Book 'em Danno! Murder One, Three Counts: The Kiss Of Death!

Oh how smug I was last night talking about our flights today and how we had a bit of a tight connection but that shouldn’t be a problem. I even said, “I hope that isn’t the kiss of death!” Well it was unfortunately.

The flight to Honolulu was bang on time and so was the American Airlines flight to Los Angeles until we were sitting at the end of the runway ready for take off. It never happened as the Captain reported a technical problem that they tried to fix unsuccessfully but eventually required a return to the gate.

Sixty minutes later he asked the passengers to give the engineer a round of applause as the problem was now fixed. A quiet hooray from me but no applause. I thought this was pushing it too far. It proved right!

Pushed back off stand and engines started, the Captain reported the problem still there. Back to stand and after another hour they declared the aircraft unserviceable and that we should disembark and go and spend $15 each courtesy of AA. We had an ice cream each which cost nearly $17 and used the rest for a packet of chips (crisps back home), a bottle of water and a chocolate chip cookie to help sustain us in our hour of need.

As I write this, they are going to hijack an inbound aircraft and have suggested that we should be able to depart at 1800, exactly five hours after we should have left! Would you believe the delay is the exact same figure as the flight time so we will be leaving at the same time as we should have arrived in Los Angeles! We are genuinely chilled though and stress free unlike many of the passengers who have missed connecting flights. We feel sorry for them and for families with very young children where delays like this one can prove a real nightmare.

For us, have to pick up our hire car and drive up to Bakersfield but by my reckoning if all goes well, we should be in bed by 0200 in the morning. I will now keep my mouth shut and hopefully be next reporting on our trek through Death Valley.

I do love travel.

Update at 2205 Honolulu Time - We are still in Hawaii!!

The plane that replaced the broken plane also became broken so American Airlines have now had to put us up overnight in the Hilton Waikiki and hopefully we will fly out in the morning.

We have spent 8 hours getting on and getting off planes since landing in Oahu at 1115. It has been a disaster and AA have demonstrated tonight just how not to manage a crisis. Particularly poor throughout have been the flight crew who have provided a valuable demonstration of how not to keep your passengers informed of the problems. Throughout the whole of the 8 hours delay, they have not been seen which I think is disgraceful. I will say no more on the subject.

Will be re-planning in my dreams tonight and hoping that our flight goes in the morning.

Update from LA?? I'm not holding my breath.