NYBanker

Christmas in Hawaii

• Part 1 – Introduction
• Part 2 – AA Five Star Service (JFK), JFK Flagship Lounge, AA #3 JFK-LAX Flagship First Class
• Part 3 – LAX Flagship Check-in, LAX Flagship Lounge, Encounter Restaurant, AA #247 LAX-KOA First Class
• Part 4 – Four Seasons Hualalai: The Experience
• Part 5 – Four Seasons Hualalai: Details and Strategy
• Part 6 – Hawaiian #207 KOA-HNL First Class, HA KOA Lounge
• Part 7 – Halekulani
• Part 8 – Honolulu Activities - Pearl Harbor, Hanauma Bay, Diamond Head Run, Dinner at Nobu
• Part 9 – HNL United Club, Continental #14 HNL-EWR BusinessFirst
• Part 10 – Conclusion

We had been kicking around for a Christmas holiday for several months. After a few mediocre Christmas trips, it was time to change things up a bit from prior years - and to make sure we got a perfect trip. We nailed it this year.

Last year's Christmastime visit to the St. Regis in Puerto Rico was a disaster (so bad that I got my points refunded and a gift certificate for a complementary future four night visit!). The two prior years' trips to the Ritz Carlton in Palm Beach were OK, but the weather there is unpredictable at Christmas (could be 50 degrees or could be 80 degrees) and we had grown a bit tired of the hotel after 8+ visits in the last 10 years.

We ended up making preliminary bookings at the Westin Beaver Creek, Four Seasons Costa Rica, Four Seasons Jackson Hole and Four Seasons Hualalai (Kona). We decided skiing was not what we wanted, so that eliminated Beaver Creek and Jackson Hole. We decided that Costa Rica would be better when our kids were a bit older (they're 8 and 5-1/2 as of this writing)...so Kona it was.


Around the same time as we were deciding, my daughter (5-1/2 years old) declared that she wanted to go to Hawaii - so we made this trip her "special trip," which she quite appreciated. My son has claimed destination picking rights for 2012. I am cautiously optimistic as to where that will take us!

As Four Seasons doesn't have a points scheme, this was going to be a paid holiday - at least for lodging. While the lack of club floor and points program puts Four Seasons a little behind a number of their competitors, Four Seasons has always more than made up for these factors through the quality of their offering.

Due to our late planning (July), we could only get the rooms we wanted in Kona until December 24. Not wanting to fly home on a red eye on Christmas Eve (though maybe we could have seen Santa?), we booked a few nights on Waikiki afterwards. There were enough interesting things that we wanted to see there - plus we could ultimately take the non-stop flight home to EWR from HNL and avoid a connection.

Our travel details ended up being as follows:

• AA #3 JFK-LAX Flagship First, AA 247 LAX-KOA First
• Four Seasons Hualalai (FS-Kona)
• HA #207 KOA-HNL First
• Halekulani
• CO #14 HNL-EWR BusinessFirst

With the exception of my seat on CO #14 and three of our seats on KOA-HNL, all of our seats were award seats (or otherwise no-cost add-ons) in the forward cabin. Even though I had to use double miles awards for all seats, the valuation/cost avoidance on the redemption was about 3.5cpm. I intentionally paid for my CO flight to finally hit Star Alliance Gold on Aegean.

As I write my first draft of this from seat 3A on CO #14, while I leave a fair but poorer (thanks to the hotel bills), much more importantly, my entire family leaves with some absolutely wonderful memories which will last a lifetime. Frankly, the only person who might object to us returning next year is my accountant!

Through this report, I'll share the highlights of this trip, and the few low-lights, and my booking strategies so hopefully you can make your family Hawaiian holiday even better! While it is roughly 5,000 miles from New York (roughly equidistant to Istanbul), Hawaii is well worth the journey. The quality of the destination is that good – far superior to any of the dozen Caribbean destinations I’ve been to.

This is my first multi-part trip report. I hope you enjoy it and please forgive me for any errors. I welcome any comments or suggestions that you might have and would be pleased to answer any questions.

NE flier

Sounds like a great trip... Can't wait for future instalments!

NYBanker

Christmas in Hawaii
Part 2 – AA Five Star Service (JFK), JFK Flagship Lounge, AA #3 JFK-LAX Flagship First Class

Our driver met us at our house at 9am on Saturday morning to take us to JFK for our 12 noon departure. Because we were returning to a different airport, we needed used a car service to go to and from the airports. As we had four passengers and a lot of luggage, including two sets of golf clubs, we needed a really big vehicle! They sent their largest SUV. We fit – just barely.

As always, we used Quest International for our New York-area transportation. Run by a small group of Korean drivers, Quest has never, ever let me down across well over 100 trips. This trip was no exception and our driver, one of my regulars, handled everything perfectly.

For this trip, I arranged AA’s Five Star Service for us at both JFK and LAX. I find Five Star very valuable at the holidays, especially when traveling with the family. This service is even better when it is free. For the past several years, HSBC has offered complimentary Five Star Service at the holidays for their certain of their banking customers. This year was no exception, and HSBC was kind enough to pick up the tab for service at both our origin and intermediate stop (a $400 value). I've covered the details of Five Star in a prior report.

About half an hour from our scheduled arrival time at JFK, we received a call on my driver's phone from Pat, who would be our initial Five Star hostess at JFK. They had my car service details, which I provided when I booked Five Star. She told us where to meet her (always the far end of T8). When we arrived at JFK at 10am, Pat was there with our 8 bag tags were already printed, and boarding cards were in hand and she had a skycap waiting with her for us as we requested.

Once the skycap took the bags from our driver the bags (curbside), he gave us our claim checks and Pat escorted us directly to the employee queue for security. We were able to completely bypass the queue for security.
Whereas I have nearly always found Five Star staff to be great, Pat was a bit of a disappointment.

Pat got into a disagreement with me over the need for my kids to remove their shoes at security. Kids under 12 now don't need to remove their shoes through security. The TSA made this policy change several months ago and has publicized it. There are signs up at many airports (including JFK T8) reminding passengers of this change. Pat insisted the kids’ shoes did need to come off, and began to tell the kids to take their shoes off - after I told them they didn’t need to. I let it slide, and when the kids asked me again what I do, I let the kids take their shoes off.

Then Pat asked my son if he had a computer, iPod or iPad in his backpack. Indeed, he had an iPad. She said he needed to take it out. Again, I corrected her to say iPads were specifically allowed to remain in bags at security. She disputed it, but didn't direct my kids thankfully.

Once through security, Pat started walking us to the underground tunnel which leads to the satellite portion of T8. I told her that we wanted to use the Flagship Lounge, which is located just past security, before the tunnel. She said "it's not really for kids; there is no kids area." I pointed out that use of the Flagship Lounge was included with our tickets, and that since we had a while to wait, we wanted to use that lounge.

Not ready to give in on this point, Pat said her colleague who would walk us to the plane was going to meet us at the satellite Admirals Club, and that is where we needed to go. At this point, I flatly refused, and said we are going to the Flagship Lounge. If we only had 20 minutes to kill, the satellite Admirals Club would have been fine. In this case, we had over an hour to kill (we arrived early with the kids and checked bags), so the Flagship Lounge was what the plan was to be for us. (Plus, I had my heart set on a mimosa at this point and the Flagship Lounge has a complimentary open bar. There is a charge for adult drinks in the Admirals Club. )

The Flagship Lounge has a modest (by international lounge standards) buffet, but does include fresh fruit and other cooked and cold foods. It was good to get some fruit in the kids.



The lounge was only modestly crowded (as is nearly always the case), though housekeeping hadn't been through in some time.





At the Lounge bar, I opened a fresh bottle of sparkling wine and enjoyed my first Mimosa. And my second. And third.



Pat returned with our "hand off" hostess, and introduced us. The second hostess asked if we wanted to pre-board, or board last. We choose pre-boarding, and she told us when to expect her. While I know how to get around T8 with my eyes closed, notwithstanding any issues with Pat, it is very nice to have someone look after you the entire time you’re at the airport. There’s no watching the clock or worrying about queues.

Our flight, AA #3, was operated by a 767-200, in AA’s “Flagship” three-class configuration. JFK to LAX (and SFO) remain the principal domestic markets where carriers really compete on premium product, so this First Class is significantly enhanced when compared to traditional domestic First Class. While AA's Business Class product isn't my favorite on the route (compared to other carriers’ Business offerings on the route), their three-cabin First product is. We used a few extra miles (20k one way extra per seat) to confirm seats in the First Class cabin on this flight (versus Business).

We were picked up about 50 minutes prior to departure and escorted out to the satellite terminal for pre-boarding. The big advantages of pre-boarding are that you get everything settled onboard before anyone else is on and there is never a backup in the jet-way. The drawback is you are on the plane for longer than you need to be. Being in three-class First, the extra time on board is not an issue.

Unfortunately, sometime between booking and one day prior to departure, AA took the liberty of changing our seat assignments within the F cabin, such that we were no longer seated together. There was no change in equipment, so I was surprised by this. I thought the change in seats might have been due to an Air Marshall, but none of the passengers fit the profile.

With the flight showing “F0,” there wasn’t a way to get them changed back to what we had originally reserved prior to boarding. While I didn’t expect the Flagship Lounge dragon or our Five Star hostess to be able to change seats, it frustrates me when they say, “We can’t change others' confirmed seat assignments,” when that is exactly what happened to us! Our Five Star hostess said she would speak to the Purser on board and get our seats sorted out, which she did.

Marilyn was the Purser on our flight. Our hostess spoke with her as we boarded, and Marilyn told us to take whatever seats we wanted, and she would “work it out.” We took what we had originally booked – 2HJ and 3HJ. As other passengers in First Class boarded, Marilyn directed them to other seats and handled the situation with aplomb.

Shortly after we were seated, Marilyn came by to offer a pre-departure beverage. The bar is fully open in First Class on the ground, so I lead off with another Mimosa. You could hear the cork pop in the galley. My wife had a Bloody Mary, and the kids had cranberry and clubs.

My kids have been in this cabin before and love to “test” the power seat adjustments. Their tests are extensive – though I usually cut them off in a minute or two. My daughter was lying down with the blankets on before general boarding began.




Skies were clear that day. Our departure was on time and there was no boarding drama.

