Jason Around the World

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

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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:

Kahalui, Maui to Moloka’i on Mokulele Airlines

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Mar 022014

Got up early. Way early. Early enough that if it had been a city hotel instead of Maui, people would have just started to stagger in from the night before. But this is Maui, and nobody is awake at 4am. Not even the front desk of the hotel, apparently, because I had to wait 10 minutes for someone to come check me out. Then, there was a problem with the bill, and when I called it to his attention in return I got “there’s nothing I can do about it.” I asked for a manager. “There’s no manager.” What are my options? “Pay it now, or we will autocheck you out and you can call and dispute it later.” Wow, that’s pretty poor customer service. So, I left the bill open because I wasn’t anticipating 20 minutes to check out and was running late for my flight.

Actually, it was my Starbucks. More important. Starbucks by the airport opened at 4am…it was Heaven! Now, on to the airport. Dropped off the car, Alamo was quick and friendly even at oh’dark’thirty, and they were more than willing to drive us over to the commuter terminal

Check-in was no different than our previous flight with Makani Kai. $15 per bag to be checked, and stand on the scale and get weighed with your carry on. The waiting area was just a few chairs covered by a roof, and soon we were still being escorted out to our plane in the early morning light.

Mokulele Airlines flight 1193
Kahului, Maui, Hawaii (OGG) to Moloka’i Hawaii (MKK)
Depart 6:25, Arrive 6:49, Flight Time 24 minutes
Cessna 208B Grand Caravan, Registration N840MA, Manufactured ???, Seat: 2rd row, Starbord side

Pre-flight beverages were served at check-in, since there was no service on this short flight:

We were informed that we’d been, um, weighed-in to the second row on this flight, and the most notable fact was…we were on the exact same plane we’d come into Maui on! The flight itself, well, nothing really different than the previous one. After about 15 minutes we were approaching Moloka’i which was interesting. See, the south coast of the island is pretty much a 1,500+ foot sheer cliff. I was watching the altimeter, and we were coming in right around 1,800 feet. I thought I’d read the cliffs were 3,000 feet, so I was freaking out mildly.

Yes, the altimeter. From the second row I could clearly see most of the instruments, so it was as good as being right up front. I was in aviation geek Heaven. We flew just past the airport, made a 180, and made a smooth landing, although the approach was a bit bumpy.

Walked into the small terminal, and stood around a bit….and first thing we did was try and get a rental car. We had about 2.5 hrs before our next flight, and would have 4 hours later in the day. Unfortunately, Alamo had absolutely no cars, even for a couple of hours, and they’re the only rental car company on property. We were flying Makani Kai later to Kalaupapa, and that’s when we got the big shock. The woman working the Makani Kai counter, right next to the Alamo counter, was like “here’s my keys…just take my car! Just put 5 gallons of gas in it on the way back.” Yes, she was just going to give us her car in exchange for putting a little gas in it. There’s the aloha spirit!

We opted to hang around in the morning since we didn’t have too long until the next flight. Island Air (our flight to Honolulu that evening) let us check our bags early, so we were set with just our carry ons. Makani Kai had their flight schedule posted:

The Makani Kai check-in counter:

Took one last look at N840MA, the Mokulele plane that had served us well on our last two segments:

Sheraton Maui and three days on Maui

Attractions, Hawaii February 2014 2 Responses »

Feb 282014

Had no trouble finding the rental car shuttle from the commuter car terminal, and thanks to the fact we arrived at a different time from the mainland flights, there was no line to get the car. Thanks to the same website we were renting from Alamo again, and they tried to up-sell us from a “standard convertible” to a Camero for over $100 a day. Um, no thanks. When we got to the lot, we were extra thankful – the standard convertibles were Mustangs, which were just fine…although the choice was only black or white. We picked the white, and off we went.

The drive to our hotel, the Sheraton Maui in Lahaina, was about 30 minutes give or take, and soon we were there and valeted the car. The wait to check in was only a couple people, and soon it was time to play let’s make a deal…I mean check in. No, there were no rooms ready, but we’d been upgraded to a “standard ocean view” near the back of the property with two beds. I asked about a suite, and yes, we could have an Ohana suite near the back of the property with a “partial ocean view” but only with two beds again. I pressed, and she said there were also “deluxe ocean view suites, and let’s see if I can give you one.” She came back from the back room, and said unfortunately it would be an upcharge of $250 a night…but I can do it for $200. She could sense I was less than thrilled, and I asked if that was all she could do…then she offered it for $100 a night…given it was nearly 1,000 sq ft, a corner room with a view of the beach and ocean, I decided to go for it.

