hawaii | Jason Around the World

Day in Honolulu, and redeye to DC

Airports, Flights, Hawaii-France-Andorra-Vegas, Mileage Runs No Responses »

Sep 152014

Thanks to an early night, managed to wake up early…around 530, and headed out for a “short” run to fight off jet lag. Headed down Kalakaua towards Diamond Head, before realizing it was too early and it wouldn’t be open yet. Slight detour to Starbucks. Had coffee, read the paper for an hour, and then started the run. Got to Diamond Head, hiked up to the peak, and ran back. Around six miles total, and the perfect antidote to jetlag!

Got back to the hotel, and had a huge container of pineapple and some aloe juice from the ABC store before giving up on being productive at all. Grabbed a towel, headed down to Waikiki, and just sat in the sun for a few hours.

I may have only had 24 hours in Honolulu, but between a walk, dinner at Duke’s, the run up Diamond Head, and beach time, I’m pretty sure I maxed it out!

Around 1:30 I called for the car, put down the sun roof, and headed back to the airport on a gorgeous day. No problem dropping the car off, and soon I was at the extremely empty United check-in area:

Thanks to the United mobile app and TSA pre check, I was already checked in…which was sort of a pity because it would have been entertaining to see the look on the agent’s face when I checked in all the way to Paris!

Less time in security means more time for liquid Aloha! Went to the Kona Brewing Company in the terminal to grab a lite lunch…and of course a few Big Swell IPAs:

I told the waittress to bring me the tastiest app on the menu whatever it was…the kalua pork quesadillas didn’t disappoint!

After a quick lunch, I decided to do some plane spotting. HNL is great for it, since it’s an open air terminal and you can get up close and personal with the planes.

Delta and a Korean Air A330:

DC to Honolulu, and evening in Honolulu

Airports, Flights, Hawaii-France-Andorra-Vegas, hotels, Restaurants No Responses »

Sep 102014

Ok, this took far, far longer than I planned to get around to. I figured “I’ll be spending 30,000 miles on planes over the course of 12 days, lots of time for writing.” What I didn’t take into account is that my sleep schedule would get so out of whack that I’d find myself wandering streets at 3am enjoying cities in a whole new way, and sleeping when I could. Plus, the trip ended in Vegas. I don’t really need to explain much more. I got home after this mother of all mileage runs absolutely wrecked in more ways than one. Then there was life, and work, to catch up on…but finally…here we go!

In case you missed the post about how this trip came up, I’ve linked it here for reference.

Soon, the big day was here, and it was time to head out! Decided to be a bit frugal and take the Metro to the airport, which in rare form was running with no delays and everything went smoothly. So smoothly in fact, that I was from home and through TSA in under 30 minutes. Ended up with almost an hour before my flight, so popped into the Delta SkyClub for a quick breakfast. I wanted to check out their new offerings…and was seriously happy to find greek yogurt and hard boiled eggs. No salt anywhere though. Grrr. At least I had a chance to stock up on protein knowing Señor Jeff would soon try and put me in a carb-induced coma.

Boarding was right on time, and we were on one of United’s oldest 737-800s today…but at least there was WiFi!

United Airlines flight 1662
Washington DC, National (DCA) to San Francisco, California (SFO)
Depart 8:15, Arrive 11:19, Flight Time 6:04
Boeing 737-800, Registration N18220, Manufactured 1998, Seat 2E

Today’s route of flight was rather strange, I assume due to the storms covering the flyover states. Although we were blocked 6:04 gate to gate, flight time was announced at just 5 hours and 5 minutes…rather quick for this route. I was rather excited to be on this route, instead of having to trek out to Dulles and it was my third ever transcon out of DCA, and the first on United. So happy to have this route as an option now!

Not only were full pre-departure drinks offered, but they came with refills if you were a quick enough drinker. This was going to be an excellent crew! There was almost no wait for takeoff, and we were airborne less than five minutes after leaving the gate.

