AKL to SFO
April 20, 2019.
Leg 2 was on an Air New Zealand plane as hoped, and if we thought the Eva Air flight was good – this was another step up on that. Plenty of leg room (you actually had to lean forward slightly to be able to reach the controls on the screen), and our dedicated cabin staff were constantly prowling and plying us with drinks and snacks. Tray tables are stored in the armrest, so there is no risk of you ending up with a lapful of coffee when the person in front suddenly lays their seat back as far as they possibly can during meal service!
My only observation of premium economy seats is that as you cannot raise the armrest, you are confined width-ways when trying to find a comfortable position to sleep in (first world problems, eh?). Other than that – I can wholeheartedly say that premium economy was great - well worth the extra cost! Unfortunately however, we had minor turbulence most of the way, which meant that we both just dozed at best, and didn’t really get the few solid hours of sleep we had hoped - but, I think that in the end, that probably served in our favour, to help us get over the jet-lag pretty quickly.
Our flight into SFO apparently landed at the same time as an A380 (with probably twice as many passengers as our flight) from somewhere else in the world, and our crew advised us to get to security passport control ASAP. So we yomped it through the airport and managed to get relatively close to the front of the queue at passport control. As non-Americans, it still took us about 20 minutes or so of queuing to get through, but in that time, the arrivals hall behind us had filled with a vast sea of people. Timed that just right!
I know I said I like the electronic passport processing, using a chip embedded in the passport pages, but there was something I saw there, that I have never seen before. It looks like Americans can have a passport 'app' on their smartphone. They have a dedicated queue (that was never more than 3 people long), and it looked like they could be processed in about 30 seconds simply by waving their iPhone!
After having our finger prints and photos processed, and a brief chat and joke with the guy on security (it doesn't matter how tired and ratty you feel after the flight - try not to take it out on the security staff - they are only doing their job, and its probably not a very nice job sometimes... it costs nothing to be sociable and pleasant). then it was through to the baggage carousel, where we waited and waited for our ‘priority’ tagged bags (another benefit of premium economy) to come around. Getting a little miffed at all the other people from our flight coming through and taking their bags while we were still waiting, I eventually noticed a whole bunch of cases that had been removed from the carousel already – yes, you guessed it – all the PRIORITY bags! D’oh, I felt even more stupid than normal!
We used the 'Airtrain' - an automated monorail system that goes around the terminals, parking and car rental locations, and found our way to the Thrifty/Dollar car rental desks, and this is where things started to go south…
First, the class of car that we booked and had received confirmation for (several months earlier) wasn’t available, and they wanted to give us a bigger one. So what is the point of us booking several months in advance, we asked. Of course, they wanted to charge us extra for the bigger car, and it was a 7- seat gas guzzler - real overkill for just the two of us. When we rather loudly expressed our concerns, refused to pay any extra for what was a failure on their part, and then asked to speak with the manager – they started back-pedalling a little, and miraculously found the class of car we had originally booked - though I actually suspect it was a class down from what we had booked, as it (the cost of the car itself - keep reading...) finally came in very slightly cheaper than we expected, but the car was also a bit smaller than I was expecting (a Buick Encore vs. the Jeep Compass we booked).
Then came the shock revelation that the great rate we had got by booking well in advance, wasn't cheap because we had booked so far ahead, it was cheap because it didn’t include any insurance!! This was something that was not really made clear at the time we booked the car. After some debate over how we booked the car in the first place (they insisted we must have done it through a third party, but we had proof that we had booked it directly from their own website), they then started the process of explaining the various levels of insurance we could take out (which actually included 'none at all' they reluctantly admitted) and scare-mongering us towards the top level - which would have more than tripled the cost! We compromised on a lower level of insurance, but this still ended up more than doubling what we were expecting to pay… and then they doubled that again by putting a security deposit on our credit card as well. Despite this bad experience, we have since heard other similar horror stories (and worse) about airport car rentals - especially (but not exclusively) with the companies at the cheaper end of the spectrum, and I think that we probably got away lighter than some.
