Here it is - John's original, uncensored, uncut story.

Friday, Feb. 18, 12:45pm:

Called UA and verified that Flight 61 was leaving on time, then got on San Jose Light rail at Cisco campus (the locals refer to it as Cisco City because it is so large these days <g>), rode the Tasman West line to the endpoint in Mountain View, CA. That Light Rail station is adjacent to the CalTrain line that goes between San Jose and San Francisco. Light Rail is essentially an aboveground "subway" (or "underground" for our British friends), with overhead electric lines which the train connects to via a pantograph. The tracks cross streets and intersections on the streets of the city, and the trains have human drivers - they're not automated.

1:16pm:

Boarded a northbound CalTrain. These are full-size diesel trains, with the passenger cars built in the 1950s but refurbished and in very good shape. Most trains have one or more special cars at the end which are designed to hold bicycles. There are conductors on board, and you buy your ticket from them. The tickets are the old-fashioned paper variety, and the conductor uses a hole punch (with lightning speed) to mark the various fields on the ticket. The CalTrain line is operated jointly by the public transportation agencies for the San Francisco and San Jose on a non-profit basis, and is the only direct public transit between the two cities (about 45 miles apart).

2:04pm:

Arrived at the Milbrae station, got off the train and right onto the waiting Caltrain-SFO shuttle bus, provided free for riders of CalTrain.

2:16pm:

Arrived at the door of the North Terminal at San Francisco Airport. Long line at the UA counter, but I expected that and had plenty of time before my flight.

2:40pm:

Checked my large suitcase at the counter, got my boarding passes, and asked the agent if the plane is still leaving on time. He instantly says yes, then he looks at a display and says, "Oh, actually this shows a 2 hour delay. But, it might not be that long. Just go to the gate and keep checking." Not a good sign, but I'm sort of committed now - my checked bag already disappeared into maw of the baggage handling belt. Had to use actual "paper tickets" for this flight, instead of the "electronic tickets" I prefer, because UA "code shares" with Aloha Airlines for the inter-island flights in Hawaii, and Aloha doesn't support electronic tickets yet!

2:45pm:

Walked to the security checkpoint, emptied lots of metal, batteries, tools, etc., out of my pants pockets, made it through the metal detector. As usual, the guard looking at the x-ray machine gave a cry of alarm when he saw the contents of my carry-on bag, so they had to do a chemical swab test for bomb-making materials. (My carry-on bag contains my Kodak DC-290 digital camera, my HP200LX palmtop PC, my company laptop PC, various AC "wall-wart" power supplies, batteries, and even my "road warrior" toolkit (25 ft. modular phone cord, tools, copper wire, phone plugs/jacks, etc.)

2:50pm:

Get to the gate for flight UA61, and see that the monitor shows the original 3:20pm departure time, but also shows an estimated departure time of 7:20pm, a bit more than the 2 hours the UA employee told me when I checked in!

2:55pm-8:30pm:

The CNN Airport Channel is playing on a nearby TV monitor, and I see a weather report about how snow has shut down Chicago O'Hare airport, a major hub for UA. I wasn't even aware of the bad weather in the central U.S. (when you live in San Jose, which has climate instead of weather, you tend to forget about such things <g>).

There were (of course) depressingly long lines at all the UA "customer service" counters in the North Terminal, so rather than go stand in one to try to rebook to a competitor, I just decided to wait it out until the later departure time. Called Jeanne Prickett at work and warned her to check with UA before heading to the Honolulu airport to pick me up, and that my estimated arrival time was now 10:20pm in Hawaii. Then I used my (only) laptop PC battery getting some stuff done for the meetings I was to attend the following week, and occupied an hour calling friends/family from a payphone. I also played with all the exhibits in a children's play center at one end of the terminal - one of them was a fascinating "mini-tornado" using a mist of water rising out of a grate near floor level, which was sucked into a tornado funnel cloud by a fan up above.

At some point I noticed that the departure time on the monitor changed to 10:55pm, which would get me into Honolulu at 2am local time. I phoned Jeanne's home and reached Hugh (nice to hear a deep southern U.S. accent again - they're pretty rare in San Jose <g>) and gave him the bad news, telling them that I'd just take a cab from the airport to their house, so they didn't have to get up in the middle of the night. They weren't even sure I could get a cab at that time of the night, and said that they'd meet me. Ate more junk food, found an obscure corner in the terminal where there was an AC outlet, and plugged in my laptop PC to recharge the battery.

