One long or three short days: April 10, 11, and 12
We will be spending quite a bit of time to travel from our home in Napa to Tokyo, Japan. Our flight to Honolulu, where we have a layover, was scheduled to depart on April 11 at 8:00 AM. As a result, we needed to travel by hired car to the Hilton at the Oakland airport on the day prior, Wednesday, April 10. The car picked us up (by the Napa Airporter driver that I have nicknamed “sweatpants flip flops") at 2:00 PM and arrived at the Oakland Hilton with no trouble. We used Hilton points for a free night’s stay. After checking in, we lounged watching television and then went to the hotel restaurant, Earhart’s Cafe (named after Amelia), for dinner at 6:00 PM. We both enjoyed side Caesar salads and Mary’s air chilled roasted chicken with squash. Then we retired to our room to watch Survivor at 8:00 PM and then to bed at 9:00 PM. The night was uneventful except for the fact that the room was way too warm.
On Thursday, April 11, Roy’s 59th birthday, we arose at 4:25 AM (alarm set for 4:30 AM, but not needed), got ready, and rode the 5:40 AM bus to the airport. The line to check-in was long and moved slowly, but we had plenty of time. Our check-in was complicated by the fact that Roy’s name on the reservation did not exactly match his passport — this was an oversight. We had booked Premium Economy seats just behind first class, but this plane was not the A330 that we had anticipated, so it was a “three and three” seating arrangement rather that "two four two." The flight went by with no issues. Landing at Honolulu, we then had a four hour layover. The weather was partly cloudy in the eighties, which felt nice in the open air airport. We had a pass (through the Chase Sapphire card) to the IASS Hawaii Lounge, which was not very good — smelled a little musty and only had soft drinks, but it was air conditioned and had free wifi, which enabled Roy to read and respond to some nice birthday greetings.
We exited the lounge after a bit and had lunch at an airport restaurant called The Local @ HNL. Roy had a mahi mahi sandwich, and Rob had mahi mahi fish tacos. This was Roy's special birthday meal!
We boarded our next flight to Tokyo’s Haneda Airport, which departed at 3:15 PM Hawaii time for a nine hour or so flight to Tokyo. This plane had the “two four two” arrangement of the A330, so we had our own little Premium Economy pod, which was nice.
Our A&K representative, Cato, met us after we cleared immigration and customs (no problems or long lines here), then we were driven about 1/2 hour to the Tokyo Hilton in the Shinjuku area. Traffic was light, and we enjoyed driving by the beautiful Tokyo Tower lit in orange and yellow. It resembles the Eiffel Tower. Check-in was easy and we were in our room at 9:00 PM. We were in bed sleeping by 10:00 PM, both extremely tired. Our room was very nice. Unfortunately the hotel's executive lounge was under construction, so we will be using a temporary lounge during our stay.
On Thursday, April 11, Roy’s 59th birthday, we arose at 4:25 AM (alarm set for 4:30 AM, but not needed), got ready, and rode the 5:40 AM bus to the airport. The line to check-in was long and moved slowly, but we had plenty of time. Our check-in was complicated by the fact that Roy’s name on the reservation did not exactly match his passport — this was an oversight. We had booked Premium Economy seats just behind first class, but this plane was not the A330 that we had anticipated, so it was a “three and three” seating arrangement rather that "two four two." The flight went by with no issues. Landing at Honolulu, we then had a four hour layover. The weather was partly cloudy in the eighties, which felt nice in the open air airport. We had a pass (through the Chase Sapphire card) to the IASS Hawaii Lounge, which was not very good — smelled a little musty and only had soft drinks, but it was air conditioned and had free wifi, which enabled Roy to read and respond to some nice birthday greetings.
We exited the lounge after a bit and had lunch at an airport restaurant called The Local @ HNL. Roy had a mahi mahi sandwich, and Rob had mahi mahi fish tacos. This was Roy's special birthday meal!
We boarded our next flight to Tokyo’s Haneda Airport, which departed at 3:15 PM Hawaii time for a nine hour or so flight to Tokyo. This plane had the “two four two” arrangement of the A330, so we had our own little Premium Economy pod, which was nice.
A real highlight of the flight leaving Hawaii was the great view we had of the island Niihau, the easternmost, uninhabited island of Hawaii. Visiting this island is forbidden, except for a small number of native Hawaiian people. This was a long flight to spend in these seats, and the last few hours were uncomfortable. However, we had a nice meal and some free wine. We each slept a little, but not a lot. We landed at 7:30 PM on Friday, April 12 — a day had disappeared, almost!
Our A&K representative, Cato, met us after we cleared immigration and customs (no problems or long lines here), then we were driven about 1/2 hour to the Tokyo Hilton in the Shinjuku area. Traffic was light, and we enjoyed driving by the beautiful Tokyo Tower lit in orange and yellow. It resembles the Eiffel Tower. Check-in was easy and we were in our room at 9:00 PM. We were in bed sleeping by 10:00 PM, both extremely tired. Our room was very nice. Unfortunately the hotel's executive lounge was under construction, so we will be using a temporary lounge during our stay.
Comments
Post a Comment