It would take about an hour to get the room ready, so she gave us a 35% off coupon for the poolside bar as well as welcome drink coupons, so we could grab lunch while we waited. Some tasty nachos were definitely on order, but we asked the waitress what she’d recommend. “Oh, you can get doubles FYI with those drink coupons…and I highly recommend the Old Fashioned Mai Tai.” I decided to give it a go….and drank nothing else for the next three days. Make with top shelf rum and shaved ice, it was absolutely delicious.

After about an hour I got a call that the room was ready, so we finished off our drinks and headed up to check in. Except, the line was now 30+ people deep, and when we tried to go to the platinum check-in line it nearly started a riot. The agent tried to explain to the people in line, but when they’ve been waiting on line for a long time, it’s understandable they were upset at the fact there were no more agents. They told us we could go around the corner to the valet to check-in, so we did.

It turned out not to work so well…he only could see the original upgrade, and not the suite we’d been waiting for. We had to come back two times, because he gave us keys to the wrong room. Nearly 45+ minutes later, however, we were finally to the room…with an amazing view:

The rest of the afternoon, we relaxed on the beach and just took it easy, enjoying the hotel and taking it easy. That evening, we met my friend Rita for dinner. I hadn’t seen Rita in over 20 years since she’d moved to Maui, and it was a real treat getting to catch up over some delicious beers at the Maui Brewing Company:

The next morning we got up fairly early, and after grabbing some Starbucks we headed out to drive the Road to Hana. It’s a nice drive on some pretty winding roads, and the frustration is you spend a good deal of time stuck behind people who might not live up to your driving skills.

Our first stop was at Twin Falls, maybe 30-40 minutes into the drive, where we were told the hike in to the falls was maybe 15-20 minutes. We stopped first at a small overlook:

Then, about ten minutes later, we were approaching the falls. The final part was maybe 50 meters or so through knee deep quite cold water, but it was gorgeous and refreshing:

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

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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:

Washington to Kona in United First and flyGo! economy

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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!!!

Strategy for the remaining 42 countries

Countries 1 Response »

Feb 172014

Now that I’m back from Africa, I’ve been doing some thinking of how I’ll get to my final 42 countries. Plan is to have a party somewhere that family/friends will want to join over Labour Day 2016…which will also coincidentally be my 45th birthday weekend.

After doing some planning, I have my remaining 42 countries grouped into a rough set of trips. 2014 plans are:

March: long weekend in Jamaica (155)

late-April: week in Ecuador and Bolivia (156-157)

July 4th weekend: long dive weekend in St Kitts and Nevis (158)

October: 9 south pacific countries (167)

New Years: 6 countries of East Africa + Saudi, Eritrea, Yemen. Hope is to arrange a Saudi transit visa between Eritrea and Yemen (175)

That will bring me into 2015 with 21 to go. They’re grouped as:

Belize: Dive trip planned with a buddy who returns from Afghanistan in Spring 2015. That leaves 20.

Middle East: Probably two trips, since I have Israel, Lebanon, Palestine, and Syria. Who’s to say how I’ll get Syria….that’ll leave 16.

Mongolia and Turkmenistan: Probably two trips, especially if I manage the work trip to Turkmenistan I’m trying to get arranged, which could actually happen in mid 2014. That makes 14.

Cuba. Trying to figure out an interesting way to do it. That will leave 13.

New Years 2015-2016 will likely feature a 3 week romp through West and Central Africa. I’ll enter from Andorra to Algeria and then down, for 11 countries…leaving 2 to go.

Then, in 2016, I’ll do anything leftover from above (Syria? Cuba?), plus:

Bahamas and Iceland: leaving these for the last two, since I want a destination for my last one that family and friends will want to join. Iceland is the plan, but just in case I have an in-flight diversion before then, I’m leaving Bahamas as a backup. Labour Day 2016….start planning on it…thinking a long weekend trip of Thursday to Tuesday….

