Advice for Upcoming Flight for Eclipse

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Quote: On a "typical weekday," is taking I-205 at its start (from I-5) the most efficient way back to PDX?
Time of day and traffic, let alone accidents or incidents, can flip one to the other or make both a slow hell. Without any of the above, both are roughly the same time with a slight edge to I5 to I84. Best is to use a real time traffic app like Google Maps or TomTom to let it decide when you get there.
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Quote: So, where does that leave one? Legally/contractually?
It leaves you with the ability to sue for breach of contract. The amount of the judgment you get against the rental companies probably depends on how good your lawyer is.
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A good backup option for those who already subscribers, book a Car2Go or ReachNow car. They're all over the city, first-come-first-serve, and roughly $80 per day including the first tank of gas. You can take them out of Portland, too.

The caveat is that I think you'll need a membership card to lock/unlock the car if you're outside the home area - otherwise the phone app works for that.
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There are ride offers on Craigslist, e.g.,

https://portland.craigslist.org/search/trv

Some guy offering a seat in a red Porsche convertible.
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Quote: It leaves you with the ability to sue for breach of contract. The amount of the judgment you get against the rental companies probably depends on how good your lawyer is.
I'd probably read the agreement first. I haven't myself, but I have (like many here) on a few occasions no-showed for a car reservation (flight canceled) or canceled at the last minute and no car agency has sued me for breach of contract. Since they wrote the contract, I doubt that they would put a one-sided clause in there that benefits the customer
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PSA for people planning to uber/lyft from PDX - the 5-7 minutes both services were predicting last night turned into 25-30 min with the backup to get to the rideshare island. I would have just taken the Max if I had known it was going to take that long. Be aware it may take a lot longer than advertised if you see a big crowd waiting on the island.
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Quote: It leaves you with the ability to sue for breach of contract. The amount of the judgment you get against the rental companies probably depends on how good your lawyer is.
I'm pretty sure at this point I am legally obliged to post this:

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Quote: I'd probably read the agreement first. I haven't myself, but I have (like many here) on a few occasions no-showed for a car reservation (flight canceled) or canceled at the last minute and no car agency has sued me for breach of contract. Since they wrote the contract, I doubt that they would put a one-sided clause in there that benefits the customer
I think they technically can sue you for breach of contract, but the costs involved in doing so (identifying you, serving notice, building a case, etc.) are not worth the hundred or two bucks that they could get in damages (which any judge would likely limit to, at most, the amount you would have paid for the rental).

You stand to gain a little more--having them ruin your trip of a lifetime is worth a bit, and plus they are a Big Evil Corporation and you are not, and so the likelihood of getting punitive damages is probably reasonably decent.

IANAL, but having spent 15 years in the industry (on several sides of it), I would love to see a case brought forward on this topic and would be fascinated to see what the outcome would be.
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Quote:
Other news tidbits (and of course everyone is an alarmist) are that they have run out of gas in the Prineville area (near Bend) from the influx of cars.
As of 8 a.m. today, all four gas stations in town had fuel available, according to the Prineville PD Twitter feed.

It's worth keeping in mind that Prineville is a relatively small town. So yeah, they might run low on fuel given that there's an eclipse festival just outside of town that's sold 30,000 tickets. But it should not be considered a bellwether for fuel availability in general.

Even the hellish traffic jam caused by that festival didn't affect fuel trucks' ability to get TO Prineville from the main central Oregon highway (US 97). Yes, there were some stations that ran out, but they got a new shipment in, life goes on, etc.
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Dedicated Eclipse Flight?
WSJ is reporting there will be an invitation only eclipse flight.
Alaska Airlines is planning an invitation-only charter flight for astronomy enthusiasts and eclipse chasers. Departing Portland, Ore., at 7:30 a.m. on Monday, the plane will fly west over the Pacific first, to give the passengers a sneak preview ahead of the rest of the U.S.

Link: https://www.wsj.com/articles/airline...le_email_share
@Missy?
@beckoa?

And apologies if posted elsewhere!
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Quote: There are ride offers on Craigslist, e.g.,

https://portland.craigslist.org/search/trv

Some guy offering a seat in a red Porsche convertible.
"Willing to negotiate a form of payment..." sounds very creepy to me.
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Quote: WSJ is reporting there will be an invitation only eclipse flight.
Alaska Airlines is planning an invitation-only charter flight for astronomy enthusiasts and eclipse chasers. Departing Portland, Ore., at 7:30 a.m. on Monday, the plane will fly west over the Pacific first, to give the passengers a sneak preview ahead of the rest of the U.S.

Link: https://www.wsj.com/articles/airline...le_email_share
@Missy?
@beckoa?

And apologies if posted elsewhere!
There was a contest to get a seat onboard. Didn't even try

Sadly I was not part of the invitation crew... I'll be thru PDX the day before.
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An early treat...not sure it has anything to do with the eclipse itself, but right now from my house the sun is a bright orange orb, like it knows something is going to happen...
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flight 754 sea-RDU
heading right down the center of the path of totality. Pilot has been planning this for 18 months.
jackal likes this.
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flight 754 Sea-RDU heading right down center of path of totality. Pilot is into it and has been planning for 18 mo
jackal and JPat like this.
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