IAD | Jason Around the World

Frankfurt to Washington, Dulles in United First

First Class, Flights, South Pacific Tour 2014 1 Response »

Dec 102014

Got an early start, grabbed some Starbucks at Frankfurt Hauptbanhof, and then headed in to the airport on the S-Bahn for my final flight of the South Pacific part of this trip. I already had my mobile boarding pass, so headed straight to security and the Lufthansa Senator Lounge. I still think it’s shameful that United can only get you an invite to the same lounge its business class passengers use at the hub of its closest partner. Oh well, a delicious german beer and pretzel for a late breakfast and all was nearly forgiven:

The usual pre-boarding security theatre for flights to the States, consisting of some mall security asking you a bunch of silly scripted questions that anyone with 1/100 of a brain isn’t going to get wrong. One of these days we’ll start taking genuinely meaningful security measures that actually have a chance of keeping flights safer…

United flight 988
Frankfurt, Germany (FRA) to Washington/Dulles, Virginia, USA (IAD)
Depart 11:25, Arrive 14:35, Flight Time 9:10
Boeing 777-200, Registration N227UA, Manufactured 2001, Seat 1K

After Asiana and ANA, I knew United was going to disappoint me, even in Global First. I’ve flown the product dozens of times before so I knew what to expect: a comfortable seat, TGI Fridays quality food, and wines I could generally buy for $10 a bottle. The thinking is that nobody actually pays for United first, it’s mostly either upgrades from business, award tickets, or employees, so there’s little incentive to invest in the product. It’s really a question of chicken and egg, however. If they don’t invest, people won’t buy it, and if people don’t buy it it’s hard to justify investing.

Ok, enough of the soapbox. I was offered a glass of “champagne” pre-departure, and today’s choice was a lovely non-vintage Veuve Smisek:

So, what’s to eat?

A wine list so steeped in tradition, from the finest terroirs of the old and new world. The actual wines are so outstanding, they have to be kept secret so the competition doesn’t steal United’s palate-delighting ideas:

…but never fear, you get an amenity kit, not one but <strong>two</strong> pillows, <strong>AND</strong> noise-cancelling headphones. You know, because serious airlines don’t offer any of these things in business class much less first class!

Up in the air, I decided to switch away from the champagne since I’d been sufficiently tempted by the wine list. Today’s secret wine was a lovely Château le Jeff 2014 which had subtle undertones of burnt leaves and oak with a refreshing rotting pumpkin that lingered on the palate:

…but hey, garlic bread. That makes up for a lot of shortcomings in my book. Mmmm….

Then this happened. Really. That’s an appetizer. Two little skewered pieces of chicken breast with a little couscous. Wow. I literally can’t even.

The zucchini and parmesan soup, however, was surprisingly tasty:

…as was the salad. Surprisingly good. They really could invest in higher-quality croutons, however, and please…get rid of those strange dressings United is oh so fond of serving. I think today’s was Creamy Guava Delight, or something similarly corny. Maybe it was Tantalizing Passionfruit…I’ve forgotten. Either way it was mildly creamy, had citrus fruit undertones, and was just plain strange.

The beef. Not good. Not good at all. Somewhere between well done and shoe leather. The sauce made it salvageable, and the few pieces of defrosted microwave broccoli and carrots really made the dish!

The cheese. Mmmm. I asked for seconds. I was told no. I saw the crew eating cheese and crackers later in the flight. #FAIL. Really too bad, because the cheese was actually quite good, and likely the best part of the meal.

…and to finish things off…the sundae. I sometimes get caramel, sometimes hot fudge, always with “cherries.” Today I decided to go wild and have both, still with cherries. It’s always fun watching United crews interpret “cherries.” It’s been as little as one, and as many as 15 or so. Today, it was three:

Finished off dinner with a glass of the Late Harvest Changes You’ll Like Cellars Icewine, which was divine. Or maybe it was amaretto on the rocks. I get the two confused sometimes….

