DanTravels
Jun 19, 06, 3:36 pm
June 9/10 - drive ITO-KOA, NW 94/158/1086 KOA-SEA-MSP-EWR F/F/F
June 18 - NW 611/99/4976 EWR-MSP-HNL-KOA F/F/K, drive KOA-ITO
And here's the tidbits:
Rented an "economy" model from National in ITO for the drive to KOA. They asked if I'd like to upgrade to a convertible for only $10. I declined. Turned out they were out of everything but convertibles, so I got one for the economy-car price. Savvy of 'em to try to get me to pay for the upgrade though! Mrs. DanTravels and little Miss DanTravels insisted on cruising around town with me in it before I left...
Got to KOA a bit later than I had hoped, a bit after 8PM for NW94's 9:20PM departure. Both TA's were tied up with big families that had ticket issues. It took them a good 15 minutes to clear the problems, then I was about ready to step up, but the more senior TA came over the luggage scale with a hand full of bag tags already printed out and started calling names... mine first. I wound up making it onto the plane about 9:05. They served an antipasto plate on the way out; I ate the cheese (no one could tell me what kind it was) and the brownie.
Got to SEA somewhere around the expected time, and I set up behind the S8 desk where there's a pillar with power plugs. Got on NW158 and fell asleep. Woke up about 40 minutes out of MSP, apologized to a FA for sleeping through things, and asked if there was any breakfast left. She gave me a bagel, a yogurt, and a couple muffins. Was yummy.
In MSP, wandered to the F/G WC, couldn't get on Wifi from outside it so paid for "Concourse" access to check my mail (and FT) and found out another FTer (who shall remain nameless unless he outs himself) was in the WC and I could go ask for him and get guested. So I did that, had a nice relaxing chat.
NW1086 was a nice short (2.5 hour or so) flight. Dinner was grilled chicken (yum!), salad, roll, and a good oatmeal raisin cookie. We crossed the Delaware Water Gap into NJ way ahead of schedule due to tailwinds, got put into a holding pattern right away due to high winds around EWR, were told it'd be a half-hour... and were then released after 5. Headed in, with the little A319 doing some serious yawing due to the winds. My checked bag had gotten put on earlier flights than I had, so it was waiting for me next to the carousel already.
Return:
Got to EWR around 6:45AM for NW611's 8:00 departure. Was a little surprised that NW had a good 5-8 check-in locations, but none was marked for FC... until I noticed there were no lines anyway. I was at the gate by 7:02. Went over to the little Pizzeria Uno near the gate to get water; ended up with 611's pilot in line behind me, chatted with him (about the use of lasers in astronomical adaptive optics, of all things!). Cute young girl at the counter asked, "Are you a fighter? Do you wrestle?" Was tempted to invite her to find out... ;) Went back up to hang out near the WC... then eventually realized that announcements aren't audible up there, and wandered back down just in time to catch the flight, which was just about done boarding by then. Asked the FA to wake me up if I was asleep when it came time for food, but I wasn't. Breakfast was corn flakes, bagel, fruit, yadda, good. I slept most of the way to MSP.
