Preflight:

There is no doubt that recently the airlines have been cutting back. I guess I still didn’t expect the cuts to be as noticeable in First Class, but they were.

First let me say that this was our honeymoon trip, so we didn’t want to leave anything to chance, we purchased the first class tickets full-fare.

After paying so much, we wanted the service that went along with it, and were disappointed before we even got on the flight.

The gate agent sent us to the first class lounge to relax before we boarded the flight. The big downer about the Hawaiian first class lounge is that there was no booze. I’m left to wonder why they would even bother to set up a F/C lounge if the perks were just extra peanuts and free coffee/juice.

I asked the person in the F/C lounge if there were macadamia nuts at least, or some sort of Hawaiian themed food, but alas, there was none.

Needless to say, we didn’t stay in the lounge very long before we headed down to the main terminal area at LAX. We at least had to have a couple of Bloody Marys with the great unwashed public (i.e. the non-First Class people). Those drinks hit the spot!

Boarding:
We took every advantage to cut the line, and use the velvet rope privileges that go along with the first class tickets. This means that we were able to board the plane first and observe the rude behavior of a couple of other fellow passengers while they inconvenienced everyone in line. The big drama came when this high maintenance chick couldn’t put her backpack in her preferred storage space. As we settled into our seats, we were able to catch the attention of one of the 2 f/c flight attendants, a female who was long in the tooth finally gave us our champagne and guava pre-departure mimosas.