After dinner I napped a couple hours, watched some tv on the iPad, and soon enough we were about 90 minutes out and it was time for the pre-arrival snack. Now, don’t get your hopes up here.

It’s fruit. The same fruit the serve in business class. A box of two chocolates…the same two chocolates they serve in business class. And a sandwich…which is decent. Not amazing, but at least it’s decent.

So, overall summary: the crew was friendly and efficient, even if they did lie about having extra cheese. The seat is nice, reasonably private, and comfortable sleeping. The food and beverage? Well, they’re something ANA and Asiana would be embarrassed to serve in business class not to mention first. But again, it’s understandable why United does what it does.

With that said, quick trip through immigration and security, and it was off to the condo to spend a whole 72 hours in DC (after five weeks away) before packing up again and heading to Israel and Palestine for Thanksgiving!

Washington Dulles to Tokyo in ANA First, and ANA First Lounge, Tokyo

Airports, Japan, South Pacific Tour 2014 1 Response »

Oct 242014

So, finally the big day was here. Rainy day in Washington, and grabbed the new-ish Silver Line metro out to Dulles. Check-in was smooth, with 14 agents (I counted) and no lines yet. Agents had a bit of trouble figuring out how to tag my bag all the way to Bali (since it was different tickets) but soon had it sorted and I was on my way to the Lufthansa Senator Lounge.

I decided to do a few laps of the A and B terminal first to get a little bit of walking in, but was soon seated with a glass of bubbly and a little breakfast:

Day in DC…a 10 hour connection…and IAD-CDG

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

Sep 162014

Having landed right on time, I grabbed a triple iced espresso for fuel at the D-gates Starbucks, and headed straight to the Washington Flyer bus, where I learned that the bus doesn’t start until 7:45 on weekends. It was only 7:10. Grrrr. In an attempt to (a) be fiscally responsible and (b) curious about the new bus to metro service on the silver line, I waited. This meant a $5 bus plus about $5 metro ride vs a $55 taxi….

Shortly, the bus arrived, and the Washington Flyer bus is no longer a nice coach bus, but a glorified public bus with luggage racks. Actually was glad to see this, because the bus now runs every 15 minutes instead of every 30, and is $5 instead of $10, so it’s definitely a win. Soon we were at metrorail, and I was enjoying a quick ~25 minute ride to my place. Can’t really complain about 40 minutes door to door on public transit from Dulles!

Emerging from metro, looking a bit scruffy, bags already forming under the eyes, but none the worse for wear:

So, I had exactly 10 hours in DC, one of which was eaten up getting home. So, first order of business was a load of laundry. Then packing a weekend bag for Andorra. See, I’d left my luggage in Honolulu, to be picked up on the way to Vegas, so I had only my laptop bag with me. Packed a weekend bag, and by 10am I met some friends at a local restaurant for a quick brunch and catching up on this crazy trip. One of the friends did a 48 hour Johannesburg mileage run with me about a year ago, so the insanity was easily related to.

Now 11:30 and still 6 hours before my flight….so I unwisely went and played an hour of hockey. Why not, right? It’ll make me tired for the flight! Had a great time, more than a little amused at my own insanity, and by 2p was home, showered, and right back on Metrorail to take me to Dulles.

I’d checked in online, so it was straight to security where there was almost no wait at pre-check, and less than 15 minutes after arriving at Dulles I was already in the D-gates Red Carpet Club, which I don’t think I’d been to in years. It was time for some delicious Tilamook cheese and a few glasses of Château le Jeff. Despite a huge brunch of french toast and two sides of bacon, I was starving from hockey, so I went to town:

The Dubai flight was also leaving from the D gates shortly, and the people watching was nothing short of fascinating. Several younger military looking types getting absolutely tanked on Bud Light (their lack of tolerance made me ashamed to be American) and perhaps the scariest part…a middle aged portly Texan guy who ordered “6 shots of Jack Daniels on the rocks.” Yes, he paid like $70 for it and didn’t seem phased. I’m gonna guess he has a fear of flying…more surprisingly the bartender didn’t seem surprised at all.

