First time in 26 years of flying UA. And first time anything has ever happened on a US to Oz flight for me.

Trip started off simple enough. Made an earlier flight from DEN to LAX. I was on a revenue Z fare all the way but when I made the booking a week or so ago, I thought the connection was too tight so I got to DEN earlier and jumped on the 7pm instead of 823pm. No F seats available so emergency exit it was. No worries.

As soon as we were airborne, crew started asking for a medical doctor.

Elderly gentleman one row in front of me started having respiratory issues. There wasn’t a whole lot of arm waving so I thought nothing of it. Crew seemed to go about their business, drinks and dinner were served and then I did my normal routine of earplugs, eye mask and new Polaris bedding and I was out like a light. I do have one dumb question - what was wrong with the old bedding?

I woke up and checked the moving map and it said we were 5 mins from Hawaii.

I thought I couldn’t have possibly drank that much in the lounge in LA and I certainly didn’t push the boat out at dinner. But I was still in that deep slumber. But sure enough, the lights of Hawaii soon appeared and we were on the ground.

Medical team came onboard, hooked the man up to some leads and then put him in a wheelchair and took him off the plane. I hope he ends up being ok. It didn’t seem life threatening.

Thankfully I was the second person to the service desk. Some nice man, who was too chipper to be working the desk at 3am, printed out meal and hotel and taxi vouchers. There was a lot of tapping on an antiquated keyboard and after 5 mins, he said “here’s your credentials to something called a Best Western and then $60 worth of meal tickets”.

I had already taken matters into my own hands and when we landed opened the Marriott app and booked a hotel. I then called my Marriott Ambassador person and politely asked them to call the hotel to let them know I wanted to check in at 3am local time. I actually called the hotel directly before that - but started to lose the will to live as the person on the front desk clearly didn’t speak Australian and couldn’t understand why someone would want to check in at this godforsaken hour.

So here I am in Waikiki. Haven’t been here for 30 years probably. The continuing flight to MEL (now UA3046) doesn’t leave until 1130pm tonite.

I bailed out of the airport and sighed at the entire plane load of people waiting patiently in line to get a hotel voucher and to be taken care of.

I’m curious to know who covers the cost of a diversion.

I personally think it’s just life and a part of traveling so I’m certainly not looking to be re-imbursed from UA because I chose to stay at a different hotel. And I truly do hope the man who had the emergency ends up being ok.

But talk about a logistical pain in the backside.

If anyone is on the same flight and is stuck and/or needs help, message me.

PS The UA app is about as reliable as a condom with a hole in it at this point. It says were departing at 3am, then it says the flight is cancelled due to the crew not having sufficient rest (they barely worked!) and if I felt so inclined, would I like to talk, text or video chat with some minion at 3am in the morning. No I would not! The text bot thingy finally caught up and says everyone is SOL and to come back later tonite. Interestingly the full flight credit has posted to my account as MileagePlus clearly thinks I am already in MEL.