After the initial flight issues, we had a great vacation on Kauai. It was a little windy, rainy but since the island is one of the rainiest ones, that was part of the deal. The last day of our stay came fast.

We checked in at the Lihue airport on Thursday shortly after noon but again, we did not get our seats assigned. That was a bit worrying since we had the detour and delays a few days earlier. After some exciting minutes, the gate agent finally gave us seats. We boarded on time, but there was some complication with the on board computer and that resulted 15 minute delay. When the pilot announced that the computer was fixed and in a few minutes we'll be on our way, we believed him. But only for a few minutes - he announced that they did not have the required amount of fuel and he had to call the fuelling service to fill up the fuel tanks. Another 45 minutes and we were really on our way to San Francisco. About an hour after our departure, they abruptly stopped serving the drinks and soon the pilot announced that we were to land in Honolulu in about 20 minutes. A problem arose with one of the rotors and he had to request an emergency landing in Honolulu. We were too heavy for Lihue, and Honolulu had the longest runways to accept an overweight plane (note, we now had sufficient fuel for crossing the ocean). Luckily the fire trucks did not need to go in action, but they were all waiting for us. The pilot managed to land smoothly.

We stayed on board for an hour or so as the mechanics were trying to fix the issue. After an hour we were let into the gate area to wait there. another hour and they announced that the flight was officially cancelled and they would be rebooking us. this was not promising, since all flights were full or almost full. Ours was a full flight and they had only 15 seats on the next plane (for the first class passengers).

They told us to call the travel agents to get rebooked - then they informed us that they are automatically rebooking us and we had to go to pick up the luggage and go to the lobby area where the ticketing was. At the baggage claim they informed us that the luggage will be another 30 minutes, so we should go to the lobby area instead. We were in the first half of the line, but since they did not know what they were doing, the line did not move or moved only a tiny bit during the first hours. I called United reservation and tried rebooking our tickets. They were not aware of our emergency landing and wanted to give us tickets from Lihue and a hotel stay until the next day flight. I had to inform her that we were trying to get home from Honolulu and not from Lihue...

After she reviewed a couple of options through LA and SF, I reminded her that there were flights through Vancouver too. She told me that there were no flights from Vancouver to Halifax, so that would not work. That made me a bit upset, since I know there are several flights from Vancouver to Halifax through Toronto every day. Finally she believed me and looked up the route and managed to reserve seats on all three legs.

We had little time, so we rushed to AC ticketing to get the boarding passes. At Air Canada ticketing they did not find our reservation and it took about 15 minutes for her to finally locate it somehow. She gave us seats in the last row and got good seats on the other two flights too. We were treated well on the flight to Vancouver, they firmly believed I was a pilot or something, since we got the AC reserved seats. All AC flights were smooth and on time to Halifax. We arrived home only half a day late instead of two days late (had I accepted United's rerouting offer).

If you book with Expedia or similar online ticketing agents, make sure you read the fine prints. "You may be denied boarding unless you check-in for each flight at least 90 minutes prior to departure." Just add to this that you may be denied boarding even if you arrive more than 90 minutes earlier... Especially if they oversell the seats.

Wednesday May 11th
Los Angeles
33? 45.00' N
188? 11.16' W

Los Angeles - the port of Border Patrol Paranoia. I shall be happy to never come back to this smog-bound city…

Even in the military states like Nicaragua, the process of passing through border security and customs was benign compared the farce of the port of Long Beach, Los Angeles.
First the officials delayed the clearance of the ship for 45 minutes. Then they required everyone to come onshore for clearance… those leaving the ship, those heading out on a tour, those who were bound for Vancouver and had no plans to even go ashore in the States, the entire crew… absolutely everyone.

Two and a half hours of a slow march up a long open air ramp and then through winding lines in a blackened cavernous hall before finally being interviewed, finger-printed and photographed…
I felt bad for those disembarking here who actually wanted to make connecting flights… some missed them. The octanarians with their walkers and wheel chairs were also very stressed.

Welcome to LA?
NOT!

The only saving grace was that we had docked right beside the Queen Mary. As we stood for an hour on that open air windy ramp, I at least had binoculars and a long lens with me and was able to visually explore the grand old Dame.