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:

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… 😉

St Kitts to Washington DC on Seaborne Airlines and United

Airports, Flights, St Kitts and Nevis, St Kitts and Nevis long weekend No Responses »

Jul 292014

Up way too early to head back to the airport to fly home. Seaborne only has one flight a day out of St Kitts, so I was left with really no choice on timing. I was planning to fly United San Juan – Chicago – Washington National, but United retimed the flights changing my layover to nearly 6 hours in San Juan, and getting home at nearly 1 am….no thanks. United offered to rebook me on the nonstop San Juan – Washington Dulles, and despite the loss in miles I decided to take it as it would get me home nearly 8 hours earlier.

Quick check-out at the Marriott, quick 15 minute cab, and we were at the very quiet St Kitts airport….which wasn’t all that quiet because in addition to our Seaborne flight there was a full American 737 to Miami also checking in. Not a problem, except American also handles the check-in for Seaborne so ended up waiting about 15 minutes to check-in. Again, no biggie, and the agent was so rushed and flustered that she forgot to charge me for my bag…hooray for small victories. Then, we got to immigration, which is where the shitshow began.

There was one immigration officer handing a full 737 plus our flight, and the American flight (which left 30 minutes before ours) was already boarding…and there were still 50 American passengers in the immigration line…not to mention security. I made small talk with the lady in front of me in the queue and she was from New Orleans, and kept going on and on about how American was paging her over the intercom but she was stuck in line. I noticed she had the dreaded SSSS on her boarding pass…so I’m sure they were looking to get her extra search out of the way. Eventually something happened, and a second very annoyed looking immigration officer came to assist….but was doing no more than “give me your passport, I stamp it, you go.” No checks or anything. Hooray for border security?

Anyways, everyone made their flight, and we’ll assume lived happily ever after?

The St Kitts Airport is just one big room with 3 or 4 duty free shops and a bunch of chairs, and a small snack stand. It actually reminded me of the airport in Podgorica, Montenegro…it was designed exactly the same way…even down to the check-in area, security/immigration setup, waiting hall, and “gates.” Possible they were designed by the same firm?

Soon, it was time to board our ride to San Juan. There were only 12 passengers, and I was allowed to keep my seat 1A.

Seaborne Airlines flight 4513
Basseterre, St Kitts and Nevis (SKB) to San Juan, Puerto Rico (SJU)
Depart 7:50, Arrive 9:00, Flight Time 1:10
Saab 340B, Registration N336SA, Manufactured 1993, Seat 1A

Walking out to the plane:

Fully boarded, we managed to get airborne about 10 minutes before our scheduled departure time. Unfortunately, despite my carryon bag being quite small, they crew insisted it wouldn’t fit under the seats (I was in the bulkhead) and insisted on gate checking it. Ugh. I don’t know why I didn’t think, but I let them do it…with my passports, laptop, and even wallet in the bag. It was obviously early and I was uncaffeinated, because I didn’t even think to protest.

The view on takeoff from St Kitts:

“Meal” service…there was a snack basket with three or four options, I couldn’t resist the cookies. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen Diet Coke in tall cans before….usually only see Red Bull in these:

Had a nice chat with the flight attendant for a bit, and learned a bit more about how Seaborne works. Both of my Seaborne flights were quite nice, and I hope they manage to grow and fill the gap left by American Eagle in San Juan. Landed about 15 minutes ahead of schedule, and taxied to a waiting area where several Seaborne planes were parked.

Retrieved my carryon, and headed inside and down a long series of very warm corridors towards immigration. Bienvenidos a los Estados Unidos!