Marilyn paid special attention to us throughout the flight, and interacted with my kids very nicely. They know to say “please” and “thank you” when interacting with service professionals, and I think this got Marilyn a bit smitten with them. Being on the Purser’s good side makes a world of difference on a flight. No request was too small for her.

Our flight had AA’s new tablets available for First and Business passengers, or “iPads” as Marilyn (erroneously) called them. I didn’t use one, but my wife did, and said she quite enjoyed it. My wife said it had a lot of content and was easy to navigate.

This fall, AA made some changes to their meal service in the forward cabins on the Flagship flights. While still squarely in the category of “airline food,” they’ve improved the food offerings significantly this fall. Obligatory ice cream sundaes were enjoyed by my son and me.






I was able to get an hour or two of sleep after the meal. My son, who I was sitting with, enjoyed a movie on his iPad. My wife and daughter, seated in front of us, both enjoyed movies, too.

I had a few Mimosas during the course of the flight. Marilyn assured me there was a “reserve” bottle of “champagne” on board if the first one ran low.
Thankfully, the balance of our flight was uneventful – and we didn’t even need to dip into the reserve of bubbly! Prior to landing, Marilyn came around to shake the passengers’ hands and thanked us for flying American. Our arrival into LAX was on a westbound runway, so there was no circling over the Pacific. We arrived at the gate on time.

The passenger in 2D was very kind and paid a very generous compliment to my kids, saying he’d never seen better on the plane. I attribute that to a combination of good parenting (a little bit) and the use of good technology (the principal factor)! We often get a woeful look from at least one passenger when we sit down with the kids in First Class. Having the kids receive some praise from others more than offsets that.

Our LAX Five Star hostess was waiting for us on the jetway as we got off the plane. So far, so good!

Re-reading this, I might come across a little bit as a complainer. Beyond a surly New York airport employee (would it be naďve to expect anything else?), really everything went off without a hitch. Other than flying private, I recognize and appreciate that this was the absolute lowest-stress way to get a family of four from Connecticut to Los Angeles on the week before Christmas.

NYBanker

Part 3 – LAX Flagship Check-in, LAX Flagship Lounge, Encounter Restaurant, AA #247 LAX-KOA First Class

We were escorted by our Five Star host from the door of our plane directly to the AA lounge complex. Our hostess asked if we wanted to go to the Admirals Club kids’ room or the Flagship Lounge. We elected to go into the FL, noting to myself the open bar and that we could go over to the kids’ room if we wanted to. Five Star service was complimentary again thanks to the good folks at HSBC Bank. There was no fussing on her part about us taking our kids into the FL.

With our hostess, we bypassed the check in queue at the main lounge dragon station and were escorted right into the FL and seated. We said we wanted to pre-board, and she told us what time she’d come back for us.

The LAX Flagship Lounge is my favorite OneWorld lounge in North America. I like the physical facility and its wall of windows, the limited use of the facility and the open bar. The food is good by domestic lounge standards (though not by international standards). I’ve always found the agents in this FL to be very helpful, too. (They’ve even accommodated me when I’ve gone for off-airport runs during longer layovers at LAX. I’ll post about that soon.) Though I didn’t use them this time, a number of showers are available in the FL. (There are also showers in the Admirals Club portion of the club, too.)

I may have bit off more than I bargained for with posting the reports here in full... reports 3 and 4 have a lot of photos which take me the longest to get posted...so could I ask that you continue reading these two parts on my website? I'll resume in full here later as some of the final reports will have fewer photos...

NYBanker

Part 4 – Four Seasons Hualalai: The Experience

Our experience at the Four Seasons Hualalai (or FS-Kona) begins upon arrival at the nearby airport, Kona International Airport (IATA: KOA). Our arrival was around 8:30pm local time, some 16 hours after we left our house in Connecticut that morning. The airport is “open air,” without an enclosed terminal or jetways. This provided immediate exposure to their soft and warm air, a welcome respite after so much time in a metal tube.

Immediately outside of the airport’s secure area, several uniformed Four Seasons representatives were awaiting us and one other guest. They took our luggage claim tickets, handed us cold waters, introduced us to our driver and then went to retrieve our luggage from the conveyor belt for us. They delivered the bags directly to the SUV we had reserved through the hotel. We did not have to do so much as lift a bag.

The ride to the hotel is short, less than 15 minutes. Approaching the property from the main road, nothing is visible beyond an illuminated rock sign which simply reads “Hualalai.” Once our driver turned into the property, though dark, it was evident that we were entering a special place. Many (all that I’ve been to) Four Seasons Resorts illuminate their entry-way foliage in a very tasteful and welcoming way in the evenings; FS-Kona was no exception.

Upon arrival at the lobby, we were escorted to one of several sitting areas, where a brief check-in was completed. Leis were provided for the ladies, and beaded necklaces for the men. Fresh fruit, fruit juices (with an extra something added for the grown-ups), and cold towels were also provided as soon as we sat down.

Part 4 is continued here...

(I will endeavor to return subsequent parts here in full as there will be fewer photos.)

NYBanker

Part 5 – Four Seasons Hualalai: Details and Strategy


Overview: A truly best-in-class resort, well designed for both families and adults; the top resort in the US?
Strengths: Service, climate, pool facilities, multitude of activities
Drawbacks: Seats at pool during peak times, ocean not swimmable, signage on running courses



It is my hope that you took away from Part 4 of this report just what a wonderful experience our extended stay at this property was. It was a struggle to list meaningful drawbacks about property. While there were a few issues during my family’s recent stay, they were truly insignificant in nature. Of the 20+ high-end resorts I’ve been to in the United States/Caribbean, without question, Four Seasons Hualalai was the best of any.
The purpose of this post is to summarize key strategies and details regarding our trip with the hope that you will be even more prepared for your visit than I was for mine.

Booking the Stay
I called the hotel directly on a lark over the summer to see if they had any availability for the holidays. As luck would have it, while no suites were available, they were able to confirm two “guaranteed connecting” Prime Ocean View rooms. This is the second highest regular room category at the property, directly below Oceanfront. I made my booking over the telephone with the agent, confirming the connecting rooms.

I mentioned to the reservations agent that I was planning to have American Express “capture” my reservations in order to add their Platinum Fine Hotels and Resorts (“FHR”) benefits to my booking. To my surprise, the agent said that the property was not honoring the FHR benefits during the Festive Season. I’d never heard of a hotel opting out of the program at peak season, but a subsequent call to American Express confirmed that this property did indeed opt-out. I asked the agent if the Four Seasons Preferred Partner (“FSPP”) program was honored during the holidays, and was told that indeed it was honored.

Each of FHR and FSPP offer a number of valuable benefits to travelers, including:
• Complimentary breakfast for two
• Room upgrade, if available upon arrival
• Late checkout (4pm)
• An additional amenity (often a complimentary lunch for two)

Since there is no additional charge to participate in FHR or FSPP, travelers are often leaving money on the table if they don’t book with one of these packages.

I contacted David Ourisman, who is a travel agent in the FSPP program, and a contributor on FlyerTalk, to discuss having him “capture” my booking. David was extremely prompt in responding, and had everything taken care of directly with the hotel within a matter of hours from me sending him my booking details. I subsequently received a re-confirmation from the hotel, which included details of the added benefits to which I was now entitled.

Though I didn’t need a late checkout, and an upgrade wasn’t available (I knew the property was full), the value of the food and beverage credits was over $1,000. Not a bad savings for sending a few emails.

A few weeks prior to the date of my arrival, David contacted me to explain to me how bookings were made for on-property affairs, such as dining, spa, etc. He provided helpful information which allowed me to schedule essentially everything I wanted to do, exactly as I wanted to.

Should you need a high end hotel booking, I’d highly recommend David. His website is http://www.metaphortravel.com and he is known as DavidO on Flyertalk.

David recently completed an extensive tour of China, and circulated notes on all of the different hotels he visited to his clients. It is valuable to work with an agent who has been personally to the properties that he/she is booking. Though he was paid a commission by the hotel, there was no fee to me for his services.



Booking On-property Activities – Do this in advance!
This was absolutely critical to the success of the stay. The hotel published a detailed PDF which laid out all of the activities you could consider during your stay. It included classes, tours, events and other activities. They also specified when you could book your activities, as well as spa, golf and dining.

Basically, the hotel would start accepting bookings for on-property activities on November 7, no sooner. At 7am Hawaii time, when their bookings email opened, our “laundry list” style list of booking requests was emailed in, with a fax to supplement shortly thereafter. By the end of the day, we had an acknowledgement of our requests, and by the next day, we had confirmation of all of our requests. With the exception of one massage needing to be 50 minutes instead of 80, all of our requests were honored exactly as we hoped.

Booking dinner, spa and golf in advance seemed to be absolutely critical. When enjoying a sunset cocktail at the Beach Tree Bar, I heard the restaurant hostess telling guests (families with kids) (at 5:15pm) that the first table she had available was 8:30pm. That was definitely not going to work for those families. In each case, I suspect they had to go off-property, or order room service in. Similarly, when checking in for a spa appointment, I overheard another receptionist say on the phone to a prospective massage recipient that they were completely full for the next three days.

The downside of all of this is you really need to plan your days in advance. I’d never really planned my days in such scripted detail, so far in advance, previously. What I found is I sort of liked having all the days pre-scripted for us. I obviously only booked things that we liked to do, so each thing on the agenda was a welcome activity. Each morning, I would read the day’s page from the packet of confirmations that we received at check-in and simply say to my wife, “You have a massage at 10am; I’m playing golf at 9am with our son.” There wasn’t a lot of, “I’m not sure what I want to do today,” from us during this trip. I could see this cutting both ways – particularly if you like to wing it each day – but for us, it worked perfectly.

Kids’ camp did not require advance booking, you could just turn up at any time.



The Pools
The property has five different pool complexes. Each one serves a very different crowd, and each one does its job well.
• The Seashell Pool. This is the “anything goes” active kids’ pool. Kids are allowed to hoot and holler and have a good time. There’s a waterfall that runs into the pool, and a hot tub for 12 people connected to the main pool. Overlooking the ocean from an infinity-edge, this pool had the largest seating area. There were both covered and uncovered options. This is the spot to go if you have kids and want them to be able to play freely. We spent a fair bit of our pool time here. Poolside food and beverage service is provided. There is also a small shoreline-style entry pool behind the Seashell Pool called Keiki Pool (Children’s Pool). Measuring 1.25 feet in maximum depth, this was a great spot for the littlest ones.



