Trip Reports - LAX-OGG-Grand Wailea-HNL-NRT-SIN-NRT-Nagano-KIX-CDG-NCE-LHR-LAX

OK, this trip is too long to wait til the end. I'll get started now and try to update when I can (in case anyone's interested).

The flight from LAX to OGG was UA45 in a comfortable 2-class 767. My wife took my usual 1A and I took 1B. Pretty much everyone was a tourist. I took at look at the manifest and I was the only 1K in 1st! So the FA's took good care of me.

After touchdown at the small OGG we made our way to the Hertz bus which took us to the nearby lot where I found my mid-sized reservation yielded a Toyota 4Runner upgrade!

Driving on Maui is pretty easy as there aren't that many roads. It was simple to find the Grand Wailea. Some may recall my post on this hotel a few months ago. They sent me a letter offering me a week's stay for $698 including $100 dining credit and the Spa Grande treatment. I heard great things about this place so I went ahead and booked. Now I wish I had tried for a "free" stay at a Starwood or Hyatt on points.

We got put in a lousy room on the back end of the hotel where we could listen to buses and garbage trucks and walk a long way to the lobby and pools. Considering that they were (and still are) begging me to join their club and stay here often, I told them they wasted their promotion. BTW, their KSL club costs $100 per year with a refundable $2000 intiation fee.

Later we found that the Concierge screwed up our golf and spa reservations. Our name was spelled different in each of the multiple hotel computer systems. The Concierge staff was pretty clueless in comparison to any other 5-star hotel I've been to. The food at the "Bistro" was terrible, but the food at the main seafood restaurant was good.

The hotel property is quite beautiful and the activity pools are excellent. They have the only "water" elevator in the world! So, for $698 we did get our money's worth. But I could have afforded a much better time at another hotel. This hotel was sold to a new owner about a year ago and it seems to me that the management has gone downhill.

We have really enjoyed Maui though! I won't go into too many details since most of you have been here, but:

I did manage to golf on a course with the best views I've ever seen. Whales were popping up constantly out on the waves. I had a United pilot in my foursome so we had fun talking about travel.

We drove up to the summit of Haleakala on a day with 100% visibility.

We went horseback riding on a ranch that's been owned by the same family since the 1800's.

We enjoyed the hotel pools and the ocean quite a bit.

Tomorrow afternoon my wife heads home and I go to the Hyatt in Waikiki for a business meeting. Then Saturday I fly to Singapore via Narita.

Sorry to hear about the treatment you received at GW, Stimpy. Still, for $698 + benefits, it still provides good value.

What is the KSL club, BTW?

KSL manages a number of mostly golf-oriented resorts. They are supposed to be very high-end properties.

Today was good. I checked my wife in for her flight to LAX and I move to Aloha for my flight to HNL. Check-in was very nice and we went to the Aloha lounge (no RCC in OGG). Later I discovered that the incoming Aloha flight was absent so I asked if I could move to a flight that might leave in the near future. The staff was excellent and put me on plane in seat 1A in about 5 minutes. I was very impressed with Aloha. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

After a long rush hour taxi ride to the Hyatt in Waikiki, I was warmly welcomed as a Diamond member and was asked to check off two amenities. I got upgraded to a Regency Club room with an ocean and Diamond Head view room. Very nice.

My colleague met me and we went to Sam Choy's for an excellent meal. Way better than what they serve on United, although they do serve much better than average airplane food.

Off to NRT and SIN tomorrow.

Sounds like a much better day today! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Dumb question, does Aloha flights count toward UA status?

Saddened to learn of your travails at the Grand Wailea. For those who don't remember or were not around for the previous GW discussion and stimpys "deal", here's the thread:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum94/HTML/000582.html

BTW- I just had to cancel my SIN trip for today but you may have seen: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum95/HTML/000286.html

Darn Stimpy -- I should have paid more attention to when you were going. Have several barkeeps down in Kihei you could have looked up and had a blast...

