The only other time I've been to Hawaii was in 2002 with my family. Check me repping the white Jordan shirt and red Jordan shorts. What a baller.
Quick turnaround on blog entries - sorry for the whiplash! Also, I'm sorry to anyone who is annoyed from the onslaught of Luke related media. I'm all over the place now: this blog, Twitter, FaceBook, Instagram, writing emails, posting status updates, uploading pictures, and just generally cluttering your feeds. Hopefully, it is mostly interesting!
Anyway, yes indeed, tomorrow I'm headed off to Hawaii. You might be asking the question (okay, none of you are doing this, but whatever): "But Luke, I thought JetBlue doesn't fly to Hawaii?"
Well, dear reader, you would be right. Here's how I'm getting to Hawaii. Back in June, I was browsing the forums at the frequent flyer website FlyerTalk.com, and looking at the "Mileage Run Deals" postings. Mileage Runs are basically ways for frequent flyers to cheaply attain or sustain their elite status at various airlines. That elite status is worth a lot, trust me - I've already been upgraded to First Class three times for free this year because of my Alaska Airlines MVP status that I earned last year, and get two free bags on Alaska flights, priority boarding, and a dedicated phone line. Mileage Runs involve (usually) quick trips that grab as many flight miles as possible in a very short amount of time.
So, someone posted on the forum (I can't find the actual thread now) that Delta was having a fare sale from San Francisco to Hawaii for $230 round trip on weekends in the fall (which is obviously insane - it's somewhat rare to see that for a one way flight to or from Hawaii). I did some quick investigating, calculating, and thinking over the implications, then pulled the trigger on this itinerary, which nets me about 6,000 frequent flyer miles that I will credit to my Alaska Airlines account: Great Circle Mapper: SFO-HNL-SLC-SFO.
A total of $230 round trip to visit Honolulu for the weekend and earning some valuable miles towards re-qualifying for MVP status (though unfortunately I still have a while to go after this, but that's another story). Sign me up. I was initially worried that I would have to drop the trip entirely if I had found a teaching job (and I probably would have had to have dropped it, because it would mean taking three full days off), so I didn't book a hostel until later in the summer, when it became apparent that I probably wouldn't be teaching in the fall.
So, I'm staying at Hostelling International - Waikiki, for three nights - Friday through Sunday. Total cost? $75. Not per night. For the whole three days. So awesome - I love Hostelling International. It's about three blocks from the beach, a mile or so away from Diamond's Head Crater (which I definitely plan on checking out and taking a bunch of photos at), a few blocks away from a 24 Hour Fitness on the beachfront, and right in the center of plenty of things to do - like find a sports bar to watch my beloved Oregon Ducks play at Arizona on Saturday night. I'm also thinking that I'll find a way over to Pearl Harbor, because I would love to take some great photographs there, even if I went in 2002. Basically, three full days (I fly back to the mainland late Monday evening on a redeye) in the sun, at the beach, walking around and enjoying life. My expectations for this trip are sky high, that's for sure. Even get to fly a new aircraft (a relative rarity for me nowadays because of all my US based travel) - the Boeing 757-300!
Now, the only remaining question you may have for me is: how are you getting to San Francisco? The answer is that before I knew about the BluePass deal, I booked flights to SFO via Long Beach using my JetBlue frequent flyer points (which I value way less than Alaska miles, since Alaska has a ton of international partner awards). I used points that I got for signing up for the JetBlue credit card from American Express, which has an annual fee of $45. I didn't even use all of the points (I got 25,000 for signing up), so it's debatable whether or not the connection to San Francisco even cost that. Once I bought my BluePass I was a little bummed that I had used the points to buy the flight there instead of traveling to Boston first, but upon further reflection, that would have been a huge hassle, and the extra night of sleep in Portland, less logistical challenges, and relative ease of the plan makes it worth it in the end.
I'll hope to update later - either from Honolulu, or when I get back home! After that, I'm still trying to work out a plan, but I most certainly will be in Philadelphia on October 2nd for my first ever regular season Eagles game. Very exciting!
Last thing: I had the chance yesterday to go to a reception for the US Women's National Soccer Team in Portland at the Multnomah Athletic Club - they are playing Canada in an international friendly tonight! It was really cool to see the ladies on the team, as I am a big fan and followed them the entire World Cup. Here's a few of my favorite pictures from the evening (I only really got to talk with Stephanie Cox for a bit, before the team was ushered out):
Former University of Portland player Megan Rapinoe announced who her teammates were, in amusing fashion.
Ali Krieger, oh my goodness. I'm now on the Ali Krieger bandwagon, for sure.
A great photo of the team laughing. Check out Hope Solo and Coach Pia!
I am in awe of Hope Solo. And her parents, for naming her Hope Solo. What a name.
With Stephanie Cox! I used to watch her play at the University of Portland when my friend Ruth, who was a goalkeeper on the team, was there. Stephanie and Ruth are best friends, so that was a nice conversation starter. Very fun event!
Sidenote at the end here: how crazy is my life right now? Flying all over the world to exotic locations, meeting famous soccer players, going to incredible sporting events, seeing awesome places, hanging out with wonderful friends, coming back home to recharge and see my former students (I had fun today doing that at Madison!)... Yeah. I'm very well aware of how privileged and blessed I am. I'm excited to see what comes next! Have a great evening, everyone!
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