Got into MSP at G20, wandered over to the shops, went shopping, got to F10 for NW99 and realized I hadn't gotten my suitjacket when I got off NW611. The male GA (as opposed to the female GA working next to him) at F10 said the plane was still on the ground at G20 and NW99 would be departing a few minutes late, so there was time to go back, so I did. They'd hung the jacket on a coat rack right by the G20 desk - smart! I'm sure they had tried to page me to return to the gate, but I'm sure I was off on some other concourse entirely by then. So I got it, made it back to F10 before they even started boarding boarding. The jacket's not all that important to me; I think it was $3 at a thrift shop... but there's a $10 lapel pin on it! ;)
NW99 was... oooh. My first experience with WBC! (Old WBC on a DC10, but still WBC!) Stretching my legs out as far as I could, pointing my toes, and still not being able to touch the seat in front of me. Wow! The lead FA came around getting dinner requests, but in a quasi-random order... I was about the 6th or 7th person she asked. I think it may have been in order of elite status or something. I opted for the chicken. Asked again to be woken if I was asleep. I wasn't. Didn't eat all of it, and wasn't interested in the pasta or mushrooms, but what I ate was good. And then, there was ice cream! I've seen pictures of ice cream on sites that have photos of airline food, but this is the first time I got any. Such a difference from domestic first on the 757s in and out of Kona! I had strawberry topping and walnuts on mine. It was sooooo yummy! I slept like a rock for much of the rest of the flight, then was awoken about 1 hour out of HNL by an FA who'd already deposited an antipasto plate in front of me. Again, I ate the cheese (asked around; we think it might be provolone or mozarella or swiss without bubbles, but again, nobody really knew) and brownie.
In HNL we pulled right up to the main concourse, gate 12 or 13. We weren't too far behind schedule, and I made it down to the inter-island terminal on foot quickly enough, went to HA's customer service desk in front of gate 59 and asked whether there were any FC UGs still available on HA388/NW4976, but there weren't. Asked if there were any better seats (I'd been put in 24F or something) and was given 14B. The equipment was I'iwi, which is one of my favorite HA 717s; I've had many happy flights home on it. There were a lot of empty seats on the flight... dunno how much of that was due to go! and the fare wars, and how much was just it being Sunday afternoon, but behind the exit rows there were more seats empty than occupied.
Got into KOA pretty close to on-time. Baggage was a little slow, and they didn't put mine at the front, even with the yellow tags from NW. Last time I flew in on NW, mine were the first off, even though my final segment to Hawaii was in coach, after a couple segments in F across the continent. Got back to National, and once again they were out of economy cars, so I got upgraded to a Pontiac Vibe with AWD, which I proceeded to take from KOA to the middle of Hilo town in about 1:35 by the shortest (and steepest and most twisty) available route. I must remember to rent from them in the future; they're as good at giving me free upgrades as NWA is, and I'm not even in their club! ;)
June 18 - NW 611/99/4976 EWR-MSP-HNL-KOA F/F/K, drive KOA-ITO
And here's the tidbits:
Rented an "economy" model from National in ITO for the drive to KOA. They asked if I'd like to upgrade to a convertible for only $10. I declined. Turned out they were out of everything but convertibles, so I got one for the economy-car price. Savvy of 'em to try to get me to pay for the upgrade though! Mrs. DanTravels and little Miss DanTravels insisted on cruising around town with me in it before I left...
Got to KOA a bit later than I had hoped, a bit after 8PM for NW94's 9:20PM departure. Both TA's were tied up with big families that had ticket issues. It took them a good 15 minutes to clear the problems, then I was about ready to step up, but the more senior TA came over the luggage scale with a hand full of bag tags already printed out and started calling names... mine first. I wound up making it onto the plane about 9:05. They served an antipasto plate on the way out; I ate the cheese (no one could tell me what kind it was) and the brownie.
Got to SEA somewhere around the expected time, and I set up behind the S8 desk where there's a pillar with power plugs. Got on NW158 and fell asleep. Woke up about 40 minutes out of MSP, apologized to a FA for sleeping through things, and asked if there was any breakfast left. She gave me a bagel, a yogurt, and a couple muffins. Was yummy.
In MSP, wandered to the F/G WC, couldn't get on Wifi from outside it so paid for "Concourse" access to check my mail (and FT) and found out another FTer (who shall remain nameless unless he outs himself) was in the WC and I could go ask for him and get guested. So I did that, had a nice relaxing chat.
NW1086 was a nice short (2.5 hour or so) flight. Dinner was grilled chicken (yum!), salad, roll, and a good oatmeal raisin cookie. We crossed the Delaware Water Gap into NJ way ahead of schedule due to tailwinds, got put into a holding pattern right away due to high winds around EWR, were told it'd be a half-hour... and were then released after 5. Headed in, with the little A319 doing some serious yawing due to the winds. My checked bag had gotten put on earlier flights than I had, so it was waiting for me next to the carousel already.
