Thanks Evergreen. Does AS ever have protein for breakfast on flights from SEA-LAX? I seem to remember no. Also, they don't have preflight drink service, just a bottle of water which has had a strong chemical taste several times in the last year. They are certainly superior to the Shuttle and have nonstops to PHX and LAS with no competition.
Incredible sushi
We went downstairs to wait for TripTalker to pick us up and chatted with Maj. Mark in the hotel café. Maj. Mark was going on and on about this nice box of amenities he received from the hotel staff as one of the seminar leaders. It was a white box with two bottles of water, Power Bars, and some delicious Belgian chocolates! I recognized the box. It was the Platinum amenity box that supposedly they didn’t have!
We put the sadness over the lack of amenity behind us because we were driving to beautiful Hermosa Beach to dine at Martha’s 22nd St. Grill with Tony and Judy and their friend Pam. The wait on this cloudy Sunday was only 20 minutes and we were seated outside at a white plastic table with umbrella. From my seat I could see the beach and the Pacific Ocean all the way to he horizon. It was a sobering thought: nothing but ocean between us and Hawaii or Japan or whatever was over there. I sipped my decaf and shared my contemplation with the others, who proceeded to order. Hunnybear and I saw no reason to deviate from our established game plan of getting the Hummus Omelet. TripTalker, fresh back from Rio, had French toast that he raved over. I didn’t see what the rest got as I was too busy devouring my phenomenal omelet. The same pair of Weimaraners that were there last time were there again, howling like dying elephants that they didn’t get to eat the yummy food.
When we got back to the hotel I asked about the 8 p.m. checkout they have been advertising, but they had never heard of it. I did get someone to call a supervisor who had heard of Starwood Preferred Guest and did give us a 4 p.m. checkout, one of the Platinum privileges. When I checked out I noticed the agent was the front-desk supervisor, so I mentioned to him that I had not received my Platinum welcome amenity. He told me that he personally put the box in my room and that the maid must have moved it. What a circus. Nobody was accountable for anything.
Speaking of circuses, the LA phone system is always worth mentioning. The Westin hotel, on the other side of the street, is in area code 213, and the Los Angeles dial-up number works just fine as a local call. The north side of the street, though, where the Four Points is, is in area code 310. Even though it is still in Los Angeles, the 213 number is now a long-distance call. I tried calling my local access number for El Segundo, the next town south of the airport and less than two miles away, but that was also a long-distance call! Finally I called the LA toll number and briefly downloaded my email. It turned out they only charged me 75¢ for the “long distance” call to the city I was already in, but 85¢ for local calls! Later I discovered that Beverly Hills, which also had a local access number, was “local.” Insane. They did have the new Starwood standard policy of 10¢/minute after the first hour.
We thought we could squeeze in dinner before our 8:48 flight and I’m glad we did. We went to U-Zen in West LA for sushi. Since there was a football game on (I think Guam was playing Tallahassee for the championship), we were the only customers. Hunnybear and I ordered a sashimi plate ($20) and several pieces of sushi. The fish was among the freshest I have ever had! This unpretentious place had phenomenal food. The bonito I swear was still swimming as I dipped it with my chopsticks into Ponzu sauce. We ate a bunch, drank Harushika sake, and finished right on time to head to the airport for the flight.
As we approached LAX, my cell phone’s pager went off with the page I had set up for the flight. On time and leaving from gate 73, it said. So TripTalker dropped us off at Terminal 7 and we headed for the Red Carpet Club. The 1K room was closed, they said, so we went to the service desk inside the RCC and checked in there. I wanted to see if the check-in experience was noticeably different from the 1K/First Class line. It wasn’t, except that I had to wait in line. I tried three different access numbers again to find out which one was local in this square furlong of the city. This time, even though the area code was 310, I could call the 213 Los Angeles number but I had to dial 1 first.
With the flight still showing “on time,” we headed for the gate at 8:25. They were not boarding yet. They didn’t board until 8:45. It seems the flight attendants were late. I knew what that meant: no pre-flight drinks. As soon as there is any delay at all, pre-flight drinks go right out the window. So I sat drinkless for 20 minutes while the flight attendants stood around and watched the passengers board, then another 30 minutes while we took off and climbed to altitude. Finally I got my gin and Hunnybear got her mineral water. We both passed on the snack, which was a choice of chicken-topped salad or bagel and lox. Service was perfunctory but friendly. I had to ring my call button to get my water refilled and then I asked if United had a new policy of leaving the curtain open between coach and first class on this flight. She said no and closed the curtain, stemming the flow of coach passengers filing past me to use the lavatory.
On this Airbus 320 we were in seats 3A and B, the last row of first class. For a 1K, this is a pretty good row because you have your own video screen and the bulkhead has poor legroom. But if you’re not a 1K you won’t get your choice of meal in the back row. The seat in front of Hunnybear, 2A, was empty: apparently someone missed a connection. Well, they didn’t bother to upgrade any of the several people trying to upgrade to fill the seat; they just flew with it empty.
We landed a half-hour late, MasterPark picked us up, and we took the secret freeway back to arrive home well after midnight.
The end.