Toula

I wouldn't count on that. There are only 17 FC seats available on the 1 flight a day that goes 5 days a week. Many of those seats are filled by upgrades, so don't think they would be too worried about offending their premium passengers. Taking into account the lounge they have at their home base in Honolulu, I think that tells you how important Hawaiian figures the lounge is to premium passengers.

LIH Prem

If there's some sort of contract lounge there, like the Mascar lounge in MNL, they probably have an arrangement there. I tried looking up the lounges at SYD and didn't see any similar contract lounges listed, but what do I know? I've only been to SYD once on UA, and UA uses NZ's lounge there. (that was a great lounge, the Mascar lounge and Hawaiian's lounges are on the opposite end of the lounge spectrum.)

The MNL flight only goes on 4 days, and they have it there.

For some reason, HAs international flights are not big hits with FTers. I can't imagine why.
(this from an FTer that has basically vowed never to fly Hawaiian Airlines again, unless absolutely necessary.)

-David

Toula

It would not surprise if there is no lounge arrangement. Besides the fact that the Sydney flight does not operate daily, remember checkin only opens 2 or 3 hours before the flight departs. You also have to be at the gate a bit earlier because flights to the US have to go thru the second security screening. I doubt if anyone would have a lot of time to use a lounge.

That said, even if they had a lounge we probably would not use it. We prefer to wander around the terminal which is not too bad. 10 hours caged on a plane is long enough for us, we like to stretch our legs for as long as we can.

foreigner

HA uses Air NZ lounge at SYD.

LIH Prem

Thanks for the update. That's a great lounge.

How did you get the answer? Were you at the airport? Did you take the HA flight?

-David

foreigner

I spoke with HA rep in their SYD office. I will fly with them in Dec SYD-HNL-LAS r/t.

Next thing I want to do is see if ff miles can be put to VS.

LIH Prem

^

-David

foreigner

I got my Hawaiian Miles membership card. Info with it shows:

OW mileage earnings are as follows:

SYD-HNL 5060
HNL-LAS 2762

Good news is 50% bonus on first class.

NHFL9

Any recent experiences with this flight? Was wondering if they make the exit row available at check-in? Any general pointers, etc., etc. Thanks in advance.

Downunder girl

I recently flew SYD HNL return on HA in Y !

It actually wasn't too bad. The overnight flight SYD HNL was quite good and we found the food to be better than UA Y. We were seated in row 18 which was not in the smaller cabin and found the leg room to be adequate.

Unfortunately, coming home was a bit of a nightmare. We had a rather large person in front of us who reclined their seat ALL the way back for the entire flight. The extra weight in the seat made the seat go so far back, I felt like I had this person in my lap for the entire flight. Not fun for 10 hrs straight

Luckily the FA asked them to put their seat back up for meals but otherwise, I could barely hold my digiplayer on my tray table....this person knocked it over constantly as they moved around in their seat. We were seated in the smaller cabin for the trip home. However it was not the smaller cabin as we expected, this config stopped at row 23 not row 16. Not sure how true the seatguru statement about less leg room in the smaller cabin is. We didnt really notice a difference.

Overall, the seats are quite uncomfortable, seem to lack length in the seat so your legs dont feel well supported and also lack padding (I felt stiff and sore when we landed after 10.5 hours).

I didnt bother trying to get exit rows (too close to the lavs for me) but both aisle seats in the exit rows were free on my flight. I was trying to get row 11 which seems to have more room, but HA reserves this for baby bassinets and wheelchair passengers (or "preferred" passengers).

HA offered upgrades to F for $700AUD ex SYD (way too expensive when there are two of us and its a 767 - no flat bed seats). Interestingly, HA offered the F upgrade online for HNL SYD for $650 USD, not sure why the difference since the exchange rate is in favour of the AUD currently. A friend flew Jetstar around the same time as we flew HA and they were offered upgrades to JQ Business Class (on A330) for approx $400 each way. A much better (and fairer priced deal IMHO). Naturally they jumped at that offer and had very comfortable flights both ways.

Shortly, HA will use the A330 on this route and I am sure this will be a more comfortable ride.

HA uses the Air NZ lounge in SYD for all F passengers, and their elite members ^

Any other questions, please post and I will do my best to answer. I can post a menu once I unpack and find the menus we had

NHFL9

Thank you, Downunder girl for your very informative reply! Much appreciated!

gkbiiii

I just priced a FC/J flight with HA for JFK-MLN and it was $3430 wich as stated on another post is around $2,000++ less than others. For the money, perhaps they are a good option to Asia/South Pacific, however their J product is not the same as others with a flat bed. Though the catering options look special as they are a "pick three option".

johnslloyd

I just got an email from HA that they are offering 2x HA miles on HNL-SYD. Book in June, fly by December. See the HA website for details.

dzflyer

Anybody Flown this leg in first Im doing it in October..Would appreciate any reviews thoughts experiences criticisms eyc Thanks

rabtech

Flew it the opposite direction last year. It's not bad, but was only standard domestic first class seats, so not lie flat, etc. Was much harder to sleep/rest on the flight.