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TR: JER-HNL with BA and AA by two Senior Citizens

TR: JER-HNL with BA and AA by two Senior Citizens

Old Jan 13, 2015, 4:33 am
  #1  
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TR: JER-HNL with BA and AA by two Senior Citizens

PART ONE - INTRODUCTION AND OUTBOUND

I’m sure you know the feeling - it’s cold and grey and damp outside, the lights are on all over the house and it’s only 1430. “Seasonally Affected Disorder” is, I believe, the official term: I just call it “Bloody Winter”. The mood was further ‘enhanced’ by a visit to the Dentist on 28 Nov 14, although I survived with all teeth intact and in their proper place. Around tea-time I noticed the activity on This Sale Thread … the OH [aka iWife] and I discussed it briefly at 1800, and decided to sleep on the idea. After a bath I had a detailed poke at ITA Matrix, and found a route and pricing that seemed to make sense … so we decided to just go for it. Called BA, and by 2030 we had booked and paid for … HONOLULU

1 Jan 15
0915, BA2771, A319, JER-LGW, CE(J)
1525, BA0269, A380, LHR-LAX, CW(I)
Hilton LAX nightstop
2 Jan 15
0805, AA31, B757, LAX-HNL, First(A)

10 Jan 15
0828, AA270, B757, HNL-LAX, First(F)
2045, BA0268, A380, LAX-LHR, CW(R)
11 Jan 15
1810, BA2776, A319, LGW-JER, CE(R)

Price 1,151 each … not as cheap as some, but good enough from our POV. And a bit of extra exploring suggested that this would generate 780 TPs each, which would result in us reaching BAEC Gold status. Oh, that’s not bad for an elderly couple of leisure travellers!

OUTBOUND

Saturday 1 January 2015
BA2771
A319, G-DBCA
CE seats 4A/C
0915 JER-LGW 1005


A taxi from home at 0745 had us at JER at 0800 - 25!! The curse of travelling on a Public Holiday! And only one desk open for bag drop, so there was a queue!! However it all went smoothly, with Security being quick and efficient as usual, and after grabbing some Duty Free we were in the Lounge by 0830 drinking coffee and eating tasty pastries. Unusually we boarded at Gate 10 [instead of the usual 2 or 3] on the other side of the building. Pushback on the dot of 0915, and off we go … with a decent breakfast on the way. We were on stand at LGW at 1005, and boarded the bus for the scenic tour of LGW to Domestic Arrivals … where we arrived at 1020 to see, to our utter amazement, our bags emerging onto the belt! A good start to proceedings.

Things immediately went downhill from there. I got a text from our regular driver saying that he was sick with the flu, and there was no sign of his replacement. I called the company (TravelTrans) who said they were still looking for a replacement: I could guess that they were looking for someone sober enough to drive after New Year’s Eve!! After 15 minutes we gave up, told them to forget it, and booked seats on the National Express coach to LHR, ETD 1120, 25 each. First time we have ever used that service, and it worked extremely well - bus on time, seats at the front (1J/K ) and 45 minutes later we were at T5, Bus Stop 13, right below the CW check-in Zone H.

T5 seemed reasonably busy, and BA had set up Tensa barriers at check-in with an Agent feeding pax to desks as they became free - very efficient. Within a couple of minutes our bags were dropped, and we headed apprehensively for Priority Security … the indicator boards were showing 5/3 little men instead of the usual 5/2, which at least proved that they do actually change the numbers from time to time. The new Priority setup seemed to work very well and we were through in a couple of minutes: we actually pressed the Green approval button for the first time. And so off to the B-Gates Lounge, as we expected the A380 would be departing from C-Gates somewhere.

We emerged at B to find ourselves walking just in front of our fellow FT-er, Stez, who we had agreed to meet. He spotted my yellow back-pack, hailed us and introduced us to his father who was travelling with him (they were doing LHR-JFK-LAX-KOA on a similar bargain holiday!). We all partook of some of the lunch offering, and I bravely tested the Green Thai Chicken Curry, which was actually quite tasty.