• The Beach Tree Pool. Located to the south of the Seashell Pool, the Beach Tree Pool is an all ages, but subdued, pool. Kids are allowed in, but vigorous activity, allowed at Seashell, is frowned on here. This provided a nice middle ground for us, when we wanted to be with the kids, but wanted a little more peace and quiet. The pool deck was finished with wood, providing a more residential feeling. There is a hot tub, also fitting about 12 people. Poolside food and beverage service is provided.



• Further south is the adults-only Palm Grove Pool. This pool provided a welcome respite for us while our kids were in camp. With chairs set in pairs of two, this pool was designed for couples to relax together. The warmest of the pools (though not unduly warm), this pool also had a swim-up in pool bar. Drinks are served in the pool (or on land) from 11am to 6pm. (They’re also served to you in your chaise lounges, if you prefer.) Food is served to the chairs as well. This pool was recently renovated after the tsunami earlier in 2011 and was absolutely beautiful. Connected to the pool was a hot tub, which could probably hold 16 people. It has a wood finished deck and an attached hot tub. Guests under 21 aren’t allowed, and the use of mobile phones is prohibited.



• At the northern extreme of the beach is King’s Pond. King’s Pond is a 1.8 million gallon swimming hole, cut into natural lava rock. The hotel claims the pool has over 3,000 fish, and one spotted eagle ray. (We can confirm the eagle ray’s existence.) This pool was only open from 10am to 4pm, to prevent the balance of the natural systems from getting too distorted. Swimming in King’s Pond was close to swimming in a natural body of water, and the chance to swim with the fish was wonderful for our kids. Kids’ camp did the ray feedings here, and each of my children were in the water, feeding the ray directly from their hands. They both loved it. (The hotel indicated there was only one stinger in the ray, and that the animal was “trained” and 15 years old. While I’m not sure how you train an eagle ray, the animal clearly new the food drill, and did not bite any hands that feed it.) The water in King’s Pond was cold, though they did have wet suits available. Of course, there was also a hot tub nearby. Food and drink was available at the chairs poolside. There was an aquatic life touch-tank next to the pool, which was open once each day. Though we only spent a few hours at this pool, it formed a very memorable part of the trip for our children.



• Inland a bit, back by the gym, was a four-lane lap pool. This pool was also pleasantly cool, and was designed just for lap swimming. There was no hot tub or poolside drink service. If you desired a warm up spot, the spa locker rooms were right nearby (which had hot tubs) and were seemingly available for use without a spa booking.

Room Selection, Locations
The hotel is designed with rooms in four C-shaped crescents, one around each of the pools (excluding the lap pool), with some supplemental rooms by the 18th hole on the golf course. The area your room is in could have a big impact on the quality of your stay. Substantially all the hotel is set up in two-story buildings, with rooms on each level. Certain suites were in single-story buildings.

Lower level rooms benefited from walk-out patios on the ocean-side of the hotel (as well as traditional doors on the inland side of the room) as well as private outdoor lava-rock shower areas in many rooms. Being at eye-level with the pools, however, some lower level rooms had what I would consider to be other than trivial privacy issues. I saw one set of breasts during my stay that I probably shouldn’t have – someone was drying off after a shower, but with their glass doors and curtains wide open in a room next to a walkway! Having her room where it was, this guest should have closed the louvers on her window, at a minimum.

The advantages of upper level rooms included enhanced ocean views and additional privacy. A drawback for some is you don’t have the possibility for an outdoor shower, and there is no “running from the patio to the grass” from upstairs.

We were assigned rooms 611 and 612. These were upper level rooms, in the northernmost crescent, at King’s Pond. We found these rooms to be ideal. King’s Pond provided a fun subject to look at from our balcony, along with the ocean beyond. King’s Pond is generally quiet, and is only open for limited hours, so there was essentially no activity-related noise outside of our room. We were directly across from the Kids’ camp, making drop off a 1 minute affair for us.

Had we been in the Seashell crescent, I think we might have struggled a bit. Surrounding the active kids’ pool, you’re going to have some noise at almost any time of the day. The amount of foot traffic in this area eliminated privacy for many of the ground-level rooms. (This is where the unclad woman was visible.)

Pahu i’a (breakfast, deluxe dinners) is located between the King’s Pond and Seashell crescents.

The Beach Tree Pool crescent had more privacy from the pool, but was also where much of the outdoor gathering took place in the evening, as well as the evening bands played. The rooms were set back far enough that the noise probably wouldn’t be a nuisance, but I don’t know this for sure.

The Palm Grove crescent also held appeal, particularly for adult-only groups. This area seemed to get fairly limited foot traffic, not unlike the King’s Pond crescent where we were. Beyond the pool (the quiet pool), there was a naturally formed pond as well, which provided some further visual attraction. If I were visiting just with grown ups, this is the crescent I would request. I was surprised that the hotel had families with kids in rooms in this crescent, though I suspect that was an exception, owing to the season. There were kids playing football on the lawns nearby to the pool once or twice; while not prohibited, it was perhaps the only slight inconvenience at this pool.

There are also a small number of rooms further inland overlooking the 18th green. Classified as Ocean Golf View Rooms, they’d be best thought of golf rooms, with a distant ocean view. This seemed to be the lowest room category, and is in the least desirable location on the property. I’d avoid these rooms if possible.

The hotel has suites located throughout the crescents. The suites are basically double rooms, but include some enhanced amenities, such as steam showers. A number of two bedroom suites were also available.

The hotel also offers three Villas. These are larger suites, located at the end of the crescents, closest to the ocean. The Hawaii Loa Presidential Villa, the Makaloa Villa and the Ho’onanea Villa look like wonderful places to stay. These rooms were developed in such a way to afford maximum views while providing a reasonable amount of privacy for the guests residing there. Each offers a proper living room and dining area, as well as private outdoor spaces and hot tubs. It looked like all of the living rooms offered wonderful full glass walls, which could be opened to almost bring the sea into your room. Prices on these rooms ranged from the mid-four digits though the fifth digit (aikes!), but for those fortunate to be less constrained financially, these would be ideal rooms. I’ve made it an aspirational goal to return to one of these rooms in the future.



When I return (assuming I’ve not made it to one of Villas!), I will call a few weeks in advance to discuss my specific room allocation with the front office manager. My preference would be to stay in the King’s Pond crescent, if with the kids. I’d go for the Palm Grove crescent if without the kids. Getting the wrong room could be an issue.

The crescents were close enough to each other that no walk was too far from any point to point on the property.



Room Interiors
This hotel opened in 1996. It was a cutting-edge property when it first opened. While today the quality of build-out remains strong, and maintenance was incredible (I didn’t see a nick or scratch anywhere), the physical structure had a few things that showed their age. The shower was spacious, had good water pressure and temperature control – but was just a wall-mounted shower head and a knob. A newer property would have had a rainfall shower mounted on the ceiling, body sprays or a wand, and some other little extra features. The faucet handles at the sinks were also uninspired. These are small, small points, and wouldn’t detract me from staying here. Prospective guests should realize, however, that this is a 15-year old property – and pales in comparison to the rooms at the some of the newest Four Seasons properties (ie: Four Seasons Seattle). Against that, this property wins on the view, climate, service, location (and any other measure!) compared to that Seattle property! (I’m joking – I quite like the Seattle Four Seaons.)





Kids’ Playground
Though we didn’t use it, when running, I noticed a nice kids’ playground. The area included swings, slides, and other fun activities. It would be a few minute walk from the main hotel. If your kids were stir-crazy and wanted something non-water related for a while, it might be worth a walk to here. This playground wasn’t shown in the hotel map, nor is it in this aerial photo, but trust me, it’s there.



Babysitting
We are users of hotel-provided babysitting services. I recognize some are uncomfortable with this type of arrangement, though we’ve never had an issue. We always stay on-property when the sitter is there, and we have a rule that they are not allowed to leave the room (barring a fire or other emergency).

For four of the eight nights we were at the property, we had the concierge arranged a sitter for us (in advance). We had them line up the sitter bookings with certain of our dinner bookings. Booking in advance we had the same sitter each night, a wonderful young lady named Stevie. Stevie was a native of the island, but was going to college on another island and had returned home for the holiday. She was very energetic, and the kids enjoyed their time with her.

The morning after her final visit with us, the kids asked when they would see her again.

The service runs $20 per hour, with a four hour minimum, plus a $10 transportation charge. This is fairly standard for a hotel of this level. The sitter is paid in cash at the end of each shift.

Coffee Purveyor
Earlier, I made reference to a local coffee farmer and purveyor. The coffee that we liked the best was Watson Kabei. We met Mr. Watson at Pahu i’a one morning, and he was a man who clearly loved his work – and his beans! If you enjoy a rich coffee, you might consider ordering some from him. http://www.watsonkabeicoffee.com/index2.html

Concluding Points
I’m not sure I mentioned this earlier, but we never left the property once during our stay. We even reserved a rental car for one day to go and explore. There were a number of things on the island that were of interest, but we just had such a wonderful time on property that we called Hertz and cancelled. (Note: Hertz delivers cars directly to the hotel, and picks them up, for no extra charge.)

The only really notable drawback was the day of reckoning – when the bill was presented! This was not an inexpensive holiday by any means – but it was well worth every dollar spent as I know it will give my family memories for a lifetime.

Despite our bill running five pages, there was not the slightest inaccuracy that I could find. Incidentals were high, and with golf, spa visits, the dinner-on-the-lawn and perhaps the odd cocktail, we were running about $750 a day in incidentals. (At the time of this writing, the hotel is offering a $1,000 credit for incidentals for a five-night stay in a suite. This is worth considering!)

A final sunset....


Details
Four Seasons Hualalai (Kona)
72-100 Ka`upulehu Drive
Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, 96740
Tel. +1 (808) 325-8000
http://www.fourseasons.com/hualalai/

NYBanker

Part 6 – Hawaiian #207 KOA-HNL First Class, HA KOA Lounge

The same driver who brought us to Hualalai was the one who brought us back to the airport. Upon arrival at Kona Airport (IATA: KOA), he arranged for a skycap to come and take all of our bags.

