40 hours from the UK to Maui

I’ve been travelling from the UK to Maui, Hawaii for about 10 years now and it’s always been a 24 hour trip from door-to-door. This time, things just didn’t quite work out… and it ended up being just over a 40 hour trip…

10/05 05:00 BST – alarm clock goes off. After a quick bit of breakfast, leave home for the drive up to Heathrow airport.

10/05 07:15 BST – arrive at Heathrow Terminal 3. United’s Premier check-in desk is pretty much empty; only two other passengers in front of me. Discover that United changed their baggage policy on 05/05, so I need to pay GBP100 to get my windsurfing gear on the plane. Oh well… first time in 10 years, can’t complain too much!

Nothing like travelling light!

10/05 09:20 BST – UA955 is ready for boarding at gate 3. Singapore’s new A380 is parked next to our B744, N119UA. First time I have seen this in the flesh – definately a big beast! It’s a full flight and my upgrade hasn’t cleared, so it’s into seat 42K in Economy Plus.

10/05 10:05 BST – an on-time departure and takeoff from 9R. The Captain has already announced the availability of Channel 9 (at the Captain’s discretion, United let you listen to the air-traffic communication on this channel).

10/05 12:30 PST – early arrival into San Francisco – landing on 28L with an American 757 for the parallel on 28R. Some pretty interesting conversations on ch9 between our flight, the American 757 and SFO tower as they try to match speeds. Immigration line for non-citizens is very long – thankfully they opened up the US Citizen positions to help clear the traffic.

10/05 13:25 PST – looking at the flight departure information board, I noticed a 13:25 flight to Maui… if only the flight from LHR had been an hour or so earlier, I could have made this connection! Oh well. Flight 39 is set for an on-time departure at 18:20 from gate 81.

Always reassuring to see the boards make it to the plane!

10/05 18:20 PST – onboard UA39, a B752 (N597UA) in first class, seat 6A. Flight should be pushing back now, but a mechanic is still in the aircraft and keeps popping in and out of the flight deck… never a good sign!

10/05 18:40 PST – Captain advises that our plane has a deferred maintenance issue relating to an electrical fault in the galley. Maintenance are trying to fix the fault and he also has United dispatch trying to find another plane for us to use… but neither are likely to be quick.

10/05 19:15 PST – Captain refuses the aircraft in it’s current condition. There aren’t many(!) places to stop between SFO and Maui…!!! We disembark and go back into the terminal while they figure out what to do.

10/05 19:45 PST – Customer services agents advise that the flight has been cancelled and rescheduled for 7am the next day. The customer services team are busy finding everyone hotel rooms for the night. With 200+ passengers trying to get accomodated, my seat partner and I decided to walk through the terminal to try to find another service desk – and there’s an empty one just around the corner by gate 70. We got rooms at the Double Tree airport hotel, and headed off in a shuttle bus.

11/05 22:00 PST – after a quick bite to eat it’s off to bed.

11/05 04:30 PST – alarm clock goes off

11/05 05:00 PST – shuttle bus back to SFO terminal 3. Straight through on the Premier security line and back to the gate. We have a new plane waiting (N669UA, a Boeing 763). With an hour until boarding, time for some breakfast.

11/05 06:20 PST – boarding commences. Back into seat 6A in first class and some refreshements served as the main cabin boards. My seat partner from the day before has taken a direct flight to Honolulu, so I have a whole row in first class to myself.

11/05 07:00 PST – uh oh. Departure time, and we’re still sitting at the gate with no-one in the flight deck! One of the flight attendants advises they are running late and will be here asap.

11/05 07:20 PST – Captain and First Officer arrive – same crew as on the 752 last night. Turns out the crew are type rated for both types of aircraft. They do their pre-flight checks and outside inspection, and we are ready for pushback… but the pushback crew are no-where to be found!

11/05 08:00 PST – On our way. No congestion at SFO this morning – taxi out to 28R with an immediate takeoff into pretty foggy skies. Channel 9 had been on while we were parked at the gate, but was turned off as the flight deck door closed and the sterile cockpit chimes rang.

Breakfast on the revised early morning UA39 from SFO - OGG

11/05 07:29:34 HST – the exact time we were halfway to Maui – I placed #3 on the Halfway to Hawai’i game with a time of 07:29:13 HST. The stats given by the flight deck for this game were:

• Takeoff time: 0500 HST
• Distance: 2080 nautical miles
• Planned flight time: 4 hours 50 minutes
• Airspeed: 445 knots with a 5 knot headwind expected for the first half of the flight

21 seconds out on the Halfway to Hawai'i game!

11/05 09:15 HST -I ask an FA to see if the Captain would be willing to turn on channel 9 for the approach and landing into OGG. He is normally a non-ch9 Captain – but in light of the delays we’ve been put through he goes ahead and switches it on

11/05 10:00 HST – arrive at Kahului airport. I wait until the flight deck door opens to disembark, so I can thank the Captain for turning on channel 9. My bags come out just as I get to baggage claim.

11/05 11:15 HST (21:15 GMT) – after a quick stop at Safeways to pick up some basics, I finally get to the house!

11/05 13:30 HST – the wind is blowing strongly, so after a quick nap it’s time to unpack the gear and get on the water for a couple of hours fully powered up on a 4.5. I was pretty exhausted at the end of this session, but sailing on the day of arrival was another first (the way the connections work means I don’t normally get in to Maui until 8pm or so).

All in all…. 40.5 hours travelling time. 2 hours in the car, 15 hours in the air and 23.5 waiting around airports and hotels! But in the end, everything worked out… I got there safely, as did my bags, so no real complaints.