Stez and Dad left in a hurry, as it was suddenly noted that their flight from T5C was on Final Call for Boarding [yes, they made it] I declared it to be Wine o’clock, and explored the B Lounge offering. The whites were in the supposed chiller trough, but complied with BA tradition by being tepid: there is no way those chillers will reduce wine from ambient temperature by just blowing cold air at them! Fortunately I found a most agreeable Chianti, which was NOT chilled, and relaxed.



And then it was time for us to head to C-56 and our first encounter with the A380.

BA0269
A380, G-XLED
CW seats 53A/B
1525 LHR-LAX 1830 (11h 05m)


We encountered the usual throng of optimists at the Gate, including those who assumed that approaching an empty desk would somehow facilitate their early boarding! However, BA had things under reasonable control and after taking care of the lame and the infants allowed the First, Club World, Gold etc etc etc to start boarding. All desks were being used to speed the process, and I didn’t see anyone fighting!

Up the stairs into the smaller, front, CW cabin and into what have been deemed the best of a poor choice of CW seats for a couple in the rear row. We were greeted charmingly by one of the MF CC, and settled in. As noted elsewhere on FT, the outboard overhead bins are a bit smaller than usual, but as we don’t try to carry suitcases as hand luggage it was no problem for us. Likewise the side bins are much narrower than those on the 744 UD,







Unfortunately our departure was delayed … a missing passenger! By the time they had searched for him, and finally extracted his bag from the hold, we didn’t push back until 1612, and finally got airborne at 1638, one hour late. Oh, well, these things happen, and at least we had time to enjoy [slowly] our pre-departure glass of champagne. And then the in-flight service started - under the new A380 regime, which I was told was introduced to ensure a more personalised service. No carts in the cabin: instead the CC go from row to galley to row to galley ad infinitum with drinks on a tray. They started at 1705, our drink order was taken at 1720 and served at 1725. At 1735 our lunch order was taken … we both went for “Prawns and Beef”.



The starter was served at 1810. Pleasant enough, in a BA sort of way, and easily consumed in 10 minutes. The main course didn’t arrive until 1910!! All this trotting backwards and forwards doesn’t seem to help the CC, and by the time our mains arrived they were, frankly, tepid. Tasty enough, although the accompanying ‘cauliflower cheese frittata’ wasn’t a great success. As is to be expected, the white wine (Albarino) could have been colder, and the red (Chateau La Claymore, Bordeaux) was colder than the white. When will BA ever fix this First World problem?





Anyway, all done by 1925, and at 2000 we were sent to bed when the cabin lights dimmed. What a lovely quiet cabin this is - I like it! We trundled through the night on our 5,400 mile route across Iceland [where we saw the flames of the current eruption] Greenland, Hudson Bay and down across the Northwest of the USA. The new Map arrangement is strongly approved, as is the clarity of the IFE generally. I’m still disappointed by the selection of Films and TV viewing, but that’s a matter of personal taste - I have no doubt others find it most enjoyable

And so to LAX, where we landed at 1845 local [just 15 minutes late] or at 0245 according to my body clock! We were disembarked quickly via the upper airbridge, and found our way to the Arrivals Hall where a tense barrier led us to an airport staffer who pointed us at a vacant Automated Passport Control machine. See FT thread. There we were photographed and fingerprinted and answered a few on-screen questions, most of which we had already answered on the paper Customs form on the aircraft. Having received our ’till receipts’ we went to a vacant Immigration desk, where I was asked to produce our hotel reservation for HNL - I guess they wanted to make sure we weren't going to sneak into California and disappear. Then on to the Customs desk, where our remaining paperwork was collected and more questions asked (I can’t recall what, I was too tired to care!) … and then we were free! The whole process took about 10 minutes, but then we were amongst the first off the aircraft - YMMV in Y! Hello America, hello cold-dark-damp-grey California, hello curb-side smoking area, hello Hilton Shuttle Bus [turn right when you reach the curb and walk a hundred yards or so to the bus pick-up area].

By 1955 we were in our nice corner room on a high floor looking out at … the darkness and the airport lights in the distance. Nice enough room, but our sole concern was a shower and get some sleep before an early start in the morning.