The skycap asked our flight details, took our identifications and bags, and asked us to take a seat on a nearby bench. About fifteen minutes later, he came back with our boarding passes and claim checks. (I’ve made it the entire trip so far without lifting a bag!)

He advised us that there was a lounge for customers seated in First Class, and gave us the access code. There was just one queue for security to our gate, and it took about ten minutes to clear. There were no body scanners at this airport, just metal detectors.

My daughter’s medicine usually always gets a visible inspection. This time, they asked my wife to open the bottle, and the TSA agent held a piece of treated paper over the open bottle. He then put the paper in a machine, and declared that things were “alright,” and said we could move on.

KOA is an open-air airport, which is very pleasant, assuming it is not raining. Judging by the NOAA data I found, rain is a pretty infrequent event on this part of the island.




Decadence awaited us in the Hawaiian Airlines lounge. The lounge is unattended...always a good sign about the lounge. We used the four digit code provided by the skycap (1026). This lounge was simply a room, a smelly room at that, with some snacks and tap soda. Unfortunately, the tap soda wasn’t working, so it was really just a smelly room with some snacks. After about ten minutes in this purported “lounge,” we decided to go back and sit outside. Those who think your local Delta SkyClub is in rough shape should check out this lounge!





Our aircraft, a Boeing 717, arrived about 30 minutes prior to our scheduled departure. Miraculously, the plane was emptied, cleaned and fully boarded in less than 30 minutes. Considering the number of infrequent flyers, I was impressed with the turnaround time.

While I’d been on MD80s plenty of times, this was my first flight on the newest T-tailed mainline jet.



Our flight was called a little while later, and we were among the first to board. While there was no premium line at security, there was one at the gate. The gate agent was vigorous in enforcing the boarding rules, and sent several passengers who jumped into the premium line back to the end of the economy queue – behind 75+ people.

KOA does not have jetways, so boarding is also open-air.

We sat in First Class on this flight, taking the four seats on the left side of the plane. Another family from the Four Seasons Hualalai took the four seats on the right side of the plane. We said hello to each other. Inflight service included a pre-departure beverage (beer for me), and an in-flight beverage (two more beers, this being a long flight) and some snack mix (the same snack mix from the First Class lounge!). The flight attendant was very nice, and seemed ready to help us or the other family at any time.

When I booked our flights, the difference between economy and First Class was perhaps $50 a seat for these flights. With the amount of luggage we had with us, I suspect the checked baggage fees that we would have had to pay in economy would have exceeded the $50 (times 3 seats) incremental fare we had to pay to sit in front. (My flight was sort of “free,” as I baked it in as a stopover on my paid HNL-EWR ticket; the fare was the same to fly HNL-EWR as it was to fly KOA-HNL-<stop>-EWR.)

We landed and had a few minutes of taxiing at HNL. Obama had arrived recently, and one of his 747s and a few extra government executive planes were at the airport. The kids enjoyed seeing them.
We were quickly at the gate, and made our way to baggage claim.

Unfortunately, our driver, arranged through Halekulani, wasn’t there. A call to the hotel’s concierge took a little while to get things sorted. While the hotel had a record of my request, I got the sense that the booking was never passed on to the limo company. The concierge said she’d have a car to us in 10 minutes, and indeed, a driver appeared very quickly.

We each grabbed some bags and brought them out to his car. Whereas we requested an SUV, he had a stretch limousine. The kids had seen limousines before, but had never been in one. They had a blast playing with all the fun things in back. It was wonderful to see their faces light up as they discovered all sorts of new things in the passenger compartment.



The ride to Halekulani took about twenty minutes.

NYBanker

Part 7 – Halekulani

Overview: Japanese-flavored, four-star-plus oceanfront hotel in Waikiki
Strengths: Nicely renovated rooms, ideal location (if you want to be on Waikiki)
Drawbacks: Property couldn’t handle high capacity (at least at the holidays), limited bar options, some aspects of dining



Our limousine was greeted upon arrival under Halekulani’s portico by the concierge who I spoke with regarding our missing driver (I’ll call her Agnes, though her real name was different). Agnes greeted us warmly by name and escorted us to the front desk while the bellmen looked after our bags.

I presented my identification and American Express Platinum card to the desk clerk who was assisting us. As soon as she took a swipe of my card, she said that the manager (presumably front office manager, though it wasn’t specified) would like to escort us to our room and complete our check in there. That was nice enough, except that she also said the manager needed a few minutes before he could escort us. I said we’d rather not wait, and just asked for the keys – but the agent insisted it would be just a few minutes, effectively declining to give me the keys.



I used the now forced wait to go over to the nearby concierge desk to speak with Agnes and make several changes to bookings we’d made, and to inquire about a few activities we had wanted to partake in.

While I’m happy to be escorted to my room by the manager, I prefer even more if the manager is ready when I am. Having to wait for the manager really doesn’t please me, especially when I am travelling with my family. Thankfully, just as I was concluding with Agnes, the manager appeared, and took us up to our rooms.

We were assigned 605 and 606, looking out directly over the pool and straight at the beach. The room category was Ocean Front. In hindsight, with a better understanding of the property and the adjacent properties, I would have booked up one category (to Diamond Head Ocean Front) or down one category (to Ocean View). The views from the Ocean View rooms would have been essentially as good as ours, due to the curvature of the shore line. The price difference to move up or down was about $75 per room per night.



Though we were booked with American Express’s Fine Hotels and Resorts (FHR) program, upgrading our room was not mentioned by the front desk clerk or the manager. While not guaranteed, I appreciate it when the hotel raises the topic (or simply says, “I’m sorry, we are full, and we aren’t able to offer you an upgrade for this stay”), versus leaving it to me. I asked the manager in our room about the availability of a higher room category, and he said that because of the requirement for connecting rooms, it was difficult (read: “no,” though said very politely, and not unexpected due to our connecting room requirement and the season). Though the hotel was at/near capacity, I suspect we might have been upgraded had we been in a single room (though this is just a gut feeling).

The manager did explain the other aspects of the FHR program at the property. The “special” fourth amenity was a complimentary dinner for two at Orchids (the mid-level restaurant on property) (we were given two coupons, so dinner for four, owing to having two rooms). He told us that daily breakfast was included under the FHR program at the buffet at the House without a Key restaurant (the lowest restaurant), or in sit-down format at Orchids. Unlike most other properties where the billing adjustments for these meals are made by the accounting department behind the scenes, at Halekulani, we were given “passports” that we needed to present at each of the meals under the program. This was a bit of an inconvenience – basically one more thing to remember – putting the obligation to administer the program on to the guest.

I did let the manager know that we would be using the guaranteed 4pm late check out on the day of departure. He assured me it would be no problem, and noted that they actually block the rooms for the evening following our departure! Indeed, our registration card had a printed departure date of the day after we were leaving, with a handwritten adjustment to the actual day we were leaving.

Fresh fruit was waiting for us in each of the rooms.

Once we were settled and ate a little fruit, I took the kids down to the pool, while my wife relaxed in the room (or perhaps on the balcony?).

Our stay at Halekulani ran from December 24 through December 26. We spent December 24 and 25 principally on-property, and used December 26 for some off-property activities.

Rooms

The hotel has been renovating its guest rooms, one floor at a time. Our rooms were on a renovated floor. The rooms were quite tastefully finished, with (faux) leather tastefully on one wall.

There were bedside control panels which gave you control of most aspects of the room from bed. In one of our rooms, the “do not disturb” light (controlled from the bedside table, or a button by the door) malfunctioned. The staff was unable to fix it – which caused a small bit of confusion when we called for service, but had a DND light on.

The bathrooms were nice, though not over the top. There was a separate shower and tub in each bathroom.

Overall, we were very satisfied with the rooms.









Dining

The hotel offers three on-property dining options, as well as room service.

La Mer
La Mer is the most deluxe of the dining options, and the property claims it is the longest continuously AAA five-diamond rated restaurant in Hawaii. That, coupled with their 28/29/28 rating from Zagat, this restaurant is clearly highly rated. The restaurant is in a wonderful spot, located immediately oceanside, on the second level of the restaurant pavilion. La Mer benefits from a wonderful view, and avoids views of the nearby crowds by being up one level.
Against that, I wonder if it is from a bygone era. We didn’t eat at this restaurant (our party was ineligible due to my daughter’s age), though the dining room (I poked my head in) looked lovely.
Although we were originally booked here for Christmas dinner, we ultimately cancelled our booking and moved off-property that evening (more on this below). La Mer has a stated policy not to take children under 8 years old. My daughter, 5, is, as the concierge described, a “young 8;” and it was suggested that due to her good behavior, and us being house guests, we’d be OK. I was uncomfortable skirting their rules, so we went with our back-up booking at Nobu.

Jackets are required at La Mer for gentlemen. I’ve accepted it – I’m a sport coat kind of guy – and I did wear one on Christmas evening (at a restaurant other than La Mer) – though I was the only person at Nobu in one. (More on dinner at Nobu in my next post.) Hawaii is just not a sport coat kind of place. La Mer requiring a sport coat is certainly old school – though I can’t say I know when sport coats would have been de rigueur in Hawaii. In any event, if you’re looking for a very traditional, fancy, French, “wear a sport coat” kind of dinner, I think La Mer is your place.

Orchids
Orchids is immediately below La Mer, also in a seaside location. Breakfast, lunch and dinner are served here. The restaurant offers both indoor and ourdoor seating, and frankly would have qualified as the “fancy” restaurant at most four-star hotels, and many weaker five-star hotels. We had dinner here on Christmas Eve (our FHR-sponsored dinner), and we were generally pleased.

I of course forgot to bring my dinner coupons (while I am a sport coat kind of guy, I’m not a coupon-toting type), but the front desk was kind enough to apply the coupons retrospectively to my dinner bill when we checked out.
We had hoped to eat here for breakfast on December 25, but they were only offering their deluxe Christmas brunch buffet, which was far more food than we were looking for. We ended up eating (after waiting) at House without a Key.

The view from our table...




House without a Key
This is the hotel’s most causal restaurant, and was often the most difficult to get in to (frustratingly so). Thankfully, our kids wake up early, so when we got down to breakfast (for the buffet) the queue hadn’t begun in earnest (though even at our early hour, we did have to wait to be seated).