Return:
Got to EWR around 6:45AM for NW611's 8:00 departure. Was a little surprised that NW had a good 5-8 check-in locations, but none was marked for FC... until I noticed there were no lines anyway. I was at the gate by 7:02. Went over to the little Pizzeria Uno near the gate to get water; ended up with 611's pilot in line behind me, chatted with him (about the use of lasers in astronomical adaptive optics, of all things!). Cute young girl at the counter asked, "Are you a fighter? Do you wrestle?" Was tempted to invite her to find out... ;) Went back up to hang out near the WC... then eventually realized that announcements aren't audible up there, and wandered back down just in time to catch the flight, which was just about done boarding by then. Asked the FA to wake me up if I was asleep when it came time for food, but I wasn't. Breakfast was corn flakes, bagel, fruit, yadda, good. I slept most of the way to MSP.
Got into MSP at G20, wandered over to the shops, went shopping, got to F10 for NW99 and realized I hadn't gotten my suitjacket when I got off NW611. The male GA (as opposed to the female GA working next to him) at F10 said the plane was still on the ground at G20 and NW99 would be departing a few minutes late, so there was time to go back, so I did. They'd hung the jacket on a coat rack right by the G20 desk - smart! I'm sure they had tried to page me to return to the gate, but I'm sure I was off on some other concourse entirely by then. So I got it, made it back to F10 before they even started boarding boarding. The jacket's not all that important to me; I think it was $3 at a thrift shop... but there's a $10 lapel pin on it! ;)
NW99 was... oooh. My first experience with WBC! (Old WBC on a DC10, but still WBC!) Stretching my legs out as far as I could, pointing my toes, and still not being able to touch the seat in front of me. Wow! The lead FA came around getting dinner requests, but in a quasi-random order... I was about the 6th or 7th person she asked. I think it may have been in order of elite status or something. I opted for the chicken. Asked again to be woken if I was asleep. I wasn't. Didn't eat all of it, and wasn't interested in the pasta or mushrooms, but what I ate was good. And then, there was ice cream! I've seen pictures of ice cream on sites that have photos of airline food, but this is the first time I got any. Such a difference from domestic first on the 757s in and out of Kona! I had strawberry topping and walnuts on mine. It was sooooo yummy! I slept like a rock for much of the rest of the flight, then was awoken about 1 hour out of HNL by an FA who'd already deposited an antipasto plate in front of me. Again, I ate the cheese (asked around; we think it might be provolone or mozarella or swiss without bubbles, but again, nobody really knew) and brownie.
In HNL we pulled right up to the main concourse, gate 12 or 13. We weren't too far behind schedule, and I made it down to the inter-island terminal on foot quickly enough, went to HA's customer service desk in front of gate 59 and asked whether there were any FC UGs still available on HA388/NW4976, but there weren't. Asked if there were any better seats (I'd been put in 24F or something) and was given 14B. The equipment was I'iwi, which is one of my favorite HA 717s; I've had many happy flights home on it. There were a lot of empty seats on the flight... dunno how much of that was due to go! and the fare wars, and how much was just it being Sunday afternoon, but behind the exit rows there were more seats empty than occupied.
Got into KOA pretty close to on-time. Baggage was a little slow, and they didn't put mine at the front, even with the yellow tags from NW. Last time I flew in on NW, mine were the first off, even though my final segment to Hawaii was in coach, after a couple segments in F across the continent. Got back to National, and once again they were out of economy cars, so I got upgraded to a Pontiac Vibe with AWD, which I proceeded to take from KOA to the middle of Hilo town in about 1:35 by the shortest (and steepest and most twisty) available route. I must remember to rent from them in the future; they're as good at giving me free upgrades as NWA is, and I'm not even in their club! ;)