LIH Prem

Took an interisland flight on HA, Dec 24, OGG-HNL. Plane was a bit odd, had no row 5. Row 4 was "bulkhead" economy as usual, with a ton of legroom, and remained empty, even though there were plenty of people that boarded early in Pualani Gold lane, etc.

I asked the FA if I could move up from row 6 to the empty row 4 and she said they are now selling access to those seats and charging a premium for them. The GA also said anybody that bought a premium seat could pre-board as a special announcement distinct from the normal early/preferred boarding announcement.

Is that a change? I thought Pualani Gold etc could reserve those seats? Can you no longer reserve them? How much are they charging for row 4 on an interisland flight at checkin? I didn't notice it when I checked in, but didn't look either.

There were a bunch of deadheading crew, many sat up front, but none of them took row 4 either.

Anybody know what the deal is with the missing row 5 on this plane? To me, the pitch in row 6 seemed even less than normal. They didn't remove a row and mess around with the seat pitch on the 717s, did they?

-David

YouGoGlenCoco

As of early November Row 4 and Exit Rows are considered Preferred Seats, and comes with a $10 fee. If it's available, it will be offered to PLT members for free at check-in. Other elites cannot reserve them ahead of time. At this point the only way other elites can get them is if there's a full flight and non-qualified individuals are seated in the exits.

As far as Row 5, some of them have it, and some of them don't. I suppose that's how they were configured when the planes went into service.

LIH Prem

I wonder if those are the.ones they bought from down under? I don't remember flying on it before. Then again I'm not a regular commuter.

Thanks for the info.

-David

HA/UA_Flyer

Yep, row 4 is now preferred seating. You can pay up $10 at check-in. What I would like to know is how HA is going to address passengers who are wheelchair bound/disabled that row 4 used to be reserved for. Let's say that a group of passengers ponies up the $10 each and takes the seats at check-in, then the gate agent notices some wheelchair bound passengers who have been assigned seats in row 22. Does he/she ask one of the row 4 passengers to give up their seats to accommodate the wheelchair passenger knowing they have already paid the $10? Basically what I am getting at is this has too many variables and is bound to lead to some awkward/uncomfortable customer service situations at the gate for gate agents and FA's to handle.

HA should have left row 4 handicapped/disabled like before. Before "preferred seating" you could only get row 4 seating at the gate by the gate agent because he/she is supposed to see how many wheelchair/disabled passengers there are before boarding time when the seats can be assigned to them or assigned to anyone else after all (if any) wheelchair/disabled passengers are assigned seats.


Regarding row 5...HA has 7 Boeing 717 aircraft that they acquired over the years after the initial order from Boeing back in 1999. These 7 aircraft came from other airlines and included either a forward lavatory next the to 1L door and/or an extra large galley next to the 1R door. The galley/lavs protrude into the F cabin where row 1 is usually placed in the other HA 717's. When HA acquired these 7 aircraft, they didn't remove the galley/lavs nor change the Y seats and some F seats to HA standard (HA just chose to put HA seatcovers on the seats instead). To compensate, the Y cabin was shrunk by 1 row (5 seats). HA chose to eliminate row 5 in these aircraft. That is why most HA 717's (the original ordered ones) have 123 seats total and the 7 later-acquired 717's have 118 seats (Take a look at the HA webpage on the corporate info page).

The seats on these 7 aircraft are again, not HA standard. They are bulkier than the standard HA 717 seat, thus they do have tighter pitch. Although, I noticed that these seats are softer and more cushiony than the HA standard 717 seat.

I believe the ship numbers for these 7 aircraft are: N483HA, N488HA, N489HA, N490HA, N491HA, N492HA and N493HA. Of course the dead giveaway for these aircraft are the missing row 5, but also just simply look for the forward lavatory and/or extra large galley as soon as you step aboard.

Personally, I prefer the original HA 717's over the 7 oddball ones because the seating is not as tight in Y. I believe the 7 aircraft came from both Qantas Link and Mexicana Click which themselves were originally from Midwest Express.

LIH Prem

Thx for the info. there was extra galley storage in the front of the plane. I don't remember flying on one of these before.

I was in 6D. I noticed one wheelchair guy stuffed into 6B. We flew over with an empty row 4.

-David

Downunder girl

HA have released something called their "extra comfort seating". I have only noticed this for sale on SYD HNL or LAX HNL flights so far in 2014 (after July, I believe) but it sounds like they are doing it on the 717s too.

Basically these seats are sold as having up to 5 inches of extra leg room and there is priority TSA screening and boarding that goes along with the purchase of these seats). The seats on the A330 SYD HNL rtn are in the first rows of Y, seats that were originally reserved for HA elites and Premier club members. I cant imagine the HA elites being very impressed about this.

Of course, on a personal note, I was quite pleased as I would probably book to be in the smaller, quieter and now roomier cabin .

On a dummy booking LAX HNL, they were asking for $60 per seat.

YouGoGlenCoco

Extra Comfort will only be on the A330s, not 767 or 717.

747FC

As a Plat, I got row 4 @ T-24 when no F was available. Interestingly, the seats did not show as available on their Iphone App, so I checked their full website and found it. On boarding the plane, I found 7 of the 8 F seats filled with two aunties with their five very young children. I guess three-year olds deserve F seats too!