• How can Dunkerley defend airfares with straight face? • AARP TaxAide volunteers needed How can Dunkerley defend airfares with straight face? The speech by Mark Dunkerley of Hawaiian Airlines is laughable at best. I travel to Honolulu monthly for medical treatments
• How can Dunkerley defend airfares with straight face? • AARP TaxAide volunteers needed
How can Dunkerley defend airfares with straight face?
The speech by Mark Dunkerley of Hawaiian Airlines is laughable at best.
I travel to Honolulu monthly for medical treatments for a life-threatening illness. The airfare in December for a round-tip ticket to Honolulu was $471. I was advised to have a family member travel with me. Had I taken my son with me, the cost would have been over $1,000 with cab fare for a one-day trip to Honolulu.
It’s remarkable that Mr. Dunkerley could state that Hawaiian is doing its best with a straight face. Fuel prices have dropped through the floor but the airfares remain at the same price or higher than when oil was over $100 a barrel.
What is needed is public transportation between islands for full-time residents with state IDs. The Florida Keys have bridges; a ferry (but we all know how that ended) or an AirBus.
At minimum, if Hawaiian Airlines wants to have its monopoly on inter-island transportation, it needs to provide full-time residents who have Hawaii state IDs a coupon book or the like to be used for reduced fares between the islands. At the very least Hawaiian should provide reduced fares for those who travel for medical reasons.
If Southwest or Jet Blue airlines would come to Hawaii, Hawaiian Airline fares would drop like a rock.
Karen Klock, Kalaheo
AARP TaxAide volunteers needed
The tax season is rapidly approaching and last year’s tax preparers are busy getting up to date with the latest tax codes, software and procedures. However, many of the regular tax preparers are getting older, the use of the TaxAide preparation sites at no charge is increasing, and volunteers are needed.
Greeters are those who organize the site so that taxpayers can flow to a preparer who can do an excellent job of preparing his/her tax return. They sign up individuals in the order they arrive, help them fill out the required IRS forms, and match them to a qualified preparer. This year there are only two greeters for nine sites.
Training to be a greeter takes just three hours of time, Jan. 26, from 9 to noon at Lihue Lutheran Church. Greeting at the sites takes two to three hours for each site and sites have two to five meeting times. It is amazing to me that such a valuable service cannot enlist a few more volunteers.
For tax preparers, the training is substantially more intensive. Tax preparers take a minimum of three tests: ethics, quality review, and advanced tax preparation. They study materials for the test as well as attend two to three training sessions of six hours each. All preparation is done by computer. Yet, to see the relieved looks on the faces of the taxpayers and receive the thanks that they offer makes it all worthwhile. For anyone who wishes to learn how taxes work, taking the training is the way to go. I urge you to sign up through www.AARP.org and choose the volunteer option.
For many seniors who file tax forms mainly to get their refund from the state, getting free tax preparation means they get to keep their refunds. Hopefully, there will be more volunteers and AARP TaxAide can accommodate all those who qualify.
Marjorie Fitting Gifford, District coordinator, AARP TaxAide Kauai