Also located seaside, this restaurant was a solid notch below the others in terms of service and overall comfort. The food was of acceptable quality (even at the buffet), but the restaurant suffered from a number of shortcomings. Despite seeing oodles of staff hurrying about, it felt like our waitresses each time were always behind. Their limited service (recall this was a buffet) was very slow for drink requests, etc, and not particularly friendly (though never rude). Requests made to people who weren’t our assigned waitress were consistently greeted with, “I’ll send your waitress.”



Later in the morning (after we had come and gone), the lines at the different buffet stations grew quite long. It looked like it could be 15 minutes+ to get an omelet made.

Waiting at the buffet...


I got the impression from listening to other customers that “breakfast at Halekulani” was a bit of a special affair for many (even at the least deluxe of their restaurants). Looking at the hostess’s book, the vast majority of tables had “N/G” in the column where room numbers would normally go. Those “N/Gs” were “not guests.” On Christmas Day for lunch, when we were hanging out at the pool, we were told the wait would be 30 minutes to be seated at House without a Key. I saw the eight parties in front of us all had “N/G” next to their name. The kids wouldn’t have been able to peacefully wait 30 minutes, then the inevitable 20 extra minutes to actually have our food arrive from when we were seated – so we went back to our towels on the grass (more on chairs at the pool below) and tracked down a roving waiter and ordered. Our “on the lawn” food arrived in about 35 minutes from when we ordered, moderately better than had we waited to be seated at the restaurant.

People milling around, waiting to be seated...


I suspect that during ordinary times (when the property isn’t full), having non-house-guests helps pay the bills. It was frustrating to have to wait behind so many walkers-in before we could be seated. Speaking with the hostess at lunch, reservations weren’t an option, even for house guests. To be very straightforward, this dining facility was insufficient in terms of capacity and service. To face significant queuing behind non-residents was frustrating.

Room Service
On December 26, we needed to head out of the hotel earlier than the breakfast restaurant opened. Room service offered “breakfasts to go,” which came packaged up conveniently for travel. We ordered four of these, and they were delivered quickly to our room. The breakfasts were basically continental breakfasts; they were quite good.

It was unclear if this would be covered under the FHR program, but I showed the waiter my “Halekulani Passport,” which is what I showed for breakfast at the restaurant. He said it would be no problem to apply the credit to the delivered breakfast, and indeed, we were not charged. I am not sure if this was a special exception or not.

Bar/Lounge

This, too, was a disappointment. Lewers Lounge (named after the cross street in front of the hotel) is in the lobby of Orchids. Unfortunately, the lounge didn’t open until 7:30pm! While the lounge’s room seemed nice enough, it certainly wasn’t Hawaiian, and it was really just a windowless room on the land-side of Orchid’s kitchen. There was very little Hawaiian about the bar; it could have been anywhere in the world.

Lewers wasn’t open at any time that we wanted to go (as our dinner bookings were typically for 7pm) This lounge had the most limited hours of any hotel bar that I could think of. I compare to the bar at Hualalai, which was packed full from 5pm through well past 7pm, and had been open continuously since 11am!

Overlooking the ocean, behind the House without a Key, there was an open grass area (separate from the pool area), which also had cocktail tables and live music. This area was open at 5pm (when we went down for a drink). We enquired about sitting here, but were told there was a waitlist for tables, this time of at least 45 minutes. Looking at the hostess’s list, most of the bookings were for “N/Gs!” Basically, there was a 45 minute wait to be sitting in their one drinking area at 5pm, and while there other drinking area wasn’t open! There simply wasn’t a spot we could get a drink at this hotel at 5pm, unless we ordered from room service or were willing to sit on the grass (not in chairs) by the pool.

I’ve never seen such a bar situation in my life at a high end property. We ended up taking our table at Orchids early, and having a drink (or two) at the table (which was in earshot of the live music at least), then ordering dinner.

Pool
The pool itself is beautiful, with its interior a mosaic of literally millions of tiles. The pool was the right temperature, too. Refreshingly cool, but not cold.



Sitting by the pool, however, was another story. Even when we turned up for breakfast at 7am, substantially all the pool chairs had been claimed by other guests. The hotel allows guests to place towels on chairs and keep them indefinitely throughout the day. On Christmas, we spent about five hours consecutively at the pool, and there were many reserved chairs which simply were not used once.

A sea of reserved but unused chairs...


As every chair was taken, we simply had the chair attendant place towels on the grass for us. It was funny (perhaps in a bad way), the pool attendant wouldn’t put the larger chair-covering towels on the ground, but rather just the smaller bath sheet sized towels for us, “so the big ones don’t get dirty.” I couldn’t believe what he was saying – we were willing to sit on the ground because they had no chairs, but the attendant would only give us small towels? I didn’t argue the point – but it was indicative of the quality of the service in the pool area.

The lawn where we sat...


A big difference between Halekulani and Hualalai at the pool was that there was a division of labor at Halekulani. At Hualalai, each staff person at the pool would do anything – help with a chair or towel, get drinks, get food, or even bring band-aids when the kids scraped a toe. At Halekulani, each person seemed to have set of segregated responsibilities, which they were not allowed to deviate from. The chair and towel guys could only help with chairs and towels, and even then, they seemed to have their own “sections” that they looked after. I asked for some extra towels from one fellow (standing at the towel station), who said I needed to get them from another fellow, who was standing next to him. While that fellow did give me the towels, that’s simply not an appropriate setup for the caliber of property that Halekulani is aspiring to be. Further, once all the chairs were “dibsed” (presumably by 7:30am), I’m not sure what these guys actually did. Indeed, most of the time, they just stood at their little podium off to the east side of the pool – and told guests “no” when they asked for chairs.

There was a separate group of three waiters/waitresses looking after pool guests’ needs for food and drink. These individuals also had their own sections, which they didn’t deviate from. I asked one of the waitresses walking by if we could place a drink order, and she told me she’d send the waiter who covered our section. Ten minutes later, the waiter hadn’t turned up, but the “out-of-section” waitress walked by again. This time, I insisted that she take our order – which she did, reluctantly. This was another example of the hotel putting their procedures in front of their guests’ comfort and convenience. (Those bloody FHR Passports was another good example.)

I also wonder about the income disparity between the poolside food servers and the towel crew. How much in tips could the towel/chair team make in a day? $100 each? Couldn’t be much when you consider the lack of chair turnover! Compare that to the food servers, who must have easily picked up $50 an hour in tips. I suspect this would cause some tension between the staff.

It is safe to say that I was disappointed with (a) their capacity at the pool, (b) the fact that they allowed indefinite reserving of chairs and (c) the way they offered service at the pool. Hualalai had a much better model.

Beach

Despite being directly on the ocean, this hotel has very limited beachfront. Indeed, most of the hotel’s water edge is dominated by a concrete wall, where there is no sand – and the water simply hits the wall. To the east side of the property, there was a very small sliver of beach where guests could access the sand and the water. The beach itself was open to the public, and appeared to be used almost exclusively by individuals who were not guests of the hotel.

Waikiki beach is a very nice beach, with soft sand and a gentle sea – but it is also extremely crowded. Halekulani’s small sliver of beach was no exception. I did take my kids in the water – and though it was cool (high-70s?), we all went in, and had a great time. Notwithstanding the crowds, the beach and water at Waikiki is some of the best for recreational visitors in the world.

The property is also adjacent to the Sheraton, which is a 30+ story tower, built almost at the waterline. The Sheraton has even less room on its pool deck than Halekulani, and they also have some of the beach limitations that Halekulani had (bulkheads in the water), so they had a lot of spill over into Halekulani’s limited beachfront area.

If you have visions of lollying on the sand, this isn’t the hotel for you. If you want to be able to get in and out of the ocean quickly, then you’ll be fine here.

Location

Other than the limited sandy beach, Halekulani has a very nice location. It is very central to Waikiki, offers direct Diamond Head views, and is set up so nearly every room has some degree of ocean view. The hotel is set at the end of Kalia Road, a much quieter road than Kalakaua Road, but just a few steps off of Kalakaua.

Holiday Festivities
Staying over Christmas Day, we were in the thick of the holiday festivities. The hotel arranged for Santa (and the lovely Mrs. Claus) to ride up to the property in an outrigger before dinner on Christmas Eve. They greeted guests in the lobby that afternoon, and also held a reception for kids with groups of singers – all of which was quite nice and remarkably tastefully done.

I suspect they compensated Santa and his wife with a free stay at the property, as the next day (Christmas), Santa and his wife were in the pool. My daughter (5) pointed out to me that she thought it was Santa (had the real beard, etc), and indeed it was. Lots of people came up to them in the pool to take pictures, and the couple was nice and took photos with anyone that asked.

I’ve long told my kids that since Hawaii is the last spot on Santa’s around the world tour, he usually spent a few days there after the trip was done. (This might have been some of the lore that prompted my daughter’s desire to come to Hawaii in the first place!) In any event, it was nice to have that ever-so-slight exaggeration of mine come true!

Overall Feel of the Property

The property has a Japanese theme and feel to it, and clearly catered to guests from Japan. The property is a low-density development in a high-density area, which I quite like.

Perhaps 50-60% of the poolside guests (of which there were many!) appeared to be of Japanese ancestry (who knows if actually coming from Japan or not, though I suspect many were). Many of the signs at the hotel were in Japanese, as well as English, and many of the staff members spoke Japanese.

I enjoy spending time in Japan, so I felt very comfortable here. While not overly Japanese, if you don’t enjoy time in Japan, you might consider other properties in Waikiki.



Other Aspects of Our Booking

In order to take advantage of the FHR benefits, I booked our rooms through American Express Platinum Travel Service. Looking at the Platinum Travel website, there was a notation in the footnotes for the FHR program at this hotel that read to the effect of, “Guests reserving two rooms can get the second room at the lowest available room rate, and be confirmed in the same category as the first paid room.” This seemed like a great idea, and would have saved me some money each night.