Sunday 2 January 2015
AA31
B757, number u/k
First seats 2A/B
0805 LAX-HNL 1500 (6h 5m)


Blurgh. I am NOT designed to do early starts. In fact, this entire trip has taken us out of our comfort zone, and is going to be an interesting test of our ability (at our ages) to do this multi-stop very-long-haul sort of holiday. After some solid sleep, we awoke at 0345 [eeek] and re-packed our night things. Downstairs to an outside courtyard to top up our nicotine levels, and then back to the Lobby with our cases - just as the h24 Shuttle Bus turned up. Thank you, Mr Hilton! And so to LAX Terminal 4, where AA lives and breathes in splendid isolation. Thanks to the tip from c-w-s on FT, we knew that First check-in was over the far left. And far is certainly was! Right at the far end of the building, where we joined a very short queue/line for bag drop.

Nice things happen sometimes, and this was one of those moments. As we waited, an AA Agent beckoned us over and said “Follow me, please”. In my early morning befuddled state, I wondered whether we were going to be offloaded, or arrested for smoking in California. But no! She was the AA Flagship Agent, and she took us into their private check-in facility!! There she printed us new, proper, boarding passes, and labelled our bags. We were delighted to see that BPs had LARGE print saying things like FIRST, PRIORITY AACCESS and … TSA PRECHK. We were suitable people - YAY! After a brief chat with the lovely lady, we proceeded up the escalator to Security, where our BPs were scanned by the duty “Mr Grumpy of TSA” and then through the screening. No fussing about with belts, shoes, iPads or Kindles … just dump the carry-ons on the belt, walk through the arch, pick up carry-on and go I like this!

We found the AA AAdmiraals Lounge, and at 0520 settled in for a tedious couple of hours. No flashy pictures, as I try not to use flash when there are people around, and there’s plenty of meaningful information out there in FT-land if you need to know more. I just took these two to prove I’d been at LAX at Christmas time [roughly]. We briefly crossed paths again with Stez before he wandered off to the Flagship Lounge - posh git!





At 0730, when I would normally still be fast asleep, we wandered the short distance to Gate 42B, where we loitered for a few minutes before boarding commenced. Nice clear signage for the Priority line, and no evidence of anyone trying their luck! Quickly on board, we settled into 2A/B for our first ever flight with AA. OK, its an old B757, but comfortable enough. The only downside was the very large extended family group (3 generations) that seemed to be occupying most of the F cabin. We didn’t recognise the language they were speaking, but they may have been either Turkish or Balkan or something. Whichever, they were standing up, walking around, standing on seats taking photos, changing seats, talking across 4 rows of seats … it was like being surrounded by a bunch of hyperactive schoolchildren. Bloody foreigners

We were surprised to receive a PDB of some unknown but pleasant fizzy drink. These fitted perfectly on to the little drinks table attached to the back of the row in front - much more convenient than the BA CW setup.



At precisely 0805, as advertised, we pushed back and made our way around the massive maze that is LAX. When safely airborne, the ‘Tribe’ immediately started standing up again … indeed, they remained completely undisciplined throughout the 6 hour flight. Whatever, not my problem. Breakfast was served, and our pre-ordered ‘whatever it was’ was very tasty. I particularly likes the provision of a bread plate to contain my lovely fresh-baked biscuit



And so AA31 droned on across the endless emptiness of the Pacific. The IFE was a TV screen on the bulkhead and a cheap earplug headset. This is why Kindles were invented! The ‘Tribe’ continued getting up and getting in the way of the FAs, of course. I admired the FA’s patience with them, to be honest. BTW, our FA’s were nothing like the picture so often painted on FT - they were both delightful. I think they liked us too, because towards the end of the flight they gave us a bottle of wine to take away with us

And so to Honolulu!! The ‘Tribe’ continued to ignore the seatbelt sign or anything else - indeed, the teen boy never did his up at all. But then we all know that teenagers are indestructible.

YAY, we’re here! Aloha!



We had booked our hotel transfer with Roberts:
  • Our friendly airport representative will meet & greet you upon arrival.
  • We will escort you to baggage claim.
  • We will provide luggage/porter service at the baggage claim area.
  • We guarantee no more than 5 stops to your lodging destination.
  • Includes complimentary shell lei, upgrade to fresh flower lei for a small fee.

