Maui Mileage Run - The Flight - The Military Frequent Flyer

OK, I’m not going to lie. Knowing you are going to fly for the next 20 hours is a lot easier when you know ahead of time that you have been upgraded to First for the three legs awaiting you. Another nice thing is that when you fly First Class on a long flight you know that you will get a three course meal and have plenty of time to watch movies and relax. I’ll start with a surprise at BWI (a great place to find super airfare deals) and a new livery for our Alaska Airlines plane.

After an on-time take off, we started meal service.

You can see the salad next to my complimentary Digiplayer (watching The Intern) and the menu. The salad had kale and a bunch of other stuff that I don’t much about other than it tasted pretty good. The entrée was a choice of Herb Roasted Chicken Breast or Seared Trident Cod.

I went for the chicken (on the right) while my wife had the cod. Both were excellent. So much for “typical airline food”! No pictures of the dessert, I must have eaten it too fast, but it was a delicious crème brulee.

Got into SEA a little early which gave us enough time to visit the Alaska Boardroom Lounge. The off to SAN. The flight was delayed for about an hour and the Captain came out of the cabin to entertain us and personally advise us of the delay. We all groaned when he said that the plane was not going to be fixed, but then personally led us to a new plane and we were on our way! He offered a free drink to everyone on the plane to compensate. How often do you see something like that?!

Getting in about an hour late to SAN, we didn’t particularly care as we were going to sit in the airport until our flight to Maui (OGG) which left at 0730. I had done some scouting and found the airport did not have a lounge, but looked like it had a great USO. Unfortunately, it was closed from 0000-0600 so I only got to see it briefly before having to board our next flight but have to say I was very impressed. It is located in a new building across from the modern Terminal 2 and you have to reach it by a bridge on the 2nd floor then go down to the first floor.