Originally Posted by
chrisj85
This route is downgauged (downgraded) from 333 to 764 beginning on Sunday March 25. Goes from the excellent 333 herringbone seats to the obsolete 764 Vantage seats - ugh. This removes just about the only good premium cabin to/from HNL. Now that we are getting the 764 on this route, it will probably stay that way for years until it is the last route in the DL system with this aircraft as it is being retired. May be similar to the case of the old 75V config - those were horrendous and flew almost all Hawaii routes before they were finally retired.
I don't know that going to D1 when we already had close to D1-type service on this route anyway is a good thing, when the price is a significant downgrade in the quality of the premium cabin.
DL will have a hard time selling these inferior Vantage seats at the price levels they were getting for the 333 cabin - so there may indeed be a fair number of upgrades available on day of departure.
Negative impact to Economy Comfort cabin also - goes from 40 seats in the 333 to 28 seats in the 764. And the B/F aisle seats have the equipment box underneath which hurts legroom.
I am surprised that DL is removing 47 seats from this route - every HNL-ATL or VV flight I have been on has been full on the 333. I wonder if they are going to add a second daily flight for peak seasons, or if those last 40 seats were usually filled by non-revs?
While I agree with you that the A330 is superior to the 767, I think you are being a bit extreme. The 767 J seats are still considered excellent for a day time flight, and plenty of people still appreciate them for the ability to sleep on a flat bed, despite the issues with the footwell, storage, etc. In terms of Y, the differences between the A330 and the 767 are negligible. Both offer 2 seats on each side which are great for couples, and there is only one middle seat per row--in fact, many people on FT say that the 767 is their favorite Y cabin. DL could just as well have gone the other direction and pulled D1 service from HNL entirely, and you'd find yourself connecting in LAX to a 757 domestic F cabin.