Indurain -- yes, you get 500 miles per AQ segement (and they post pretty quickly for an MP partner).

Stimpy, Sorry to hear about your problems in Maui.. Such a BEAUTIFUL island. Just a quick question.What is a "water elevator"?
This resort has a exclusive on it. Huh?

Regards,

Mike Mahoney

[This message has been edited by MIKE MAHONEY (edited 02-19-2000).]

The hotel has cascading pools and when you get to the bottom, you, your friends and a lot of water get transported back to the top of the pool. You have to see it.

Today was a good day too. I took a cab to HNL and checked in at the United Intl 1st desk thanks to an upgrade. They actually printed out a boarding pass for my connecting ANA flight to SIN. I thought that the Star Alliance was really getting its act together, but I later found out the boarding pass was meaningless.

I went to the UA Intl 1st class lounge for the 1st time at HNL and I think that this is the best of the bunch style-wise. You really feel rich walking in there. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

The flight to NRT was ordinary with sorry mainland FA's and a couple of nice Hawaiian FA's. Upon arrival I took a bus to T2 and queued up for another security scan. When I got to the front of the line they looked at my United-printed boarding pass and told me it was no good. I had to go to an ANA desk. I think I must have been the first person to ever show up with a United-printed boarding pass. The ANA agent didn't know what to do with it. She called her supervisor over who called another supervisor over who called someone on the phone. 10 minutes later I had a proper ANA boarding pass. I asked them to enter my Mileage Plus number since I knew it wouldn't have transfered over. They did and hopefully it will post soon.

I went to the ANA Fuji lounge which was nice, but nothing to write home about. What IS worth writing home about is the absolutely wonderful experience in ANA 1st class. My every need was taken care of. When I removed my shoes, slippers arrived. When I got a little cold in my polo shirt, a Cardigan sweater arrived. The collection of '95 Red and White Bordeaux's along with the Krug Grand Cuvee had my give up my usual ban on alcohol when flying. After a glass of 20 year old Port I move my seat to the flat position to go to sleep. But first an FA brought me a thick down comforter to make the service complete. I swear I will never EVER fly United to Japan again. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif I don't think it was a good marketing move for United to accept ANA in the Star Alliance. Now their customers will see just how lousy their service is in comparison.

Upon arrival I was met by a Westin driver and taken to the Stamford. I was upgraded to the Executive level on the 61st floor. It's a very nice hotel.

That's all for today.

Good to see the * alliance paying off. Maybe UA will upgrade as I can't see the others reducing their service level!

Well I took UA to Japan one more time since I bought the ticket in advance and I knew that UA intra-Asia flights do have very good service.

So I boarded UA890 from SIN to NRT and upgraded to my usual 1A. The FA's were all Asian and very nice. The menu on Singapore flights are from the Ritz Carlton Millenia and the fancy silverware is from Raffles. So there were no complaints in that department. It wasn't as good as NH, but much better than flights from or to the U.S.

I have seen all the movies so I read and listened to ATC on channel 14. This was my first time listening in Asia and it was vastly different from the US and Europe. Things seem pretty wide open here and the accents can be quite difficult to understand. In Singapore airspace, the SQ jets contact their dispatch office on the same frequency as we were on. So I got to listen to all that traffic, but again the accents were difficult. We flew well east of Hong Kong, but I could still hear their control traffic faintly on our frequency. Same for Manilla. When we reach Taipei control, the ATC woman sounded like she was about 8 years old. I really had a hard time understanding her. I can only guess our pilots knew what she was going to say anyway since it's pretty routine. When we reached Japan, the English was much easier to understand. However I heard occasional conversations in Japanese. To be fair I've heard German conversations in Germany.

Upon landing, another UA 747 landed ahead of us along with a Korean 747 so I knew I was in trouble at customs. I had to wait about 45 minutes in a Disney like queue with Korean kids running around screaming and having a good old time. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

After customs, I went to the Japan Rail office to get my foreign-purchased railpass set up. For some strange reason, they set it up to start the next day and tried to charge me for today's ticket. I told them to do it again for today and they didn't seem to like it, but they complied.