After I finally helped the Amex PTS agent find the language, she said she couldn’t figure out how to book it. The agent called the hotel to discuss, and they said they would not honor the second room offering with the FHR package. This was disappointing, because it was on the FHR website page for the hotel. It didn’t explicitly read that the FHR benefits could apply, but the context of the presentation (on the FHR benefits page for the hotel) was that it should have been specifically excluded if that was their intent. I made the booking anyway, but was a bit disappointed with how this played out. I suspect I found some legacy language that had long since been forgotten.

Other Considerations

We wanted to make December 26 a day with some off-property activities. The concierge was able to arrange a rental car for us, which was delivered directly to the hotel. This was extremely convenient, and we simply signed a few papers at the concierge desk and were given a claim ticket to get the vehicle from the hotel valet when we wanted it. Though we had the vehicle only for the day, we did come in and out of the property a few times. There was no parking charge, despite using the valet parking. The rental was through Dollar.

To save a little bit of money (after the aggregate cost of this trip, perhaps this was akin to rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic!), I asked if I could return the car to the airport, instead of the hotel. This would avoid needed a driver to take us to the airport. There was no charge to change the drop off spot, so we simply used the vehicle we rented (an SUV) to go back to the airport for our departure.

We did not check out the exercise facilities at the hotel, though I did get in a great run (more on this in the next post).

Conclusion

Coming off of the highs of Hualalai, Halekulani was a bit of a letdown. Many aspects of the property were quite nice, but it was simply occupied at a higher level than the public facilities were meant to handle when I was there. This was made worse when the people who weren’t actually guests of the hotel were factored in.

Except for the servers in House without a Key and the pool area staff, all of the staff members were exceptionally nice and accommodating. The hotel runs advertisements extoling its service levels – were it not for the pool stay and House without a Key staff, I’d say they’ve got it figured out.

The capacity issues, coupled with the aforementioned service issues, really took the bloom off the rose for us. If I were visiting the area during a time when the hotel won’t be fully committed, I’d consider staying here again. I don’t think I could convince my wife to however. And, if it were peak season, I too wouldn’t stay here again.

If you are going to be in Waikiki during a period other than peak season, however, I’d encourage readers to at least consider the property. Notwithstanding any of the issues we face, I get the sense that this is one of the better hotels on Waikiki.

Details
Halekulani
2199 Kalia Road
Honolulu, Hawaii 96815
Phone: +1 (808) 923-2311
Fax: +1 (808) 926-8004
Toll Free Reservations: +1 (800) 367-2343
www.Halekulani.com

NYBanker

Part 8 – Honolulu Activities - Pearl Harbor, Hanauma Bay, Diamond Head Run, Dinner at Nobu

Honolulu is sort of the “other Hawaii.” While most of the common Hawaiian destinations are a bit more (or a lot more) rural, Honolulu is “the big city” to most Hawaiians. “It is very different,” was the polite phrase a lot of people in Kona used when I mentioned that Honolulu was our next stop.

I’ve been to Honolulu five times I think now. While I wouldn’t make it the anchor of a trip to Hawaii, adding perhaps two days here (perhaps at the beginning of your trip) will bring you exposure to a number of very memorable experiences.

Pearl Harbor

December 7, 1941 – “A date which will live in infamy.” For anyone with an interest in history, a visit to Pearl Harbor is essential during a visit to Honolulu. Pearl Harbor’s extensive visitor center is about a 25 minute drive west from Waikiki, and is located just past the airport. The route was well signed, and it was an easy drive in our rental car for the day.

This visit was just my son (8) and I; the girls went off to the pool together, then off-property for lunch. On the ride out, I explained to my son what we were going to see. They clearly haven’t gotten to the topic of World War II in his classes yet. While he’s heard the phrase, he really didn’t know much in the way of details. I explained the Japanese attack, that many of our soldiers and sailors died in the attack, and that millions more died all around the world in fighting.

I have many friends in Japan and do a fair bit of business in Japan, so I visit there somewhat often. My son (and I) view the Japanese as friends; and he was confused why they would attack us. He had some very thoughtful questions on the topic.



There are a number of memorable ware sights to see at Pearl Harbor, including the USS Arizona Memorial, USS Missouri and the USS Bowfin.

Visiting the Arizona Memorial is free of charge, but required waiting several hours before we could get a turn. The memorial is capacity controlled, and reached by boat. Unfortunately, our schedule was too tight, and we could not stay to visit the memorial itself. We were at least able to see the above water memorial from land. Had we been on the memorial, we would have been able to look down at the Arizona, which is clearly visible in the waters below.

We were able to visit the USS Bowfin, which is a World War II era submarine. While there was no queue, there was a charge to visit the Bowfin. The submarine has been remarkably restored, and was well worth the small price of admission. There was a very descriptive audio tour included with the admission price. We found this very helpful.

A few friends of mine are former submariners (from a more modern era), and I remain amazed at the conditions in which they must have served. I appreciate their service to the United States very much.

Subsequent to my visit, I learned a few extra things about the Arizona Memorial, which might have made a visit possible. One is to simply hang out near the embarkation port for the ferry vessel that takes you there. Because of the long time between getting your tickets and the time of your tour, invariably there are a few no shows. Apparently, some of the ferry operators will let a few extra people board if the boat is not at capacity. The other thing I will consider next time is arriving 45 minutes before opening time, which the guards advised me would be sufficient to make the first ferry of the day. I didn’t try either of these (really was unaware in advance), but would try both on a subsequent visit.

There was an option for a bus ride to see several other vessels; we declined this option.

Parking at Pearl Harbor was very limited. There were three free parking lots near the entrance to the facility. Each of the lots was very small, and there was a lot of pedestrian stalking (following very closely behind people walking to their cars). We parked perhaps a quarter mile down the road, near a marina.

On the way back to the hotel in our rental car, he asked me when and how World War II ended. I explained to him about the Manhattan project and the ultimate atomic attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. While I think he was still a little confused, he asked if we could visit one of those cities when we go to Japan; I told him we would.

This was clearly some heavy stuff for him, but I think it was a very constructive and not overwhelming way for him to see first-hand some very significant history.






Hanauma Bay

One of my fondest memories from childhood visits to Hawaii was visiting Hanauma Bay. Formed in a volcanic cone located to the east of Waikiki, Hanauma Bay is home to literally millions of fish and other forms of sea life – including sea turtles.

You can simply swim right up to the fish and turtles, and they go about their business largely as if you are not there. While the water was pretty cool (colder than at Halekulani), it was manageable. Snorkel equipment was available for rent at the beach. While the snorkeling would be considered amateurish by some, for a novice like me, it was really a wonderful experience. You simply walk in and swim perhaps 20 feet off shore, and you’ll start seeing many colorful fish. Most of the time, I was in water that I could stand in. Being in a cove, the water near the shore was fairly calm.

Unlike Pearl Harbor, we knew getting to Hanauma Bay early was essential, as the parking lot is small, and unlike Pearl Harbor, there aren’t overflow areas. We arrived at about 7:30am, and the lot was close to full.

Since my last visit 25 years ago, they’ve added a compulsory (and quite cheesy) video presentation. This amounted to nothing more than a 15 minute tax on time. The main theme of the video was not to touch anything in the water (fish, coral or otherwise). Sadly, when I was snorkeling, I saw many people standing on the coral in the water.

The fish were not as plentiful close to shore as they were when I was here in the 1980s, but there were still many fish to see today. I’m not an expert, but I imagine this is some of the best close-to-shore snorkeling anywhere.

One note on the snorkel rental, the rental shop takes either a credit card or $30 cash as a deposit when you take out your rental. I left cash ($30), which I got back with no problem upon return. When I returned my equipment, I noticed a menu of charges for damaged equipment. The charges for most types of damage were well in excess of the cash deposit amount, which presumably they’d charge your credit card for. You might consider leaving cash in lieu of a card to minimize your downside.




Diamond Head Run

When I visited Ayers Rock in 2010, I took the opportunity to run a 10k+ around the rock one day. Now, every time when I see an image of the rock, one of the first memories that come to mind is of that run.

A friend of mine on Milepoint, Mangy, mentioned to me that he did a run around Diamond Head. Diamond Head is the volcanic mountain to the east of Waikiki, and is one of the most iconic images of Hawaii. Frankly, I didn’t even know you there was a way to circumnavigate Diamond Head. Indeed, there are developed properties essentially all the way around the mountain’s perimeter.

I took the kids down to the pool and beach for much of the day on Christmas, so in the afternoon, I suggested that I’d go out for this run. Thankfully, there was no controversy.

The run itself was about 10 km round trip from Halekulani, and were all on sidewalks or paved streets. The run itself has a bit of a climb in it, but isn’t unduly hilly.

The best views of the mountain were when I was heading towards it at the beginning of my run. This was the most congested part of the run (in terms of pedestrians), so a little weaving and swerving were required.

Along the south side of the mountain, there were some wonderful elevated views of the ocean. This is clearly where locals came to enjoy the beach. People had dogs with them on the beach (not sure if this is allowed, but it seemed common), and there were plenty of surfers, body boarders and other fun-seekers on these beaches.

Once I turned inland, heading north on the east side of the mountain, the run became decidedly more ordinary. There were only limited opportunities to see the mountain, and in general, this portion of the run was through neighborhoods of lower socioeconomic standing.

After a short while on the east and north sides of the mountain, I rejoined the road I took outward, and simply had to navigate the pedestrians getting back to base.

Even as soon as the next morning, when I looked at Diamond Head when I was down by the pool, I felt some of the same feelings that I do when I see Ayers Rock. I’m really glad I did this run.



Christmas Dinner at Nobu

Nobu is directly across the street from Halekulani. I made our booking on OpenTable.com in late November. Our table was ready and waiting for us; the restaurant was full.



You enter the restaurant in a bar room. There are several long tables, and dinner was also served here. Presumably this was just for walk-ins. The hostess is at the far side of this room, near an archway which opens into the main dining room. To the right is the sushi bar, which runs the full length of the right side of the dining room. There must be about 40 tables in the dining room – and almost no noise absorbing surfaces.

My kids are regulars at Japanese restaurants, though our regular, Kotobuki in Stamford, is extremely quiet, and in no way flashy. The kids’ eyes opened when they first saw Nobu’s dining room.

Interestingly, there was a female sushi chef working the evening that we were there. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a female sushi chef before.



Nobu’s two New York locations, and the one in London that I’ve visited, have both met or exceeded my expectations. Honolulu, however, failed in most every way. The sushi was OK to good, but in no way exceptional.