It was an excellent decision, and Roberts did exactly what it said on the tin. We were meeted, greeted, escorted, portered and shuttled. Price [round-trip] $28 each for that service and the 30-minute journey to Waikiki. They proved to be thoroughly well organised, punctual and efficient - highly recommended by this customer!

A large pristine coach conveyed us and one other couple to Waikiki. They were dropped off at their destination, and then finally after 8,200 miles and the best part of 2 days, we had arrived.

Aloha! and E Komo Mai! Welcome to the Pacific Beach Hotel, 2490 Kalakaua Avenue, Honolulu, HI 96815

Ocean view room, with balcony/lanai and smoking allowed, for 8 days … $1,956 (or about 1,300).

But more about that in PART TWO.

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Old Jan 13, 2015, 4:34 am
  #2  
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PART TWO - HONOLULULULU AND WAIKIKIKIKIKI BEACH

Where are we? And why are all the words so long and complicated? And why does everyone keep saying Aloha! to us? You quickly learn to say that every time [its the standard greeting, and actually means more than just ‘Hello’]. You also learn to say ‘Mahalo’, which is ‘thank you’. Otherwise everyone uses English, except for the thousands of Japanese tourists who, presumably, have their own inscrutable Oriental way of dealing with such matters

Ah, it seems to be about 1400 local time, which would be 0400 in UK I think. Or is it the other way around? Anyway, 10 hours time difference which I will not worry about. We check in at Reception, as one does, and are given our key cards for our Ocean View room on the 28th floor of the 36-floor Oceanarium tower. Why are we staying here? Well, call us dirty if you must, but we are smokers and this is one of the few establishments that has smoking rooms

I guess I would rate it as 3* … nice enough, clean and well maintained, but not exactly glossy marble and gold-plated taps. Suits us nicely: we are not DYKWIAs ... yet There are few nice touches, like the collapsible water pouches issued at checkin - and there are chilled water dispensers installed on the ground floor to fill them from.



The hotel has a restaurant with a wall of huge aquarium. Not very inspiring, TBH, as it’s mainly buffet meals and we never ate there. Breakfast was $24.95, Dinner $45.95 - $47.95, and as neither of us are big eaters it would have been a waste of money - and there are dozens of other places to eat anyway. it also has a very small Bar area, which we ignored as well!





Anyway, off to our lofty perch in room 2864 …





Tiny bathroom - I can stand in the middle and touch all 4 walls! However, a neat little balcony (lanai) with a view of the ocean and the extinct volcano crater of Diamond Head. Large comfy bed [very comfy, actually] and excellent pillows. It’s time for a shower, unpack, change into warm weather clothing and get out and explore the ‘hood. Temperature is about 75F and cloudy, with a very strong wind blowing and heavy rain forecast for tonight. As we are completely out of rhythm, we are going to seek out an in-room snack for this evening and try to be ‘normal’ tomorrow.

At which point we discover the wonder of ABC Stores. ABC is a chain of small ‘corner shops’ selling sandwiches, wraps, suntan lotion, wine/beer/sodas/milk, souvenirs, medications and a pile of other useful [and less useful] items. Most hotels have an ABC on the 1st floor [lapsing into US terminology] and there’s one every couple of hundred yards - apparently some 40 outlets in Waikiki! Eventually we discovered that they also sell one of our favourite everyday NZ Sauv Blancs, so we were sorted with a bottle of that from the chiller cabinet and a couple of tasty fresh wraps … after which it was bedtime at 1930.





We slept soundly through the overnight storm, which uprooted trees and brought down power lines all over the Hawaiian Islands, and awoke at 0630 to greet the sunrise.



So - this is Waikiki Beach. Hmmm, not quite what one expected. A fairly narrow strip of sand, backing on to the 3-lane one-way busy main street that is Kalakaua Avenue (which I shall refer to as the High Street, as its easier to type/spell). I will let a few subsequent pictures show you the area, which is full of VERY high-end shops and assorted hotels.

