Pohnpei to Kosrae

Continental Micronesia CS956 | PNI/KSA
Economy Class
N14249 | Boeing 737-800
ATD/1335 | ATA/1412

My client arranged for a 1045 pickup from our hotel. It was a little too early for my liking, but I went with it anyway. We drove through Kolonia town one last time, and then along the causeway that links the airport to the main island. Along the way, there were a few signs admonishing people against drinking and driving, but interestingly there are no DUI laws in Pohnpei.

Arrived at the terminal at 1100. Check-in was already open. CO is the only carrier operating into PNI (and KSA, for that matter), and both desks were theirs. I was surprised to see that they used computers to check-in. I somehow expected CO to use manual check-in given the telecommunications structure at PNI and the fact that they only process relatively small numbers of passengers. I asked for an aisle seat (American Express Travel couldn’t get me an assigned seat) and he gave me 12C on the exit. I was then advised to wait for the airport tax collector to arrive, and the check-in agent advised that he would hold my boarding pass until she arrived.

While waiting for the airport tax collector, I browsed through the souvenir stands. It housed the usual collections of knick-knacks, but there was a random collection of about ten used CDs selling for $5 each. They included Jane’s Addiction’s Ritual De Lo Habitual (alas, not with the classic cover artwork but the version with the white album cover and Perry Ferrell’s diatribe about “intellectual mosquitoes” on the inside) and a Steppenwolf CD (can’t remember which album). While waiting for the airport tax collector, one of the hotel staff came to say goodbye, and the Assistant to the Director of the Economic Development Authority came and gave us cooked mangrove crabs to take back with us!

The airport tax collector finally came at 1210. I was sweating buckets by then because the airport check-in lounge is not air-conditioned. I paid my $10 and got my boarding pass. I then went to the restroom, only to find red betel nut spit all over the urinals. Ewwww. Back in the check-in area, a tourism board employee asked me to fill in a survey form, and I gladly did so.

Walking into the air-conditioned security screening area at 1245 was a relief. There were no x-ray machines there (same as KSA and MAJ) and all hand luggage was hand searched. I was asked to turn on my laptop. Fortunately, I did not set off the metal detector, so I avoided getting wanded.

The departure hall was a small room. On one wall were clocks displaying the time in various cities, but almost all of them were not working. There were also two Air Nauru posters (are they still flying?). There were about 40 passengers in the departure hall.

Boarding began at about 1300, and the airport security staff starting doing random hand searches as people boarded, which didn't make sense as the security screening area was only 50 feet away and nobody could go anywhere else from there. I got selected for the random search and I had to turn on and shutdown my laptop all over again. This time I had to take off my shoes too.

Walking through the bright sunshine to board N14249, I walked on to see the US ambassador to the FSM in BusinessFirst. A man was in my seat – 12C – and he asked if I could take 12D because that was his assigned seat and his wife was in 12B. I said ok. Behind us on 14BCD were three Mormon missionaries, and a very large man was in 14F. At the exit, I noticed that some of the exit door instructions were in Spanish. (Bear in mind my earlier comments about the inconsistent use of different languages in the signage on the outbound aircraft). As I got myself settled in, a flight attendant walked by with entry forms for KSA.

Aircraft door was closed by 1330, and we started taxiing at 1335. The aircraft taxied to the western end of the runway 09 and we took off in an easterly direction. 11D was marked “For Flight Attendant Use Only” and one of the flight attendants sat there for takeoff. There was also a mechanic on board and he had a seat in the forward section of coach. The load on the sector was about 60% – there was at least one empty seat per row. Flying time to KSA was about 1 hour.

Drinks were served while we were still climbing. I got a pack of mini pretzels and a whole can of diet coke. The napkins this time had a floral design – on the outbound flights we had some advertising online check-in and some advertising the fact that CO’s flight attendants spoke over 30 languages.

During the flight, the ambassador walked through the cabin talking to the Americans on board. He only went back to his seat as we were descending into KOS, and he disembarked there. The large man in 14F snored loudly throughout the flight. We descended through cloud cover and landed smoothly, and the snoring man did not wake up! After landing, we turned around on the runway – that was when I saw that we stopped just before the “piano keys” at the end of the runway – and taxied to the terminal.Read more