Praia, Cape Verde to Washington, DC

Airports, Cape Verde, Flights, New Years 2013-2014, Portugal 3 Responses »

Feb 072014

See, there’s a reason I didn’t give much more info in the title of this entry.

Initially, I had a placeholder booked, hoping that closer to the date of return, I could improve on my routing. The initial (admittedly terrible) plan was:

Praia, Cape Verde (RAI) to Lisbon, Portugal (LIS) in TAP Business
Lisbon, Portugal to Geneva, Switzerland (GVA) in TAP Business
Geneva, Switzerland to Montreal, Canada (YUL) in Air Canada Business
Montreal, Canada to Toronto, Canada (YYZ) in Air Canada Business
Toronto, Canada to Newark, New Jersey (EWR) in United Express First
Newark, New Jersey to Washington, National (DCA) in United Express First

Yeah, I’m serious. I was mentally preparing myself to fly that just in case it came down to it. Fortunately, about a week before, award space opened up, and I switched to:

Praia, Cape Verde (RAI) to Lisbon, Portugal (LIS) in TAP Business
Lisbon, Portugal to Brussels, Belgium (BRU) in TAP Business
Brussels, Belgium to Washington, Dulles (IAD) in United First

Yes, I was using miles for United First, but it got me home nearly 8 hours earlier. Plus, my connection in Lisbon would only be an hour, and about 1:20 in Brussels, so much better connection times. Life was looking up!

Little did I know, my favourite furry friend was about to pay me a visit.

But, I’m getting ahead of myself.

Got to Praia Airport approximately two hours before my flight, because TAP wouldn’t let me check in online and I wanted to try and get a decent seat for the 4 hour middle of the night redeye in economy seats. Blech. There were two check-in lines, one for business and one for economy. However, with no business passengers, all the economy people were filling up both lines. I walked to the front, told the check-in agent business class, and she said she’d help me next. Yeah, that went over really well with the others in line…they were on the verge of rioting. No way was the white guy going to pull the “I deserve service before you card.” Fortunately, the agent had my back, as did the rather rotund Lebanese gentleman who arrived for the business class line a minute later. Soon I was checked in, and ready to head to the lounge.

Only, there is no lounge. Just an immigration queue that was nearly 20 minutes long, and somewhere around 30C plus with no breeze in the room. And only two agents working, both of who were preoccupied with mothers with small children who lacked proof that daddy was ok with them taking the children out of the country. 20 minutes became 30 minutes, became 40 minutes, and finally we were through.

Security was next, which took 5 minutes. Well, it WOULD have taken five minutes if one of those small children hadn’t decided they would go for a stroll…right through the metal detectors…and mom ran after them. The entire terminal was emptied….nah, just kidding. Only TSA would pull that. These guys just shrugged and kept on processing people. Mom finally appeared over five minutes later, and they just waved her through. Uh, you know you never checked her…right? Ah, Africa…how I’ll miss you.

So now, we’d wait. The plane had left Lisbon 20 minutes late, meaning best case my connection would be down to 40 minutes.

Thus, I went to the lounge to wait. Ooops, no lounge, just one large room filled with TAP and TACV passengers. Nearly 500 people on delayed flights who were getting anxious. So, I did the only thing I could do, I visited the snack shop, aka “Nice Burger.” I used google translate to say “can I pay US dollars for a beer” yes, I could. It was time for a beer. 10 minutes later, it was time for another. When the crowds started getting rowdy, I opted for a third…only there were no more. This explained why people were getting increasingly agitated, and there was lots more yelling and pushing going on.

Finally, our plane arrived, and if they could turn it around in 30 minutes, we’d only be 20 minutes late. 20 minutes came and went, and we still hadn’t boarded. Then, they announced boarding would begin…but they didn’t announce if it was for the delayed TAP flight or the 3+ hour delayed TACV flight to Paris. So naturally, all 500 people swarmed the agents at once. Eventually, it was sorted. BOTH flights were boarding, from two doors less than 5 feet apart. The agents were having a hell of a time trying to sort out the passengers, but somehow…it happened. I breathed a sigh of relief when I finally got on board.

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