HA A330 getting Lie-flat seats - will AS upgrade ETOPS first class?
Oct 23, 2015, 5:25 pm
#16
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: SEA, NW/DL 1.6Million Miler
Programs: DL 1MM Annual Silver,AS 100K 22-24, AS 75K 15-21
Posts: 4,278
Under the current fleet and mission of AS, I agree, but when AS change its mission to include long distance international flight, I think I would see AS to include them and (adds AS flair). I believe AS will eventually evolve and someday include international flights.... That day is not today.
Jiburi
Jiburi
I should find that and post it
Oct 23, 2015, 9:05 pm
#19
Join Date: Jan 2008
Programs: AS MVPG, CO, NW(now DL), Flying Blue
Posts: 6,554
if they plan on being around another 50 years at some point they will. Might be 15 or 20 years but at some point there would have to be a when. Just flying around North America from mainly the west coast there are only so many growth opportunities. I think when the MAX starts arriving you may see more central america stuff or even something like NAS or SJU
Last edited by ANC; Oct 23, 2015 at 9:15 pm
Oct 24, 2015, 12:00 am
#20
Moderator: Alaska Mileage Plan
Join Date: Feb 2005
Posts: 12,319
if they plan on being around another 50 years at some point they will. Might be 15 or 20 years but at some point there would have to be a when. Just flying around North America from mainly the west coast there are only so many growth opportunities. I think when the MAX starts arriving you may see more central america stuff or even something like NAS or SJU
Oct 24, 2015, 10:46 am
#23
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: ANC
Programs: AS; Hyatt; Bonvoy
Posts: 1,718
http://www.usatoday.com/story/travel...lines/74256568
The relatively cramped first class seat pitch on AS is adequate for shorter flights, but for tall people like myself (6'2"), it can get uncomfortable on longer flights. With HA stepping up their game, perhaps AS can do SOMETHING on ETOPS equipment.
Sure - there is a big difference between wide and narrow body aircraft, I expect AS will stick with 737s, but the current hard and soft product could use some improvement to attempt to remain competitive.
The relatively cramped first class seat pitch on AS is adequate for shorter flights, but for tall people like myself (6'2"), it can get uncomfortable on longer flights. With HA stepping up their game, perhaps AS can do SOMETHING on ETOPS equipment.
Sure - there is a big difference between wide and narrow body aircraft, I expect AS will stick with 737s, but the current hard and soft product could use some improvement to attempt to remain competitive.
If one reads just the headline of a news article, then it's often possible to miss important information -- in this case, the proposed routes.
From Australian Business Traveller (a good information source, even for those of us in the US) comes this detail about Hawaiian Air adding lie-flat seats on A330s:
"Hawaiian's move will not only boost the premium experience on Sydney-Honolulu and Brisbane-Honolulu flights but also close the gap against Qantas, which will offer its new A330 Business Suites on Sydney-Honolulu flights before the end of next year."
Last edited by AKCuisine; Oct 24, 2015 at 10:49 am Reason: Add quotation marks
Oct 24, 2015, 7:51 pm
#24
Original Member
Join Date: May 1998
Location: Colorado
Posts: 2,153
AS sees F as upgrade class. They made their seats worse, what makes you think AS would reconfigure them to make them better after that. HA is doing this to compete with the big long haul international carriers so i don't think AS would be much interested in what HA is doing for that market segment.
Oct 25, 2015, 12:10 pm
#25
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: TUS, SEA, OTP, OMR
Posts: 868
But overall, this will allow them to compete with QF/AA/DL for far Asian destinations. It's not about the Mainland <=> Hawaii leisure market.
Oct 27, 2015, 1:28 am
#26
Join Date: Mar 2002
Posts: 2,576
And this is it right here. For HA the A330 is a longhaul plane primarily to compete West from Hawaii and a few long (JFK) routes. Someone reported up thread that the A330 does show up in SAN, but that's not surprising, they're always going to have some schedules where they need to squeeze in a shorter route to get full plane utilization.
But overall, this will allow them to compete with QF/AA/DL for far Asian destinations. It's not about the Mainland <=> Hawaii leisure market.
But overall, this will allow them to compete with QF/AA/DL for far Asian destinations. It's not about the Mainland <=> Hawaii leisure market.
Oct 27, 2015, 1:31 am
#27
Join Date: Mar 2002
Posts: 2,576
These lie flat seats will be on ALL 330s. That means they'll be flown on far more than just the SYD and BNE flying and will include all 330 destinations, which is at this point, nearly the entire international network and most of the domestic.
Oct 27, 2015, 1:49 am
#28
Join Date: Jun 2005
Programs: AS MVPG
Posts: 2,209
I doubt it, they are getting A321s for the west coast flights. Might see them on a few flights but anything within range of an A321NEO will probably be done by an A321NEO.
Oct 27, 2015, 8:33 am
#29
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Even if they are used on Domestic, its not the NA-Hawaii flyer they are trying to grab. Its the Connecting international traffic. Which AS doesn't care about since they don't fly true international (Outside North/Central America)
Oct 28, 2015, 12:12 pm
#30
Join Date: Mar 2002
Posts: 2,576
Sort of. You're right... they're getting them for west coast flights. They'll be used for expansion, and increasing frequencies in current markets. They'll likely replace the last 767s and be used to split cities up that currently see 1 330/day, for example HNL-PDX/OGG-PDX could be done on 2 321neo's. However... the 330 will still very much be apart of the west coast network. The 321neo WILL NOT replace all or even the majority of the widebody flying to the west coast.