Wednesday October 21st

I am really starting to hate early mornings. A 545am pick up this morning and i thought it would be a private transfer… nope. had to share a van with someone. Which was wierd cause the price was the same as what a private should of been. It was a quick ride to SeaTac and I was dropped off near the Delta check in and within moments i was checked in and headed towards the Dignity loss area. I had planned ahead though. I was wearing shoes that did not have laces.

Security was pretty painful today. I beeped. So off came the belt to and the watch, next thing you know they will ask me to remove my pants. Once i finally cleared TSA i went looking for my gate. What i had forgotten was that SeaTac has two Satellites the “North” and “South” So hear I am walking towards the A gates thinking im going in the wrong direction till i see a sign pointing towards the Train and the “S” gates. I was like wtf. Then it dawned on me. I need to get a train. So I jumped onboard and headed off to my gates. First time that I have had to get a train inside the airport to get to my gate.

So once I am at the S gates ive got about 90 mins till boarding so rather than do much as I am really tired, i just find the nearest seat, plonk my butt down and relax. I managed to keep reading my book which was good and pretty soon they gave the boarding warning.

Seattle to Honolulu (SEA-HNL)
Northwest/Delta – NW219
Boeing 757-300
0815-1115
First Class – Seat 4A/3A

Boarding: 0735 – Gate S8
Push Back: 0815
Take Off Roll: 0830 – Runway 16L
Top of Descent: 1055
Touch Down: 1120 – Runway 8L

This was my first time in Delta’s domestic first class. We boarded the 757 into the 2nd door so i got to be all elite and turn left at the end of the walkway.. not right. I had been originally sitting in seat 4A and was just getting settled when a flight attendant asked me to move to 3A so a couple could sit together. I didn’t mind as it was still a window and it was going to be full anyway so might as well.

Once I moved over i was offered a drink. Orange Juice or Mai Tai. Hello MAI TAI’s! This would be the first of many for this flight. My seat mate for the flight turned out to be a Deadheading pilot. For some reason he was dead heading out to hawaii rather than flying the aircraft out. We had a little chat about my traveling and it was pretty good.

Once boarding was finished the doors were shut and we pushed back quickly. Not much of a taxi and soon enough we were off the ground, out of the seattle rain and up above the clouds. We had the seatbelt sign on for quite some time (as it would turn out it would barely come off during the flight). Soon enough the drinks cart was rolled out first (hello 2nd Mai Tai). I had read plenty of complaints on flyertalk about First Class meal service and how poor it was becoming. When breakfast service started, I was pretty impressed. I was given a choice between a hot or cold breakfast. I was hungry so hot it was. I was given a cheese omlette with two sausage looking thingys and some potato wedges. O and a bagel. I am going to miss bagels (but thats for another time). I couldn’t complain about that. Add in some coffee and you have yourself a decent breakfast.

The movie for the flight began and thankfully they use only single prong headphone sockets so I just plugged in my own headphones and started listening to the movie. The movie was called Imagine this. I had not heard of it before, turned out to be an Eddie Murphy movie.

The flight was pretty uneventful. Watched a movie, finished my book off and had 3 more mai tais (and a 2nd cup of coffee). As we decended into Honolulu I could see the islands off on my side of the aircraft. What i missed out on was the view of Waikiki on the other side of the aircraft. However what i missed out on I more than made up for as we flew in over Hickam AFB’s strips. For me this was better as sitting their on the ramp were two F-22 Raptors. I was ecstatic and I snapped quite a number of pictures of all the aircraft on the ramp.

We landed nice and softly and taxied off to our gate. I forgot to read the rego off the door as I hopped off the aircraft so that was a bit of a bummer but then as I was walking down the long walkways at the airport I realised there was no glass. All of the walkways are fully open. How awesome!!! Gonna enjoy that part of spotting on the way out 😀

After the long walk to the baggage claim I saw someone holding a sign with my name. I knew I had a pre booked and paid for transfer to my hotel, but didn’t know it was meet and greet. Then I saw it. The purple lei… o no!! It was a little embarrasing that I was travelling on my own and with a guy putting a lei around my neck. I grabbed my bag off the carosel (eventually) and then it was off to the hotel.