Book it Danno! US694 Phoenix Sky Harbour to Honolulu

Book it Danno! US Airways US694 Phoenix Sky Harbour to Honolulu

Index:

• A Rock, A Hard Place and Tier Points
• To Birmingham Airport, Ryanair FR693 Birmingham to Dublin
• A morning around Dublin
• Dublin Airport, BA4467 Dublin Airport to London City Airport
• Travelodge, London City Airport
• A Morning at London City Airport
• British Airways BA001 London City Airport – Shannon, Shannon to New York-JFK
• Über Takes on Manhattan
• Holiday Inn Express, JFK
• JFK T8, US Airways Flight US510 New York JFK to Phoenix, Arizona
• US Airways Club/Admiral’s Club, US694 Phoenix Sky Harbour to Honolulu
• The Aston Beach Waikiki
• Travel Plus… Doing – Exploring the Diamond Head Trail
• Travel Plus… Doing – Pearl Harbour and The USS Arizona Memorial
• The joy of British Airways Rebooking
• Honolulu Airport, American Airline Lounge, US693 Honolulu International to Phoenix
• US425 Phoenix to New York-JFK, Economy Class
• JFK Omnishambles
• BA002 JFK to London City Airport
• Involuntary Downgrade Chaos
• BA4462 London City Airport to Dublin
• A Five Hour Dublin Layover
• BA0837 Dublin Airport to London Heathrow Airport in Club Europe
• Homeward bound
• Aftermath: Points and Reflections…

After getting off the US510, the major tasks ahead were 1) making the connection and 2) finding out where the said connection was going from. Arriving from the low A gates, it was a case of hiking to the higher A gates.

Apparently, some sort of game was going to happen. Or as John Madden might shout “FOOTBALL!”. I wonder how that ended for the Seattle Seahawks…

Thankfully, Phoenix isn’t too hard to navigate and I was soon in the other pier where I needed to be, and checked that my plane was waiting to load.

A quick chat with the gate agent indicated I had a few, minutes to recharge the laptop in the US Airways Club opposite – and advised me to turn up later in the boarding process as I was in the depths of First class.

Nice to hear an honest boarding agent every now and again.

I headed over to the lounge as was welcomed – and made a bee-line for the power outlets.

Yes – that 5 hour plus flight had almost wiped my battery down to 30% or so. Maybe I should switch to one of these fancy SSD based Macbook Pros one year…

… nah. I like my old-fashioned “Upgrade as you like” ones.

Sitting in the lounge, I appraised myself of the situation. Yes – there was power, and that was priority of the day. There was also a bar, where I availed myself of more liquid refreshment whilst giving the laptop and phone a “splash and dash”.

Bar

 

Lounge

Snacks on offer

With 10 minutes down in the boarding process, and me in the lounge for 30 minutes, it was time to make a bee-line to the gate.

Heading past the waiting groups and into the priority lane, I was waved through. A blip of my boarding pass – and I was on my way down the jetbridge.

US/AA694 Phoenix Sky Harbour Airport to Honolulu International Airport
US Airways, Boeing 757. Seat 3F, First Class
2,916miles flown, 210 Tier Points Earned, 2,916 Base Avios + 2,916 Bonus Avios + 1,458 Avios Class of Cabin Bonus.

If there is ever a crew that has been happy to crew a flight – it was this one – then again, I suppose having a layover in Honolulu isn’t exactly the worst thing in the world.

I boarded the plane, and turned left (there’s a rarity in itself), and headed past the economy seats into the business cabin…

… and felt like US Airways had done some sort of timewarp, as I was in the early 90s with seating that would put the Eisenhower style seats aboard the AA 757s in their place.

Ben of One Mile at time has noted that no carrier puts a competitive business or first class product out to Hawaii from the USA, and now I saw what he was talking about.

Talking about connectivity, well – let’s be honest, there’s none at all – no WiFi, no power, no USB Ports… no nada. And the seat… well. It’s a larger seat. That’s all I can say really.