Today’s breakfast choice was either scrambled eggs and sausage (powdered scrambled eggs on planes scare me…Jeff’s sausage pucks scare me even more), or the big tray of carbs. I decided to go with the carbs and a bloody mary, figuring at least it might put me to sleep.

Perhaps my craziest routing yet…Hawaii, Andorra, and Vegas, OH MY!

Airports, Andorra, Flights, France, Hawaii-France-Andorra-Vegas, Spain 2 Responses »

Aug 092014

Earlier this year, United published, either by mistake or not – it’s not entirely clear – a $1500 all-inclusive business class fare for the summer from a handful of U.S. cities to a handful of European cities. There were somewhere around 100 possible combinations. Unfortunately, Washington was not one of them.

This was probably a good thing, because my leave time for 2014 is already all committed, due to my upcoming four weeks in the South Pacific in November, and two plus weeks in East Africa over new years.

But wait…Baltimore is on the list…now that’s tempting…even for a three day weekend. But it was $1500 for any combination…Baltimore felt lame when perhaps I could do it from the west coast. Yup, I found San Diego…but that meant getting to San Diego…and if I’m going to go all the way to San Diego, I wonder if….YES once again United seems to want to FORCE me to go to Hawaii. Honolulu to Paris, business class in August, $1500. In contrast, the lowest coach fare at the time was about $1650. This is an absolute bargain.

Alas, I didn’t have the leave. Didn’t stop me from looking how I could conserve days, and when I could do it. Wait, I need to be in Las Vegas for a bachelor party late-August. Las Vegas is on the way back to DC from Hawaii. That was already planned Wednesday through Friday, so I just needed a way to get Monday-Tuesday off. I trimmed a couple days off my South Pacific trip…and it was set.

Now…to justify the cost of flying to Hawaii. Ok, Hawaii-Paris would earn 25,000 more miles than DC-Paris, so that justifies $400 of the fare to Hawaii. My ticket to Vegas was going to be $1200 for a P fare, so suddenly $1600 is justified. Buying DC-Honolulu and upgrading with a regional upgrade, done. One way Honoulu-Vegas on a P fare…done. Vegas to DC on a P fare…done. It was all too perfect.

Unfortunately, to guarantee the upgrade, I had to fly DCA-Cleveland-LA-Honolulu. Ugh. Leaving at 6am. Double ugh. Oh well. But then, there was a schedule change. I whined to United I wasn’t comfortable with a 30 minute connection in Cleveland now. I found upgrade space on DCA-San Francisco-Honolulu leaving at 8:30 – 2.5 hours later – and connecting to the same Honolulu flight. I begged. They relented. It was getting too awesome. Simply too awesome.

The routing was set:

You may have noticed Barcelona in there. See, I decided that 48 hours in Paris in August might get boring since the city clears out a bit. Plus, I’ve been to Paris literally dozens of times. So, I did what any good country collector would…set out to find the last country in Europe I haven’t been to: Andorra. Only way really to get there is to drive from Barcelona and Toulouse. Barcelona had better flight connections…plus, the only automatic transmission rental car I could get was a Smart Car. The chance to drive, my 6’3 self in a smart car, through the Pyrenees was way too much to pass up. I booked it.

Then, looking at a map of Andorra, I noticed something super fun.

See this?

Thats Llívia, Spain, a little tiny Spanish enclave not connected to Spain, but completely surrounded by France. To a geography nerd like me this is perhaps the coolest thing ever. Then, I thought…wait, I’m going to enter Andorra from Spain…I could exit out the other side of Andorra into France, and then drive to Llívia, back into Spain!

But of course, this isn’t nerdy enough. So, I’ll get to Andorra, and spend the night. Next morning, drive into France, then back into Spain at Llívia, and have coffee…or whatever one does late morning in Spain. Then, I’ll drive for a very short way BACK into France at Bourg-Madame and have a nice lunch. Maybe a Croque Madame in Bourg-Madame…then back to Spain and Barcelona Airport, where I will fly to Paris for the night. Before flying back to Hawaii.