THINGS TO DO, AND PLACES TO GO.

For brevity I’ll just list a few including: Pearl Harbor, The Zoo and the shopping centers at Ala Moana and the Royal Hawaiian.

Pearl Harbor. We booked the “Stars and Stripes” tour with Roberts on-line from UK - a slightly scary $196 for the two of us, but affording fast processing and transportation. Pickup from the hotel at 0610! We had mixed feelings about it. The main Memorial site lacked any dignity, due to the large numbers of tourists. The Museum was a bit sparse. The sunken USS Arizona memorial was … OK. The tour of the battleship USS Missouri was fine, took about an hour to complete. All a bit ponderous, to be honest, and only 2-3 hours of real content … we finally got back to base at 1520, 9 hours after we left!





The Zoo. A nice little Zoo, and only a few hundred yards for the hotel. Quite interesting construction, and a decent range of species.







Ala Moana Apparently the biggest ‘outdoor’ Mall in the US, or the World, or the Universe. Stacked with high-end stores: no thanks, I have no need to spend stupid money on a clothe just because it has a designer label



Royal Hawaiian Center. Nice place, but again all high-end stuff. I can only assume the Japanese tourists lap it up.





“The High Street”. Yet more high end, although punctuated by ABC stores every other corner There is a large collection of stalls selling tourist stuff in Duke’s Lane.





Army Museum Quite nice, actually. Built in part of the defences of Hawaii built by the Americans in the 19th century when they took over the Islands. Loads of informative displays inside - worth an hour or so.



Eating places abound. Let Google and TripAdvisor be your friends! We particularly liked LuLu's (see pics below) for good food, atmosphere, location and sensible prices - with a useful ABC on the 1st floor
(see pics below, we went there twice)









Getting about was easy and free … we walked! However, to get to Ala Moana we took the Pink Line trolley … $2 a ride, complete with running commentary. Go to the Waikiki Trolley website for details, including their route map.





That should suffice for now … this is supposed to be about flying, not ‘my holiday’

I will just finish this Section with some general scenery by day and night!

The "Twin Towers" of the Pacific Beach.


... with Ocean View!



Diamond Head



The Massive Marriott - yes, both Towers!



Marriott by night


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Old Jan 13, 2015, 4:34 am
  #3  
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PART THREE - THE LONG JOURNEY HOME

Eight days seemed surprisingly long, considering we usually go to VA for 3 weeks. However, the days and hours passed pleasantly by until that sad moment when things such as OLCI, and packing, and last-minute shopping reared their corporate heads. After basking in 75F-80F warmth, and almost unbroken sunshine, a quick look at the Weather Channel told us it was going to be “Back to Reality”.

INBOUND

Saturday 10 January 2015
AA 0270
B757, unknown registration
First seats 3A/B
0828 HNL-LAX 1555 (5h 27m)


Friday evening … the packing was done (travelling light, only 2 suitcases) and the Shuttle pickup at the hotel by Roberts was scheduled for 0535 [eeek] and outwith our control, so we turned in early-ish. Unfortunately, at 2330, we were woken by the sounds of a room party on the floor below. A peek over the balcony confirmed that a group of Japanese had clearly returned from a night on the sake, had the balcony door open and were generally baying at the moon raucously. A phone call to the Front Desk gained the response “Oh, dear - I’ll get Security up there right away.” Good answer, and sure enough within 5 minutes peace was restored (although I faintly heard them in the distance having relocated to another room!).

Saturday morning, and iWife beat the alarm clock by 10 minutes. What is this thing called 0420? Whatever, the necessary morning functions completed [including a quick cigarette or 3] we were checked out by 0520 and on the mini-bus to the Airport. At check-in our bags were tagged through to LHR [will we see them again?] and again given TSA Pre … I could get used to this!! We thus entered the Sakura Lounge in the middle of the main Terminal at 0615. Now at this point I have to confess to having had what you might call a “white collar job” as an RAF officer, so I have no experience of what a Factory Canteen looks like. But the Sakura Lounge at HNL gave me that instant impression, as we entered the Feeding Zone (I use the term feeding in the loosest sense).





