Trip Reports - AA Hawaiian Flagship Service

Recently flew SFO/HNL/SFO in First and thought a report might be interesting. Both flights were on a 757 with the old tan leather seating. They did provide the nicer blankets and larger pillows with the white cases like on the trans-Atlantic/trans-Continental flights in First and Business. The movies, I guess because it was summer vacation, were designed for a young audience. I would have liked to see the movies and audio entertainment upgraded.

OJ and Champagne were offered prior to departure on both flights.
SFO/HNL Brunch
Appetizer
Fresh Seasonal Fruit

Entrees
Combination Breakfast Plate
An Omelette with Asiago Cheese presented with Macadamia Nut French Toast and fire roasted Turkey Sausage.

Hearty Combination
Scrambled Eggs topped with Tomatoes and Bell Peppers accompanied by Silver Dollar Pancakes with Maple Syrup offered with Basic-Garlic Chicken Sausage from Bradley Ogden of One Market restaurant in San Francisco.

Togarashi Beef Medallions
Seared Tenderloin of Beef coated with a mild Asian Seasoning, served with Sweet Potato Salad and accompanied by an Orange Balsamic Vinaigrette

Bread Basked

Desserts
Ice Cream Sundae
Vanilla Ice Cream with your choice of Hot Fudge or Guava Sauce, Nuts and Whipped Cream or
Flan
Topped With caramelized Pineapple

Prior to Arrival
Warmed mixed Nuts with preffered Beverage

HNL/SFO Dinner
Warmed mixed Nuts

Appetizer Salad
Furikake Crusted Chicken
Chicken coated with Asian Spice and served on a bed on Romaine and Red Leaf Lettuce with a Daikon and Carrott Slaw and grilled Pineapple, offered with your choice of Sesame Oriental Dressing or fresh Herb Vinaigrette

Entrees
Guava Marinated Pork
Pork Tenderloin served on Guava Sauce with Saffron Risotto and Baby Bok Choy

Macadamia Crusted Chicken
Chicken with Macadamia Nuts and toasted Coconut Breadcrumbs with savory Plum Sauce and Jasmine Rice and Baby Vegetables

Sesame Mahi Mahi
Seared Mahi Mahi with Black Sesame Seeds on Lobster Miso Sauce with warm Asian Slaw and Wasabi Mashed Potatoes

Bread Basket

Ice Cream Sundae
Vanilla Ice Cream with Hot Fudge, Coffee Sauce, or Berry Topping with Whipped Cream and Nuts

The service was quite good. The only suggestions would have been a more appropriate bread selection for the outbound flight. In addition to rolls, they could have included some type of breakfast bread like a biscuit, bagel, or muffin. American use to serve a full snack prior to arrival in Hawaii such as a sandwich or salad when the first service was a breakfast. Then it went down to fruit/cheese and cookies. Now it is just nuts. A little more substantial offering prior to arrival would be nice.

The return catering was not so good. The chicken on the salad with practically non existent and the Mahi Mahi sauce was like jello and overall not too tasty. The service though, like the outbound, was quite good. A nice touch was the individual Evian bottles. Both flights were staffed by what looked to be a senior San Francisco based crew. Both flights left and arrived early.

The wines included Domaine Ste. Michelle Columbia Valley Brut, Villa Mt. Eden California Chardonnay 200, and Geyser Peak California Shiraz 1999. They was also a tropical juice (Guava) since it was a Hawaiian Flagship Service.

I am really interested in this. We are planning a trip NY/CA/HNL in F for the spring. My interest has been piqued as to whether it is better to fly via LAX or SFO or does it matter. Did you find this as good as expected?

This actually sounds like an improvement over the often-criticized 767 service from DFW or ORD. We going out of SJC on a 757, so hopefully our flight will be similar. Thanks for the detailed menu report.

I am doing LAX-HNL-LAX in a month and they switched the flight from 767 to a 757. Ugh, I can't stand those brown seats. You slip around in them and they don't recline very much.

So how bad is the AA Hawaiian service from DFW to HNL?

We are burning some miles in November in F/C -- do the seats recline and have leg-rests? Or is it the standard AA domestic seat.

We flew over two other times in TWA TW-One and found the trip to be very nice, seats comfortable, etc. How different is it from TW-One?

Thanks,

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by cowboy:
So how bad is the AA Hawaiian service from DFW to HNL?

We are burning some miles in November in F/C -- do the seats recline and have leg-rests? Or is it the standard AA domestic seat.

We flew over two other times in TWA TW-One and found the trip to be very nice, seats comfortable, etc. How different is it from TW-One?

Thanks,</font>

2D and 2G, centre bulkhead seats are the only seats in the F cabin in the Hawaiian-configuration 767-300ER with any extra leg room. Everything else has just 38" pitch. (and sucks alot!)
All seats in F do have lumbar support and adjustable legrests, but you'll only benefit from using the legrests in 2DG, because you wont have anyone reclining onto your legs.

I've flown the TW-One configured aircraft on STL-LGW. There's a lot more legroom on those flights and I'd actually recommend those flights over any AA metal to the Hawaiian islands. (Unless you're lucky enough to have an international configured AA 767-300 operating your flight, but you can't predict that, unfortunately. )

[This message has been edited by 777Brit (edited 07-11-2002).]