We're Back!

You didn't think we were gone, did you? Well, of course we aren't. We just had to do a little "research" for our second phase of JetSetPilot.com once the first phase is complete and successful. So what did we research? Hawaii! Maui, in fact. We spent the last week taking in all the island could give us in hopes that JetSetPilot will someday include the U.S. The flight there was one of the most interesting parts......


We were supposed to take off last Saturday at 7:30 AM but found out at 4:30 that our connecting flight to San Francisco was "delayed" until about 10 AM. Or was it 9 AM? You see, between the calls from our travel provider and the carrier's website, we saw and heard multiple departure times. It was at this point that we realized that our United Airline flights had been sold to none other than our friends at US Air (the reason for not booking US Air in the first place was to avoid this kind of thing).


Anyway, we decided to go to the airport at the normal time to DEMAND that we be seated on another plane heading west so we could still get to Maui around the original 3 PM arrival time. To our surprise, they were more than accommodating and put us on a plane to Chicago at 8 AM. This meant one extra layover than the original trip, but we didn't mind at the time. We were ultimately supposed to be in Maui at about 5 with another stop in Phoenix.


Everything ran smoothly for the trip through Chicago and into Phoenix. In fact, we got onto the plane in Phoenix and we were ready to go! After taxiing for a little, we noticed the plane being "revved" like a car a lot and that it was a little warm inside the cabin when the pilot turned on the PA system: "Uhhhh, folks, as you might be able to tell, we are headed back to the terminal. One of the two main air conditioners is not responding. While we could run a normal domestic flight with just one AC, we can't for an overseas flight to Maui. We are not sure how long this repair will take."


We were worried that this could take forever but still hopeful it would be a quick fix. Relatively speaking, it ended up not being too big of a deal. After a couple technicians came in and out a handful of times, the problem was fixed and we were already taxiing again after about 45 minutes. No problem, we were going to HAWAII and the captain still said we could make up the time in the air and we'd get there at about 5. Next thing we knew, we were sitting on the runway about to take off when we made a 90 degree turn right towards the gate again......


It turns out that the FAA paperwork that is necessary to fill out on every fix was not filled out correctly. Rumor had it that somebody forget to "check a box". That wouldn't take long, right? WRONG! In fact, it took another hour before they had everything in order again and we backed away from the terminal for the third time. It was a good thing we had some comic relief coming from our flight attendant who made fun of intoxicated passengers and pretended to get sucked out of the plane door at one point.


Long story short, we left Phoenix and arrived in Maui 2 hours late at about 7 PM Hawaii time. That's 1 AM Eastern where we woke up at about 4:30 AM. You do the math! We were, however, in Hawaii and we did not care one bit the second we stepped foot on that amazing island (except for a minute when the baggage belt broke but we'll leave that for another time). We had a most wonderful trip that we'll blog about later in the week!


Don't forget, travelling is worth every little problem you run into on the way. Getting there is half the fun! This trip was no different.


(P.S. - our return trip with United went without a hitch!)