Service was very weak. It took a number of requests/reminders to get drinks brought to our table. Twice, relatively simple drinks were mixed up. It was never clear who our server was, as three different people approached the table to check in with us/take orders/etc.

Finally, the menu was modified for Christmas. Some things were added, others not available, that evening. However, the menu included everything, including items which were not available. When we sat down, after a preliminary cocktail (recall we couldn’t actually get a spot for a drink at Halekulani), my wife and I read the menu and made a number of choices for ourselves and the kids. Only when we went to place our order did we come to learn that roughly half of the things we selected weren’t being served that evening.

Now, I’m perfectly fine with a reduced menu on Christmas (though it’s really not needed at Nobu, because they are probably completely full most every night) – but it would seem incumbent on the restaurant to also go through the effort to print a special menu for the night. It was very frustrating – basically playing whack-a-mole – to guess, trying to find things on the menu that were actually available.

Dinner was priced at the level you’d expect Nobu to be at, but the experience didn’t match our experienced expectations – nor the price!

I can’t say which restaurants in Waikiki are better, but I’d avoid this Nobu location in the future. And, it makes me call into question other Nobu locations outside of NYC/London.

Conclusion

While not everything was perfect with our Honolulu activities, I’m glad we did everything we selected. I’ll definitely visit Pearl Harbor again. I might try to bake in some time at one of the locals’ beaches next time, too!

NYBanker

Part 9 – HNL United Club, Continental #14 HNL-EWR BusinessFirst

The journey home begins….

We left Halekulani at about 4:30pm, having pushed the Amex FHR guaranteed late check-out to (actually a bit through) the maximum. Our bags were loaded by the bellmen and our rental car was ready for departure when we got out to Halekulani’s porte-cochčre.

It was a quick 20 minute ride back to the airport. We pulled up to the United/Continental check-in and had a skycap take our bags. Normally, my wife stays with one of the children and the bags, while I take the other children to either park our car, or return the rental car. This skycap said there was no need to wait with him, he could look after our bags while we all took care of the car.

I thought about this offer for a minute – I’d never been offered to be separated from the bags before getting my claim checks (except at KOA earlier on this trip). Being a New Yorker, I had my guard up. (Recall, there is a famous scam in New York where guys in little bow-ties and vests stand outside of restaurants and claim to be valet parkers – but are really thieves who really just drive off in your car!). In this case, I checked the fellow’s name photo name tag (remembering his name) and decided that it would be OK to leave our bags and passports with him.

We all got back in the car and drove off, looking for the rental return area. As I was pulling into the rental return area, I had the “oh crap” moment that I so often get with rentals – I forgot to re-fill the tank. Not the end of the world, but probably a $100 mistake. As luck would have it, though much to the ire of rental car companies, there is an on-airport gas station, just before the rental car return areas! It only cost $20 to fill it back up. Lucky break.

Despite no other customers on the lot, returning the car at Dollar was a bit disorganized, and I was sent to three different employees during the return process. These guys could learn a bit from Hertz. Owing to there being no other customers, the bus was standing by, and pulled out as soon as we boarded.
On the short ride back to the terminal, my wife commented that “absolutely everything has gone perfectly with our flights.” When it comes to travel, such a statement is basically a precursor to problems to come!

When we got back to the terminal, our skycap was standing by, right where he said he’d be. He had all of our bags tagged through to Newark. So far, so good.
When I went to thank him, he said “there is a problem with one of the tickets, you should speak with an agent.” Uh oh. Thankfully, I had printed out all of our itineraries and travel confirmations for this trip (perhaps the first time I’ve ever done that).

For this segment, my wife and the kids were on Continental award tickets (using American Express points, transferred just before the AX/CO relationship ended). All three of them were on one PNR for this one-way segment. I was on a paid J ticket, the continuation of my KOA-HNL ticket, on a separate PNR from the other three.

It turns out that the telephone agent that issued the award tickets issued two tickets in the name of my daughter, one in my wife’s name, and none for my son! He also misspelled our last name on one of my daughter’s tickets (despite us all having the same last name). I had checked the printed confirmations, but only cursorily and unfortunately missed these other-than-trivial errors prior to departure.

I approached one of the few kiosk agents and explained the predicament. She asked me why I didn’t correct the mistake earlier, to which I replied that I hadn’t noticed it. She gave me the ominous warning of “we can’t change names on tickets once they are issued.” She then asked where I purchased the tickets, and I said I did it on the telephone with a Continental agent. This changed her tune, and she said, “Let me see what I can do.” After about five minutes of working on her computer – apparently unsuccessfully – she picked up the phone and made a call. She said the recorded message advised her of a 5 to 10 minute hold time from some sort of central ticketing desk. Her colleague at the next station warned that it took over 30 minutes just to get through on the telephone earlier in the day!

My wife, the children, and the sky cap were off to the side, thankfully out of ear shot. I had explained the problem to my wife, and I could see her travel-stress factor start to rise geometrically. I assured her everything would be OK.

Back at the kiosk where the agent was on hold, I pulled out my iPad to assess the loads on flights that evening. My flight was completely full in front, though there was plenty of room in back. I also looked at options on other carriers, though I didn’t think that would be necessary.

Worst case, my plan was to buy an extra ticket using the same card I paid the telephone ticket fees with and then appeal to the airline after the flight. Barring success directly with the carrier, I could undertake a credit card dispute process. Though I should have checked my itinerary more carefully, this was clearly the carrier’s mistake, and it wasn’t ultimately going to be for my account.

By now, a queue was forming for check-in for the flight. I was standing in front of a check-in kiosk. While I was unwilling to give up my position within earshot of the agent on the phone, I did step to the side so I could still hear the agent (when she ultimately got through) and I called queuing passengers up to use the kiosk. No need to prevent others from using the kiosk, I figured.

I usually wear a blue blazer when traveling (this flight was no exception) and a number of older passengers mistook me for an airline employee (particularly as I was directing people to the kiosk). I helped one older lady check-in using the kiosk upon her request. She complained to me about the baggage fee she had to pay, too. I just smiled at that one.

After about 20 minutes on hold, the agent got through to someone on the telephone and explained the situation. Within about 5 minutes, she said the matter resolved and that the telephone agent was able to “amend the ticket to reflect the correct name.” I thanked her for her help. She then added that she “had never seen a change get made like that.” With our corrected boarding pass in hand, I said thanks again and starting walking! This could have gotten ugly had they refused to make the change. I appreciate the help that I got from the agent at HNL.

I checked the ticket number on my son’s boarding pass, and indeed it didn’t change from what was originally issued to my daughter. Two clear lessons learned here are (a) double check the details of your itineraries (this is standard for most) and (b) don’t accept “we can’t change a name on a ticket” as an answer to a ticket problem. While they won’t let you give a ticket over to someone else, in our case, the error was extremely clear. This was the first time I’d ever seen the name on a ticket change, but it is nice to know it is possible – even without re-issuing the ticket!

Clearing security took just a minute or two using the “Gold Line” at HNL. Having kids in tow, we were all exempted from the full body scanners and allowed to use the magnetometer. Our kids got compliments from two pilots on how well they handled all the security checkpoint procedures.

We walked down to the United Club, which was about a 7 minute walk from security at the pace we travel. Much of HNL airport seems to pre-date airport security. The UA terminal was set up so that the jetway door was about 40 feet from where your car would have pulled up. This was great in the old days. Now, in front of the terminal, there is a roadway which is unused, except for the little on-airport airside shuttle vehicles. The roadway looked like it hadn’t been paved in 20 years.
The United Club was conveniently upstairs from the gate where were departing from. Being on BusinessFirst tickets, we were afforded UA Club access. Otherwise, we would have ended up at one of the HNL Priority Pass Plus lounges – which, in general, aren’t worth the burden of admission.

Being an AA/DL guy, I only find my way in a UA lounge once or twice a year. Perhaps it is the scarcity factor, but I find the décor of many of the UA lounges to be generally nice. Their snack selection, including some fruit and carrot options, seemed superior to what AA and DL offer domestically.








Many mixed drinks attract a charge at the UA Clubs. My wife likes a particular mixed drink, which I bought for her. The bartender was very stingy with the pour, so, after he made his first measured pour, I upgraded her to a double (for double the price).

When I returned to our seats, I saw FlyerTalk open on the laptop of the person at the next table to my family in the lounge. I introduced myself (NYBanker on FT and MP) and we spoke briefly. He was a UA/Marriott guy, so my time online rarely overlapped with his.

Another round was had for the grown-ups. The kids got more snacks.

Enjoying her second drink, my wife asked if the seats on this flight were going to “be the nice ones, or the ghetto-bird ones?” I assured her they’d be the nice ones. This put a smile on her face.


Damage done in the lounge...

Shortly before boarding began, I suggested to my wife that one of us go get food at the airside Burger King for the kids. While not our favorite thing for them to eat, we’ve found that the airplane food offerings really didn’t match our kids’ palates. (I actually never checked about special meals on the outbound or return flights – the last few times I requested a kids meal in front, I was told they were no longer offered. That mightn’t have been the case on these flights, but alas, I never checked.) My wife thought that was a good idea, and I offered for her or me to go. She nominated me, and said she’d take the kids on board, and I’d meet her on the plane.

I remarked to my wife that she would appear to be the single mom boarding in first class with two kids. Whereas she knows I’d be coddled by the flight attendants as a single dad with two kids, she would invariably get the evil eye from an FA or a fellow passenger. Indeed, she did get the look from a nearby passenger.
I trotted off to Burger King to get two kids meals. Usually these franchise places are pretty sterilized – but this one had a ceramic nativity set displayed just below the menu. This seemed a bit odd to me.



Between BK’s location and our gate was an outdoor area. I used the opportunity walking through this outdoor area to take some photos of the sunset just completed.



When I made it back to the gate, there were still 30 or 40 people standing in the economy line, queuing to board. I was able to use the “EliteAccess” line (which had no one in it at this point), avoiding the general queue.

We were in our typical configuration, with my daughter and wife seated together, and me with my son. The kids were happy to get the Burger King meals; they dove in right away.



I suspect both of my kids conducted their customary extensive tests of the seats’ power adjustment features before I made it on. My son had his seat reclined and footrest extended when I arrive.

