Eastbay1K

Once upon a time, I recall reading somewhere regarding the dregs of society invading the Hawaiian Islands, angering, inter alia, the lovely goddess Pele. Pondering if I might possibly be one of the dregs, I decided to sharpen my suppressed yet superlative scrivener skill set, and compose something that may waste 2 to 5 minutes of your time. Too soon to know how many minutes.

But I've digressed, and now I return to this report. Months ago, with buckets of AS travel credits, and appealing front cabin fares, the return of nonstop service, and oodles of EQM bonuses, I booked a February SFO/HNL/SFO trip. One of the end points could have been OAK, but I don't recall. In any event, between booking time and travel time, my 2+ days in HNL (mid-AM Saturday arrival, late afternoon Monday departure) had morphed into an SFO/SAN/HNL - HNL/SEA/OAK trip, with an early afternoon Saturday arrival, and a mid-AM Monday departure. Not thrilled, but decided to go anyway, given that the trip would have me well on the road to MVPG for 2022.

And so it began. 60-something hours before departure, I had a medical facility stick a swab up my schnaz. The next evening, I received test results. San Diego, Here I come! Of course, this new itinerary required an alarm set before dawn's crack. The chariot ride to SFO was uneventful, and a blue Honda dropped me off at T2. Given all the lounge options at SFO T2, I decided to just buy a paper cup of hot java in the terminal, and when called, board my flight to Sandy Aygo. Said flight was uneventful. I enjoyed some water, and then a lovely approach to a gate that required stairs and then up a ramp into the terminal. This was an uncomfortably close connection, so even with a slightly early arrival, I arrived at the HNL gate just a few minutes prior to boarding. It is here where I received my deluxe No Detention Wristband. Feeling temporarily important for a few seconds, looking around me, it was clear I was just part of the hoi polloi, notwithstanding the 2C engraved on my boarding pass. By the time I boarded, there was already a large dog in front of 1A, along with a passenger in the seat. A few minutes later, and you can almost bet money that this will occur on every flight, people forget their numbers, and I can understand how 1 and 2 could be confusing. 1A and his dog actually belonged in 2A. Well, belonged? No idea. Booked? Yes. The poor dog just didn't fit. I have no idea what sort of service dog this was. It certainly wasn't for vision, nor a readily apparent issue. The dog certainly wasn't helping now 2A keep his mask over his schnaz. This was a nice dog, but was clearly going to be standing up and down, and was going to encroach on my legroom for the next 6 hours.

Shortly before departure, I asked if I could move to 1D/F (which were still blocked for crew) and I spent the entire inflight experience, save the loo trips, in 1F. Alas, I now recall that this flight was on 31 January, the last day of such seat blocking. The flight was as pleasant as one could expect, given the cornucopia of food and beverage selections. The eggy/hammy wrap was ok enough, and although I didn't want to play "How many cans of wine can you drink" game, I believe my count was 4. Cookie, snack basket, lovely crew ... a pleasant enough 6-ish hours.

Upon HNL arrival, it was readily apparent that things weren't quite the same. Shortly after disembarking, a ground airport staffperson was asking to see your BP, and if applicable, a wristband - those of us with the bands went to the left. Those of us without - they went to the right. All I could think of was when Veruca Salt was a bad egg and went to the incinerator, for all those going to the right. Honk honk, and drop through the floor. In any event, I noticed some configuration changes (to isolate those with potential cooties), and went to hail my Ubermobile to the most opulent of Honolulu Courtyards, to wit, the Courtyard By Marriott, Waikiki Beach Honolulu, where my reservation was showing an upgrade to a one bedroom suite. This, for $110, was not to be. My suite "might" be available in 3 hours or so. Given my desire to just change my clothes, dispose of some of the prior day's eats, and some of the current day's 4 cans, and not otherwise disrupt the remainder of the day, I just took the standard room, where I arrived to the fresh smell of moldy air conditioner ... I mean to say "modern tropical breeze." I had a lovely view of another building, and a hint of greenery on one or another dormant volcanoes. Overall, the hotel is ok. No resort fee crap, ok location, the price is usually right.
As for the Waikiki experience a few weeks ago, here goes.

In a nutshell, an extremely hard macadamia nutshell, I'm not sorry I went, but wouldn't have been sorry if I missed the trip. And here's the deal on that. As a solo traveler on this trip, it was completely non-social. To eat or drink, other than back in the room, you need to have a reservation time block, and even if you want just an adult beverage, you have to order food. You'll then sit at a table far from the next table, and while this might be ok sometimes, you really never talk to anyone. I'm not criticizing the rationale for the policy, I'm just stating that if you're someone who would normally sit at a bar-type area, perhaps watch a game, order some food, and chat with the people around you, this just isn't going to happen. Plenty of places were boarded up, either temporarily or permanently, and it was just a bit depressing. Service people (hotel, food / drink) seemed happy to have someone not from the island to serve and spend Mainland Dollars.

The morning after arrival, I was awake at my usual "first morning in Hawaii" way-too-early o'clock. After some Green Siren Chain coffee and a visit to the soul and schmutz cleaner, I was off for a long walk. Oh ... hair dryer doesn't work. Not in this plug, not in that plug, not in any plug. I called, and a new one came up within minutes. Yay. Dry hair. I walked from the Courtyard Estate, down to the Zoo, back to the Ala Moana Shopping Center, back by the HHV, and then went hunting for a lunch bite. Observations on that long walk were as follows. (Discounting people who were exercising and/or far apart from each other) the worst mask violators were older Caucasian folks. Overall, there was fairly high compliance, but this was apparent. Then, finding my lunch was a bit challenging. I was hoping to get some fresh take out sushi or similar to bring back to the room. Even places that might usually have some didn't, or limited selections were unappealing. After several backs and forths, I ended up with a poke bowl from a place on Kuhio. After lunch, my defective foot, which was well-behaved for several morning hours, decided it was done for the day, and a few hours of elevation with Shark Tank reruns were a good remedy. After another early evening of a snack and a few adult beverages, it was back to the room early, for what was now a morning flight back to the mainland.

