Old Jul 13, 2019, 5:24 pm
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American Airlines serves Hawaii destinations as follows:

ORD - (seasonal), lie flat
DFW - lie flat
LAX - recliner
PHX - recliner, occasional lie flat
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AA flat bed seat service to Hawaii?

Old Jul 7, 2019, 7:25 am
  #16  
 
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Is the ORD-HNL lie flat virtually impossible to redeem with points in the summer and spring break time?
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Old Jul 7, 2019, 10:09 am
  #17  
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Originally Posted by gumercindo
Is the ORD-HNL lie flat virtually impossible to redeem with points in the summer and spring break time?

From what I have seem the 788 only flies the seasonal ORD/HNL route once a day , I'm not sure when service starts but it ends ( or has been ending) in late March /early April.

Lie flat is always available for 145K O/W............unless of course you wait too long and the seats sell out
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Old Jul 7, 2019, 10:46 am
  #18  
 
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Originally Posted by flyer4512
From what I have seem the 788 only flies the seasonal ORD/HNL route once a day , I'm not sure when service starts but it ends ( or has been ending) in late March /early April.

Lie flat is always available for 145K O/W............unless of course you wait too long and the seats sell out
from what I see in this thread, the lie flats on NS ORD-HNL is only available in winter and I suppose that goes through March? Not many lie flat options in the summer. I suppose DFW-HNL
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Old Jul 7, 2019, 7:57 pm
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Originally Posted by gumercindo


from what I see in this thread, the lie flats on NS ORD-HNL is only available in winter and I suppose that goes through March? Not many lie flat options in the summer. I suppose DFW-HNL
We are looking at mid March to Mid April and if we return after the first few days of April there is no NS HNL/ORD...............again I should add there has not been but maybe it gets added at some point.

MSP to PHX/DFW to then HNL still puts us in a regular first class seat for 3 plus hours. MSP/ORD is a 50 minute or so flight followed by a lay flat (788) seat to HNL..............if we are going to use 145K each way may as well get the best plane we can.
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Old Jul 8, 2019, 3:12 am
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ORD/HNL via American on the 787-8 only runs from December 18th through April 1st.
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Old Jul 8, 2019, 7:45 am
  #21  
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Old Jul 8, 2019, 7:02 pm
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I believe last minute plane swaps are a thing of the past on the Hawaii routes. If you are flying ex-DFW or ex-ORD to anywhere in Hawaii, you are going to get a lie flat seat in business.

For a period of time (2+ years ago), the angled lie-flat seat 763s were being swapped in for the fully lie flat ex-DFW.
In PHX, there was a chance you could get lucky and get a fully lie flat 757 swapped in for the old recliner seats on the HP-757 fleat. But those days are gone.
From LAX it has always been the A321-H with standard first class seats.

See discussion here:

Changes to Hawaii service since merger, late 2014 on (consolidated)
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Last edited by dc10forlife; Jul 8, 2019 at 7:12 pm
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Old Jul 9, 2019, 5:39 pm
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OP you'll probably get better info in the actual AA forum on here
there's a whole thread Changes to Hawaii service since merger, late 2014 on (consolidated)
plus one for the ORD flight to HNL
Hawaii: AA to resume ORD - HNL seasonally

have fun
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Old Jul 9, 2019, 9:38 pm
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Originally Posted by LovePrunes
OP you'll probably get better info in the actual AA forum on here
there's a whole thread Changes to Hawaii service since merger, late 2014 on (consolidated)
plus one for the ORD flight to HNL
Hawaii: AA to resume ORD - HNL seasonally

have fun

Thanks, I bookmarked that thread
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Old Jul 13, 2019, 3:56 pm
  #25  
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Originally Posted by flyer4512
I have been seeing 145K each way when I check MSP/ORD/HNL in March which is peak.

The ORD/HNL nonstop is not even available after March ( not sure when it starts up again) from what I have seen.

If we fly back in early April the NS HNL/ORD is not available and I saw some First saver fares using HNL/PHX/MSP but the PHX/MSP leg was not in lay flat seats. We are not going until March 2021 so I won't know the exact fares until April 2020 when I book

PHL was the other posters flight.
We have for dec-jan 6 seats milesaaver first MSP-DFW-KOA and then HNL-PHX-MSP with the DFW-KOA and HNL-PHX in lie flat @62.5k each person one way, 125k per person round trip.
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Old Jul 13, 2019, 5:15 pm
  #26  
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Originally Posted by Carl Christensen
We have for dec-jan 6 seats milesaaver first MSP-DFW-KOA and then HNL-PHX-MSP with the DFW-KOA and HNL-PHX in lie flat @62.5k each person one way, 125k per person round trip.

