I will investigate and report back 
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A guy in my area with a family of 5 (3 very young kids) recently told me that they booked a full row of 6 seats for their recent California trip. I don’t know how he did it, but there must be a away to get it done.
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100%
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You generally have to call to do that bc you’d have to book both seats in the same passenger’s name.
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10 min from airport. DS first time being the airport chauffeur; it was rough. But saved us $200+ in parking
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Who did you fly with? We are going to LAX in a couple weeks. Hawaiian airlines which is… alright. Just OK. I have priority on Alaska but their prices have been not great. And they are limited in and out of LA.
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We were on Delta. They changed our flights on us. What we found is that 5-hour legs (like to LAX from Hawaii) are in smaller aircraft w/o meals. Last year we were on American and flew non-stop from Charolette, larger aircraft and meals. On our way out we we flew from Mpls to HNL (although the food was gross) it was a larger aircraft. And we felt less like sardines on the larger plane than the single bodies we flew in on the way home.
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TSA and groping… why do we need to talk about this? b/c it’s awful and too many of us have had to deal w/ it. I think their screeners are set incorrectly. @dianelynn @gingerSnaps543222 and I can’t remember who else; sorry. If you place your feet on the outside of the yellow feet, inside that tube screener, it will help. The HI TSA asked me to narrow my stance and I said that another TSA, in MN, had told me to do this before to avoid being groped. Yep, I used the word groped w/ the TSA to help them understand… she laughed nervously and let me be. I got away w/ only have my waist touched very briefly that time 
This is our second trip to Aulani in as many years. The kids really liked it and are considering buying their own DVC contract. Last year I complained about the lack of healthy food choices and that hasn’t changed, but it didn’t bother me as much this year. Maybe b/c we grocery shopped appropriately to accommodate that. We loved trying out places to eat around the island and will do that more again next time.
We will probably go every two years instead of every year b/c kids want to come w/… oh darn It was wonderful spending so much time w/ them. And the dedicated 2bv was perfect for 5 introverts that had their own space as needed 
NEXT TIME: we will pack less clothes b/c w/d in room, pack our own spices for cooking so we don’t need to buy them there. I need to find an underwater camera too. Having a room for the last day was fabulous b/c we didn’t have to rush to pack up and leave. We swam and had a leisurely lunch before heading out to the airport in the evening. The water was really clear in the lagoon on the last morning, and we saw all kinds of colorful and interesting fish. The boat ppl (catamaran excursions) caught an octopus and were showing kids on the beach; they did let it go.
Using Benadryl to switch to Hawaii time helped a lot but I’m already back on EST back home. Fiona is closing in… maybe… and HHN, staying at Lowes is next week. I’m already tired.
Thanks for following along. Ask questions as needed. And a special thanks to @Peggy808 for all her fabulous island details and guidance.
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I just do whatever they say. If one says do it this way now I do that. If next time another says do it that way I do that.
Anyway glad it was such a nice trip for all of you!!
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I get this, it was a risk to talk back, but when I’ve had such a negative experience too many times I was going to do whatever I could to avoid another.
I am flying Hawaiian home because they have a direct flight from Honolulu to Austin. They are the only ones and it’s only certain days of the week. We are flying out United because we’re going to Osaka first and they are one of only two airlines with a single stop from Austin. American went thru LAX and had a 6.5 hour layover so United thru San Fran with a nerve wracking 1.5 hour layover but a much much better airport where you don’t have to go thru security again (seriously what is wrong with you lax) to fly international was really our only choice. I prefer less stops to anything else like airline and I avoid LAX like the plague after having flown twice to other countries out of it and have to freaking leave one terminal and wait in another huge security line. Does any other airport make you do that? Not any that I’ve ever been to. I just literally have no clue why they would do that to people!
Oh yeah we’re also flying Hawaiian from Tokyo to Honolulu because it was the cheapest and the only nonstop besides air Japan.
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I really dislike LAX too b/c the USO is across the street from the airport so I’m forced to hang in the airport or go through TSA screening again. When we landed from HNL yesterday, we were lucky that our gate for the second leg of our trip was just 3 gates away. Still had a 4 hr layover 
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Yeah I’ve twice had to walk out of one terminal into the international one (that my brain wants to call Tom
Brady terminal lol) and the security line took over an hour to get thru both times and just confounds me. I’ve done this in the first airport. Why again? Why no internal train or bus or something?
But to just go to DLR or if you’re flying the same airline domestic and don’t have to leave the terminal I’m okay with it. It’s huge but it operates better than Newark which every single flight I’ve ever taken from there has to circle the airport for an hour before landing, has to taxi for a bit before a gate is open and has to sit in a 30 jet deep line to take off taking about an hour of just sitting on the runway. It’s on list too of airports to avoid if possible. But again direct would beat out that logic. My logic there is every connection is another chance for an issue and getting stuck. If I’m gonna get stuck I want it to be at home or in my destination.
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Ya know flying into our first mainland Chinese airport was terrifying to me. That customs line and the customs officers are no joke. And they fingerprint you and take your photo and use that photo at every airport to identity you. It’s freaky. And even they didn’t feel me up. Lol.
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Oh, they were making an announcement about this photo ID process at the gate next to us (going to Calgary)
We bought an extra seat when we flew to China to adopt DD19. But that was … 19 years ago! Not sure exactly how we booked it.
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So bummed you had to leave beautiful Hawaii! But it looked like you had an amazing trip!
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We really did and all of us wanted to stay longer. Unfortunately, it was book ended by flying (too long travel days) Rude wake up call back to reality 
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I know I was thinking about this. If I just wanted to pay for an extra seat between me and hubby so I could lie down that way. But how does one do that? Will the airlines allow you to book two seats in one name? I ended up paying the $$$$ for the lie down seat from Tokyo to Honolulu cuz it’s overnight. Other flights I just got “extra comfort”
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