After some Crapcup Inroom Coffee (TM?) I went to the lobby, checked out (with a minor and easily corrected bill error), and ordered the UBER. Why UBER? I had a 20% discount, plus the February AX $15 credit. But wait - UBER fares were all wonky, ranging from $60-something to $70-something, even with the 20%. LYFT had a much more appealing $20-something rate. Phew. I was almost sorry I hadn't reserved the $29 Charley's Taxi I often use. The Lyftmobile arrived, polite and efficient, Arrival at the terminal was a shock to the senses. Other than the AS check-in area (in which most of the kiosks were out of service), there weren't any open counters to be seen. I went through the security checkpoint - almost no line for Pre (but of course, I was stuck behind the family with a multiple of bags, stroller, and so on) not that I was in any rush to go anywhere. Post-security, there was almost nothing open. I went up to the AA/JL lounge to see if it perhaps reopened on the 1st. Nope. I walked up and down the pier with my gate and it was almost completely empty. Not a single F&B outlet open. The only open outlet I saw was the Starbucks prior to walking out to the pier, and that had quite a line. While I did have time to walk over to HA for PP access to its lounge, it wouldn't have been for long, and more seriously, given my arrival procedure, I had no idea what would happen if I tried to walk back from the HA gates through to the AS gates. After not too long of a while, it was time to board. This was the first glimpse of "things are back to normal, and not in the good way."

Early boarding went fine, general boarding seemed to be fine, overhead bins started to fill with some necessary gate checked bags, and then the NRSAs that cleared tried to board. My sense is that one family has lost its NRSA privileges, as they couldn't sit together, and attempted musical chairs. Yes, I get that one of the kids was fairly young, but this incident with a clearly frustrated crew, turned what could have been an early departure (10 to 15 minutes) into a slight delay. The crew and ground staff were as polite and professional as possible, but you could see smoke starting to come out from their ears due to the elevated blood pressure.

The flight was uneventful, and the well-worn Turkey sandwich made the rounds, along with a snack basket, and probably 4 cans of wine, and lots of water, served by a lovely crew. SEA arrival was close to on time, and we disembarked at a B gate, which surprised and pleased me, as it would be very convenient to the just-reopened American Express lounge. My pleasure was immediately tempered when entering the lounge, as there was just "grab and go" service, with no bar, but reopening allowed one to open his bag and eat the grab without going. After such excitement, I went to the AS lounge to learn it was closing within the half hour. I asked for a half-pour of Swill White, and to my excitement, the basket full of those wrapped chewy mints were available. This alone made the visit worthwhile. I then moseyed to the C2 carnival of gates, for departure to OAK.

Oh boy, has (almost) normalcy returned. Flight loads were lighter, but still ... picture it. Agent asks woman with dog on a leash if she can see her paperwork. Dog woman doesn't have any, and seems to be feigning innocence, the "I didn't know, " and blah blah. There was a long discussion between some supervisor and the passenger across the concourse. Then there was a man who missed his flight to SMF. He started ranting and raving about this. Notwithstanding the fact that i was by the C2 area when SMF was announced, announced again for last calls, announced again by particular passenger names, he did not relent for some time regarding how there were no announcements. He finally stormed away in a tantrum. Oh, normalcy. And then, after boarding, another dog (this one larger, with an FSD thingie) boards with a young woman, and the dog takes interest in the passenger in 2A, right in front of me, and starts sniffing her up during the boarding process. Young woman proclaims that the dog has never flown before. Clearly, F(ake) S(ervice) Dog. Real service dogs behave. I then see Undocumented Dog board with Dog woman.

Inflight was fine - another turkey sandwich, cookie, snack basket, and since the thought of more cans was uncannily nauseating, I had water. I then had more water. Arriving @ OAK, a blue Honda chariot chauffeur me home.

Where are the pictures? Well, someone once recently said, "A thousand words are worth more than a picture, when you've already seen pictures of the same food, planes, and everything else a thousand times."

I didn't spend that much $ on the trip. I didn't stay long. I stayed in humble accommodation. I wonder how poorly I was judged by visiting as the mainland proletariat. I've made dozens of trips to this island under similar circumstance, save the pandemic. Ok, I didn't wonder this. I should be back in April. Given that the trip will make me MVPG for 2022, I'll likely take it, even if it is a bit boring. Maybe I'll play "how many cans can you drink?

IluvSQ

Wonderful report! Thank you.

gaobest

I love this TR and wonder if MVPG is worth this hassle and $400 or however total the cost for 2 nights of lodging / airfare / transport / deluxe meals. I only say that because after a decade of UAL 1P, which had value of LH SEN, I don’t miss airline loyalty, esp when it’s now 75k miles standard award for one way for UAL Sfo/ord.

surely the most uninspiring and unappealing report for visiting Hawaii / hnl - I’ll stick with OGG in a year or three.

shame about zero cans of wine for sea-oak because surely they would make the FSD experiences more enjoyable :-)

Eastbay1K

AS status is still quite valuable to me. My UA MM status doesn't get much use

As for more cans, by that point of the day (or rather, evening), another can could have triggered an involuntary upward expulsion of the stomach contents. Not from intoxication or similar, but from "I'm tired, this stuff is getting gross."