship out of a west coast city and make rooms available first to qualifiers and later open to anyone else.
A cruise ship would offer plenty of advantages over traditional travel, including:
Again, this is me thinking outside the box on a gravel ride. I’m sure there are a lot of “cons” to this but sure seems like there are a lot of "pros’ to be had.
Nah, make it the slowtwitch cruise where we schedule daily group arguments about random topics.
A real coffee/lavender room
Definitely flying out Thursday next year
This sounds tempting, but the relationship between norovirus and cruise ships makes me think this would not end well.
A cruise is double the carbon footprint per person or there abouts to start with v‘s flying.
With all due respect Triathlete’s don’t really care about carbon footprints.
My thoughts exactly. Way more indulgent than it needs to be. Definitely the biggest turn-off participating in the sport already.
I think it would be fair to say that when we do triathlons involving travel, we selectively overlook those actions because the upside is worth the pollution (we all pollute the earth for a variety of activities). Does not mean we may not minimize carbon footprint elsewhere in life. View it like a person who randomly eats super well 95% of the time and then beer, chips and icecream factor in for some enjoyment for 5% and dammit, I’m enjoying my ice cream and chips, and don’t be telling me not to !!!
If there is one sector that I give a pass for polluting, it’s aviation for the quality of life they add to humanity at large. Much better use of pollution than most of the carbon footprint of AI data centers LOL!!!
OK back to the thread. In a perfect world we’d all stay back multiple days post races, but most people are extremely limited for vacation time, so they use it before race day to maximize prep for race, versus after the race. I’m heading out of Malaga the day after the men’s 70.3 worlds, which means 2 days after the womens so I suspect the airport will be a shit show, but I have to be back at work and everyone who will be in the airport with me, will be “that other idiot triathlete rushing home” (whereas, I am part of that problem).
And I want to be clear that’s not ment to be a dig. I just think in general anyone that own’s a carbon fiber anything and does this sport probably doesn’t really care about that. It’s always funny to be listening to people talk about carbon foot prints when they own like 3 bikes. And please dont think I am on some high horse here either. I dont think we are the issue at all.
I personally just don’t really look at us as the problem either.