The drive from the airport to our first destination – Half Moon Bay – was a little tense. Though we originate from England, and I used to regularly drive in France and other locations in Europe, I worked out that this was the first time in about 15 years that I’ve driven on the 'wrong' side of the road, and I was doing it jet-lagged and more than a little irritated after our recent experience with the car rental. Having (just about) managed to cram our two suitcases into the very small bootspace, we threw our backpacks and other bits and bobs onto the backseat, and started to exit the rentals car park, only to be confronted with a barrier where I had to show the rental documents AND my driving license - all of which had by now been stuffed into one of the backpacks on the rear seat. I wasn't very popular with the cars behind me, when I had to stop the car and get out so that I could retrieve all the relevant documentation again, but after this, we got through the remainder of the journey without incident. I was glad that I had used Google Maps streetview quite extensively before leaving Australia, to review every junction on this particular journey, and making note of landmarks, etc., so that despite never having been there before, it felt like I knew the route fairly well.
We both feel shattered now, so after unloading the car into our room at the Beach House Hotel, Half Moon Bay, we’ve been out for a short walk along the harbour, and had our first meal at a nearby cafe/bar that is obviously very popular with the locals here at Half Moon Bay. It is called Ketch Joanne, right on the harbour front. I am not sure if perhaps Ketch means Kitchen (as in Joanne’s Kitchen), or it may be an obscure reference to the fact that every table has a bottle of genuine Heinz Ketchup.
Author's note: Actually - now that I am revisiting and updating the posts, with the benefit of hindsight and no jet-lag, I can see a sailing boat on the sign, and pictures of sailing boats in the window, and this reminded me that a Ketch is a type of sailing vessel, and this is more than likely the Ketch referred to in the name.
The wind has got up significantly since we arrived at our hotel, and was blowing in off the harbour, so everyone was inside, but the inside of Ketch Joanne was all dark wooden booths, low lighting, and country music – great atmosphere, and nice and snug with the wind blowing outside. The portions were huge, food was wholesome and hot, and service quick and with a smile. Now it’s back to the hotel for an early night I think. The weather forecast says the wind will drop overnight, and we are in for a glorious day tomorrow.
While I am sitting writing this, Karen is dropping off to sleep on the sofa. She says she will go to bed, but falls asleep on the sofa again. I am looking at this blog post and just seeing words that I can no longer recognise floating around on the screen, then realised I dropped off to sleep as well. Must make the effort... hit 'publish'... and get... into... bed!
Leg 2 was on an Air New Zealand plane as hoped, and if we thought the Eva Air flight was good – this was another step up on that. Plenty of leg room (you actually had to lean forward slightly to be able to reach the controls on the screen), and our dedicated cabin staff were constantly prowling and plying us with drinks and snacks. Tray tables are stored in the armrest, so there is no risk of you ending up with a lapful of coffee when the person in front suddenly lays their seat back as far as they possibly can during meal service!
My only observation of premium economy seats is that as you cannot raise the armrest, you are confined width-ways when trying to find a comfortable position to sleep in (first world problems, eh?). Other than that – I can wholeheartedly say that premium economy was great - well worth the extra cost! Unfortunately however, we had minor turbulence most of the way, which meant that we both just dozed at best, and didn’t really get the few solid hours of sleep we had hoped - but, I think that in the end, that probably served in our favour, to help us get over the jet-lag pretty quickly.
Our flight into SFO apparently landed at the same time as an A380 (with probably twice as many passengers as our flight) from somewhere else in the world, and our crew advised us to get to security passport control ASAP. So we yomped it through the airport and managed to get relatively close to the front of the queue at passport control. As non-Americans, it still took us about 20 minutes or so of queuing to get through, but in that time, the arrivals hall behind us had filled with a vast sea of people. Timed that just right!
I know I said I like the electronic passport processing, using a chip embedded in the passport pages, but there was something I saw there, that I have never seen before. It looks like Americans can have a passport 'app' on their smartphone. They have a dedicated queue (that was never more than 3 people long), and it looked like they could be processed in about 30 seconds simply by waving their iPhone!
After having our finger prints and photos processed, and a brief chat and joke with the guy on security (it doesn't matter how tired and ratty you feel after the flight - try not to take it out on the security staff - they are only doing their job, and its probably not a very nice job sometimes... it costs nothing to be sociable and pleasant). then it was through to the baggage carousel, where we waited and waited for our ‘priority’ tagged bags (another benefit of premium economy) to come around. Getting a little miffed at all the other people from our flight coming through and taking their bags while we were still waiting, I eventually noticed a whole bunch of cases that had been removed from the carousel already – yes, you guessed it – all the PRIORITY bags! D’oh, I felt even more stupid than normal!
