The CAT is BACK!!!
 

With Cats MEOWING me to death in the background, CATMAN is back in the air on FLyertalk.

Maui was wonderful, will e-mail details to those interested (NOT HERE) but here are
things that happened that ARE RELATED TO THIS
SITE (No NANCY awards for me today:)

SORRY if this is long... WHen I'm fried I
babble.

*Fast check-in's at all the Premier counters
(30 secs max, though the security questions
were phrased differently at EWR, SFO and Maui
(I came in from the Red-Eye from SFO, I can't
remember the spelling of Maui's airport!)

*Nice to have a separate section at SFO for
the First and Business and elite premiers.
They let a few "regular" mileage plus members in. While it was 9 p-m and no lines, what if
there were with 955 thousand M-P's there!

*A Two hour delay at SFO going to MAUI but UA did not explain what was going on for awhile
until some angry first class passengers started asking why.

*Giving some sequence to boarding has NOT
changed. AT EWR they let the First Class
and Elites like me on first. Then this elderly couple who really needed time to get
on stood there, afraid to board. I Told them to go ahead of me... and say they are 1K (Though one man complained that I was walking too slow to let them on.)

*BUT: at MAUI, the flight attendant got furious when announcing boarding for SFO and 100 people charged the gate. She checked EVERYONE's Ticket and waved those aside who were not Premier or needed assistance or in First.

*Going to Maui: They ran out of the Hawaiian
fish (it's spelled like Maui... can't remember) and I told them I don't eat veal and had enough chicken to look like one.
So the captain wanted chicken... I got his
nicely prepared steak.

*THe Westin Maui had everything ready for me
when I arrived very late and ready to sleep.
THey gave me both the Yellow "completely free" and White "8-dollars off" Breakfast
coupons. I used the free and gave the 8 buck
ones to this couple with three kids who looked like they could really use it (the hotel accepted it.)

*Some guy on the elevator offers me five bucks for my "What part of UPgrade don't you understand" tee-shirt. I told him to get an
Inside Flyer magazine and order from them.

*Used my Hilton points for a free night at SFO for that biz trip. They have me a room
that's bigger than most NYC apartments with
a very nice bar service set up (If you guys
were in the area I would have served up drinks!) I was expecting a closet for a free
stay.

*I'm getting to like Red-Eye flights. Fewer
people, more room to stretch out and sleep
(I passed out after two beers and that boring Harrison Ford movie) but I got
concerned when the captain announced we were
another flight number going to JFK. On take
off he told the flight attendants to prepare
for ARRIVAL. I said to them "that was the
faster flight I was ever on!" Maybe the
Captain needs to earn frequent sleeping miles!

*The three beautiful flight attendants on the
SFO-EWR red eye was the most friendly and
entertaining I have had in a long time. They
knew only to approach us when we looked awake.

That's all I can remember...have to read my
diary.

EXCEPT: showing the cat pictures to this
cute girl in SFO helped make the two hour plus wait to Maui bearable.

Thank you for reading this. I promise to be less chatty next time!

MEOW! The CAT"S BACK (Until friday when it's
off to Toronto!) CATMAN

Totally unrelated ... but I think the fish you mean is Mahi-Mahi ... aka Dolphin (not Dolphin like flipper, but a fish, this confusion is why a lot of people call it Mahi-Mahi obviously!). I don't know if it's a Hawaiian fish, but it's plentiful down in the Florida Keys.

Welcome back Catman!

And Rudi, who's back on terra firma for a while...

Baobab

how was the ice-cream at Hana?

Glad you made it home from paradise. Hmmm...going back to New Jersey from Hawaii. No offense but that would make me cry....

Not fair...you went to Maui (OGG is the airport code for Kahului), Rudi went....umm...he went...EVERYWHERE and I went to lousy old Spokane.

Oh well, I have a trip to Edmonton next week, Denver in a few weeks (I'm going to spend the weekend on this trip in Beaver Creek), Spokane (ugh...not again) and Philadelphia in early November, Phoenix for Thanksgiving and who knows where else by the end of the year.

Welcome home Catman. I hope you saw me waiving to you as our planes passed each other over the Pacific. My girlfriend and I just arrived in Hawaii after our very nice First Class (upgrade) United flight. On our first island we are on a HHonors Point Strecher award for 5 nights (65,000 points) at the Hilton Hawaiian Village. And same as you, I thought we'd be given a Run of House room at the back of the hotel. Was very pleased that at check in we were not treated as freeloaders at all and were given a Diamond Head ocean view room in the Rainbow Tower! Fabulous, babe! Well, time to hit the Halekulani for drinks and pupus. See you.

I'm tired, and I said I would talk about my trip separately but I have a little energy in me before I go on AirSleep:

Beckles... you are correct. I had some
at the Four Seasons in Maui.. it was wonderful (in fact had a lot of fish there
and Ruth's Chris Steak the last night!)

Rudi: The ice cream in Hana was wonderful.
I took your suggestions and really liked
Hana (loved that the whole place was
free of McDonald's, StarBucks, etc.) Did not
mind the road.

thanks for the warm welcome BaoBab and everyone!

Mileage Addict... Jersey is not that bad.
I missed my FLyerTalk Friends and my other
friends and of course the MEOWS!

What makes me cry is that I have to go BACK
TO WORK (Toronto and San Diego are Business
trips...) Oh well, as my shirt says "Gotta
earn more miles!" CATMAN

Welcome back to our territory, Catman. Just wanted to officially say that. I bet the ice cream in Hana was not Blue Bell.

PremEx... I hope you and your wife enjoy
your stay in Hawaii. The guy next to me would
not raise his window so I could wave to you!

That's a great thing about frequent travel... you can do things like you and your wife spending quality time together!!!

Hilton Village nice, good beach and resort complex... but get away from the high rises
of Waikiki and explore the volcano and the
other side of the island. That's the real
Hawaii!

Westin gave me a nice Ocean front view as
a complementary upgrade as a Premier. It was
nice to wake up to the sounds of the sea and see the sunset every night!

Jaws43... the Hana ice cream was the most
incredible I have ever had. But I don't have
Blue Bell to compare it too!

And those Ben and Jerry's sundaes in FIRST!
YUM! CATMAN

Hana's ice-cream at Tutu's.

references:

1) New York Times: May 26, 1996 FRUGAL TRAVELER / By SUSAN SPANO: On Maui, Free Splendor on the Outskirts of Luxury: "And, frankly, I needed to get back to Hana, because it was time for my afternoon visit to Tutu's, where for $1.75 you can choose two flavors to coat each half of a huge snow cone.

2) personal tested by Rudi & Gisela in Nov 96

3) personal tested by CatMan in Oct-98

Blue Bell Ice Cream--"We eat all we can, and sell the rest". They must have Blue Bell in
Hana!!!!

Sorry Jaws43, I asked for Blue Bell and they
gave me a lai of Blue Bells. But that HANA
Ice cream was in credible! CATMAN

I'm confused, are you guys talking about ice cream or shave ice (note: I did not type wrong and leave the "d" off the end of shave)?

You have to try the chocolate sundae shave ice in Honolulu. Fine shave ice covered with melted ice cream and chocolate syrup. Yummy!!

You are correct Tropical Flyer... it is shaved ice and I had the Pineapple version. It is delicious. My confusion was that
in NYC anything that's ice with flavoring
is sold as "ice cream."

Maybe Blue Bell should think about putting
out a line of shaved ice flavors.

Yes, this is off the topic... and I devoured
the two containers of Ben & Jerry's in my
refrigerator! CATMAN