So, are you lost yet? So far we’ve done:

Day 1: DCA-San Francisco-Hawaii – Overnight Honolulu

Day 2: Day in Honolulu, and Honolulu-DC redeye

Day 3: All day in DC where I hope to have brunch with friends, play some hockey, before the redeye DC-Paris

Day 4: Paris-Barcelona, drive in my little Smart Car to Andorra

Day 5: Drive Andorra to France to Llívia, Spain for coffee, to Bourg-Madame, France for lunch, to Barcelona, Spain for a flight to Paris, France where I’ll spend the night, get a great meal hopefully and maybe some drinks with friends.

Whew. Because next up is:

Day 6: Paris-San Francisco-Honolulu, and dinner in Honolulu

Day 7: Honolulu-San Francisco-Vegas

Day 8-9-10: Vegas. What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.

Day 11: Vegas-Houston-DC

I’m already tired, and the trip hasn’t started. If I pack strategically, I can take a suitcase to Honolulu on Day 1, with everything I’ll need in Vegas, and leave it there to be picked up on Day 6. Of course, if I forget anything, I have 10 hours (random) in DC on Day 3 to pick up anything I forgot…plus pack a weekend bag for Paris and Andorra, lol

This is crazy. I’m insane. But you’re going to read it…admit it… 😉

Honolulu to Washington on United

Airports, Flights, Hawaii February 2014, Restaurants No Responses »

Mar 102014

Drive to the airport was completely uneventful, and it was sad to say goodbye to the convertible and the Hawaiian sun…and head back to the frozen wastelands of Washington. But, at least we had business class to look forward to, and a direct flight to DC thanks to the cancelation. One of a few times I can remember really leveraging a cancelation to my advantage. (Remember my delayed Dubai-Frankfurt in Lufthansa first that I managed to change to Dubai-London in Emirates A380 First?!)

Anyways, went straight to TSA pre-check after dropping the car off, and we were through security with plenty of time to spare, and even enough time to grab the lunch we never had. That of course meant it was time to stop by Kona Brewing Company for one last round of liquid aloha!

Quick lunch, and it was time to walk to the gate, with an impressive view of several United birds parked in a line:

But, oops, too much liquid aloha…time for a stop by the Kane room…idk why but the Honolulu washroom signs always amuse me!

MKK-HNL on Island Air…maybe!

Airports, Flights, Hawaii February 2014 1 Response »

Mar 032014

After our stop at the Post Office, we got back to the airport around 4:30 for our 6:45pm flight on Island Air to Honolulu. As the taxi was taking us back she asked us who we would be flying to Honolulu. “Oh, Island Air? I would never fly them. They are always late.” Grrrreat. Given the light rain and heavy clouds, this wasn’t boding well.

Then, my phone pinged. It was the FlightTrack app alerting me we were now delayed until 8pm. UGH. I went straight to the Island Air counter to try and figure out what was going on. Seemed the plan was in Honolulu still. It was like pulling teeth, but eventually the agents admitted it was weather in Molokai preventing them from arriving. When we’d been through Honolulu the week before waiting on our flight to Kona, we heard the Island Air flight to Molokai getting delayed over and over…seemed this was a semi-regular occurrence.

I wasn’t overly convinced the flight would ever leave, so asked if they would sign us over to Mokulele Airlines instead. No, they wouldn’t, and regardless, all the flights on Mokulele were full. By chance, I asked the folks at Makani Kai if they had a flight. Yes, they did at 5:45. It was one-stop via Kalaupapa, and there were plenty of seats. Ugh, I wish there had been better info about this when I was exploring prior to the trip, because instead of coming back up to Moloka’i topside we could have flown straight from Kalaupapa to Honolulu! The agent was also enough to hold two seats for us, while we tried to get our baggage back from Island Air.

