SFO777

Wow, I'm impressed. That is one long walk in the heat and humidity.

Thanks saturnino3. Every dish was amazing. Don't miss Alan Wong's next time you are in HNL.

Thank you HawaiiTrvlr. Your former coworker is correct, IMO. Plus it's not that expensive... by San Francisco or New York standards.

Thank you Longboater. Totally agree on those hideous slimline seats. I can't think of a better Y ride to Hawaii than E+ on UA's 777. The strange thing about boarding was that both 1L and 2L were open. Initially, it was only F pax that were using 1L. But either they stopped using 2L or no one was controlling access and most of the Y cabin started using 1L.

Thanks gaobest. DEN-HNL was just a shade over 7 hours. We only ate once at Roy's in SF and didn't think it was close to the quality of the Hawaii Roy's.

Thanks very much Thor3. Excellent idea. Taking your luggage shouldn't be a problem. I saw luggage around the hostess' counter the night we were there so you wouldn't be the first. Depending on the table, you might be able to have it join you for dinner. I had my backpack last year on a solo trip and took it to my table.

SFO777

Although we had a late 3PM check-out, we'd had enough of the Halekulani and Honolulu, which really isn't a very attractive city, and decided to leave early and head up to the North Shore to explore and have lunch before head back to the airport for our 5:40P flight. And back up H1 and H2 past Mililani for the third time in two days.



Much prettier once we got onto Highway 99.









To the coast and numerous sandy beaches.





And to Sunset Beach, home of some of the biggest surf in the world... in the winter. Not so much in summer.













And then a little further up to coast to Turtle Bay which seemed to be the only major resort area on the North Shore.



We headed for the beachside restaurant Ola. Great location, nice atmosphere and tables with a view.





















Whoa, TMI.



Pretty good comfort food as well.









After lunch, I headed up to the hotel to see what it looked like.





Meh, pretty pedestrian looking lobby. Not even close to some of the wonderful resort hotels on Maui, The Big Island, even Kauai.













And another photo stop on the way back.





Next up:

AA pulls a BA with mixed up catering and a photocopied menu.

Coathanger

Love the North Shore of Oahu! Stayed at Turtle Bay some years ago, just after Forgetting Sarah Marshall came out, and it was a great setting but with unremarkable hardware.

Waimea Bay, just west of Sunset Beach, was great for a day at the beach.

Digital01

As always an excellent report! Look forward to the rest. United does look like it has been stepping up its game! Are you crediting the flights to LH? I've mostly been flying AA this year, but figure if I give United another go, that's probably what I would do.

glasman19

Wasn't Turtle Bay a Hilton Property at one time?

henrus

I was there in December of last year and the food was great and its also good you enjoyed.

It's interesting to note that the starter and dessert has not changed but the rest has.

LANDJ999

Yes it was, and it looks like it hasn't changed a bit in 30 years.

SFO777

After dropping off our rental car, we headed for the international and mainland terminal and PreCheck where we were the only passengers. ^

And the HNL Admirals Club which doubles as the JAL Sakura Lounge. Meh lounge but a great staff who checks departing the pax list everyday and sends an email greetings to AC members.



















At around T-45 we headed out to the gate where boarding was just about to start.

HNL-DFW
AA 8
Ancient 767-300
5:40P-6:20A +1
July 31, 2015
"Dinner" and Continental Breakfast



HNL 763 service is still the old 2-2-2 cabin with narrow angled sleeper seats. Not the best cabin but still better than flying overnight on UA's 2-3-2 777-200.















Our classy cabin mate in 4G.



Once in the air, one of the pilots came back and moved into the pilot rest seats for most of the flight.



And FA's handed out video tablets preloaded with 60 or 70 movies.





The usual mini AA towel. LOL.





This my second time on this flight in a week, having flown this one returning from dropping out the grandkids with the Hawaii in-laws. Food tonight wasn't much better. UA offers three excellent entrée choices but AA still thinks two are just swell. I had preselected one ravioli and one prawn cake from the new menu.