8:30pm:

Eventually, the UA staff showed up at the gate that the flight was supposed to leave from, put in an extra "portable" counter with another terminal, and announced that the flight was cancelled, that the plane still hadn't left Chicago. People of course tried to queue up at the counter to find out how they were going to get to Hawaii, but the UA "lead" employee decided to try a test of wills, and ordered everyone to vacate the counter, and that they would call people up to the counter by name. People near the front of the line didn't want to move, so there was some grumbling, and after a few minutes the UA employee succeeded in browbeating people to back off (but her attitude no doubt caused even more people to write letters of compliant than had already been talking about doing so).

Then, instead of calling names, they called for people who were holding first class tickets, then they called for people who had "premier" status with UA frequent flyer mileage. Once again a queue formed, and people who weren't of those two lofty designations hopped in, and the UA employee grew somewhat upset...

9:00pm:

They finally got around to dealing with the people in steerage (coach class <g>). My name was called and I fought my way through the crowd, only to discover that the UA employees had made choices on my behalf without consulting me. They had already used the electronic online reservation system to book me on a special flight that they were arranging for Saturday morning, said I had a "guaranteed seat," and they handed me a sheet of paper entitling me to a free room in a local hotel. They directed me to find "Door 1" at the front of the North Terminal, and wait there for the hotel shuttle bus.

I would have preferred to head home to San Jose for the night, but by the time I took the train home, and came back very early in the morning, it just seemed easier to take the hotel room. Plus, UA was holding my checked bag hostage. There were already more than a hundred people standing around outside Door 1, and it was evident that the majority of them were waiting for the same hotel shuttle bus that I was. Each time a shuttle bus showed up, there would be a surge of people to check to see if it was the one they were waiting for, and I could see that it would be a real fight to get a seat.

I discussed this with another guy standing there, and he said that the hotel wasn't far away, and I offered to split the cost of a cab with him to get there. The way we figured it, we'd get to the hotel ahead of the crush of people and not have to wait in another line once we got there. So we wandered off, and eventually found the taxi stand, where there was a short line. Once we got a cab, we told the driver where we wanted to go, and he asked us for directions, since he didn't know where it was. (It appeared from his accent and comments that he was a new arrival to our country. <g>) The other guy thought he knew where it was, so of course we ended up getting lost. The driver called on the radio to his dispatcher, and eventually got directions.

9:30pm:

We arrived at the hotel and only had to stand in a short line. UA had arranged for a room, and a $15 meal credit at the hotel restaurant, which was a 24 hour coffee shop & short order joint.

The hotel appeared to have been built in the mid-1950s from the décor, and some attempt had been made to keep it renovated, but it definitely wasn't a five-star sort of joint. (I later found a framed article on a wall that showed the grand opening of the hotel in 1956, when it cost the then-lordly sum of $4 million to build.)

I wasn't hungry after all the airport junk food, and decided to save my meal ticket for an early breakfast, suspecting I'd need sustenance to keep going when I had to return to the airport and get a seat on the "special flight."

11:00pm:

Went back to the lobby out of curiosity, and sure enough, the hotel shuttle buses (a pair of 15 passenger vans) were still unloading people, and the line to check in was out the door.

5:00am:

Got up, showered, and went to the restaurant, had a pretty good breakfast. Had a conversation with a girl with a British accent who was also supposed to be on the ill-fated UA61. She had lived her whole life in London, and was headed for Hawaii to meet up with her boyfriend. For some reason they had booked separately for the same day, and had both left London on Friday morning, and had arrived around noon at SFO. His flight left about two hours before hers, and he tried talking her into changing to his flight, but he was on Northwest, and she was on UA, and it would have been a lot of trouble. <g>

She said that she couldn't sleep at all last night in her hotel room, because the room door opened up onto the outdoors, rather than to an interior hallway as it would in a proper hotel. She said that she was just waiting for a crazed madman to break through that single barrier and get her in her room. (Obviously she either watches too many Hollywood movies or has read the NRA web site. <g>) Even rather nice hotels in the U.S. often have rooms which open up to the outside (for example, the hotel I'm staying at here in Maui right now), but she said that she had never even seen such a hotel in London.