I took the NEX to Yokohama, then took a taxi to the Pan Pacific hotel. This section of Yokohama is very nice. All stylish skyscrapers and a neat amusement park with a huge Ferris Wheel that looks as big as the Millenium Wheel in London. I'll have to find out really how big it is to compare. I know that London says they have the largest.

The Pan Pacific is a very stylish new hotel. I presented my Pacific Club card (why don't we have a forum for this?) at check-in, but the Pacific Floors were full. I did get a nice amenity of strawberries with cream.

The days, and reports, just get better and better! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

I'm really surprised you were able to get ATC on UA890, I've NEVER heard ATC on an international flight, its always "top pops." I'm so jealous...

My experience with NH has been good, the miles always appear on the UA site within a couple of weeks. BOTH times (one domestic, one international) I took AC flights the miles didn't show up until I called MP. Wins some and lose some right?

Time to add to the running report a bit. After checking out of the wonderful Pan Pacific Yokohama, we (I met an friend from Oz who happened to have his skiis with him) boarded the express train to Tokyo station. There we switched to the Nagano Asama where we enjoyed the 1.5 hour ride in the green car. They served cold tea as usual.

Upon arrival in Nagano, we found that we had about an hour to kill before the bus to Nozawa Onsen left. So we stopped in a little Italian bistro at the station. We didn't realize (and they didn't tell us) that the portions were enormous and should have been for two or 3 people. So we were quite stuffed when I ran over to the ATM machine to get more money. I knew where it was from my last visit and it was still the only western ATM machine in town.

The bus took over an hour due to snow plow traffic. As we were heading up the mountain we were amazed at the 15-foot high drifts along the road. This was way too much snow!

After making the trip by bus, I know now I could drive it myself easily. All the road signs are in Kangi and English so no worries.

The locals did a good job of plowing and we could see people shoveling everywhere especially on the rooftops to keep them from collapsing. Soon we arrived at the beautiful Nozawa Onsen village. Our hotel was Haus St. Anton and they sent a minivan to meet us at the bus terminal.

I was a bit concerned about using credit cards, but things have changed a lot here perhaps due to the Olympics. Every hotel took credit cards, even the ones that catered only to Japanese. Our hotel took everything from Amex to Diners so no worries.

After traveling the world and staying at the most expensive fine hotels in the greatest cities, I can say that I favor this little family run B&B&D the most. From the moment we arrived, we were treated as part of the family. No mention of money or credit cards. Just a warm welcome, a drink and plenty of advice for skiing. We of course removed our shoes at the door and were given slippers. The hotel was quite full as this is high season and the lady of the house apologized profusely for given me one of the kids rooms on the top floor. I didn't mind bunk beds for one night and they gave me a proper room the second night. The rooms were small but comfortable. They had sinks, but the toilets were down the hall and the showers and hot baths in the basement. Just like being at home!

The 10,000 yen ($92) room rate included breakfast and dinner and boy was the food excellent and plentiful! Dinner was several courses and of course all home made by the lady of the house. Her extended family was also here for skiing and we were welcomed by all into their group. These folks travel as much as we do, but they visit all the great ski resorts around the world. They speak French, German and Spanish too!

That night my colleague begged off early and I went out for a prowl. The village was very busy with shoppers and diners. I passed a few karaoke bars til I heard Grateful Dead music coming from some stairs leading down. My ears led the way and I found myself in what might have been my basement in the 70's with a heck of a lot more liquor!

