on the road to status: sfo/hnl edition. the journey home

closing out this trip, there were two things that made the journey home especially easy and more comfortable. we were scheduled to go from hnl-sfo-yvr on a red-eye. it was booked this way (compared to direct on air canada) for the extra milage, and because i had to make use of a previous travel voucher from united.

1) tsa pre-check -- it works as advertised. more importantly, it works for nexus card holders on specific airlines traveling even on international itineraries. when they scan your boarding card, you'll hear either 3 beeps (tsa pre-check) or 1 beep (regular screening). i remember the line in SFO: the regular line extended beyond the roped area, the premier access line was still at least 20 people deep (although within the roped area), whereas the tsa pre-check line had one person in front of me. on top of the speed advantage, we:

• did not have to remove shoes
• did not have to remove belt and jacket
• did not have to take out computer and liquids. 

pre-check was equally as fun in honolulu, although not as needed. that being said, we were leaving on an earlier flight (9pm). in the past, on my 10 or 11pm flight, i have seen lines extending almost to the entrance of the actual airport itself.

apparently, you can still be randomly chosen to be sent to regular screening lines. i don't know if that is done randomly when scanning your boarding pass, or upon boarding pass issuance (i.e., by not placing the "tsa pre-check" logo on top of your boarding pass). but even if you were sent to the regular screening lines, you've at least cut the line by a significant degree.

2) economy plus access -- every inch counts. i knew that the loads coming to honolulu were a lot higher than the loads exiting. so it went without saying that i would not be getting any economy plus seats when going to hawaii as a lowly star gold member. but on the way home, i knew that the loads were a lot less busy. i was hopeful for e+ seating.

in honolulu, the lounge agent helpfully offered it to me when asked, but because it meant giving up the duo seats that we already had (in a 2-5-2 configuration) for an aisle and a middle (in that same 2-5-2 configuration), we opted to keep our seats. in san francisco, things were a bit different.

"so just to let you know, star golds no longer get complimentary access to economy plus seats." when she said that, i was kind of expecting that she wouldn't give us the extra inches of legroom for free. "i'm just letting you know so that if another agent refuses you in the future, that's why." but then she smiled and typed a bit in the computer. "but here are your new boarding passes!" it's nice to get a gift like that to make the process of coming home from hawaii just a little bit easier to take.