My trip home for winter break. If it weren't for having a $400 travel voucher after giving up my seat on Delta back in June, I would have been flying United between Monterey and Honolulu, with a change of planes in either San Francisco or Los Angeles, since that was cheaper. But the travel voucher made Delta SFO-HNL (San Francisco - Honolulu) by far the cheapest option. Thursday, December 18, 2003 Delta Air Lines flight 219 SFO-HNL Scheduled: 1730-2104 Actual: 1730-2045 767-432ER N833MH seat 48G Arrived at the airport via the Monterey/Salinas Air Bus shortly after 1400. Bus dropped me off curbside at Terminal 1 and I headed inside. There was a couple of people waiting to use a kiosk and a short line for agent assistance. I went over to the kiosks and after a few moments a Delta agent directed me to an available kiosk. I checked myself in, and when I had my bag the agent came over and checked my ID and tagged my suitcase. The line for security was quite long, and I hadn't had lunch yet, so I wandered over to the landside food court and got a chicken sandwich from Burger King. From the food court, I managed to get photos of a Midwest MD-80 in new colors, the AlaskaAir.com 737-400 and a Virgin Atlantic A340, also in new colors. After I was finished I went back to the Concourse C checkpoint, and there was no line. I went through security with no trouble, didn't even need to take off my shoes this time. Went down to gate 46, there were only a couple of other people there. The windows were pretty dirty so I didn't try for any more photos; the only tempting aircraft was the Air France A340. As time passed more people arrived, and the boarding area really filled up when the aircraft arrived from Atlanta. Some of the younger kids off the flight were complaining to their parents that they had to wait almost two hours before the flight to Honolulu would resume. Announcements were made asking for volunteers to give up their seats if needed, as the flight was oversold. I had been planning on volunteering, but my mind had changed by the time I arrived at SFO. The friend I was hoping to meet wasn't in town, and the weather forecast for Friday had a 70% chance of rain, and rain at SFO is A Bad Thing. Furthermore, they were not confirming passengers on the next day's flight, but only granting "priority standby" status. Delta would pay for the hotel, and they sounded like they thought the people would be able to get out the next day, but they couldn't guarantee it. They were honest by saying that the flights to Hawaii were pretty much full through Christmas. I decided under those conditions, I would keep my seat as booked. A little before 1700, boarding started. A lot of people were waiting near the door, I suspect those who had come in from Atlanta were hoping they would be allowed to board first; but they were asked to board when their row number was called. As my seat was in the last row at the window (row 49 only has center section seats) it wasn't too long before I was able to board. This was a Little Blue Bag/SkyDeli flight, and an agent was in the jetway handing out the bags. When I had made my reservation, it was the only window seat available, and though I kept an eye on the seat map via Delta's web site, I decided to keep it. If nothing else, it allowed me to recline the seat without feeling guilty for limiting the space of the passenger behind me, since there wasn't one. As boarding progressed, the plane filled up. I did notice a person who had talked to the gate agents about giving up her seat board the plane, so either she didn't in the end, or not many volunteers were needed, if any. At exactly 1730, right on time, our aircraft pushed back from the gate. As the engines were started, I detected a faint odor of jet fuel. The safety video was shown and we made our way out to 28L for departure. At 1743 we were airborne. After a few minutes of flight, a preview for the inflight movie, Seabiscut, was shown, and flight attendants came through offering headsets. Instead of paying $5 to rent those painful pneumatic headsets, Delta now charges $2 to buy their dual-prong electric, clip over the ear headsets, or you can use your own (or ones you had bought on a previous flight) for free. I had brought along the Aloha Airlines headsets I had gotten in September and used those; aside from the color they are the same as Delta's. Flight attendants also came through with a beverage service. Not too much later, the movie started. I decided not to watch it, in favor of reading the book my brother had gotten me for my birthday: "Poor Sailor's Airline: The Story of Kenny Friedkin's Pacific Southwest Airlines". So there I was, sitting on a Delta jet, listening to music on Aloha headsets, and reading a book on PSA. When I was