Nourishment, Sakura-style. There was a hot pot of soup if that's your thing at this time of day.



All of a sudden, Baxter Storey and the LHR Lounges looked like Heaven on Earth

Anyhow, we boarded the AA racing jet in a semi-zombie state, pushed back on the dot of 0828, and thundered across the Pacific again … having a brief opportunity to take a snap of Waikiki Beach through the window as we went.



When airborne [this time without the hyperactiveve foreigners] another AA Breakfast was served, again with a bread plate for my warm fresh biscuit If I remember rightly, this was a Leek Quiche with spinach - yes, that’s green spinach, but the colour didn’t come out as well as it should. Quite tasty, no complaints at all.



And 5h 25m passed, reading our Kindles and wanting to go back to bed! But this was no flat-bed luxury, this was AA Domestic First. Whatever! We arrived back at LAX at T4, slipped outside [marvelling at the poor signage, and grateful that I had memorised the airport layout] to indulge in our dirty habit before entering the Tom Bradley International Terminal (TBIT) next door. It was a lovely California day - the sort you never see in the movies …



Anyway … following the signs to “All Gates” [far right of the TBIT and up the escalator] we braced ourselves for Security without TSA Pre. “Oh, Nice” … theres a lane on the left in the Tensa barrier maze for First and Business pax, so off we go. A TSA Agent is patrolling the lines, explaining what is required … yes, shoes and belts off, laptops and iPads and Kindles in a tray. But all said with immense charm and good humour! The guy was almost like a young hip-hop artist, gesturing and spinning around - but conveying the message clearly, and with great wit. How different from LHR!!

We zoomed through in under 5 minutes, met another smiley TSA Agent whilst stacking our trays, and complimented him on proceedings. He said “Tell that lady over there”, so we conveyed our pleasure to the 3-bar Watch Supervisor and her 2-bar colleague. It was a really delightful security experience!! ^

And so to the oneWorld Lounge, somewhere over to the right and up a level. Not brilliantly signed, but ‘over there through the Shopping Mall’ We watched spellbound for a while as they played laser-projected clips of a Buster Keaton movie [Google that for yourself, kids] on a wall … clever stuff, eh?



… before finally entering the cavernous halls of the Lounge. I won’t waste your time elaborating on that. It had a large Bar, a hot and salad servery area but no sign of small bites anywhere. Strange - no bucket of pretzels or anything. Anyway, we didn’t want to spoil our yummy BA dinner on board the aircraft.

Saturday 10 January 2015
BA0268, booked as IB4662
A380, G-XLEG
CW seats 59A/B
2045 LAX-LHR 1500 (10h 15m)


Gate 150, it says, so we wander in that general direction. Much gathering of random people, not a Tensa barrier in sight, no signs saying who/what/where/when … just the occasional call from the desk, including one for us! Are we upgraded/downgraded/offloaded? No, they just want to ensure we’re here, so have your BP and Passport scanned there, please. My pulse returned to normal. All rather muddled and confusing, but anyway we boarded. Smart illuminated signs tell the pax where to go by seat row number - it’s a shame the one for the upper deck is completely obscured by part of the building, and can only be seen once you’re through the gate! But it’s up the escalator, along the airbridge, and this time we’re at the back of the larger CW cabin.

As readers of the “Best Seats on the A380” thread will know, these are the seats where you can see, and be seen, by pax in WT+. Indeed, they passed my aisle seat endlessly … and then the CC passed the other way, trying to find space in CW for their carryons. OK, it’s not helped by the slightly smaller outboard bins on the upper deck, but “Why, oh Why, doesn’t BA enforce it’s own rules on carryon sizes?”

So … another MF crew, and the two young gentlemen looking after ‘our’ aisle were really excellent. Engaging, industrious, involved, caring … all you could ask for, really. I was a lucky recipient of the latest iteration of the CW amenity bag … the unisex one, without the $0.10 razor There’s a longish thread here on the topic if you’re in to amenity kits in detail!

Pushback at 2100, airborne at 2115, so late already! The F&B service was much better with this crew:
  • 2245 Starter and tray
  • 2310 Mains
  • 2345 Dessert (i had the cheese, and was offered extra biscuits!)
  • 2359 Lights out!

