A few weeks back, I got in on the deal whereby you could purchase cheap Icelandair miles for travel on Alaska Airlines to Hawaii in first class. It was a pretty awesome deal and I'm glad I pulled the trigger on it. My trip started in Denver on Thursday, September 13
AS 685
Denver (DEN) - Seattle (SEA)
Thursday, September 13, 2012
12:00 PM - 1:45 PM
Boeing 737
I boarded my first Alaska flight of the trip. When I first sat down I found the seats to be kind of uncomfortable. There was not enough padding in the seat back.
Legroom
At the beginning of the flight, the flight attendant announced that there were three lavatories on board, two in the back and one in first class. She said economy passengers were free to use the first class lavatory if the rear ones were occupied. I found that kind of strange since on every flight I've ever been on economy passengers will pretty much be shot for even stepping into the first class cabin.
The flight was pretty uneventful. Gogo was running a promotion where you could win free internet for your flight. I tried it and won. I hadn't used internet on a plane for a long time. The last time I remember using it was a few years ago and it was so slow that it was unusable. The internet I used on this flight was, while by no means fast, definitely usable.
For lunch, we had a turkey and cheese sandwich. It tasted pretty good.
Snack Mix
Turkey sandwich
Approaching Seattle
We landed on time and headed over to the Board Room lounge. The Board Room is a really nice lounge, at least compared to any of the legacy carrier lounges. They have a good amount of food including pretzels, salad, cheese and crackers, soup, celery and carrots, and a large selection of drinks.
Lounge entrance from the stairs
First floor of the lounge
Salad
Snacks
View from the lounge
Soup
Really good cookies
While sitting in the lounge on my long layover, I noticed an elderly man eating a concoction of tortilla chips, salsa, and cheese cubes, which shall from here on be referred to as lounge nachos. They looked good so I headed over to the food table and made myself a plate. They was goooood! Kudos to you old man for turning me onto these.
Lounge nachos
It's also worth noting that the lounge has a pancake machine which I will discuss in full detail later.
AS 859
Seattle (SEA) - Honolulu (HNL)
Thursday, September 13, 2012
7:45 PM - 10:50 PM
Boeing 737
My flight to Hawaii began boarding and I headed over to the gate. Upon boarding the plane and taking our seats, the flight attendant offered us pog with champagne.
Pog
After takeoff, the flight attendants distributed menus and digi-players. The digi-players are really nice. They have a ton of content on them including about 5 new releases, about 70 older movies, a couple of TV shows, and games.
Digi-player
Menu
Menu
Hawaiian themed snack mix
Smoked pork tenderloin with mango salsa and warm Hawaiian sweet roll
Potato roasted cod with pineapple curry sauce, red skin mashed potato, and julienne vegetables
Grilled chicken breast with sesame teriyaki sauce, pineapple coconut rice, and asparagus
Vanilla ice cream topped with candied macadamia nuts and chocolate brownie
I spent the rest of the flight watching movies, and we were soon in Honolulu. I booked Roberts Hawaii airport shuttle. It's $20 per person for round trip transportation from the airport to the hotels. They meet you when you get off your flight and give you a lei. The shuttle ride took about 20 minutes to our hotel, Hilton Waikiki Beach.
Upon entering the hotel, the woman at the front desk informed me I'd been upgraded to an ocean view room and she gave me the executive lounge hours and WiFi password. We had a nice room on the 23rd floor with some great views of Waikiki Beach.
Balcony
View from balcony
Surfers
Hotel pool
City view from the hotel
The executive lounge is open for breakfast from 6am to 9am on weekdays (until 10am on weekends) and they serve evening snacks from 5pm to 7pm. Overall, it was one Hilton's nicer US lounges. The only downside is that it's in the basement rather than the top floor.
Executive Lounge
Executive Lounge
Lounge breakfast
Evening lounge snacks
Evening lounge snacks
The Hilton Waikiki Beach also has a restaurant called MAC 24/7 which has an eating contest that was featured on Man v. Food. Basically, you have to eat three 14" pancakes with a pound of blueberries and then you get your meal for free, a t-shirt, and your picture on the wall of fame. Here's the Man v. Food episode:
My sister tried the challenge, but unfortunately she was not able to finish.
Besides participating in a food eating challenge, we basically just hung out at the beach and walked around. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.
Ukulele store
Coconut M&Ms
It's being delivered!
On the mainland we have crazy cat ladies, but in Hawaii they have crazy bird ladies
Crazy bird lady's house
Crazy bird lady's house
One night, we went to a prime rib buffet at the Marriott. The food was low quality and high quantity -- just how I like it.
Buffet at Marriott Waikiki Beach
After some nice time in Hawaii, it was time to head back home. We took the Roberts Hawaii shuttle back to the airport at around 8pm to catch our redeye flight back to Seattle.
AS 858
Honolulu (HNL) - Seattle (SEA)
Saturday, September 15, 2012
10:30 PM - 7:20 AM (+1 day)
Boeing 737
The flight back was pretty uneventful. All they offered us to eat was a small cheese plate after takeoff and a pastry before landing.
Pastry
Arriving in Seattle
Most people slept on the plane, but I spent the flight watching movies. I have trouble sleeping on planes even in a fully lie flat bed in first class. We soon arrived in Seattle and headed back to the Board Room lounge to wait for our connecting flight to Denver.
Since we arrived at the lounge early in the morning, we were able utilize the pancake machine. For those who don't know about the glorious pancake machine that Alaska has in their lounges, allow me to explain. I think it is an understatement when I say that the pancake machine is the greatest invention ever in the history of mankind. I know we have computers and cell phones and jet engines, but the pancake machine is truly a masterpiece of technology that restores my faith in the human race. In fact, I'd even pay the $450 annual fee for a Board Room membership solely to have access to the pancake machine.
Here's a video of the pancake machine in action:
I decided to have a salad to counterbalance all the pancakes
After filling my stomach with pancakes, we headed to our gate for the last flight of the trip.
AS 674
Seattle (SEA) - Denver (DEN)
Sunday, September 16, 2012
5:55 PM - 9:25 PM
Boeing 737
For the last flight, we had chicken for dinner.
Overall Impressions
It was a great trip. For the most part, Alaska is a lot better than any other US carrier I've flown. All the Alaska flight attendants and employees were very friendly and most greeted us by name. The food was pretty good. The IFE was good. My only complaint was the seat which definitely needed more padding. Thanks for reading!