Island Air was completely unhelpful, telling us we just had to wait, and if the flight canceled maybe they could put us on a flight the next day. “You have non-refundable tickets, so you don’t have a choice. It might be tomorrow, if not, hopefully the next day.” At this point, I wasn’t trusting I was even getting honest information from them, and at $65 per ticket I resigned myself to just eating the cost. Tickets on Makani Kai were $50 plus $10 tax per person, which seemed to be a small price to pay to ensure I got to Honolulu that day.

Makani Kai confirmed us, and told us that we could “just pay when you get to Honolulu.” Wait, what?! Just then, the Makani Kai plane showed up, and turns out our friend Britney would be taking us to Honolulu! On top of it, they had realized down in Kalaupapa there was just one passenger on the Kalaupapa to Honolulu flight, so they brought him up to topside. It would be the same two pilots, the two of us, one guy from Kalaupapa, and one lady who already had a reservation. This was starting to feel like the twilight zone!

Makani Kai Airlines
Moloka’i (Topside) Hawaii (MKK) to Honolulu, Hawaii (HNL)
Depart 17:45, Arrive 18:15, Flight Time 30 minutes
Piper PA-31 Chieftan, Registration N135PB, Manufactured ???, Seat: Row 1 Portside

Britney told us to go ahead and take row one, so I took the same familiar seat one more time. The clouds were looking seriously ominous by now, and I wasn’t feeling super confident flying this little plane through some serious clouds. Had it not been for two previous flights in this plane with this crew, I might have been a little nervous.

When I asked how they could fly (and Mokulele in their Cessna) when Island Air was delaying, it was because the ATR they fly into Moloka’i doesn’t have GPS, and thus has to land with a visual approach. With low clouds, they were prohibited from operating. Seems that nearly half the time they end up canceling due to weather. Um, perhaps they should revisit the aircraft they fly?

Takeoff was smooth, but at about 2,200 feet (seeing the altimeter also comforted me) we started running into some serious cloud cover. Even as we kept going up to 6,000 feet, the clouds were throwing us around pretty good. That combined with the fact that I couldn’t see anything out the windows was a little unnerving. Several times it felt like we were dropping quite a bit, but the altimeter was telling the truth.

Eventually, we poked out of the clouds a slight bit:

After about 30 minutes in the air we were on approach to Honolulu:

We landed, and taxied not to the main terminal, not to the commuter terminal even, but to Makani Kai’s own private hanger:

MKK-LUP-MKK on Makani Kai and tour of Kalaupapa Leper Colony

Airports, Flights, Hawaii February 2014 No Responses »

Mar 032014

From everything I’d read, the Kalaupapa Leper Colony was the main thing to be certain to see on Moloka’i. For the better part of several decades, lepers from all the Hawaiian islands were sent here to live out their lives. There are actually still a few “cured” survivors living there. You can only enter the colony with a permit from the Hawaii department of health, which you can only get by booking a sanctioned tour.

The tours operate in conjunction with the two forms of transport to get to the colony: either you can ride a mule a couple of hours down the sides of the sheer cliffs through several switchbacks, or take a short 10 minute flight. We opted for the flight, partially because I wanted to take the shortest flight I’d ever taken, and partially because I was in no mood to ride a mule down the side of a cliff!

While we were waiting to board the Makani Kai agent told us there were some gifts being transported down to the colony for Valentines Day, and would we mind carrying them? I was given two large vases of flowers, while Matt got…a puppy! NO FAIR!

When boarding was called, our pilot Britney came to grab the passengers herself. She roughly allocated us to the seats on the plane (four rows of 1 by 1 seating) and we would be full on the “ride down” to Kalaupapa….and thus someone got the copilot seat! I might have done a little begging, but in the end I got it 🙂 To top it off, Britney relieved me of the flowers, so I would have a flower-free ride.