6:30am:

Went to get on the hotel shuttle bus (I had reserved a seat for 6:30am the night before) and found that it was already full - people who had NOT reserved a seat had crammed on. I raised a bit of a fuss, and the staff started checking names. We ended up putting more than a full load in anyway, but no one was complaining - we all just wanted to get back to the airport.

6:50am:

Back at SFO, the line at the UA front check-in counter is huge, thanks to all the problems the previous day. (UA is especially susceptible to bad weather in the continental U.S., since their main hub is in Chicago.) I got in line with several of my fellow travelers from the hotel, then I noticed that I already had what appeared to be a boarding pass in my envelope, stuffed in there the night before by the UA staff. So I decided to forego the line, and headed up to the correct gate. My new friends hadn't been given any confirmation like that the night before (to their disgust), so they decided to stay in line. The flight was scheduled to leave at 10:00am.

9:00am:

Huge line has formed at the gate counter for the flight, which is to be on a 747 that just pulled up to the gate. Gate was used for earlier flights, so only one hour was allowed to process all these people! (A 747 holds a LOT of people!) I finally noticed that there was no seat assignment on the "boarding pass" that I was handed the previous night, so I get on the tail end of the line. A husband/wife get behind me, and look appalled at the line. Turns out that they were scheduled to fly out later on Saturday on a different flight, and lived in San Francisco - this was the first "leg" of their trip, so they hadn't been stranded the day before like most of us in the line. UA had called them at home on Friday night at 10pm and offered them a free upgrade to business class if they would change to this earlier flight (apparently UA was worried about not having a full plane, or perhaps they wanted more "slack" in their schedule later in the day to handle other problems sure to crop up).

9:45am:

Line moving slowly forward, and the UA employees at the counter were heard to say that people on the cancelled UA61 from yesterday were on "standby" for this flight, which raised an outcry from all of them still in line. However, when I got up to the counter they gave me a seat ("middle seat" in the group of four seats between the aisles in the 747, but I wasn't complaining at that point). Gate attendants announce repeatedly that no UA employees will be allowed on this flight, so if any are in the line, please get out.

10:15am:

Boarded the airplane. Noticed that the girl from London had been upgraded to business class, but she probably deserved it, since she had started far earlier in the day than I had on Friday.

10:40am:

Plane took off.

10:55am:

Second officer on the plane makes a public address announcement, asking if there is a doctor on board...

11:10am:

Second officer makes PA announcement asking if there is anyone with medical experience on board, and if anyone has injectable insulin to please notify a flight attendant. I smell trouble, as does my companion to my right, one of the group I got to know the previous day.

The fellow seated to my left is new to me - turns out that he's a native of Hawaii (his grandparents emigrated from Japan around 1900). He has a physics degree, but his current occupation is owner of his own company, which makes surfing gear (clothing).

11:30am:

Second officer makes PA announcement asking if there is anyone on board who has pills for diabetes.

12:30noon:

My fellow passenger points out that the sun was on one side of the airplane a minute ago, and now it is on the other side - obviously the pilot has turned around and is headed back for the Mainland.

12:50pm:

All the passengers are aware that we have turned around, due to a few alert ones pointing this out. The flight attendants apparently inform the pilot of this, and he finally announces on the PA that "we are turning around due to a medical emergency" - 20 minutes after the fact. He says that a UA customer service representative will meet the plane to talk with us after we land, but only after a medical crew takes the girl off.

I hear a passenger talking behind me - turns out that he had some medical training and had looked at the girl in trouble. She actually admitted that she had knowingly gotten on the plane with no insulin... said that "there weren't any drugstores open when she looked for them before heading to the airport that morning." I wondered if UA could charge her for their huge expenses they would no doubt incur from her stupidity.

2:30pm:

Landed at SFO (quickest descent I've ever seen on a big jet!). Taxied to a gate, and everyone was ordered to stay in their seats while the emergency medical crew came on board and took the girl off. She was conscious and looked ill & embarrassed as she was taken off in a wheelchair - appeared to be in her mid-20s (she won't live a long life if she continues to be so cavalier about her diabetes!).