Oh, Dinner. I almost forgot!!

The Menu



The Grass Course



Curried Crab Salad - nice!



Beef … yup, it was beef.



Tiramisu … plain and unadorned [pronounced ‘dull’]



And so to sleep. Now I mentioned in Part 1 how quiet the A380 is [at least, where we were sitting]. I have also mentioned in the past the fact that neither I not iWife can sleep on aircraft. It may have been the early start to the day, combined with the 5h:30m flight from HNL and the 4h:50m layover at LAX, but we both slept for about 5 hours. W00T

AND … the BA Breakfast wasn’t that awful plastic cup of fruit bits in syrup, but a proper fruit plate [accompanied by the inescapable BA Bacon Roll and a cold, dead croissant].



Pass the cream … oh, sorry, this is Breakfast on BA



And then there we were approaching LHR … and holding … and eventually landing and parking at T5C. The usual schlep to the Border, which we crossed with no delay at all, and reached reclaim at 1550. Made 2-way contact with Barry, our regular driver, who had largely recovered from his ‘flu, and then it’s time to drive to LGW. When did we reach curb-side? Can’t remember, but let’s say a little after 1600 … and MCT to LGW is 3 hours, an our flight is at 1810. Eeek! Fortunately the M25 on a Sunday is reasonably quiet, so we made it to LGW in about 40 minutes: as UK travellers will know, that can easily double if anything goes wrong on the M25 or M23.

And so to the last leg of the odyssey …

Sunday 11 January 2015
BA2776
A319, G-DBCK
CE seats 4D/F
1810 LGW-JER 1910


We marched briskly to bag-drop, donated 2 cases in exchange for boarding passes, zoomed through Priority Security (behind an elderly gentleman who was quite unprepared for proceedings], grabbed the essential Duty Free ciggies … check watch … hit BA Lounge for 10 minutes and then head for Gate 54 for boarding. We waited about 10 minutes before boarding commenced, and then … we flew to JER, with a quick Dinner of some cold “Teriyaki Beef on Noodles Salad” thing. i was beyond caring, but ate some of it to show my gratitude to BA for feeding me in CE

Arrived on schedule [Gate 10 again, even the Captain was surprised], a short wait for bags, grab a taxi, home and … collapse! What was that? About 30 hours? And we’re still alive?

Monday was unpacking, sorting Admin, eating some vegetables at last, rescuing The Cat from her hotel and [in my case] retiring VERY early to enjoy 11 hours sleep.
Tuesday was getting on with this TR, while iWife started on the laundry.
Wednesday will be completing Part 4, because I have had enough of TR writing for one day

Back soon

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Old Jan 13, 2015, 4:35 am
  #4  
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PART FOUR - REFLECTIONS AND COMPARISONS

Having completed the narrative, I thought I’d conclude with some more general observations on the trip.

From a personal POV, it was ‘interesting’ to see how we somewhat older people (I'm 70) coped with the journey. Obviously it was all fairly tedious, as long-haul tends to be, and involved quite a few early starts. We were agreeably surprised to find that we didn’t suffer nearly as much as we feared, although the 30-hour run home has left us feeling a little less energetic than usual! Two days after coming home, I’m still racking up 11 hours sleep!



Waikiki was ‘interesting’, and certainly not somewhere we would normally choose to go. It is, of course, an artificial construct to support tourism: a small but famous beach [which left us completely underwhelmed], scores of hotels and apartment blocks, many reaching the 40-storey limit allowed in their zoning laws, and innumerable top-end shops to attract the high-spending tourists. In that context, it was interesting to not that there was very little retail offering between those ‘uber-outlets’ and the little ‘tourist tat’ establishments. I assume Waikiki residents go elsewhere for ‘normal’ shopping, and Waikiki is clearly NOT representative of Honolulu or Hawaii - it’s a seaside resort, with all the positives and negatives that entails.

A reasonable collection of ‘attractions’ to visit, ranging from the collections at Pearl Harbor to the Zoo. We certainly never found ourselves bored over the 8 days we were there.

