I do not believe that either AA or NW flies 3 class planes to Hawaii. Look on the AA board and you will see a lot of posts complaining about AA's first class service on Hawaii routes -- the cramped seating is most often mentioned. I've only flown coach on AA to Hawaii, but can concur that the first class cabin looked pretty abysmal (in comparison to other long-haul first class cabins; it looked like heaven compared to AA's coach seating).

I have personally flown NW first class to Hawaii, and the first class cabins on their DC-10s were not exactly state of the art, but quite spacious and nice. Very generous recline and pitch on the seats, good food, and friendly service -- I thought it roughly equivalent to a middling international business class experience.

Out of these two, I'd recommend NW.

I'm flying CO in BusinessFirst when I move to Hawaii in January. Posts on the CO board indicate that it's better than either NW or AA first to Hawaii, but I can't yet confirm that from personal experience.

Charlie

[This message has been edited by chazas (edited 12-12-2000).]