We are not interested in those routes, I want to fly ORD/HNL in one shot and not have to worry about connections, delays, etc.

I have never seen the ORD/HNL listed as a mile saver.

We are actually going to fly RST/ORD on Friday and be in Chicago for our Saturday flight the day before.
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Last edited by flyer4512; Jul 13, 2019 at 5:29 pm
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Old Jul 13, 2019, 5:33 pm
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Originally Posted by Happy
His trip sounds like almost 2 years later, so what is going on now may not apply. He does need to monitor the situation closer to his departure time, like a month before - so he can formulate a Plan B.



NOT always True. We have had MIA-LHR reverse herringbone lie flat 777-200 swapped out to an angle seat at the gate, AFTER we have done OLCI with correct aircraft that showed correct seat selection before heading to MIA - only to find out when printing BPs from the Kiosk that our seats no longer be the same, and of course the aircraft is swapped at the last moment. So now we would be in the angled recline seat (think of it like a dental chair, it reclines for 170 degree or slightly less - as a result, we always slide down during our sleeps and be woken up by that.)
At the time agent told us last moment swap happened A LOT at MIA on MIA-EU routes. These routes have less business travel traffic than the routes from NYC and ORD or LAX (the most profitable business travel route).

Hawaii is a pure leisure market, so pulling out the better plane when other place needs it, is high probability. Years ago when returning from Kona we had OLCI at Sheraton with correct seats, only found out the airplane was swapped when we arrived the airport and asked where was the gate and when would be the time to enter the waiting hall... The agent did not even have the decency to tell us (because we actually no longer had seat assignment!). Her colleague, a guy, reminded her, Didn't the aircraft is changed and they no longer had their seats? She then reluctantly told us the truth and then reassigned us to the back of the plane.
When we were allowed into the waiting hall, I went to check the AA little office - on the wall there was a sheet of paper with a loooong list of Non Rev waiting to get on that flight, together with 2 Plats and 1 Exp. We could have been bumped off on that flight on awards giving the 2 Plats and 1 Exp had higher priority, and of course the agent may want to take our seats to give her Non-Rev coworkers.
The final truth was, the plane from LAX to Kona was delayed by 5 hours, and AA decided to pull another aircraft for the Kona to LAX return flight instead of delaying the flight to next morning as the original flight was scheduled to depart 9pm or so.
Even when we did OLCI at Kona, the LAX depart plane was already delayed, AA still maintained the same plane / departure time on our Kona to LAX flight.

So yeah, Hawaii routes can have more than usual mess that AA already has, because this is a 100% leasire market.
There are no more angle seats on AA wide-bodies and there have not been for quite some time. If you are on a 767, 777, or 787 you will have a fully flat bed.
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Old Jul 13, 2019, 7:38 pm
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Originally Posted by wetrat0
There are no more angle seats on AA wide-bodies and there have not been for quite some time. If you are on a 767, 777, or 787 you will have a fully flat bed.
even if you are in a flat bed 757 you will get a flat bed. Cuz they never swap east coast 757 with PHX based non lie flat bed 757. So basically if you are flying long haul in J you will always get flat bed
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Old Jul 15, 2019, 7:24 am
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From Feb through August, is the best AA lie flat redemption (777/787 out of ORD/DFW) to hawaii basically 175k RT PP (maybe with the exception of a 150k one)? That's as good as I have seen. Outside of a random 175k RT redemption, you're most likely stuck with the 250k RT on those flights (ORD/DFW-HNL/OGG). Is this an accurate assessment?

Last edited by gumercindo; Jul 15, 2019 at 7:34 am
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Old Jul 15, 2019, 1:43 pm
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Originally Posted by gumercindo
From Feb through August, is the best AA lie flat redemption (777/787 out of ORD/DFW) to hawaii basically 175k RT PP (maybe with the exception of a 150k one)? That's as good as I have seen. Outside of a random 175k RT redemption, you're most likely stuck with the 250k RT on those flights (ORD/DFW-HNL/OGG). Is this an accurate assessment?
Most likely. AA prices F so low that the cabin frequently sells out. R/t in lie-flat for ~$1600 is an amazing deal considering the stage length. There is the odd saver award out there but they are few and far between.
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