CPH-Flyer

JFK is not a one tray meal service. And with the length of the flight, it is less an issue to take more time for the meal service. Though for a J meal, that does also sound excessively long.

747FC

I was able to book two F award seats NRT-HNL in February 2020! It was a tough choice to spend 85K UA miles each on NH F vs. 110K UA miles each on UA J.

Half of the cabin is booked.

Anyone have any A380 F experiences to share?

HenrySu1220

why it is a tough choice?

747FC

LIH Prem

search for "Sam Chui ANA A380 F"

-David

747FC

CDG1

I haven't checked in here since the inaugural flights. I was on both flights NRT HNL NRT..I managed to change my UA NRT-HNL flight sort of last minute for a fee (not much really) I had the right fare to have it changed. I knew there would be no-shows on the A380. They even had one Business no-show which was amazing for the first inaugural flight.

It was a wonderful experience (less the ground TSA mess having to go land side and go through the TSA carnival). There was no wiki-wiki bus to be found. I had to do it all on foot and back to the boarding area and then the delayed departure.
Still it all went too fast.

Anyway... ANA has put the second Turtle in service July 1. They now have two aircraft serving Hawaii. It seems they will increase flights to 10 weekly.

I was wondering if they are filling them. Any idea how that is going?
First?
Business?
Premium?
Couchii?
Economy?

What is the success rate? Are all the flights completely full?

I inaugurated the blue Turtle. I saw the green turtle test flying at NRT the next day after I returned from the inaugural trip.
Now I want to fly on the green and orange Turtles!

Not sure if it will work but this is a translated link to the latest news with pictures and a video:
https://translate.google.com/transla...%2F%3Fp%3D1107

sodaisei

I really hope their flights are full because im looking for Tokyo - Honolulu flights in economy for October and while Delta/Korean etc have the usual 100k yen pricetag for economy, ANA is like 250k or more, for economy!

CPH-Flyer

One way or return? ANA and JAL are quite notorious for their one way pricing out of Japan.

sodaisei

Return...

CPH-Flyer

That's pretty steep, you would in many periods be able to find J seats at that price.

Torode

I don't think you're looking hard enough. There are J flights for 222,000 yen around that time and Y for a little over 100,000. You just can't be to picky on the weekdays.

sodaisei

Well I can be a little bit flexible, but the dates I want to travel it is 100k yen with Korean or Delta while it is more than 200k with ANA. I am just saying that I don't really understand their business model with economy. I am willing to pay a premium to try the A380 ( I want to) but double or triple what it costs a direct flight with Delta or Korean... that's just plain stupid. I guess their business model with the A380 is to sell packages to travel agencies rather than to sell the seats themselves for a reasonable price?

CDG1

Most people (including aviation geeks) are flying in Economy. Not all of us are like Sam Chui with tons of money flying only in First Class.

ANA has put together a fabulous marketing campaign for their new product, with an exclusive market to Hawaii, while they could have packed these planes to any airport in the world. Think Eva Air Hello Kitty Jets.

Couchii was a genius concept.

They know people will pay a premium to be on these flights and they want to make it profitable. Who can blame them?

There is still another A380 to enter service. We are full on in the novelty effect.

These planes will be the only and final A380s in Japan (former Skymark) as Airbus has decided to end the production and they are not taking anymore orders for the type. There is about 30 A380 deliveries left and that's it. End of.

Once the novelty effect wears out I guess ANA will align with the competition on the NRT/HND to HNL route and offer the same prices. We are still a long while from that.

We are not there yet. Also they talked about launch prices. I guess it was probably applied only for the first month of service.

JAL will never have A380s. They bought A350s. I am sure they will have them to Hawaii at some point but A350s will never be as attractive as the Flying Honu A380 product which will remain an exclusive product.

The Flying Honus will be monetized. That was their goal. People have choices
Want to fly the Honu? Pay a premium for the experience, or go to the competition and pay cheaper fares for ordinary flights (all classes considered).

ANA are winners!

sodaisei

I am sorry but I dont understand paying 400.000 yen (2x 200.000) to fly economy on a A380 when you can pay 200.000 (2x 100.000) to fly on Korean or Delta... but if this is working for ANA then good for them.