Makani Kai Airlines
Moloka’i (Topside) Hawaii (MKK) to Kalaupapa, Hawaii (LUP)
Depart 9:20, Arrive 9:35, Flight Time 15 minutes
Piper PA-31 Chieftan, Registration N135PB, Manufactured ???, Seat: CoPilot

To said I was a little bit excited…well, that’s an understatement. I finally managed to climb all 6’3 of myself into the seat, along with the small laptop bag I was carrying. There was absolutely not an inch of spare room! While we waited for the pilot, I sat anxiously!

Matt was a BIT excited to be carrying the puppy! Oh, so THAT is what happened to the flowers I had to carry to the plane – the pilot stuck another passenger with them, lolz:

I was even more excited, I think, to be in the copilot seat:

Short taxi, and we were off!

After maybe a minute in the air we were over the edge of the island, and headed down:

Kona, Hawaii (KOA) to Maui, Hawaii (OGG) on Mokulele Airlines

Airports, Flights, Hawaii February 2014 No Responses »

Feb 242014

After breakfast at Island Lava Java, we had a quick trip to the airport, and dropped off the rental car with Alamo. Now, Kailua-Kona isn’t a very big airport to begin with, but our airline, Mokulele Airlines, didn’t even leave from the main terminal. It left from the “commuter terminal” which was a bit apart from it.

Check in was interesting. Give them your ID, step on a scale to be weighed along with your carry-on, pay $15 per checked bag, and then have a seat and wait for departure. You can see the gentleman in the yellow vest in the pic below – he was the check-in agent…right next to the waiting area where there were about 20 seats….enough to hold two full planes worth, which was good, because there were two flights to Maui leaving 10 minutes apart, to different parts of the island.

Notice, I didn’t mention TSA. That’s because there was absolutely no security at the commuter terminal. I don’t know if this is because it’s considered a private flight, or doesn’t have enough passengers to warrant it, but it was such a refreshing way to fly. The waiting area:

The other flight to Maui showed up before ours, so I walked the whole 20 feet or so past the check-in desk to snap a shot. Yes, the plane just pulls up along side the check-in area and out you walk!

Soon, our plane arrived as well. As we approached the fence, the ramp agent gave us details…and assigned seats based on our weight. As two big guys, we were assigned row 3 of 4. Walking to our plane:

Walking around the other side to board:

Pre-flight safety briefing…yes, the captain just turned around and talked to us. This is the view from row 3…the cessnas are comfy little planes!

…and with that, a very short taxi and we’re off!

Mokulele Airlines flight 1533
Kailua-Kona, Hawaii (KOA) to Kahului, Maui, Hawaii (OGG)
Depart 10:53, Arrive 11:35, Flight Time 42 minutes
Cessna 208B Grand Caravan, Registration N840MA, Manufactured ???, Seat: 3rd row, Port side

View during taxi:

…and we’re airborne and making a 180:

Passing Kaho’olawe, the smallest of the eight main Hawaiian Islands, with no permanent population:

Soon, we began our turn towards Maui – at this point you could see tons of whales in the ocean, breeching and going back under. It was an absolutely amazing treat to see from the air:

Maui was incredibly green from above, with an amazing valley between the two volcanic ends:

Nice smooth landing, and we were on Maui! A shot after getting off the plane:

…and with that, one of the most pleasant flights I’ve had. My only previous experience on such a small plane was in Guyana a couple years ago, and I loved it. Both of these flights really made me want to get a pilot’s license some day…just what I need…another expensive hobby. Mokulele was a true pleasure to fly, and it was really neat to have a flight that felt like more than just a generic cattle car from place to place. I just wish I had somewhere to look up more data on Cessna tail numbers!

Off to Alamo again to pick up our rental car, and it was off to the Sheraton Maui, our home for the next three days.

3 days in Kona at the Sheraton Kona and King Kam’s Beach Resort

Attractions, Hawaii February 2014, hotels, Restaurants 1 Response »

Feb 232014

One problem I was having when booking this trip was the price of rental cars. They were absolutely outrageous, coming in at well over $100 a day for a compact car. Ugh, and that was on the cheapest sites. I spent some time on google, and eventually came across Discount Hawaii Car Rental dot com. Checked their rates…and it seemed too good to be true…plus they weren’t even asking for a credit card to confirm it! I booked, they told me it had been booked with Alamo, and I checked Alamo’s website…and it was there. Wow.

