It's good to be back at WebFlyer. When last I posted I was off to SAN for marriage and then two weeks in Hawaii. Will attempt to stick to the travel facts after one brief personal aside:

CATMAN attended my wedding. It was an interesting meeting someone I read so often. I saw your post on the wedding Catman and as soon as I catch up on everything I will be responding to you more personally! We were glad you made it!

Day One: PHX/SAN on Southworst. Plane 45 minutes late due to some type of APU problem. Mechanic on board making lots of noise. Ignored it -- just the norm for the cattlecar with wings.

Alamo Rental -- Cadillac. Quick rental process. Car dirty and electronic functionality imperfect. Oh well.

Day Four (wedding festivities between):

Returning Alamo car at 515am (after almost dying on the freeway in the rain -- off subject, sorry!). TOTAL nightmare. Only one machine working so have to write down mileage and go inside to stand in line to return car. Three vans running full -- everyone decided to leave early Sun AM? After waiting until 545a (with a 620a flight!), asked Alamo to call cab which arrived in less than 2 mins.

UA to SFO to HNL

Arrive at SAN by cab at 552a. Go inside to monumental line. Look EVERYWHERE for First Class check-in. See NOTHING (Catman -- you flew out that AM -- where the heck was it???). Go stand in semi-monumental line outside for curb-side baggage check. At 607a arrive at front of line only to be told because we are Hawaii-bound, we have to check in at the counter. GRRRRRRRRR -- but skycap takes me to front of line, agent Jerry does a bang up job and we make the flight.

Flight is OK -- First Class on UA shuttle nothing special anyway (avoid the very nasty "waffle" cookies -- ruin even the very best bloody mary!)...

UA First Class SFO-HNL

Pre-board/pre-departure fine. More room on UA Shuttle 737 than on UA 747 tho.

We're seated in row 5 -- of course we have no choice from menu -- chicken is the only thing left... Meal Ok. Video system AFU so bad movie starts badly 5 times before someone adds chewing gum or re-ties the rubberband.

Alamo convertible. 15 minute wait but car OK -- tho dirty (standard theme here)...

Outrigger Waikiki -- Honolulu. Stayed in the Voyager's Club -- excellent experience. Similar to the Regency Clubs at Hyatt et al except the breakfast/cocktail area is on the roof level and has an outdoor area overlooking Diamond Head/Waikiki Beach. Quite nice and very attentive service.

Day Six -- Off to Maui

Return of Alamo car extremely smooth. Van waiting right there.

Aloha First Class. Easy check-in. Given directions and code for access to First Class lounge. Nice lounge tho rather spartan compared to Admirals Clubs. NO windows either!

Flight is wonderful. Tremendous room on Aloha. Staff genuinely nice and friendly.

Alamo convertible -- short van ride. Car there and dirty.

Stayed at private condo on Kahana beach. Watched sea turtles every morning and gorgeous sunsets every evening. Side note (like this whole paragraph -- sorry!): Rudi and Catman can expect special email attachment this weekend! Three guesses of what!

Day whatever -- to Kauai.

Return Alamo car goes smoothly. Same great Aloha service -- check-in and lounge again.

Kauai -- NATIONAL convertible. Smooth rental but dirty (why not?!)...

Stay at private condo in Poipu. Unbelievable as Tom Hopkins would say.

Return of National car is smooth. Aloha checks us through to PHX including boarding passes...

Arrive HNL with two hour layover. I go to check-in, tell agent I'm already checked in and paying FULL first class fare, could we use the Red Carpet Club. She insists on checking us in again (why?) and then states rather abruptly that the RCC is for members only and she will sell me access for only $50 per person for the day. I rather abruptly decide that I don't like the attitude and go to Stinger Ray's and have a nice $43 breakfast including a couple of bloody marys!

UA first class HNL-SFO

Pre-board fine. Pre-departures rather spartan and rushed but it was a full 747. Again seated in row 5. When menus are handed out I comment that it's a waste of time to hand out menus past row 4. That draws a laugh from FA Kathy.

Eventually they come around for lunch orders and guess what -- they're out! We were rather rudely offered cattlecar meals by the Chief Purser who didn't even wait for an answer but took off.

FA Kathy came by to refill the gin and tonic and couldn't believe it! We did eventually get nice first class meals -- food was actually ok but the process is rather ridiculous. We understand that not everyone can have their choice but geez, quit spending the $$ on menus to offer choices!!

Arrive in torrential rain in SFO for another 2 hr layover. Didn't even bother to check for RCC -- just hung around the terminal area and watched people in a hurry to go nowhere!

Shuttle flight to PHX was delayed an hour and a half -- whole SFO ops was a mess due to weather in SFO and midwest. Horrible gate management -- the departure screens showed that the PHX flight was boarding. Arrive at gate to sign that says PHX flight. Get in line (missed pre-board). Get to front of line to find out that it's actually a shuttle flight to RNO. Then they're boarding a shuttle flight to SLC. Then PHX. Another long wait.

Finally home. Caught bronchitis along the way. Messes to clean up at work. Glad to be home.

Still Onefreeman

Aloha!