While the kids were eating, I went up to the galley to introduce myself, to hang my coat, to request a drink (as PDBs had already been served by the time I got on board) and ask if they could take two ice creams off of dry ice for my kids. This way, the kids could have some ice cream shortly after takeoff, then sleep their way to Newark. The FA said it was no problem, and pulled two ice creams out of the dry ice bin for them.

My drink was served a few minutes later, but sadly was incorrect. (G+T versus the requested Vodka Tonic.) A re-request got this grievous error changed within a few minutes.

One of the FAs was very warm to us (the one who tended to the ice cream for us), while another was noticeably cold. Who knows why these things happen, but the difference was discernible between them.

The seats on our plane were the original BusinessFirst seats. On the 767s (this was a -400), they are arranged in a 2-1-2 configuration, similar to AA’s Flagship First. (Compare to DL’s old-style Business Elite, where they squeezed in 2-2-2 on 767s!) The seats have a 156-degree recline, also very similar to the AA seats.
I’ve been on similar equipment from Continental two or three times over the past 8 or so years. I’m sure most in frequent flyer circles would call it “ancient,” but we found the seats to be sufficiently comfortable. There is a trade off when you get lie-flat seats on most domestic carriers – those seats are nearly always much narrower – certainly at the foot area – than these Continental seats are. They are wide enough that the kids can basically curl up in a ball in them, and my wife and I can find a number of comfortable positions. We were satisfied with the seats.

Meal orders were also taken on the ground. This made sense to me. Though I’m not a coconut fan (a tough position to be in when traveling in Hawaii!), I went with the Noodle Bowl, which had a Thai Coconut Curry sauce. My wife even took the liberty of pointing out to me, “but you don’t like coconut!” after I ordered (we must be getting old!). I explained my rationale that soups usually hold the best on an airplane (so I thought the dish would be better overall than the alternatives), and there were so many ingredients in the noodle bowl that I thought the coconut wouldn’t dominate. My wife ordered the same thing.

Departing at 7:25pm, this was my kids’ first red-eye flight. We left on time. We brought some melatonin with us to help “ease” any transition into sleep that they might need. Once we pushed back from the gate, they each got a few drops. Though I think this would have happened without the drops, they were both sound asleep mid-way through our taxiing, long before we were on the departure runway.

Take off and the climb out of HNL were both uneventful, though a bit bumpy. We were in 3AB 4AB, so we had nice views of Waikiki (too dark for Diamond Head at this point) on the departure. I remember sitting on the left side of a UA DC-10 in first class looking out over HNL on my first red-eye flight back in the 1980s (unlike my kids I made it awake through take off). This most recent departure brought back some fond memories for me of visiting the islands in the 1980s.

About 25 minutes into flight, another drink order was taken. These drinks were delivered without error.

The meal came shortly thereafter. I didn’t take photographs, but the full menu is pasted below. The noodle bowl was good for domestic airplane food, and while there was a hint of coconut, it wasn’t overwhelming.

I had some red wine with the soup. It was non-descript, and thankfully, not offensive.

By this point, I was getting tired, and decided to call it a night. I said good night to my wife (seated behind me), and I could see she was readying herself for sleep, too. I took a little nip of the melatonin, too…just in case.

I slept most of the way, being woken up by my son somewhere over/near [Indiana]. Breakfast was being served, and my son wanted some. I suspect he had been up for a while at this point, because he had his iPad out and was mid-way through a show when he stirred me. I helped him order; I had something too – though I have no recollection today what it was. I’m sure it was fine.

We arrived on schedule at Newark. We exited the plane through the second door. As we walked through the forward economy section, my son noticed that the seats behind ours “didn’t look very comfortable.” I’ve never talked to the kids about first class or economy or anything like that before – we simply just take our seats when we get on. We fly up to YYG annually on a one-class Delta RJ and the kids don’t complain one bit about those seats (which certainly meet the “not very comfortable” definition). I didn’t engage with him on the seating difference, and we were off the plane seconds later.

A moderate walk through a bustling terminal C, and we found our driver from Quest waiting for us at the bottom of the escalator. It was the same driver that brought us to JFK, and he assured us he had “the big truck.”

Despite having priority tags, our bags came out in the middle of the pack, with lots of non-priority bags. I often wonder if those tags make any difference for domestic travel. (Compare to QF at LAX, where they use a separate carousel for First and Business bags. That works great.) There was a sign saying that golf clubs would be on a different numbered carousel. Thankfully, our driver knew that the sign was incorrect, and in fact the golf clubs came out not on a numbered carousel, but rather next to the escalator. Once we had everything else, we went to this area that he knew – and behold! – the two golf bags were waiting there. As we walked out (with clubs in tow), several other people asked us where we found the clubs.

We didn’t bring heavy coats (just light fleeces) on the trip. Whereas it was a sociable temperature when we departed JFK, it was pretty cold this morning. Our driver suggested we wait in the sallyport and he would bring the vehicle up to the door, so the kids didn’t have to go in the garage. That was very thoughtful of him.

We were loaded up and on the road within minutes. Traffic was very light, and we made it home in a little less than an hour (not bad for a 60 mile drive which includes traversing Manhattan during the middle of the day!).

Our bags were brought into the front foyer, I gave the driver an outsized tip. He did a lot of work on this ride for us, and the last ride, and he is one of my regular drivers throughout the year, so add in the holidays, and this was the right thing to do. He thanked me profusely, bowed, and headed off.

Within minutes, my wife and son jumped in her car to go get our dog. Piper had a great time at the doggy hotel, and my wife said she was playing with several of the other dogs in “the lounge” at the doggy hotel when she arrived to pick her up.

While my wife and son were gone, I made a fire in the family room. When they got back, all five of us (wife, kids, pup and I) sat down and just relaxed together for a while. We love to travel…but there is also a very good feeling when you get back home.

NYBanker

Part 10 – Conclusion

Re-reading these posts, I am reminded just what a wonderful trip this was. Without hesitation, I can say I look back at my stay at the Four Seasons Hualalai as the most spectacular family destination that I’ve ever been to. I’ve had the good fortune to be a guest at properties ranging from the Southern Ocean Lodge to the Four Seasons Maldives/Kudaa Hura to the Amangani to the Four Seasons George V in Paris (and many in between), and there is no spot I’d rather return to with my family.

While Halekulani was a letdown for me, I think we visited at the worst possible time for the resort. This was made worse by coming direct off of a visit at Hualalai! In the context of a visit during a more moderate tourism season, visitors would find this property much more enjoyable than we did.

As I synchronize my Quicken accounts and AwardWallet, the painful reality of the costs associated with the trip have become a bit too clear.

The most important thing were forming some wonderful memories. Feeding the eagle rays for the kids. Golfing as a family foursome. Quiet time at the adults-only pool. Cocktails at sunset every night on the beach. Stuff like this casts a deep and resonate memory in our minds. Things we will not forget for many, many years.



To make all of this possible, we used 380,000 AA points for AAnytime awards in three-class first to get to KOA. AA provides a pretty good domestic product in their three-class First Class cabin – except for the onboard meals. Five Star was a little weaker this time than usual (fine at LAX, sloppy at JFK this time), though still made the airport process much easier (never a queue).

We also used 240,000 MR points (redeemed to Continental) for three double-miles award tickets to return in their BusinessFirst cabin. This service was perfectly fine.

I bought a paid ticket KOA-HNL-EWR in J on UA paper, which was no more expensive than just the HNL-EWR ticket would have been. I used a paid ticket for me so that I could finally reach Star Alliance Gold via the good folks at Aegean.

We ended up buying three paid First Class tickets for the KOA-HNL flight on Hawaiian. The cost for these First Class tickets was about $75 more per ticket than the lowest economy ticket, and while I would normally have just purchased economy tickets for such a short flight, I knew my checked bag fees on the economy tickets would roughly equal the incremental fare to First Class (which would include checked bags). It also made boarding much more pleasurable, as the Hawaiian boarding process had a fair bit of queuing for economy passengers. The Hawaiian experience – except for their lounge (the worst airport lounge I’ve ever been to!) – was perfectly fine, too.

Our incidentals at Hualalai ran about $700 a day, excluding the “romantic” dinner on the lawn. Not inexpensive, but when I travel on holiday, I have a good ability to not pay attention to prices and just relax and enjoy. I feel I got exactly what I paid for here.

Our travel took us 10,104 miles. With a combination of unambiguous and consistent parenting, fully charged iPads and some melatonin for the overnight flight home, the kids’ behavior was absolutely perfect. Nearly a month later, they still talk about the things they did on the trip. Clearly it was impactful.

In the next few days, I’ll have paid all the bills from this trip and will have just good memories remaining. Though I think we’ll end up somewhere else for Christmas in 2012 (as we like to explore new places), I have a feeling I might make a supplemental booking at Hualalai, too, “just in case.” While I’m not sure it will be this Christmas, we’ll be back soon.

* * * * *

Thank you for taking the time to read this report so far through. I’d be happy to answer any questions on any of these properties, or my booking strategies. It is my hope that you enjoyed the read and finish wanting to book seats on the next flight to Kona. You can be assured that you won’t be disappointed!!



The end.

halfcape

I am enjoying your report so far. It is too bad that flights from BOS to the west coast don't have 3 classes. The first/business on those flights are ok but not first!!

Bretteee

This is what they serve in F on a 5 hour flight which costs $2,000. Basically a sandwich?

I just flew AA Y to Punta Cana. Next time I am going on JETBLUE. Newer planes, more legroom, decent entertainment and generally slightly lower fares. It was not worth the 3,000 mileage miles.

I love Hawaii. Looking forward to seeing the Hawai pictures.

Thanks.

SFO777

Outstanding report so far, NYBanker. I really enjoyed all the details. Kudos on the judicious use of mileage, HSBC perks and CO paid J for *G with Aegean. Thanks for the info on Quest International, which I will call on our trip to NYC. 5 Star service sounds excellent. Even better if HSBC pays for it and if you don't get Pat.
I just don't understand AA's three class F lunches. And that is an improvement?
Enjoy Hualalai and the Big Island. Looking forward to the next installment.

TrayflowInUK

This looks really outstanding, colour me subscribed. I also like your website (sitinfirst), some good stuff there.