Fast forward to Kona, and I get to Alamo to pick up the car. As promised, it was a two door jeep, and the price was as promised as well. Wow…score another win for teh interwebz!

Short 20ish minute drive, and we were at our hotel, the Kona Sheraton. Parking was an absolute bear, with no spots at all in the lot. Eventually I just gave up and gave the car to the valet…which turned out to be good, because when I checked in it turned out valet was complimentary for Starwood Platinum members. Something they should probably alert you about in advance maybe?

There was good news, however. We’d been upgraded to an “Ohana Suite” which was an amazing room with an oceanfront view. Found out one other disappointing thing at check-in: it was 9:15pm and all the hotel restaurants were already closed. Seriously, I know it’s a resort and it’s Hawaii, but no food after 9pm?! We ended up ordering room service (which delivered only until 10) and had two outrageously priced burgers and beers for like $60. At least they were quite tasty.

Then, it was time to brush the teeth…or so we thought. Turned on the faucets…and a stream of brown water came out for like 30 seconds. What is this, Sochi? I know well enough to avoid “dangerous face water” but it was running clear after a minute, so figured it was at least good enough to shower in. Called the front desk, they apologized profusely, and sent up several bottles of water for drinking…and then we passed out.

Woke up reasonably early, maybe 8a and the view outside the room of the pools was amazing:

The hotel had a great little coffee shop/stand, and we grabbed some great kona coffee and small snacks for breakfast. This is something I wish more hotels had: a local coffeeshop with great food and drinks so you don’t have to have a giant breakfast in the morning.

The pool looked awesome out our room, so we opted to spend the rest of the morning being completely lazy and sitting by the pool until check-out time. It was fantastically relaxing and just what I needed to start the trip off. Yes, I said check-out. We were in Kona for three nights, but ended up booking each night at a different hotel. When I booked, the Sheraton was only available the first and last nights, and the King Kam Courtyard was only available the middle night. Odd, but at least I’d get two Starwood stay credits!

We checked out at exactly noon, and drove to the King Kamehameha Hotel to check in. It’s right in the middle of the city, and I’d stayed there many times 15+ years ago when I used to go to Kona each fall to volunteer at the Ironman. The hotel was in much rougher shape than I remembered, but maybe that was partly to do with the lack of the festive atmosphere I remember from Ironman…who knows. They did give me a free box of chocolate covered macadamia nuts, however, for being a Marriott Gold Member. Heh. The hotel was so-so and really musty smelling, and I don’t know…I just had really good memories of it and it was a bit of a let down.

Walked to lunch at the Kona Brewing Company, about a 10 minute walk from the hotel:

Very tasty Cuban sandwich with Kailua Pork, and even tastier samplers:

How I went to Hawaii for 9 days, and flew there first class….for FREE!

Airports, Flights, Hawaii February 2014 3 Responses »

Feb 212014

So when I found the $0 fare on United last fall, valid not just to California as I’d assumed but to anywhere in the United States, I booked as many as I could as quickly as I could, knowing I’d always have 24 hours to cancel and that it would likely go away very quickly. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any banked leave time, so I made most of the trips two and three day weekends. My second DCA-HNL trip was to go out on a Friday, and then return Sunday night.

Regional upgrades cleared the whole way on the outbound, routing DCA-ORD-HNL. We boarded on time in DCA and then….there was a mechanical. Or, as the pilot informed us, “something technical needs to be looked at.” This creeped to 15 minutes, and then 30, and soon an hour. Before we knew it, it was two hours and we still hadn’t pushed back from the gate at DCA. With a connection of under two hours in Chicago, we were pretty much screwed….along with several people connecting on to China, etc.