This place was a shrine to rock&roll with more paraphernalia than a Hard Rock Cafe, packed into a tiny room. They had two kinds of vodka, two gins, two rums, a few beers and 10 kinds of Bourbon! I was in heaven. So I sipped my bourbon and listened to Jerry and the boys and slowly the room filled with the night crowd. A few hours later I had made lifelong friends with a Japanese champion freestyle moguler, a British Embassy officer from Indonesia, two American schoolteachers who teach english here, and a local TV anchorwoman. One of those special nights that we managed to repeat the following night. I can't really describe more, you had to be there. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

The skiing was great. I had no problem renting skis and boots which cost 5,000 yen for two days. I think the lift tickets were 6700 yen for two days which the hotel arranged and put on my bill. After skiing, we visited the community baths. There are 13 thermal bathhouses in this village. They are all maintained by the hotel community and free for all to use. The baths here are way, way, way hotter than any Jacuzzi in the west. But I managed to brave it and felt wonderful afterwards. The last day I was warmed to the bone as we checked out.

The lady of the house was totalling my bill and asked me if I remembered how many beers I had the day before! I had to remind her to add my phone bill from the first room. I would never do that at a chain hotel, but I wouldn't think of stealing a penny from these people. All in all, a very low cost weekend.

I was still feeling quite warm despite the sub-zero weather and the blizzard outside. So of course I forgot my jacket at the hotel. We made our way back to Nagano and I called the hotel from the station and they had found my jacket and said they would send whereever I needed it. I arranged to have it sent to my next hotel in Kyoto and had the shipping costs put on the Kyoto hotel bill.

We decided to take the Shinkansen to Tokyo and then change to Kyoto and had a nice relaxing ride past beautiful mountain scenery. This time they served hot tea! A first for me on this train. We got to see the sunset next to Mt. Fuji which was pretty nice.

At Kyoto I dropped my friend off at the New Miyaki Hotel and I cabbed it to the Takaragaike Prince. This hotel is very nice and luxurious, but not as personable as the family hotel I just left. This was my first time at a Prince hotel and I learned that Prince is actually a very large chain across Asia-Pac and North America. And they have a Frequent Stay program!! So of course I've signed up. When are we going to add a Prince forum?

That takes me up to the present and now it's time to go to work. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Listening to the Dead in Nozawa Onsen village. What "a long strange trip" that must have been.

Stimpy,

Skiing in Japan is truly and experience one needs to have if you enjoy the destination as much as the skiing. When I lived in Tokyo for 3 years we made regular trips up to Naeba for ski weekends. We stayed at our same regular minishuku (lodge/inn) with its own hot bath in the basement. There is nothing like a hot, hot bath after a day of skiing. At night we would roam the streets of Naeba village going from bar to bar drinking beer and whiskey and sake, and eating sushi. The best sushi bar in town was run by a former japanese olympic downhill skiier. Fantastic.

The skiing wasn't world-class, but good enough. It was always a trip skiing around all the ski bunnies in their matching outfits up for the weekend from Tokyo.

Yep, there were a lot of Tokyo ski bunnies there. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Well I'm back in Long Beach now. The important parts of my Kyoto meeting ended much earlier than expected, so I decided to head to the U.S. for a week before continuing on to Europe. I checked out of the Prince and took a cab to Kyoto Station. From there I took the Hakura Express to Kansai. I plopped down my Amex card at the JAL desk and said "take me home". http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

JAL is a wonderful airline with first-rate service. It was similar to the ANA experience but this was a longer flight and they had much more food. Also the Port was 30 years old! KIX is a nice new airport. We actually took off exactly 10 minutes after our scheduled departure time. That sort of thing never happens at other major airports. Then exactly 5 minutes into the flight, the seatbelt sign went off! They told us to make ourselves comfortable. Again, a first for me. We had a fair amount of turbulence, but they only put the seatbelt sign on when it got bad enough to spill drinks. But we must have been moving quickly since we landed an hour early. And LAX even had a gate for us! I'm just not used to that kind of efficiency. I even had time to visit the INSpass enrollment center where I got my pass made up in less than 10 minutes. I have to go buy a lottery ticket now. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Carfield, I saved the extensive JAL menu if you or anyone else wants it.