Since I care about each and every one of you who actually read my little stories, I am going to share with you why you NEVER (EVER) want to fly UNITED AIRLINES or use LAX. Because this will be a little long winded I will randomly show pictures of my little Hawaii giveaway so you will keep muddling thru:)
So Saturday we get to LAX at 6:45 a.m. and it's crowded but our flight doesn't leave until 8:53 a.m. roughly 2 hours and 15 minutes to get checked in and situated. No problem.
There are huge lines and it's confusing so Frank takes our tickets to a United employee situated at the beginning of one line shows her our tickets and asks "Is this the line I should be in?" She says yes and we wait and suprisingly it goes by pretty quick, 30 minutes we get to the front. Frank puts our confirmation number in the kiosk and it says see attendant. Okay we wave one down and he comes over and says you have paper tickets this is for electronic tickets you are in the wrong line. Frank pleads his case that he was told to be in this line and he just stares at us and asks the women next to him and she then says no you are in the wrong line. Franks says "But you have a computer can't you just manually check us in?". He says no and then walks away from us without another word. NICE!!!
Line number two is LONG!! And we are now at about an hour and half before our flight. So we wait and wait and wait. We are still 6th in line and we are at 1 hour before our flight. The troops are getting restless! I ask another United employee "Can you help us we are coming really close to the 45 minute baggage cut off for flights?" She says give me your tickets. I do. She says you have to wait in this line and walks off. Beautiful:)
45 minutes til take off and we are next.
This is totally true!! There is only ONE person waiting on people with paper tickets. ONE!!!! The other lines are for First Class, purchasing tickets and large group travel. When she calls the people in front of us, they get to her counter and all of sudden she leaves! She is going from computer to computer getting those paper luggage tags you fill out. She has a large stack and then she comes thru the little area where you put your bags to our line and asks if anyone needs a name tag for their bag. What the hell!!!! Are you kidding me?????? So people start raising there hands and she is snaking thru our line handing them out. It is now 40 minutes til our flight. I see another employee playing with the split ends of her hair behind a computer that is supposed to be taking First Class passengers so I go tell her our situation and she says you'll have to ask my boss. I look at him and he is trying to get about 20 people boarding passes to Malaysia. I trudge back to our place in line. Frank is about to have a stroke and Tyler is on the verge of tears. And then miracuosly split end girl calls us and let me tell you took her sweet time getting our bags on the belt. United Airlines you have the best employees. NOTTTTTT!!
You probably need a picture now!!
It's a fish trivet made of Native Hawaii Koa wood. Made by a guy who calls himself the "Eclectic Craftsman". That one is mine yours is wrapped up:)
25 minutes til our flight is scheduled to leave.
Next obstacle SECURITY.
We already made sure each kid had boarding pass and i.d. on them. They all checked their carry ons for fluids etc. We were ready to rock and roll! The line is about 100 miles long. Here come the water works!! Tyler is freakin' out. Frank is beyond pissed and I am just trying to be positive. No easy job because at this point I wanted to start punching people in the forehead. So I go to the front of the line and ask one of the TSA personel can you help us our plane leaves in 20 minutes. NO just wait in line. Thanks!
It is 8:55 a.m.Lindsay, Tyler and I are thru security and are throwing are shoes back on. I look back for Frank and Zach and Frank gives me the GO signal. So we RUN to our gate which thank god! was not too far and Frank and Zach still aren't there. But they are still boarding so we are good to go. They finally get there and I ask what the hold up was and he said the two guys in front of them had water and all sorts of junk in thier carry ons and they were rude (Frank said something else) and instead of moving to the side to get situated they stood there not letting anyone pass and then one of them set off the metal detector. I guess Zachary finally just moved all their crap out of the way and went thru. I love people!!
Guess what we are on the plane. Hurray!!!! We are even leaving the gate at about 9:15 a.m. so that's about as on time as you can get. Then we stop and I figure we are just waiting our turn on the runway. I then realize we have been stopped for 1/2 an hour. Pilot comes on "Sorry folks are generator just broke we are going back to the gate to see maintanence." Sit at gate for 30 minutes pilot comes on "okay folks we are ready attendants prepare for take off". Hurray!!
Not so fast........
We take off. 30 minutes into our flight the t.v., lights and air go out suddenly then turn back on. Frank won't even look at me so I know it's the stupid (not the word I used) generator!! Pilot comes on "Sorry folks the generator went out again and we can't cross the ocean without it we have to go back to LAX we are just waiting for clearance". 30 minutes later "Seems like there is a bit of a line for landing we should be on the ground in about 15 minutes sorry for the inconvience." We land.......