hungry, I opened the Little Blue Bag and had dinner. The contents of the bag were a turkey sandwich, a bag of chips, a package of Milano cookies, and a small bottle of Dasani water. Not much different than the first class dinner that was served on the same flight in June, but with a little smaller portions. After the movie, various short features were shown. Some I watched, while others I ignored in favor of the book. Most notable was an excerpt from the PBS documentary "Kitty Hawk: The Wright Brothers' Journey of Invention". There was also a second beverage service by the flight attendants, this time with pretzels along with the drinks. Eventually we began our descent. It was dark and I had some trouble figuring out our approach. I was expecting to land on 4R like most night time arrivals do, but for a while it looked like we might be lining up for 8R. But a couple minutes later I saw we were flying over the reef runway and we did land on 4R. As we rolled out we passed a taxiing Atlas 747. Touchdown at 2045. We taxied to the gate, the most notable aircraft I saw was the Royal Tonagn Airlines 757 parked at the Ewa Concourse; the airline began weekly service from Tonga to HNL on December 5th. We parked at gate 21 and 2050 and disembarked. I met my family in the baggage claim area, got my bag, and went home. Monday, January 5, 2004 Delta Air Lines flight 314 HNL-SFO Scheduled: 2230-0522 Actual: 2234-0455 767-432ER N842MH seat 42G Time to go back to California. With the added complexity of brining a dog back for my aunt and uncle. My family parked the car in the parking lot, and we carried my luggage over to Lobby 4. Checked bags went through the agriculture inspection. Since we had to deal with the dog, using the kiosk was out. Went over to the short but slow line to check in with an agent. Took care of the paperwork and paid for the dog's ticket to travel in the cargo compartment, and checked in. We took the dog over to the TSA for a quick inspection, and as directed by the Delta agent we left him there. There was quite a line for security but it moved relatively quickly. As we approached the front of the line I hugged my family good-bye and went through, without much difficulty. Made my way out to gate 23 to await boarding. The aircraft was there already. There were also a line of people waiting to speak to the agents at the gate. I sat down by the window and waited for the flight to board. When my row number was called I headed towards the doorway. The agent had some difficulty with the passenger directly in front of me, who had a boarding pass issued by Continental. While she figured out what to do with that, the other agent took my boarding pass and scanned it. I boarded the aircraft and made my way to my seat. Put my backpack in the overhead bin and sat down. This flight was also full, but I hadn't heard any announcements being made asking for volunteers to give up their seats. Just a couple of minutes before departure a ramp agent came aboard to let me know that the dog was on board as well. We pushed back from the gate at 2234. The safety video was shown while we made our way to runway 8R for departure. At 2245 we were airborne and on our way to San Francisco. Similar routine as the flight out. A preview for the movie, Out of Time, was shown, followed by flight attendants selling headsets. I wasn't overly interested in this movie either, instead preferring to make an attempt at sleeping. Flight attendants came through serving drinks and snack mix. There was no meal service at all. I'm not sure how much I slept, but I did wake up a lot. I think late in the flight the flight attendants came through with some sort of drink selection but I wasn't really aware of what was going on. Eventually we began our descent into SFO. According to the map display, we crossed the coastline somewhere north of Santa Cruz. As we made our turn towards SFO, I could make out a dark spot that seemed to match the shape of the San Jose Airport, which was not yet open at this early hour. We touched down at 0455 on runway 28R at a relatively quiet SFO. Four minutes later we were parked at gate 46. When I had the chance, I gathered my things and made my way out of the aircraft, into the terminal, and off to baggage claim. When I got there I saw the dog next to the baggage service office, so I put him on a SmarteCarte and waited for the rest of my bags. They came and I got them. I still had a couple of hours before the Monterey/Salinas Air Bus would pick me up at 0700, so I took the dog out to where he could come out of the kennel and stretch his legs, and gave him some food and water. A few minutes after 0700 the bus came and I was on my way back to my apartment. -- David Mueller / MRY dmueller7@xxxxxxxxx http://www.quanterium.com