Customer service representative comes on board, says that after a 30 minute delay to refuel, we'll take off again for Hawaii. No one is allowed to leave the plane. There are no Airfones (tm) on this plane, so I can't call Jeanne to give her an update. Of course, she's in Mensa, so she'll probably call the airport and check on the flight status before leaving to pick me up. <g>

3:15pm:

Customer service representative comes back on board, and informs us that they have to find a new flight crew - the current crew isn't permitted to stay on duty for the amount of time it will take to get to Honolulu. The new crew will be ready to go at 3:45pm. UA no doubt knew that a half-hour ago, but typical for them, they didn't tell us, probably so we wouldn't clamor to get off and demand to be reticketed, or get our money back. UA also announces that the meals on board will be too old to serve once we're back in the air again, there is no time to get more meals for the plane, so they'll give us $10 credit for food and let us off to fend for ourselves at the handful of food joints in the SFO North Terminal.

We had been flying on the plane for three and a half hours on the first trip, and the first class passengers were fed, but not the passengers in steerage (although there was certainly time to do so - who knows why the crew didn't do it?)

3:45pm:

Everyone is back at the plane - many without food, as the crowd from the 747 overwhelmed the ability of the dispirited customer service workers at the restaurants to dish out food. I managed to reach Jeanne on a payphone and told her my new estimated arrival time - 7pm Hawaii time.

4:15pm:

Plane lifts off from the runway.

4:30pm:

Flight attendants give us liquids (soda, water, no free alcoholic drinks <g>), and packages of cheese & crackers. Start a movie, hand out free headsets. Just like the last movie, the first twenty or so minutes the picture is poor, as the flight attendants try to adjust the tracking.

5:20pm:

Kid sitting in the row behind me is disastrously sick, and has no idea that there's an "airsickness bag" in the seat pocket in front of him. Flight attendants come along and help his mother clean him up. I have a long (and interesting conversation) about boating & the seas around the Hawaiian islands with the guy to my left (the native).

6:20pm:

Kid is violently ill again. The various medical "authorities" who attempted to help the diabetic girl show up to check out the kid. Someone provides some Pedialyte for him (although I suspect that it might be best just to not give him anything for a couple of hours). Mother declares that the plane will NOT be turning around just because her son is upchucking.

7:00pm:

A fellow passenger mentions that there is a girl sitting at the back of the plane who was to have been married in Honolulu on Saturday afternoon, and had expected to get there on Friday night, so she missed her own wedding!

7:40pm (Hawaii time now):

Plane lands in Honolulu - passengers cheer. I now know from talking to others who flew to Hawaii that UA (and possibly other airlines) normally has a "guess the exact time to the halfway point" contest on these flights, and gives out bottles of champagne to everyone who hits it within plus/minus of one minute. No contest for the long-suffering passengers on this 747 though... perhaps because I saw a flight attendant take back three bottles of champagne to the bride-to-be.

8:00pm:

Plane has taxied to the gate, and most people obey the orders to stay in their seats so those who need to make a tight connection can get off first. I get off, and Hugh & Jeanne greet me (Jeanne even had a lei for me <g>).

8:15pm:

Amazingly enough, my checked bag is already waiting at the baggage pickup area - it was apparently sent ahead on one of the flights that UA chose not to put me on earlier.

8:45pm:

Jeanne, Hugh & I arrive at the restaurant they picked out, a place called "A Pacific Place." Excellent food & company. I had the roast suckling pig, and taking Jeanne's advice had the fresh (locally grown) raspberries with cream and brown sugar. Best raspberries I've ever eaten (and especially a contrast with the second-rate raspberries which appear to be the only ones available in Silicon Valley since I moved there).

11:00pm:

We arrive at the Hawaii School for the Deaf and Blind, and Jeanne & Hugh's house. We're all tired, so we go straight to bed - I get the nice, comfy guest bedroom with private bath. <g>

8:00am:

I have breakfast with Jeanne & Hugh, and Jeanne gives me a brief tour of the 5 acre campus of the school, then she drives me to the airport on her way to church. We take a brief drive around Diamondhead, beautiful scenery, but I don't have time to see it this time around... interestingly, we take an "Interstate" highway on our way to the airport. <g>

10:40am:

Fly from Honolulu to Maui via Aloha Air. I'm supposed to meet a co-worker at the airport at Maui, and drive him to the meeting hotel. His flight on United Airlines is an hour late...

To Be Continued (when I have time)...