T8191

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.