Now, a word of advice. As I mentioned…I was tired and not thinking clearly. Not so much tired, because I’d been getting plenty of sleep, but just caffeine-deprived. Two things I recommend you do NOT do when entering the US in Puerto Rico. Even when the Global Entry machine spits out a “ok, you can go” receipt, do not do two things: 1) juggle your Zero Halliburton briefcase in one hand while fumbling to hand your global entry receipt to the CBP officers and 2) don’t greet CBP officers with “buenos dias officers! gracias!” I got the privilege of playing 10 questions with them for that, while they decided if they were going to pull me into secondary for looking shifty. Fortunately, I was allowed to go 😉

Unlike the transit from United to Seaborne, the transit from US Immigration to United in San Juan was all indoors, nice and cool, and a relatively short and air conditioned walk. Check-in was nice and quick, and there was no line at all at TSA pre-check, so I was through security in no time…and very quickly was at Starbucks. And all was right with the world again.

Had a couple of calls I had to make for work, so used the American Admirals club thanks to my Citi American card, where the internet was nice and speedy, and it was a comfortable place to wait for a couple of hours and get some work done. Plus, the staff there as always were super friendly.

I was getting starved by this point, having subsisted on Diet Coke, Espresso, and a bag of cookies to this point, so I gave in and went to the Air Margaritaville for lunch. Well, liquid lunch….but in fairness, I did have a cuban sandwich as well which was significantly tastier than I expected.

The margarita was tasty, but this place was an absolute ripoff. One margarita and a cuban sandwich set me back nearly $40…I know it’s airport prices…but come on, get real!

Headed over to my gate, where the gate lice were frantically scurrying about, trying to make sure they were first on the plane. There were also more than 20 wheelchairs on this flight. Definitely a leisure route, since even the two Silver Elites in front of me were making sure that everyone around them knew they’d been upgraded to first class. LOL.

As soon as boarded was called headed on with global services and military, and managed to escape the scrum…fortunately…because there was a fierce battle even in first for overhead space.

United flight 1067
San Juan, Puerto Rico (SJU) to Washington, Dulles (IAD)
Depart 12:45, Arrive 16:40, Flight Time 3:55
Boeing 737-800, Registration N14242, Manufactured 1999, Seat 2E

This was one of the more ancient 737s in the Continental…I mean United….no, I mean Continental…as the pilot reminded us to “sit back and enjoy the fine service provided by this Continental Airlines doing business as United crew.” Ugh…I thought you guys were past those childish post-merger games.

Pre-departure beverages were offered, and I got greeted with “you must not fly much, we haven’t had the margaritas in years!” Uh, you had them a few months ago, but not going to argue. Thanks for the insight 😉 I went with water, and waited until lunch to have a glass of wine.

Oh, and the cut-price half cashews weren’t warmed…which I actually prefer:

Then, it was time for lunch…or what passes for a 4 hour domestic lunch these days on United.

Hola! Mi nombre es Jeff! Hay muchos camibos ahora a United que creo que te va a gustar! ….¿Quieres un burrito?

The burrito…aka the “tan” meal…everything was some shade of unappetizing tan…except the wine, and that was added for colour. Note, once again, too cheap for a bread plate….but the butter gets its own bowl?! WTF United catering:

Though, I will admit, whatever is in that chipotle-mayo-whatever sauce combo is like crack….I think I ate all of the sauce and maybe half the burrito…and skipped the “freshly baked…just for you” cookie. Gag.

Landed on time, moon buggy to baggage claim…and then we waited. And waited. I think I grew several grey hairs. Still we waited. I watched a diabetic passenger go into shock and need emergency glucose. Dinosaurs roamed baggage claim. The Leafs won the Stanley Cup…no wait, it wasn’t THAT long 😉 Anyways, finally 77 minutes after landing, our bags started showing up. Seriously United/Dulles…WTF.

With that, an amazing long weekend was over. Several weeks of relaxing at home before the next big…and super insane trip. I’ll give a teaser:

DC -> Honolulu -> Paris -> Barcelona -> Andorra -> France/Spain/France/Barcelona/Paris -> Honolulu -> Vegas -> DC.

It’s gonna be crazy. There will be bachelor parties. There will be my 159th country visited (also my LAST in Europe). There will be chocolate croissants…there will be beaches…there will be madness….

