Earlier in the month I took a trip to Honolulu and back on Hawaiian Airlines. They operate Austin – Honolulu non-stop three days a week, and since I hadn’t flown Hawaiian in a year and a half it seemed worth passing along some observations.
I booked award travel in one direction: Virgin charges 40,000 points each way for Hawaiian first class on the route, and I had a stash of Virgin’s miles from when Bilt offered a 150% transfer bonus (so 16,000 Bilt points turned into 40,000 Virgin which covered the flight). There was availability for 5 when I booked.
The return flight, on a Saturday night, didn’t have first class award space available but had tons of upgrade availability – so I bought sub-$300 one-way tickets and transferred points into HawaiianMiles from American Express Membership Rewards instantly to confirm the upgrade by phone. There was saver upgrade inventory available for four on the flight I was booking.
First class saver awards book into D inventory.First class saver upgrades book into A inventory.First class additional upgrade inventory is the P bucket.
I searched the space at subscription service ExpertFlyer.com. I won a lifetime subscription about 8 years ago in a charity auction, so I more than got my $500 in raffle tickets paid back.
Here are 10 observations about the trip on Hawaiian:
Hawaiian Airlines has good seats.. compared to U.S. airline narrowbodies on the route. Their new Boeing 787s are competitive with the widebodies other airlines fly but they have a number of Airbus A330s also. These wouldn’t be great business class products to Europe or Asia, and they aren’t super padded (but they give you bedding), however they’re fully flat and a great leisure seat since at 2-2-2 you’re right next to the person you are probably traveling with.
Food is mediocre though that’s true on competitors, too. I didn’t each much on board in either direction on my latest trip, and that was true the last time I flew them as well. Chicken was flavorful but tough to cut. Alaska Airlines may be the carrier that most consistently does better, so an improvement here is something to look forward to if Alaska’s acquisition of Hawaiian goes through.
There are two levels of upgrade seats. I find that Hawaiian award availability from the West Coast is reasonably good, at least better than other airlines between the mainland and Hawaii. Their upgrade space is better, still. You can transfer American Express points to Hawaiian, and sometimes with a bonus.
What’s really special – that competitors do not offer – is two levels of upgrade award. For Austin – Honolulu it’s 25,000 at the saver upgrade level each way and 50,000 for extra availability and I’ve found really good availability both in West Coast markets and in underbooked Austin.
I love their amenity kits with bags that are nice enough, but an approach to the products that’s a flight attendant bringing around a basket of items for you to take what you wish. ANA used to do this years ago in long haul first class. Want extra lip balm? Take a couple.
Hawaiian provides lounge access in Honolulu for mainland first class flights. The lounges are weak. Hawaiian’s Plumeria lounge is considered better (!) than their Premier lounge, and is offered to international business class customers whereas Premier is granted to domestic first. And it’s also a Priority Pass lounge. A line, though.. for this?
People are standing in line to get into this lounge.
Make it make sense. pic.twitter.com/8nBRY3Zm5y
— gary leff (@garyleff) August 11, 2024
There’s a water bottle at your seat which is also very Alaska, though you’ll also be offered a predeparture beverage.
You’re going to start drinking POG juice. You’re on Hawaiian, you might as well submit to the concoction of Passionfruit, Orange, and Guava – created 53 years ago by a food consultant working for Haleakala Dairy on Maui.
They offer tablets for inflight entertainment which I suppose aligns well with Alaska. Tablets don’t hold as much content as a central server broadcasting wirelessly throughout the cabin. But the A330 seats have a built-in holder for them, and they give you earphones as well.
Between services there are chips which ordinarily gets a shrug, but Maui onion chips are addicting.
Starlink wifi is amazing. I didn’t have it on my outbound flight. The first week of August only 6 out of 24 Airbus A330s had been outfitted with it. It was available on the way back, and at that point twice had many had already been kitted. It only takes an overnight to do a plane.
Starlink is faster than satellite wifi on other carriers, but most importantly is there’s seemingly no latency. The satellites are in lower orbit and signals just have less distance to travel.
I’m grateful that Hawaiian Airlines operates this flight. A couple of years ago I wondered whether it would last, but so far it has. It’s super convenient, offers a good product considering I’m flying from the middle of the country and not the East Coast, and comes at a value compared to what American and others charge using points for their flat seats from the mainland. With plenty of Virgin points, and how easy those are to come by, I’ll happily book this again.
While I’m generally positive on Alaska Airlines acquiring Hawaiian (and how that opens up more flights to Hawaii and inter-island connections as well to oneworld flyers), the one thing I’ll miss is Hawaiian’s approach to revenue management and upgrades where there’s tremendous space available if you’re willing to spend miles at a premium for it – which can still be a value compared to headline pricing for the forward cabin.