Alas, catering screwed up or they just decided to use up the last of the old frozen meals. And with no old menus to go around, a photocopy will have to do.



Mrs. SFO was still full from lunch and wisely decided none of the above and passed on the meal or any part thereof. I took one for the team and decided to try a repeat of the mahi mahi. No, I do not want the bowl of rice option. Ms. "I don't eat fish" in 5B wasn't as lucky.



The Spicy Ginger Salmon was better than last week and didn't taste stinky fishy like last week. Also, less rice.



Hard to imagine but the salad looked even worse than last week.



And what is that yellow stuff? Orange ginger vinaigrette? Not very vinaigrette looking. No chance I was going to try that part.



Was a much different color with a lot more beets and blue cheese last week, although it didn't make any difference as the beets and cheese still had little taste.



Mercifully, the mahi mahi was not bone dry like last week and actually pretty good especially with a lot more sauce today.





The AA dessert cart.



Not even close to the style and class of the UA dessert cart from a few days ago.



For dessert, I only had a little chocolate with my sundae as I wanted to taste the ice cream. LOL. Virtually tasteless. Indeed the "vanilla" ice cream is clearly sourced from the lowest cost provider and is "vanilla" in name only.



Although the 763 seats are narrow, they do angle lie flat and we were both able to sleep for about 4 hours.

DFW-DEN
AA 2374
MD-80
7:25A-8:00A
August 1, 2015
"Refreshments

The old Mad Dog is my favorite AA airplane. Like an comfy old shoe. None of these stupid new slimline, slider seats. And 6EF are my favorite seats with great recline.









We had grabbed an Au Bon Pain wrap in the terminal so I only took a couple of almond cranberry thins from the snack basket.





We arrived in DEN on time and were home 45 minutes later.

As a post script, three days later Mrs. SFO couldn't find her iPad. Amazingly, Find my Phone showed it in Concourse A at DEN. After a few phone calls, we were able to locate it and I picked it up from AA Baggage Service office later that day.

Thanks for following this report and for all of your comments.

1P

OMG! Didn't realize that AA catering had sunk lower than UA (by a long way, it seems).

Not impressed by your first meal at Alan Wong, but the second one looked as if it redeemed it. I always swear by Roy's, especially in Hawai'i, though one or two of them can get a bit noisy. The only bad Roy's meal I ever had was in Woodland Hills. Avoid like the plague!

Other great Hawai'i restaurants include any of Eric Merriman's, though I don't think he has one on Oahu.

Thanks so much for the TR, SFO777

offerendum

You are always lucky

Bretteee

The guy looks like a gymnast.

LOL

We also visited the Turtle Bay Hotel when we went in the late 1980s.
I loved Hawaii.

I would like to go to Lanai and the big island now.

Thanks for a nice report as usual.

gaobest

Do Eric merriman's places include Merriman's in OGG in kaanapali part (N of Lahaina)? I've been to Merriman's and loved it. I've only been to OGG in recent years, and currently don't plan to go anywhere else in Hawaii as we only go once a year (if lucky) and stay at the same condo resort.
Still love that the DEN-OGG included such good catering - SFO/OGG just didn't have it when we last went in 2013; for our next trip we chose HA over Ual and the pricier vx

warreng24

UA should have standardized these "domestic" birds to the 3-3-3 configuration.

I wonder what they'll do now, they're supposedly converting some of the IPTE 3-3-3 birds back to "domestic" service. It'll be a nightmare with 2-5-2 and 3-3-3 birds being substituted for each other willy-nilly.

Philip92

Nice TR, my next trip will def. be to Hawaii

pbartp

Nice trip report. I'm surprised that the AA service was so mediocre. I understand that they basically lose money on this route, but for branding consistency, I would think they would want to make their "premium" service decent.