Saturday 9th September 2023
After a busy day of getting up early & getting going to spend time with lots of friends and plane spotting,we left our last spotting location, dropped a friend off where some others were hanging out and we headed to drop off the rental car.
We jumped the shuttle back to the terminal and it was quick until we hit the ring road and then it was bedlam. When we finally got to terminal 3 we did some stuff to adjust our bags and get changed. Then the zig zags of Delta’s terminals in LAX began. It started at terminal 3 where you are meant to check in, but Sky Priority was allll the way down at Terminal 2. So off we go making our way down.
We checked in and they said “Straight up the escalators to security”. Easy! We head up, get ok’d after a boarding pass check into the Pre Check line and then walk the entire length of the terminal back to Terminal 3 where it dumped us back out to have to be checked again and then go through security. Once through we had to walk back to terminal 2.
We found a spot by our gate and chilled out for the 30 or so minutes until our flight was due to depart. We didn’t really want to do much as we were so tired after a long day in the sun.
Delta Air Lines – DL371
Los Angeles to Honolulu (LAX-HNL)
1759-2057
Airbus A321Neo (N530DE)
First Class – Seat 2D
Boarding: 1717 (Gate 25A)
Push Back: 1813
Take Off Roll: 1826 (Runway 24L)
Top of Descent: 2041
Touch Down: 2102 (Runway 4R)
Shut Down: 2107 (Gate F1)
Before boarding was called and the gate agent laid down the law when it came to how things would work. She wasn’t going to take any drama. They offered pre boarding to those who needed more time and a few elderly people went down, they then offered military to board early and this is a flight at a major connection point to one of the biggest military bases in the Pacific, half the dang plane boarded in this group and even the gate agents were shocked.
After all the military were finally done they called First Class and off we went. We got settled in our fancy new seats that had tonnes of storage but a lot of the good functions didn’t work, like no moving map. Wifi worked (to begin with) and so did the Bluetooth headphone connections. There was plenty to choose from on the IFE and you could make a Playlist, so I got stuck into choosing things and got ready.
No pre-departure beverage other than a bottle of water at our seat but the boarding was so full on they wouldn’t have been able to do anything. Departure time came and went and our pilot let us know it would be a bit while we took on “bags” code for “we are adding more cargo”. When we finally pushed back we had a really quick taxi to the north active runway and was soon heading west bound towards the Pacific.
As we took off they had warned us it would be a bit bumpy, now it wasn’t awful but it was constant and it didn’t let up for about the first hour meaning no service during that time. That wasn’t an awful thing as we had some water if needed. Once the seat belt sign finally went out, the crew got moving quickly.
They started by giving us a couple of snacks and taking drink orders. I didn’t get the drink I asked for, but I didn’t care really, I was too tired to worry. Dinner orders were offered and all I could really stomach was the salad option of a chicken Caesar. Thankfully the dressing was on the side, so that was easy. On the side was a fruit salad and a packaged cookie (not as good as the brownie from the day before).
Dinner was consumed and then I just chilled out and watched a number of movies. The crew mostly kept to themselves but if you wanted something they were happy to get it for you.
We seemed to chase the sunset for a while before it just won and it was all black out the window. After a couple of passes of the snack basket (apparently gummy bears have to be vegan now?) we began a descent into Honolulu passing over some of the other islands as we lined up for an approach from the south.
We touched down really hard onto the runway, as though we had blown a tire or something and came to what felt like a full stop. It was a fairly short taxi as we headed to our gate and it wasn’t long before we were let off.
The one thing you notice quickly about HNL is that it is open air. Right as we came out and turned a corner you could see the planes around us. Mind you it was 9pm local by now and it was a ghost town. We headed down to the baggage claim, met up with our transfer company representative, got a Lei and grabbed our bags. We had a shuttle ride booked to take us to our hotel and I didn’t mind because I was in no shape to drive and it was essentially free with the hotel booking. We were the first stop on our run to the hotel so life was easy at this point. We were dropped at the door and pointed towards reception at the Ilikai Hotel, our home for almost a week!