You sit outside and wait for your plane to taxi in. None of this stuff behind glass windows in HI. You definitely can hear when your flight arrives.
The coast along the Big Island near Kona.
Maui from the air when leaving Kona.
The sunshine was beautiful as we left the lovely Big Island of Hawaii. As we were getting organized, we received a United update on our phones that our flight from Kona would be delayed and instead of departing at 12:15 PM it would be closer to 1:37 PM. It turned out to be around 2 when we took off. For some reason it seemed passengers were not stowing their items very quickly and blocking the aisles. The flight attendants made numerous announcements, more than normal to remind folks. This delay was going to make it awfully tight for our connection in LA to Orlando. We were in 1st class and Walt was sent to the non First class bathroom by a flight attendant. We thought that maybe they were broken or something but I tried and there wasn't an issue. We did land and taxied forever to get to the gate, but that wasn't the problem. The folks in LA could not get the jetway to work. It took 10 to 15 minutes to finally get it functioning. We were told that a gate agent would be there to assist us and that was not to be. We found a customer service person enroute to our gate and he said not to worry since the plane just landed. He must have been smoking something. Of course our gate was way down the other wing, so when we did get there, they said they were not able to hold the flight any longer. The doors had just been closed. :-(
We trotted over to the United Club to get it straightened out. While we were on our way there, Brian called and figured we did not make our flight and suggested we get together with him yet this evening. That sounded like a good idea, since we haven't seen Brian since April. Needless to say United booked us on flights out yet this evening and that dashed those plans. We go through Chicago, but that is ok at least we will get in on Monday morning or about noonish actually.
Monday July 29, 2013
We got on the flight to Chicago and the service was pretty lousy. We know it was a late evening flight but once beverages were distributed, they didn't come back and collect any garbage until we were ready to land, and even then they flew down the aisle and missed lots of items that folks had wanted to discard. That plane looked awfully messy when it landed.
Then we got into the terminal and noticed that another flight for Orlando was boarding. We swiftly walked into the nearest United Club and tried to check it out. The gal at the desk said there was no way we could make that flight over in the C terminal. We checked our original flight and saw it was also in C so headed that way anyway. As we were in the tunnel almost to C we heard them paging someone for Orlando at gate C 16 so we sped ahead to see if maybe we could get on that flight. We did. The gals at the gate quickly and efficiently got us seats for our 2 hour leg to Orlando. The flight crew on the Chicago flight was very good and attentive to the passengers' needs. We got in only 3 hours later than our original nonstop flight would have gotten us there. We had to work for it though. We actually got in at 9 AM which wasn't too bad. Tired yes, but home.
This wasn't a particularly good way to end a nice relaxing vacation. We definitely got our aerobic exercise in today. The United that we recently experienced is not like the smooth propaganda video you see during takeoff. They need to make flying fun again rather than a stressful adventure.
Sorry about this lengthy blog, but I needed to let some steam off.
This is how we felt after our lengthy journey. (This is the Duane Hanson sculpture in the A terminal of the Orlando airport.)
No comments:
Post a Comment