We used the 'Airtrain' - an automated monorail system that goes around the terminals, parking and car rental locations, and found our way to the Thrifty/Dollar car rental desks, and this is where things started to go south…
First, the class of car that we booked and had received confirmation for (several months earlier) wasn’t available, and they wanted to give us a bigger one. So what is the point of us booking several months in advance, we asked. Of course, they wanted to charge us extra for the bigger car, and it was a 7- seat gas guzzler - real overkill for just the two of us. When we rather loudly expressed our concerns, refused to pay any extra for what was a failure on their part, and then asked to speak with the manager – they started back-pedalling a little, and miraculously found the class of car we had originally booked - though I actually suspect it was a class down from what we had booked, as it (the cost of the car itself - keep reading...) finally came in very slightly cheaper than we expected, but the car was also a bit smaller than I was expecting (a Buick Encore vs. the Jeep Compass we booked).
Then came the shock revelation that the great rate we had got by booking well in advance, wasn't cheap because we had booked so far ahead, it was cheap because it didn’t include any insurance!! This was something that was not really made clear at the time we booked the car. After some debate over how we booked the car in the first place (they insisted we must have done it through a third party, but we had proof that we had booked it directly from their own website), they then started the process of explaining the various levels of insurance we could take out (which actually included 'none at all' they reluctantly admitted) and scare-mongering us towards the top level - which would have more than tripled the cost! We compromised on a lower level of insurance, but this still ended up more than doubling what we were expecting to pay… and then they doubled that again by putting a security deposit on our credit card as well. Despite this bad experience, we have since heard other similar horror stories (and worse) about airport car rentals - especially (but not exclusively) with the companies at the cheaper end of the spectrum, and I think that we probably got away lighter than some.
The drive from the airport to our first destination – Half Moon Bay – was a little tense. Though we originate from England, and I used to regularly drive in France and other locations in Europe, I worked out that this was the first time in about 15 years that I’ve driven on the 'wrong' side of the road, and I was doing it jet-lagged and more than a little irritated after our recent experience with the car rental. Having (just about) managed to cram our two suitcases into the very small bootspace, we threw our backpacks and other bits and bobs onto the backseat, and started to exit the rentals car park, only to be confronted with a barrier where I had to show the rental documents AND my driving license - all of which had by now been stuffed into one of the backpacks on the rear seat. I wasn't very popular with the cars behind me, when I had to stop the car and get out so that I could retrieve all the relevant documentation again, but after this, we got through the remainder of the journey without incident. I was glad that I had used Google Maps streetview quite extensively before leaving Australia, to review every junction on this particular journey, and making note of landmarks, etc., so that despite never having been there before, it felt like I knew the route fairly well.
We both feel shattered now, so after unloading the car into our room at the Beach House Hotel, Half Moon Bay, we’ve been out for a short walk along the harbour, and had our first meal at a nearby cafe/bar that is obviously very popular with the locals here at Half Moon Bay. It is called Ketch Joanne, right on the harbour front. I am not sure if perhaps Ketch means Kitchen (as in Joanne’s Kitchen), or it may be an obscure reference to the fact that every table has a bottle of genuine Heinz Ketchup.
Author's note: Actually - now that I am revisiting and updating the posts, with the benefit of hindsight and no jet-lag, I can see a sailing boat on the sign, and pictures of sailing boats in the window, and this reminded me that a Ketch is a type of sailing vessel, and this is more than likely the Ketch referred to in the name.
The wind has got up significantly since we arrived at our hotel, and was blowing in off the harbour, so everyone was inside, but the inside of Ketch Joanne was all dark wooden booths, low lighting, and country music – great atmosphere, and nice and snug with the wind blowing outside. The portions were huge, food was wholesome and hot, and service quick and with a smile. Now it’s back to the hotel for an early night I think. The weather forecast says the wind will drop overnight, and we are in for a glorious day tomorrow.
While I am sitting writing this, Karen is dropping off to sleep on the sofa. She says she will go to bed, but falls asleep on the sofa again. I am looking at this blog post and just seeing words that I can no longer recognise floating around on the screen, then realised I dropped off to sleep as well. Must make the effort... hit 'publish'... and get... into... bed!
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