What was I saying about this being not competitive?

The lack of WiFi disturbed the passengers I was in a row with – namely as they couldn’t keep up with the big game that was on that day. For me, I was a bit annoyed as I needed to get on with he Gogo story I was working on to conform a few facts and tests. With that out of the window I decided that settling down and relaxing was the priority here.

Boarding was completed on time, and the safety video played – this being the US Airways safety video for 757s. Not a bad video per say, but compared the American Airlines video… a little lacking.

Taxi begun at a pace, with a bit of a of a queue for take off. Such is the joy of travel sadly – everyone’s got to queue at some point.

Even on an airfield.

Take off was powerful as our two engines spooled up to take off power, and after a reasonable run down the runway.

With a nice lift, we were in the air, and turned for a loop around Phoenix airport, and off into the blue yonder.

Once in the air, drink orders were taken – and I started hitting the alcohol – well, I had a vodka and diet coke. Well – anything to try and be comfortable on this flight I suppose.

Firstly, there were hot towels.

Hot Nuts were also served, with pineapple with them (adding to a long held conclusion that anyone can call anything “Hawaiian” if they slap some pineapple on it).

Hawaiian Nuts. Just add pineapple.

The overhead IFE system came into life, with headphones distributed. Instead, I reached for the iPhone… and found nowhere to mount the thing. So not even a place to put a GhettoIFE system in situ.

Fine – I’ll listen to music instead.

Of course, this being a daytime flight, a request to lower the blinds for those who wanted to watch the IFE was made.

And thus the blinds were lowered.

So – wait, a daytime flight with natures wonders all around us, and we’ve got to lower the blinds? I give up.

Meals were served, with me going for the chicken. To be honest, this meal wasn’t overly memorable, with the chicken of a flavour of some sort, the salad having goats cheese and the weirdest thing on it. It’s times like this I wish US Airways had a thing onboard its plane… called a menu.

I ate, relaxed, did a bit of typing, and tried to get comfortable aboard this rattletrap of plane… which was tough aboard in these bad impression of leather slabs, but in the end, I dozed on and off as the plane crossed the Pacific on route to Honolulu.

Wow. With this modern IFE system US Airways really spoiling us… NOT.

As time went on, people got curious and pulled their blinds up – me amongst them (mainly as I was bored of the dark, but also I slept for a couple hours or so.

The Pacific Ocean and the sun was giving us a wonderful sunset. Yes. We were missing this due to clapped out IFE systems.

As we closed in on Hawaii and Honolulu, the IFE came into life again for the declaration forms that need to be completed before arrival in Hawaii for agriculture purposes along with a pile of paperwork to complete.

Because paperwork is one of the core foundations of any bureaucracy.

A few sweeps of the plane to collect forms, it was time for the US Airways version of scratch-card sales – The US Airways MasterCard application forms.

Yes, I’d consider it as bad as scratch-cards. Just the same amount of noise pollution, without the benefit of a decent prize.

That done, the cabin was tidied up for landing.

I’ve seen worse sunsets here.

Soon, the first sightings of land appeared – indicating we were closing in on Honolulu.

With land in sight, and the cabin secure, our 757 begun its turns for Honolulu International Airport.

As we tracked past Honlulu Internationa Airport, we begun our turn and lined up to land.

Destination Below!

 

Eventually, we finally lined up and went for a quick touchdown, ending this 5 hour plus flight.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAsWnqBFgK0

With a short taxi into Honlonlu International Airport, it was quick taxi to the gate – where the great fight to get off the plane took place. As the airbridge was in the middle of Economy Class, it meant a long wait to get off.

Overall: What’s the term I’m going to use here? Passable.That sums up the US Airways experience in a word so far. The food is edible, the service is reasonable, the product is… forgettable.

But then, I’ve been in First class so far…. How bad can it get?

Next: The Aston Waikiki Beach Hotel.

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