LAX to KOA early morning flight

Merry Xmas!

I travel quite frequently from the west coast to Kona for business (I work for a luxury hotel chain that has a property in Kona). I am an American Platinum member and prefer American's service/quality over United's and other airlines. However, I am frustrated that American has not brought back the early morning nonstop flights from LAX to KOA since I need to get to Kona by afternoon rather than evening. (American now only has a 5:00 flight out of LAX to KOA that arrives around 9:30ish and a redeye from KOA to LAX nonstop). I have been flying through Honolulu for the time being, but am thinking of flying United since they have a early morning flight on the way there and a midafternoon flight from KOA to LAX. However, I really dislike United and trying to find any other way to fly American....yet the layovers in Hononlulu are getting painful...

Anyways, my question is....(1) does anyone know if AA plans on bringing back the second early morning flight from LAX to KOA; and (2) is there someplace I can write an email or letter to AA to suggest that they bring it back? (or is this just fruitless...)

Anyways, I really appreciate any help even if the answer is that there is nothing I can do...

As you know, travel to Hawaii is very seasonal, with peaks in the winter and summer. If the flight returns, I'd expect to see it for the summer period.

Use the contact us link on aa.com to let them your thoughts about this route.

Thanks! Even seasonal early morning flight would be great! I'll just emailed them...

We fly that route a lot & prefer going through HNL. as you get better equipment LAX/HNL. Then fly home on the red-eye KOA/LAX & hopefully have had enough daiquiris & are tired enough to sleep in those rather uncomfortable 1st cl seats.

Recognizing that we all have our preferences and that this may be opening a can of worms that's been covered in countless other FT threads, what's your beef with UA? UA's Hawaii coverage overall is far superior to AA's (many more flights to HNL/OGG/LIH plus five a day to KOA vs. AA's one), and UA's in-flight service in F especially is much better, including mai-tais, island-themed meals, etc. As covered in this thread, AA's Hawaii service isn't really anything more than domestic F. It strikes me that the only thing AA has going for it right now to KOA is the two-class 763 equipment, but that changes around and is often a 757.

I don't really fly United 1st since I am not status, but likely do fly American first since I am platinum. So maybe it is unfair to say United is terrible since I haven't flown first. But I do feel American coach vs. United coach to Hawaii is better. Jut my opinion especially since coach is coach.

BTW, United has 5 flights from LAX to KOA a day??
I thought they only had two. Maybe I misread your last post...

The reason why UA is actually probably better for you in this case is because they have a hub in LAX and they are the number one airline to Hawaii. There are currently only two flights a day LAX-KOA, maybe five LAX-HNL, but they do offer a better service than AA does in both F and Y. In F, you have the better meal service and in Y, E+ and Halfway to Hawaii. The only downside is the horrible domestic seats in F that replaced the 3-class 747's that were all too common only five or six yeras ago. And as far as listening to your e-mail, AA will not do anything.

Thanks. You are probably right. I guess it may be time to start getting status on UA.

I think the main difference between UA and AA vis-a-vis HI is that, for AA, HI is a destination for mainland tourists, whereas UA seems to consider HI as not exclusively a tourist destination, and also a place where flights originate from. AA only started flying out of HNL in the morning (to LAX) a little over a year ago. UA has had morning flights out of HNL to both LAX and SFO for longer than I can remember, which makes it so much easier to fly to the East Coast connecting in CA, be able to avoid red-eyes, and be at your destination much more rested.

I lived in HI for seven years, and it was always a source of frustration to see how skewed towards mainland tourism AA's perspective was. In the end, we still managed to keep the bulk of our flying on AA for a variety of reasons, but not without giving to UA a decent chunk of our travel money, especially for business travel.

Since your main reason to fly to HI is business, it seems reasonable to give UA another look. If you check the UA forum, you can get instructions on how to get comped status, so you won't have to start from scratch.