Great United Airlines Business Class Fare

Airports, Andorra, Flights, France, Hawaii, Mileage Runs, Paris, Vegas 2 Responses »

Apr 052014

It was spread a bit too widely to be a mistake fare, and Air Canada, Lufthansa, and Brussels Airlines matched the fares too, so it seems this one was intentional. However, it was odd. Fares from a majority of US cities, excluding United hub cities of course, to a variety of cities in Europe for $500 roundtrip plus taxes and fuel surcharges. Depending on the cities it came to roughtly $1400 to $1600 total.

Of course, when I saw Honolulu was in the mix, I had to jump on it!

Problem was, since United massively devalued miles earlier this year, I cashed in around 500,000 so my travel year is packed. And this deal would only be valid in July and August, when I already had some other commitments. Early July was out, since I was already going to St. Kitts for a long weekend. Late July/Early August also wouldn’t be good time-wise…and I was to go to Vegas the last weekend of August for a bachelor party. Wait. Vegas is on the way from Honolulu to DC…kind of. This got me thinking….

Getting to Honolulu is easy…and can be done in one day. I found a routing that would instantly confirm with a United regional upgrade as well. So far this is working well.

Now, Hawaii to Europe on the business class deal… settled on HNL-IAD-CDG since it has a 10 hour layover in DC, enough time for me to repack bag, run any errands I might need to…or just be silly since it’s a Sunday.

I’d have just over 48 hours in Paris. From what I remember Paris is rather dead in August, so I won’t likely stay there…but I might. I’m also looking at buying roundtrip flights down to Toulouse, renting a car, and driving to Andorra for the night…the last country I need to visit in Europe. Any thoughts on this? I arrive into CDG around 6am and depart two days later around 10am.

On the way back, I’m doing the ultra-long CDG-SFO-HNL…going to be a very long day…and a very short night in HNL, because at 6am the next day I fly HNL-LAX which confirmed instantly with a regional upgrade, and LAX-LAS which wouldn’t confirm, so ended up paying like $40 more for a P fare. Bargain of an upcharge!

Then, the only decision was how to get back from Vegas. Since I’m looking to be a bit shorter on qualifying dollars than qualifying miles, I decided to go with the United P fare routing LAS-IAH-ORD-DCA. Probably should have skipped the ORD, but it was the same price…and what’s one more flight at this point?

In the end, here’s what it looks like:

Total stats are:

27,128 butt-in-seat miles flown
11 days, 16 hours traveled
65,125 redeemable miles earned
37,542 elite qualifying miles earned
3,275 premier qualifying dollars earned

It should be an absolute crazy adventure…and I can’t wait!

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!

Washington to Kona in United First and flyGo! economy

Airports, Flights, Hawaii February 2014 No Responses »

Feb 222014

I keep asking myself: why do you book morning flights? I don’t function well before 10am, and getting up – not to mention trekking the 30 miles out to Dulles Airport – in time for an 8am flight…well, I think the Geneva Convention prevents that. Throw in packing and doing laundry until 1am the night before, and I’m not likely to be a happy camper.

This leads to me not being able to tolerate a taxi, and Uber it is. Abdullah showed up in just a few minutes, and fortunately had bottled water in the car and was a quick and pleasant drive to Dulles. I’d checked in online and had the mobile boarding pass, TSA pre-check went without a hitch, and I was curbside to gate in maybe 15 minutes at Dulles. Not bad at all considering how much the airport sprawls.

United flight 1632
Washington, Dulles (IAD) to San Francisco, California (SFO)
Depart 8:17, Arrive 11:05, Flight Time 5:48
Boeing 757-300, Registration N57864, Manufactured 2001, Seat 2F

Honestly, there’s not too much to say about this flight. The crew was super friendly and pleasant, and we had a good long chat in the galley after the meal service. I find I can relate to post-merger crews pretty well – my mother original started in reservations with North Central Airlines, which eventually became Republic Airlines, which was eventually merged into Northwest Orient and then NWA Airlines. She couldn’t deal with yet another merger, and retired the day before Delta acquired Northwest…so, I understand what crews are going through and have a great deal of sympathy about how management has treated them.