So, knowing our connections were hosed, we asked to get off the plane to rebook. No can do. Because the door was closed, they weren’t able to reopen it and wouldn’t let anyone off. Eventually, about 2:30 after scheduled departure the problem was fixed and we pushed back. We already knew we’d missed our connection, and there were no others that day. We wanted to just cancel and go another time, but United insisted we go to Chicago…so go we did.

When we landed, our outbound had already left for HNL 15 minutes prior, so I tried calling the 1K line…long wait, and eventually they told us to “just go to customer service at the airport, they’re the only ones who can do anything other than rebook you on the next flight.” The 1K line did offer the only other connection, a late afternoon via SFO arriving around midnight…in middle economy seats. Ugh, no thanks. Hawaii is a long way to go for a few days, but to go for 24 hours in middle seats in economy when you’re 6’5 and 6’3 isn’t really an option.

Walked to the Terminal C customer service line…and was informed “there is no special priority line – you wait with everyone else.” “Everyone else” was at least 50 people, and it would be hours. UGH.

Trekked to Terminal B to try our luck, and the priority line was staffed there, with only one person in front of us. Unfortunately, that one person took nearly 30 minutes to help…but soon, we had a very helpful and friendly agent. Started out explaining to her what had happened, and why going that night via SFO wasn’t an option. She totally got it.

“So, you want me to send you back to DC as a trip in vain, and allow you to rebook later?” “Yes.” “ok, but the next flight to DC isn’t until 8pm.” We’d found a flight leaving in 2 hours, that had two F seats available…but would she give them to us? She spent 30 minutes on hold with various help desks…and eventually came back with. “Welllllll….there’s not really a policy. They tell me it’s my discretion.”

“And because we’ve been SO nice to you and you like us SO much you’re going to authorize it…right?”

That’s how we ended up on ORD-IAD on an international 767-400 in 1A and 1B…seats next to each other on top of it! BONUS!

Now…I decided to push a bit. “I’m sure you could also give us a couple of lunch vouchers as well since we’re stuck here?” She had no trouble printing them out…but told us not to laugh at the amount. Yes, as two 1Ks, we got something like $8 each for lunch, lol. At least it paid for margaritas at Chilis.

Flight back to IAD was pretty much a nonevent, and nothing special, so won’t go into details on that here. The details came a few hours later when I’d relaxed enough to try and call in to rebook.

“These are free tickets. They’re worthless. You’re out of luck.”

They maintained that line for over an hour of arguing. Finally, I told them I’d send them tweets and posts from United stating they’d decided to honour this fare. Back and forth, back and forth, and finally, they relented. “Fine. Find other flights with K space and you can rebook.”

I pushed my luck….went for a Saturday to Sunday 9 day period in February that I found K space and R space for an upgrade on….and it worked! Upgrades confirmed and all! Total time elapsed was about two hours on the phone, and about 8 hours wasted on the nonsense roundtrip to ORD, but my free 2 day trip had morphed into 8 days on the ground in a couple months!

Side note: didn’t receive any mileage credit for DCA-ORD-IAD, which was kind of a bummer, but at the end of the day I wasn’t going to complain. We were going to Hawaii, for more than a week, first class, for absolutely free! Winner winner!!!

50,000 miles in under three months.

bhutan, bulgaria, Canada, Ethiopia, India, nepal, Norway, seychelles, Sudan 2 Responses »

Mar 152012

Needless to say, the next few months is going to be incredibly busy! Starting this weekend, I have 6 big trips planned in the next three months. Short story is:

Ski and birthday weekend in Mont Tremblant, Quebec
Four days of diving in Grand Cayman, getting SCUBA certified
Then, a few days later, off to Oahu, Hawaii for a welcome home
After that, I’ll actually stay put a few days before it’s off to Nepal, Bhutan, Seychelles, Sudan, and Bulgaria
Work a few days, then off to Ottawa, Ontario to run the Ottawa marathon
…and from there, I fly straight to Longyearbyen, Norway, at 78 degrees north latitude, for the Spitsbergen Marathon 6 days later!

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