The Voyage Home (with Death & Sparrows)
Jan. 28th, 2011 02:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shannon_aSo yesterday was our big trip back from Hawaii. We left Kauai pretty early (at 10am), and so had a couple of hours in Honolulu. Which is no great problem. We read some Harry Dresden, overlooked two of the various gardens at Honolulu airport at different times, and ate some lunch. A very cute brown sparrow kept accepting food offerings from right on our table.
When we got to our gate after all of that, we discovered that all was not well. The gate was locked off because they were unloading people from an international flight, who thus needed to go through customs. Most peculiarly, they kept lining up people in wheelchairs. They did this for maybe half-an-hour, and when they were done had somewhere in excess of 30 wheelchaired people, looking like they were getting ready to race. Then, they started gradually wheeling them away. Weird.
By now we were getting increasingly close to our boarding time, and it started becoming obvious that all was not well, as we still weren't allowed in the boarding area (and were getting increasingly tired of standing outside of it). Finally, the Hawaiian Airlines staff let us know that there was a "medical emergency" on the airplane and that they were trying to figure out whether we'd be transferring to a new gate (which is a fancy way of saying, "going to a new plane"). After another 10 minutes went by with no one else being removed from the plane, I told Kimberly, "They've got someone dead on that plane." A short time later they finally told us to go to a new gate.
After we'd boarded the new plane, the captain (somewhat to my surprise) said that someone had died on the flight in from Manilla on our would-be plane. Perhaps not a huge surprise given the number of old, wheelchaired people who had been on board. Apparently the plane then had to be quarantined until a medical examiner went and checked things out. Hence our new plane.
What did surprise me was how quickly Hawaiian dealt with the problem. They were a little stingy with information at first, but once they let us know what was going on and moved us to a new gate, they really got going. When all was said and done we were only about 20 minutes late leaving Honolulu (and about the same getting into SFO). Comparing that to United wasting over 2 hours to switch planes in San Francisco two years ago creates quite a contrast. Granted, Honolulu is surely one of Hawaiian's hubs, but that's probably another reason to fly with them if possible.
The rest of the flight was uneventful other than the person coughing right behind me for 5 hours straight. I avoided my dad's plague, but it'll be amazing if I don't get that person's. He sounded like he was right in my ear the whole time.
When we got home, the cats were very happy to see us. Cobweb was nonchalant, Munchkin was angry as hell (after much yowling, poor baby sounds hoarse), and Lucy was skittish. Today they're all very affectionate, particularly Cobweb and Lucy. So they're getting plenty of attention (and I'm now catching up on my email and accounting at work from the last week …).
Went out for lunch today and it was gray, gloomy, and cold. Ah, Berkeley, how I missed you.
When we got to our gate after all of that, we discovered that all was not well. The gate was locked off because they were unloading people from an international flight, who thus needed to go through customs. Most peculiarly, they kept lining up people in wheelchairs. They did this for maybe half-an-hour, and when they were done had somewhere in excess of 30 wheelchaired people, looking like they were getting ready to race. Then, they started gradually wheeling them away. Weird.
By now we were getting increasingly close to our boarding time, and it started becoming obvious that all was not well, as we still weren't allowed in the boarding area (and were getting increasingly tired of standing outside of it). Finally, the Hawaiian Airlines staff let us know that there was a "medical emergency" on the airplane and that they were trying to figure out whether we'd be transferring to a new gate (which is a fancy way of saying, "going to a new plane"). After another 10 minutes went by with no one else being removed from the plane, I told Kimberly, "They've got someone dead on that plane." A short time later they finally told us to go to a new gate.
After we'd boarded the new plane, the captain (somewhat to my surprise) said that someone had died on the flight in from Manilla on our would-be plane. Perhaps not a huge surprise given the number of old, wheelchaired people who had been on board. Apparently the plane then had to be quarantined until a medical examiner went and checked things out. Hence our new plane.
What did surprise me was how quickly Hawaiian dealt with the problem. They were a little stingy with information at first, but once they let us know what was going on and moved us to a new gate, they really got going. When all was said and done we were only about 20 minutes late leaving Honolulu (and about the same getting into SFO). Comparing that to United wasting over 2 hours to switch planes in San Francisco two years ago creates quite a contrast. Granted, Honolulu is surely one of Hawaiian's hubs, but that's probably another reason to fly with them if possible.
The rest of the flight was uneventful other than the person coughing right behind me for 5 hours straight. I avoided my dad's plague, but it'll be amazing if I don't get that person's. He sounded like he was right in my ear the whole time.
When we got home, the cats were very happy to see us. Cobweb was nonchalant, Munchkin was angry as hell (after much yowling, poor baby sounds hoarse), and Lucy was skittish. Today they're all very affectionate, particularly Cobweb and Lucy. So they're getting plenty of attention (and I'm now catching up on my email and accounting at work from the last week …).
Went out for lunch today and it was gray, gloomy, and cold. Ah, Berkeley, how I missed you.