In the semi-proud, half-a-decade tradition that I have established of writing boring domestic trip reports --

A fairly boring (but boring is good :-) ) report, UA OAK-STL RT

A one-day 8 (oops! 7!) segment intra-California mileage run on UA

Another thrilling UA Calif. segment run in the 1K quest - try not to be too bored

OAK-HNL on AQ, 6 nights at the HHV, & a day trip to Kauai

4 Nights at Dana Point & 14 minutes of sunshine

Not a good day on UA: UAX incompetence, a clutching hand, & a toddler

9 days, 4 airlines, a bump, more Las Vegas than expecting, and a kidney stone --

and due to the outcry (well, one person) that I shouldn't again wait 2 and 1/2 years before doing a trip report, here you go:

The 3rd FT Moderators meeting/DO was held in San Francisco on May 13. While not my most creative routings ever, this one was "interesting" enough.....

May 10
Booked on the 8:58 am Hawaiian Air flight out of Hilo connecting to the 12:45pm flight to San Francisco. At 24 hours out, I attempted online check-in, slightly improved my Y seat selection (although nothing can improve HA's Y seats -- I love HA's staff but their 767s in the back are brutal) and then, since I hadn't been offered an pay-for upgrade (HA will often do this at online check in), I cancelled check-in. Tried again in a few hours. Still no upgrade offered. Cancelled again. Third time is a charm; tried about 12 hours before flight and this time was offered the $200 (the rate for HA Gold status; "regular" folks can get it for $300 when it's offered) upgrade to F. Took it. Turns out I got the last seat in F. Flight to Honolulu uneventful, although the amount of snow on Mauna Kea was startling, given the late date. Went to the Premier Club for a cup of coffee and asked about any bump possiblities, hoping to repeat the bump I'd received a couple of weeks earlier , but no joy; Y was actually not oversold and we pushed with a few empty seats in Y. Another great experience in HA F -- attentive and enthusiastic FAs, and probably the best main course I've ever had in F -- a nicely cooked piece of fish with a wasabi glaze, with a side of shrimp fried rice. We landed at SFO a few minutes early and I went out to find the shuttle to the Holiday Inn, my Priceline-gotten lodgings. Arrived at the hotel, got an excellent dinner at the Houlihans there, and then slept in the next morning. Room was clean but "tired" -- toilet didn't want to flush half the time, plugs kept falling out of electrical outlets, heater never did work. I pointed all these, er, idiosyncracies out to the clerk the next morning and she apologized, wrote each one down, called the maintenance man while I was there, and gave me a certificate for 1000 PC points.

May 11
I got the luxury of sleeping late and checked out around 11:15 and took the shuttle to SFO where I boarded BART for the Richmond station. After two years in rural Hawaii I had forgotten about the sheer number of people and cars everywhere. And horns. The honking of horns! In Hilo, you almost never hear a horn honk; people turn and look when it happens it's so rare. Choke people. Choke, choke people everywhere. Anyway, I BARTed to the Richmond Station where I got off, went down the stairs and then back up the other stairs to the Amtrak platform. (This is the only BART station, I believe, where there is a direct connection to Amtrak. In a few minutes, the Amtrak which I'd booked arrived and I set out to ride one stop up the line, to Martinez. I had already prepared my form for the conductor so that for this 20 minute ride I'd still be sure to get my Alaska Airlines miles as well as my Amtrak points. The ride between Richmond and Martinez hugs the Bay and has some suprisingly gorgeous scenery. (It also has a few very ugly vistas but I was surprised to find some fantastic views too). Arrived on time at the Martinez station to await the Amtrak bus to one of the north bay towns where daughter and son-in-law live. Unfortunately, the train from southern California was running an hour late and by contract the Amtrak bus has to wait for the connecting passengers from all trains that are due to arrive. The bus' airconditioner didn't work; this didn't aid the digestion of the very, very, very bad hotdog I'd had from the snack bar at the depot. Finally, a little over an hour late, we headed north. Luckily, there were no Napa-bound passengers so we were able to cut out that stop and make the shortcut on Lakeville Road to Petaluma. While the Amtrak bus was very nicely outfitted (other than the non-working airconditioner -- although it did come on full blast, inexplicably, after 45 minutes on the road) the seat pitch made Hawaiian's look generous.