The population mix was interesting. As a rough estimate, I would say that 75% of the people seen on the streets were Japanese tourists, with an apparent age range of one to ninety Obviously a fair number of Americans as well, easily identifiable by dress and size, and a few Brits too [we met a few in our meanderings].

Our first experience with AA and their Domestic First was quite enlightening. The impression given on BAFT is that the FA’s are all geriatric dragons, whose sole purpose in life in to demean or ignore the passengers (OK, I exaggerate hugely, but they don’t seem to get very good press!). We found ours almost universally delightful, with the one exception of the grey-haired gent who looked [and indeed acted] as though he would rather be running a small concentration camp somewhere.

We found the food and presentation at least as good as BA’s CW offering. The warm nuts and cookies, and the contents of their “Club Kitchen”, were most agreeable. … indeed, we were particularly impressed to find they had provided a personalised beverage for us. Perhaps they knew who we are?



We all found the hard product on the old 757 perfectly acceptable [apart from the IFE]. The seats were just comfortable enough for a 5-6 hour sector, and it was nice to have a couple of fold-away shelves to put drinks on. BA CW seats just lack any useful places like that.

Oh - just remembered another "soft product" aspect. The pillows on AA are infinitely bigger and better than the tiny pads you get in BA CW. A kitten might be comfortable on a BA one, but a full-grown adult needs something a bit bigger and better to sleep on!

As first-timers at LAX, we found it slightly daunting and a bit chaotic. Fortunately the helpful advice from other FT-ers, and careful study of the Terminal maps, got us through unscathed. And, as I mentioned in Part 3, we were well impressed by the pleasant attitude and efficiency of the TSA staff at Security: a marked contrast to their colleagues at IAD. The same could also be said for the CBP Agents on arrival: at least they didn’t just grunt and avoid eye contact!

There you are. That’s me finished. Hope you enjoyed the read, and perhaps extracted some useful information along the way. Thanks for all the kind remarks to date ... I shall leave you in peace now!


Last edited by T8191; Apr 13, 2019 at 4:58 am Reason: restoring images
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Old Jan 13, 2015, 4:45 am
  #5  
 
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nice report so far Uncle T!

looking forward to the remaining parts.
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Old Jan 13, 2015, 4:50 am
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Oh I'm thrilled this is up & so soon too ^

I've been so looking forward to this TR
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Old Jan 13, 2015, 5:00 am
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I've been waiting for this one! Nice TR so far.
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Old Jan 13, 2015, 5:01 am
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Great first installment T8191 ^

I've never seen the square plate used by BA on the LHR-LAX flight before, very trendy!
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Old Jan 13, 2015, 5:05 am
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Nice report so far! I also went to Hawaii over New Year, although the high hotel prices scared me over to the neighbouring Big Island (KOA). I have to ask, why were you at LAX so early in the morning? Getting to the lounge for 0520 for an 0805 departure seems like overkill? Seems like you missed out on (at least) an extra 90 mins in bed?

I too was midly impressed with AA. I was expecting the worst from the crew, but was quite pleased with the experience.
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Old Jan 13, 2015, 5:08 am
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Great report so far. Looking forward to the next installment! I've even bookmarked the Trip Report forum for when it gets moved...
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Old Jan 13, 2015, 5:27 am
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Thanks for the TR T8191 and I'm subscribed, looking forward to the following instalments as we are following your trail to HNL at Easter via the US Airways route with the Babybus to compensate.
John
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Old Jan 13, 2015, 5:28 am
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Good TR T8191.

Originally Posted by T8191
And only one desk open for bar drop,
and there was me thinking that only KARFA was alloweed to drop bar related items
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Old Jan 13, 2015, 5:55 am
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Excellent read so far, thanks for posting!

Looking forward to the rest
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Old Jan 13, 2015, 6:51 am
  #14  
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Being Gold doesn't give you the right to post a trip report on this forum you know....

Nice to see a tier point run report from a couple of oldies. The thought of a 03.45 alarm call is enough reason for me not to do such a thing.
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Old Jan 13, 2015, 6:52 am
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Senior or 'seasoned' citizens

H
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