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I'm old enough to remember the days when an airplane trip was a special occassion. People dressed up and the whole experience from check-in at the airport to arriving at your destination was part of the vacation. People chatted, passed magazines & newspapers around, & gave the cock-pit crew a rousing round of applause when we touched down. Now the whole idea of having to use air transport to get anywhere fills me with dread. It has become a huge ordeal & although I keep telling myself to chill out & remember I'm on vacation, it just seems like it's become such a time consuming chore that unless my alternative is to swim or row a boat I'm driving from now on. I don't care if it takes 12 hours.
Here's my experience for the last trip to Hawaii out of SFO
We drove 3 hours from home & spent the night in a motel. We arose at 5am to take the 5:45 airport shuttle. Arrived at the United Terminal by Park'nFly shuttle after a 30 minute scenic drive through the industrial backstreets of the S. San Francisco motel region making 5 additional pick-up stops. There was no curbside check-in. Schlepped our baggage to the end of the multi block long line for check-in. Spent 2 hours & 15 minutes to reach the counter.When I informed the clerk I wanted to check my luggage through to Maui he sent us to the end of another line at a different counter. There it took approx. 20 minutes to check luggage & get boarding passes. Proceeded to end of block long security check line. We then undressed & dumped the contents of our carry-ons into plastic trays, gulped down the last of the dangerous water, tossed the emply bottles & my trusty Bic into the trash can and shuffled along in stocking feet like convicts in the mess hall scene in an old prison movie. We all made it through to the inner sanctum with a minimum of beeps & buzzes except for Mom who is 79 & obviously was trying to sneak that 3.5 oz tube of Fixodent past security since she failed to place it in a clear plastic bag outside of her purse. Start to finish at security took about 15 minutes. We crammed our stuff back into our carry-ons, re-dressed & proceeded on the stroll to the last gate, somewhere in Palo Alto judging from the distance we traveled, to find no empty seats for our weary butts to park. We stood for 55 minutes waiting for our delayed flight to start boarding. Being the cheap seat purchasers that we are, we continued to wait while watching all the people with children (some who had to be past puberty), folks who were smart enough to request wheelchairs so they'd have a place to sit, and the enviable First Class & Elite types passing through the mystical doorway to our magic carpet. At last those of us seated in the lavatory waiting area were boarded. We inched our way down the 8" wide aisle as people continued to search for overhead bin space for what is laughingly called carry-ons. Squeezed into our seats, buckled up, & with knees firmly planted under our chins we prepared to finally get underway. After waiting another 10 or 12 minutes for some additional shuffling & last minute standby seating arranging to be taken care of, our packed airplane pushed back & proceeded to taxi...and taxi...and taxi. We thought perhaps we were going to actually drive to our destination. We joined the end of the long line-up of aircraft inching toward the launch pad. At last, a full 6 hours after our wake-up call we were soaring into the wild blue yonder. Our 2 hr 25 min layover in HNL was boring but painless & at least we felt like we were on vacation because it smells like plumaria & it's warm & the piped in music is Hawaiian. We had a bit of trouble finding the Island Air terminal located somewhere at the farthest reaches of airport property. You have to actually follow their desk person out a back door and walk along the edge of the tarmac & around parked aircraft & equipment to enter a small waiting area from another back door. The flight was short & quite enjoyable for my retired air-controller hubby. Collecting our luggage in Maui was fast but the car rental pick-up took over an hour because of Mr. I'm Elite Status & Want Special Treatment who was in front of us in the line at the only window open. A short 7 minute drive (we flew into Kapalua) and we had arrived at our home in paradise just shy of 24 hours after leaving our house.
At this point the ordeal to get there is still worth it. But our recent trip to Mexico on American took even longer, had even more hassles & was considerably more in cost. Boy, do I long for the good old days when the journey was part of the fun.
Here's my experience for the last trip to Hawaii out of SFO
We drove 3 hours from home & spent the night in a motel. We arose at 5am to take the 5:45 airport shuttle. Arrived at the United Terminal by Park'nFly shuttle after a 30 minute scenic drive through the industrial backstreets of the S. San Francisco motel region making 5 additional pick-up stops. There was no curbside check-in. Schlepped our baggage to the end of the multi block long line for check-in. Spent 2 hours & 15 minutes to reach the counter.When I informed the clerk I wanted to check my luggage through to Maui he sent us to the end of another line at a different counter. There it took approx. 20 minutes to check luggage & get boarding passes. Proceeded to end of block long security check line. We then undressed & dumped the contents of our carry-ons into plastic trays, gulped down the last of the dangerous water, tossed the emply bottles & my trusty Bic into the trash can and shuffled along in stocking feet like convicts in the mess hall scene in an old prison movie. We all made it through to the inner sanctum with a minimum of beeps & buzzes except for Mom who is 79 & obviously was trying to sneak that 3.5 oz tube of Fixodent past security since she failed to place it in a clear plastic bag outside of her purse. Start to finish at security took about 15 minutes. We crammed our stuff back into our carry-ons, re-dressed & proceeded on the stroll to the last gate, somewhere in Palo Alto judging from the distance we traveled, to find no empty seats for our weary butts to park. We stood for 55 minutes waiting for our delayed flight to start boarding. Being the cheap seat purchasers that we are, we continued to wait while watching all the people with children (some who had to be past puberty), folks who were smart enough to request wheelchairs so they'd have a place to sit, and the enviable First Class & Elite types passing through the mystical doorway to our magic carpet. At last those of us seated in the lavatory waiting area were boarded. We inched our way down the 8" wide aisle as people continued to search for overhead bin space for what is laughingly called carry-ons. Squeezed into our seats, buckled up, & with knees firmly planted under our chins we prepared to finally get underway. After waiting another 10 or 12 minutes for some additional shuffling & last minute standby seating arranging to be taken care of, our packed airplane pushed back & proceeded to taxi...and taxi...and taxi. We thought perhaps we were going to actually drive to our destination. We joined the end of the long line-up of aircraft inching toward the launch pad. At last, a full 6 hours after our wake-up call we were soaring into the wild blue yonder. Our 2 hr 25 min layover in HNL was boring but painless & at least we felt like we were on vacation because it smells like plumaria & it's warm & the piped in music is Hawaiian. We had a bit of trouble finding the Island Air terminal located somewhere at the farthest reaches of airport property. You have to actually follow their desk person out a back door and walk along the edge of the tarmac & around parked aircraft & equipment to enter a small waiting area from another back door. The flight was short & quite enjoyable for my retired air-controller hubby. Collecting our luggage in Maui was fast but the car rental pick-up took over an hour because of Mr. I'm Elite Status & Want Special Treatment who was in front of us in the line at the only window open. A short 7 minute drive (we flew into Kapalua) and we had arrived at our home in paradise just shy of 24 hours after leaving our house.
At this point the ordeal to get there is still worth it. But our recent trip to Mexico on American took even longer, had even more hassles & was considerably more in cost. Boy, do I long for the good old days when the journey was part of the fun.
at your description. We decided this year NOT to stay at a hotel near the airport but to use limo service instead. Of course that won't help the wait time in the airport. But dh is a United premier member so that might help with the check in (but not security).
My grandmother saw them filling the bottle with water from the sink on the plane. Is that stuff even safe? She insists that the water they gave her was unsafe and gave her a severe bladder infection.
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