Originally Posted by
Unitedloyalflyer
People would likely pay much higher prices than are currently being offered to HI. HNL and OGG could likely support an int'l F product on the long haul routes instead of the J product DL/UA/AA currently offers. The Asian carriers mostly have an F cabin to HNL. It is a very high end leisure market, and OGG even more so. A good hotel at OGG can run more than 5K for a week. If people are willing to pay those outrageous hotel prices, they may wiling to pay a more on air fare for a better product
You're right, though UA, AA and HA have lie flat on most HNL routes, it's just DL and AS that have the really bad aircraft. And of course for int'l flights HNL is usually the flagship route for the airline (KE1, CI1, etc.) or at least HNL gets the newest aircraft like year's ago MU's 33E with suite-like J cabin heavily advertised in TV in China, NH's A380s with lie-flat J and IFC, and so on.
Much of J cabin is usually business travelers (there's of course lots going on in general, and then the whole plethora of conventions - well, pre-covid and now starting to come back). Doesn't matter if business or leisure, having a proper lie-flat J cabin means that on the arrival day you can go straight to work. Without it, that day is foregone. So, for many working pax it's worthwhile to pay more, as that means they can fly HNL-US48/CA overnight flight a whole day later.