Breakfast was a bit unusual….a disc of eggs, and a hockey puck…I mean round mystery meat passed off as sausage. I think I nibbled on about half of it, limited myself to one bloody mary, and then watched episode after episode of Homeland trying to get caught up.

Arrived in San Francisco right on time, and enjoyed my favourite little guilty pleasure in the food court, the Fung Lum Chinese restaurant, and their quite tasty Dim Sum. It wasn’t nearly as good as I remembered, but tasty enough to hold me over for a two hour connection. The gate area for our next flight was absolutely packed, so we played gate lice and queued up well in advance.

United flight 1001
San Francisco, California (SFO) to Honolulu, Hawaii (HNL)
Depart 13:08, Arrive 16:56, Flight Time 5:48
Boeing 737-800, Registration N12221, Manufactured 1998, Seat 2E

I still think it’s a bit of a crime to fly 737s to Hawaii, but after taking many many in the last two years, I’ve gotten a bit used to it I guess. We had another really good crew on this flight, so that also made it go by quite quickly and comfortably. Lunch was…well, adequate and actually MILDLY healthy. Chicken and beans, with a mediocre salad and a heap of carbs. And wine, good wine, malbec….and much more drinkable that the usual Chateau le Jeff:

The sundae, as always, was delicious:

…and that’s about all there is to say about a rather generic flight with United. We arrived on time, I changed into shorts, and we attempted to go find our next flight. We had two hours, so plenty of time, but I’d never been to the “commuter terminal” before, so this would be a new adventure. Took the escalator upstairs to the Wiki Wiki Shuttle, which took us over to the domestic terminal. The driver was helpful, and she told us to just walk the length of the domestic terminal, go down the stairs at the end, walk through the passageway, and you’d be in the commuter terminal.

Her instructions were flawless, and soon we found ourselves in what looked like a small gate area with 5 or 6 people sitting around. Plus one very bored looking security guard. So, I asked her, what next? “You wait.” Um, we don’t have boarding passes, we’re not checked in…and there’s nobody here! “They will come get you. If you leave this area, you will have to go through more security and it is hard. The flyGo! people will come get you right before your flight. No problem.”

Ok, so we waited. The area increasingly filled up, and the Island Air rep did come through and grab people for their flight, so this at least had me thinking the agent was right. Soon it was 20 minutes before our flight, and no sign of anyone from flyGo…but there was a boarding announcement….and people started walking toward the plane from what was obviously the other part of the commuter terminal. Finally, after they’d all boarded, a rep did come to our area, and start boarding us. She called our names over the walky talky to her coworker, who verified we should be on the flight. All’s well that ends well!

No trouble checking my rolling bag planeside, but as the last to board, and it was open seating, we were all the way at the back of my least favourite plane of all time – the dreaded CRJ-200.

flyGo! flight 1007
Honolulu, Hawaii (HNL) to Kailua-Kona, Hawaii (KOA)
Depart 19:30, Arrive 20:15, Flight Time 45 minutes
Canadair CRJ-200, Registration N27318, Manufactured 1999, Seat 11A

The upside to being in the back, of the 3 empty seats on the plane they were 11B and 11C so we both got a whole row to ourselves…score for that?

Total flight time was actually 28 minutes from takeoff to touchdown, and water was offered. All things considered, for a CRJ flight, it was pretty good. Until the announcement ten minutes from landing: “some of you may have noticed snow and ice falling from the roof. This is perfectly normal, as a result of condensation in the plane.” Ummmm, ok? I guess we landed ok, so there’s something to be said for that.

Overall impression of flyGo? Well, their instructions for connecting passengers in Honolulu need some major improvement, but other than that they were a perfectly acceptable and comfortable option…as well as the only one that fit our schedule. I’d have no hesitation taking them again. Then it was off to get the car, and begin the adventure!

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!!!

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