Originally Posted by
eplusk
I live in Honolulu and am wondering what airlines other frequent fliers out of Honolulu choose? Why'd you choose it?
To me, there doesn't seem to be a clear cut winner.
United:
-Good network
-Good frequent flier program
-Good prices
-Poor customer service
-Very old planes
Hawaiian + JetBlue:
-Good customer service
-New planes
-Mediocre FF program
-Mediocre network
-Mediocre prices
Delta/American:
-Medicore networks
This is not going to be a one size fits all situation, as I think you've come to realize. Connecting on Hawaiian to Jetblue to get to your final destination gets old very fast, and even if you are a top tier elite on HA, you will very rarely see upgrades on the CONUS routes. Not to mention, there are some bad apples at HA, just like there are bad apples elsewhere, so customer service can be hit or miss. Not to mention having to deal with an off shore call center even if you are an elite. But if you are primarily flying to/from the West Coast or Vegas or to JFK, maybe this makes sense for you, particularly if you won't be a high tier elite clearing upgrades on the major carriers any way.
My travel patterns are not limited to the West Coast/LAS/JFK, and I am finding myself happy with COdbaUA. At the end of the day, a non stop or a short connecting flight to most of the places I need to travel wins, as that's more time at either the destination or home and redeeming miles on premium travel on StarAlliance partners is ideal. If you find yourself flying to the West Coast on 737s, those aircraft are actually only a several years old, so not sure where the "old planes" comment is coming from. The biggest downside is the high density 777, where if you haven't cleared the upgrade (likely), you'll find yourself in a jammed in a 3-4-3 configuration in the back.
The one area where DL is the clear winner is Japan. You've got a bunch of flights from HNL to Japan. I was a NW/DL guy for over a decade and found Skyteam to be lackluster unless you are headed to Korea.
I've heard many Hawaii residents talk about how you earn on Hawaiian based on miles traveled as opposed to dollars spent as you would earn miles on UA/DL/AA. But outside of travel to the CONUS, if you compare the earnings chart, you may find yourself needing quite a bit more HA miles to get anywhere you want to go. Just one example: it takes 40k UA miles o/w to get to Japan in business, but 40k HA miles for the same o/w trip in economy, 65k for first.