It is now 11:30 a.m. and I should be half way to Hawaii right now!! But we sit and we sit and we sit. It's noon. Pilot "We are changing planes (which is not even here yet) our new departure time will be 1:30 p.m. WONDERFUL! So we get off and eat $60 (literally) of crappy food court food and wait.
Needless to say we finally got there. 5 hours late but as soon as we got off the plane nobody cared:) And our luggage was there!! Hurray!!!
Another picture before your eyes roll back......:)
Made in Hawaii Coconut Vanilla Body lotion (you get the one that didn't explode in my suitcase:) A half a bag of Macadamia Nut Hershey kisses that you can only get in Hawaii. And yes I ate the other half;) A candle that is made with Kona Coffee beans and soy wax. It smells yummy and the little basket it is in the girl was making when I bought it so she let me have it.
{Sunday thru Friday afternoon absolutley glorious but more about that after I download pictures}
Coming home......
My mostly brilliant husband (though not in this case) decided we would save $1000 on airline tickets and fly the Red Eye. Little problem we had to take one of those little puddle jumper planes to Honolulu first. Okay whatever. $1000 is a $1000. So we wait and we wait and we wait. No puddle jumper. Supposed to leave Kona at 8:10 p.m. and it's only a 1/2 hour flight. Our big plane doesn't leave until 10:20p.m. so we should be good. Right?? WRONG!
Little plane does not get there until 9:20 p.m. OH NO!! We get on anyway what choice do we have?? Frank looks at one of those in flight magazines with the layout of the ariport. We are arriving at gate 77. Guess which gate we had to be at, 9!!!
Arrive at Honolulu at 10:10 p.m. This is not good.
Another pic before we move on.......
Cute huh?? I only bought authentic Hawaiian stuff and let me tell you it was few and far between. Even their Puca shells come from China!!
And now it gets better........
The airport is basically closed. The stores are all locked up, the lights are all dim. All the gates are vacant of people. Frank finds one lonely security guard and asks for the easiest way to get to our gate. He says well the breeze way closed at 10 and you will now have to go OUTSIDE, ACROSS THE STREET AND THRU SECURITY AGAIN!!! It's 10:20.
So we start running what ended up being about 10 city blocks to security on the other side and the 2 that were there looked at us like we were high or something. When we told them where we were going they did get us right thru but told us we still had a LONG way to go. GREAT!!
So we run!!!! I didn't even put my shoes back on because at this point I know we missed our plane but I am worried the fabulous United employees at the counter probably left for the night then what will we do??? Frank was bringing up the rear and Zach was in the lead. Then all of a sudden Zach stops and Frank goes running past us like Forrest Gump and Lindsay looks at me like mom it's over:( We get to them and it is yet another never ending corridor. So we run some more what else can we do??
We get to the counter......
2 employees both turn around and look at us and one says our family from Kona. I say I know we missed our flight now what? She said no you didn't we are still waiting for the food for the flight to pass security. You made it. Hurray!!!! Maybe.......
Get on the plane. Breathe again! I still don't have my shoes on:) I notice everyone on the plane is pissed. Not mad, PISSED. I look at my watch 11:30 p.m. they have been waiting for this food for over an hour. Who is going to eat anyway?? So we wait and we wait and we wait some more. 30 minutes later we are off and let me tell you the Red Eye is the most miserable flying experience I have EVER had!! I did not sleep at all. By the time we landed an hour and a half late I was ready to strangle Frank!!
I am almost done.......
A cute nylon beach bag from Brighton. I bought my carry on for the plane there (which I DID NOT need but the window display was calling to me:) and they gave me two of these as a gift. Great to carry wet swimsuits and towels!! Looks tropical doesn't it?? Thanks for hangin' with me:)
And the topper..........
Our luggage was still in Honolulu:)
Aloha!!!!!!
Asides:
All United Airline personel should be fired immediately (except maybe the pilots, it was a smooth flight once we got going and one particularly nice flight attendant) and all the people who NEED and WANT jobs should be given thiers. Like the 789 Chrysler dealers that have just had the rug pulled out from under them without ANY legal rights (thanks Obama admin.). If there were any JUSTICE in the world..........
I will anounce the winner of my "Hawaiin vacation without the aggrevation giveaway" on my next post. This week I promise. So leave comments:)