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!
