[Bath_VIP]

Thanks MaxGeorge, I checked seatguru and it says it is only 36″ which is quite poor for F. Therefore I booked Hawaiian SFO-HNL for $935 rtn in F which has a seat pitch of 46″ and I can earn Virgin miles on it. Very pleased with that.

[maxgeorge]

Good for you. Hawaiian have a sale on right now, too, for the Food and Wine Fest.

Enjoy your visit to Hawaii. If you have time, nip on an interisland flight over to Kaua’i.

That’s the island right out at the far end, the one with those dramatic cliffs, Na Pali.

Rather quieter than Oahu or Maui, a bit more upmarket. Favourite getaway of the rich and reclusive, viz. George Clooney, Graham Nash, et al.

And me. I’m the old geezer with the G&T at the bar.

[Communipaw]

By all means, try Alaska Airlines. You’ll like the service:

https://www.alaskaair.com/

[julmops]

Flew HNL-LAX with United in domestic First … Nothing to call home for to be honest … I keep on hearing very good stuff about Hawaiian, even in their Economy Comfort section …

[Bath_VIP]

I will try and add a trip report to this thread when I take the flight.

[dutchyankee]

If it isn’t too late for your booking window, I would suggest you book Hawaiian. They have an excellent reputation, operate A330’s on most of their continent routes as well as 767’s, and their on board food and service is highly rated. Their seating is far more comfortable in First than their competitors, as already noted AA use tired 757’s with domestic F seating, and while I agree Alaska is an excellent airline, you will be in a typical domestic First seat on a narrowbody 737. I would suggest Hawaiian above all others mentioned, unless somehow you could book onto Air New Zealand or Qantas as they have had in the past some flights from California going to their respective countries stopping in HNL, however not sure if these still operate at all.

[mkcol74]

As previously noted don’t forget to check out http://www.aa.com/i18n/aboutUs/ourPlanes/airbus-a321.jsp which is what American are now increasingly using on the LAX-HNL sectors.
While the domestic First on the 757 is what I flew on last month on the same sectors isn’t anything to get excited about, it was sufficient – this A321 product is significantly better.

[Bath_VIP]

mkcol, AA are using A321s on the HNL route but not the transcon version.

dutchyankee, I have already booked Hawaiian, see my earlier post.

[mkcol74]

Yup I’m aware it’s not the A321T which is why I’d linked to the relevant page. It just seems some are judging AA on product which is being eradicated.

Enjoy Hawaiian – will be interesting to read what you think of them.

[dutchyankee]

Sorry Bath_VIP, my mistake as I came late to the thread. I think you made the right decision.

[AlohaHonolulu]

Try to get on UA’s 777 from SFO. They have them from time to time, usually as a result of a cancelled flight but you will get the international version of Business/First (folds flat) and the Global First which are far, far superior to their usual flights. If not, Hawaiian’s your next best bet.

[Bath_VIP]

Finally I am back in circulation with my trip report for Hawaiian Airlines from San Francisco to Honolulu! Flight was in First class on their A330 for a price of under $1000 round trip. Outbound flight was from SFO, inbound was to OAK. Here were the key points for both trips combined.

BOOKING
We booked online on the Hawaiian Airlines site and played around with a number of permutations before confirming. There are a lot of flights to & from all 3 bay airports but the site lists each airport separately. It also merges direct and indirect flights so it can take a bit of hunting to get the right itinerary. I wanted to avoid the 767 that is used sometimes as the seat pitch is larger on the A330. Also note that there is no facility to enter the frequent flyer number of a partner airline (Virgin in my case), only for Hawaiian Airlines. This meant I had to claim the miles direct from Virgin after the trip which they did without fuss.

CHECKIN
As this was our honeymoon, it got off to a bad start when we were charged for overweight bags. First class passengers can take 2 bags of 50lb each for free, so we thought we would be OK with 1 bag each. Both turned out to be overweight and whilst one was forgiven they wouldn’t forgive both. Hawaiian are extremely strict on weight limits as we found out on the return leg. We bought a 3rd case and there was much shuffling of items at HNL before it was all OK.

There are separate checkins for First class but at HNL this is in an odd location and we couldn’t find it so we checked in via Economy. In any case your boarding passes and luggage tags have to be attached by yourself by using autocheckin and then dropping the bags off.

LOUNGES
There is no lounge for First class at SFO. At HNL there is a lounge but it is small and was very crowded with limited facilities. I wouldn’t bother in future.

BOARDING
Separate lines are used for F passengers. It is worth noting that with multiple islands in Hawaii, it appears that Hawaiian flies their aircraft out in pairs. Our flight to HNL left at the same time as the flight to OGG (Maui) so clearly if one plane goes U/S they can put passengers on the other flight.

SEATING
This is 2-2-2 with 46″ seat pitch. This makes a real difference and I found the seat very comfortable. The leg rest controls took a while to figure out though and I never quite got that right. There is a separate place for drinks with tables and entertainment folded away in the arm rests. I didn’t bother using my laptop so I didn’t look for a power point but I think there may have been one to share between the seats.

ENTERTAINMENT
The cabin wall had monitors with flight information so I didn’t feel the need to use the IFE to monitor the flight. There was a decent selection of films and TV shows and I was kept more than entertained during the 5 hour flights. I will say that the Hawaiian safety video was a little different than most and made it memorable.

FOOD & DRINK
On boarding we had the choice of cocktails or champagne and this was regularly topped up. First drinks were accompanied with a tasty selection of nuts and then followed with 3 course meals. The outbound flight departed at 0930 so the meal was described as brunch whilst the inbound flight was a full service lunch. Both were tasty and left us satisfied. Unusually for a US airline they knew how to serve tea properly in a mug!

CREW
The misery guts at checkin in SFO turned out to the exception overall. Service was good throughout without being intrusive.

OVERALL
A very good value for money premium experience marred only by the check in at SFO and I would fly with them again. I subsequently read that since Hawaii is predominantly a leisure destination, US airlines tend not to put their most comfortable planes on this route e.g. AA use older F rather than their transcon F. This doesn’t appear to be the case with Hawaiian. Indeed, after we left HNL, they announced that they were adding lie flat seats in future.

As a postscript, I should mention that Virgin America now fly from SFO to HNL & OGG. We actually flew to SFO from DAL on VX in F and we found their First class to be very good. Their Hawaiian flights will use the same seats so the days of Hawaiian bound travellers being left with 2nd rate products may come to an end. Certainly if I were to go back, I would look at both Hawaiian and Virgin America first.

[SGJNI1961]

I also would recommend Virgin America for their First cabin but they are not always such good value. I now am dreading my all AA trip from DUB to KOA as while I will get the A321T from JFK to LAX, I seem certain to get an ancient 757 to KOA and back! I knowingly booked it from DUB to JFK for the pre clearance at DUB and the extra tier points. Ho hum!!

[canucklad]

Thanks for the update Bath_VIP and congratulations on tying the knot : )

“I subsequently read that since Hawaii is predominantly a leisure destination, US airlines tend not to put their most comfortable planes on this route e.g. AA use older F rather than their transcon F. This doesn’t appear to be the case with Hawaiian”

I suspect the reason for your observations above is because Hawaiian are actually flying home to Honolulu and as such will be the first choice for Hawaiian businessman. I’d also take into account their pride in representing the islands on the mainland .

Great review by the way !!

[Bath_VIP]

Thought I would add this link to this thread.

http://thepointsguy.com/2015/12/hawaii-first-class-worth-the-cost/

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