May 12
After dinner (at a place in Rohnert Park where I had the best fish and chips I have ever had anywhere) and evening with daughter and son-in-law, they drove me back the next morning to the the Martinez station where I got the 10:10 train to Richmond. Only 7 minutes late, I reversed yesterday's course (but had once again prepared the Alaska Airlines form for the 100 AS miles . I am pathetic) and got off at Richmond, down the stairs, up the stairs and onto BART headed for downtown San Francisco to meet up with a couple of the other FlyerTalk mods for lunch. We found each other and walked to the Ferry Building where we had a great lunch, did a little shopping, and of course talked about how fortunate all of us are that all FlyerTalkers seem to love and respect all the moderators! ^ Then back on BART to the airport, then a wait (40 minutes despite two calls! ) for the Hilton Garden Inn north shuttle. (While the moderators meeting/DO is being held in downtown on the 13th, the rate at the HGI was less than 50% of the cheapest downtown option, even considering the extra BART cost.) Finally got to the HGI (this is the fourth time I've stayed there, and the staff is always very nice), got checked in, took a nap, had the other 1/2 of my lunch sandwich for dinner and went to bed. So exciting!

May 13
Up early to meet one of the other mods who is staying there at 6:30am for breakfast. But on Saturdays, the breakfast doesn't start until 7am. I should have checked that..... We take the 7am hotel shuttle to the airport BART station, made the 1/2 an hour trip to downtown, caught a cab at the Hyatt for the long pull up the hill to the Hopkins where the meeting was being held. (I had forgotten, too, just how cold the top of Nob Hill can be with the wind coming what felt like 100 miles an hour). After a long and productive day, some of the other mods let me squeeze into their cab and they dropped me at -- all together now -- the BART station, where I BARTed back to the airport for my 8pm flight on United, SFO-LAX. A half-empty flight. I used an expiring 500 miler to sit up front and had a beautiful view of the sunset and Santa Cruz, Monterey, Pacific Grove, Big Sur. Even with a bunch of maneuvering for "flow" into LAX, we were at the gate a few minutes early. What does one say about LAX? It's there. Connected to the 10:39pm flight to Las Vegas. Push was on time, but then we waited the longest time to get out of the ramp area. Yet even with that and with some circuitous arrival routings into LAS, we arrived a few minutes early, about 11:55pm. I had hoped that Auntie Anne's pretzels in the D Concourse might still be open for an almond pretzel with caramel dip (try it before you diss it), but no. After tramming back to the main terminal, I went to the ticket counter level, went out to the sidewalk, turned left and walked to the International Terminal. It was HOT. I lived in the west Texas desert for two years, yet I had forgotten how hot and dry the nights can sometimes be in the desert.

May 14
Hawaiian has the only redeye TO Hawaii. It leaves at 2:45 a.m. and arrives in HNL at 5:50 a.m. It's long. It's tedious. But if you have to be back that morning, it's the only redeye way to do it. I had woken the night before about 3am and done online check-in. I had been hoping that the cost-in-miles for an upgrade to F would drop to 15K instead of 30K (which is a silly amount to spend). But unlike my trip a couple of weeks earlier , the miles-cost stubbornly remained at 30K. But because I needed to be "on" when I got home, when online check in again offered a $200 upgrade to F, I took it -- mostly so I could be assured of being able to sleep. I discovered that there is a wonderful First Class lounge for HA pax at LAS . Highly recommended. Boarding started at 2:00 a.m. and pre-departure service was wonderful. As always on HA flights, lots of folks knew each other and knew the FAs. I would comment about post-departure service but I fell asleep and woke up about 40 minutes out of HNL. We arrived a few minutes early at HNL and I elected to walk to the interisland terminal rather than take the crammed-full-of-people WikiWiki (which isn't usually very wiki). My 7:10am flight to Hilo left on time (and one of the few inter-island flights I've been on lately that wasn't full -- this one was made 1/3 to 1/2 full) and we arrived in Hilo on time. Drove the 20 minutes home for a shower and change of clothes and to church by 9:30!

Worth repeating.

Nice report. Boring, but nice.

Some more than others (but still universally true from this side of the ocean).

Great trip report! You get extra blalah points for using pidgin.