Escape to the tropics

Cashing in the American Airlines air miles I'd spent the previous two years collecting – a small part of the 700 billion dollars worth that have been issued by airlines over the years – I travelled a 1/3 of the way round the world to escape the on set of winter in London – which appears to have finally arrived… I hope it remains a little know secret that for the relatively small number of 125K AA miles, you can get a return first class ticket to anywhere in the USA – which includes Hawaii! Down side is that there are very few seats available at that rate of that longest of long hauls – so you have to book as soon as the system allows – 300 days in advance – and be flexible! If you are careful when you purchase them, you can buy 60K AA miles most years – and closing the gap between what you can buy in two years and 125K for that seat at the front of the plane is relatively easy with a couple of hotel stays… The front of the an AA triple 7 isn’t the most luxurious of 1st class options – but there is always a reason why one service is less expensive than the others, even if the purchase is in air miles… And it is hard to be that critical when you get a five course meal with accompanying fine wines as the 10+ hours from LHR to LAX allows me to catch up with 3 films as I stretched out on a seat that would go completely flat if needed – I’ll be taking advantage of that on the overnight return journey…

Switching to an internal flight for the 5 1/2 hour fly over the pacific towards a number of dots in the middle of the ocean meant downsizing to a 757 – AA appears to be running some of the original 757s on this route – possibly one of the few places the in flight entertainment is displayed on a CRT rather than an LCD these days! But having left home almost a full day before – chasing the sun round the world, after my third in flight meal of the day served with an engaging aloha spirit – I was soon giving into sleep…

Landing in Honolulu I was meet by a wall of warm humid air in the open walk ways between the gates and the baggage reclaim – reassurance that I’d well and truly escaped the fog, rain and generally miserable weather almost 24 hours travelling behind me….