Hawaiian Airlines nonstop HNL-BOS starts April 2019
Sep 16, 2018, 5:08 am
#16
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Sep 16, 2018, 8:58 am
#17
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Well, there's these funny places called Japan, China, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Korea, and Polynesia which some folks like to travel to and do want a break.
BOS-Asia is a big market, not everywhere has nonstop service and many people are quite happy to have a break somewhere nice enroute.
It's not always about O&D.
BOS-Asia is a big market, not everywhere has nonstop service and many people are quite happy to have a break somewhere nice enroute.
It's not always about O&D.
BTW, if it is true that their JFK route isn't very profitable, I'm amazed that they'd launch BOS service. You'd figure JFK would be a much, much better market for that service.
Sep 16, 2018, 9:36 am
#18
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Franky, I'm amazed by this launch. I've lived in the Northeast. Very few people from this region regularly vacation in Hawaii. It's a really long, expensive and uncomfortable domestic flight (or two). When I tell people I routinely take 12 hour flights and it doesn't kill me, they seem surprised. 
So it's a trip you save for a special occasion, like a honeymoon. Easterners have much easier warm-weather destinations to go to: like Florida and the Caribbean.
I assume that's why there is so little East Coast nonstop service to Hawaii. United has a EWR flight and Delta has an ATL flight. Hawaiian has operated the JFK flight, I assume, because there are just so many people in NYC and they can get a little connecting traffic from JetBlue. I don't see this math working from Boston.
So it's a trip you save for a special occasion, like a honeymoon. Easterners have much easier warm-weather destinations to go to: like Florida and the Caribbean.I assume that's why there is so little East Coast nonstop service to Hawaii. United has a EWR flight and Delta has an ATL flight. Hawaiian has operated the JFK flight, I assume, because there are just so many people in NYC and they can get a little connecting traffic from JetBlue. I don't see this math working from Boston.
Sep 16, 2018, 10:01 am
#19
Join Date: Sep 2015
Location: BOS
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You can book using miles now. Snagged 11A&B for the April 5th BOS-HNL inaugural flight using 20k miles. Returning Tuesday on United HNL-EWR-BOS in E+ so I can compare/contrast.
Looks like 130k is the going rate for first class, I didn't see any saver availability.
Looks like 130k is the going rate for first class, I didn't see any saver availability.
Sep 16, 2018, 12:32 pm
#21
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BTW, I visit Hawaii all the time. I'm quite fond of it. But I'm getting concerned by the prices on some of the islands. Like try to book a hotel on Maui. You might decide to go to Florida instead.
Sep 16, 2018, 4:47 pm
#22
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Well, there's these funny places called Japan, China, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Korea, and Polynesia which some folks like to travel to and do want a break.
BOS-Asia is a big market, not everywhere has nonstop service and many people are quite happy to have a break somewhere nice enroute.
BOS-Asia is a big market, not everywhere has nonstop service and many people are quite happy to have a break somewhere nice enroute.
You don't save a heck of lot to Asia - While Hawaii is west of the US, and looks on a map to be much closer to Asia, the fact is that it is also so far south negates a lot of that time savings.
You can fly nonstop BOS-TYO in 13h 50m - flight time HNL-TYO is still 8h 30m, so you'd be flying 11 hours to Hawaii - and still have a long flight ahead of you to get to Tokyo.
Sep 16, 2018, 5:55 pm
#23
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Tahiti, Australia, and New Zealand are the only routes that actually provide a reasonable break.
You don't save a heck of lot to Asia - While Hawaii is west of the US, and looks on a map to be much closer to Asia, the fact is that it is also so far south negates a lot of that time savings.
You can fly nonstop BOS-TYO in 13h 50m - flight time HNL-TYO is still 8h 30m, so you'd be flying 11 hours to Hawaii - and still have a long flight ahead of you to get to Tokyo.
You don't save a heck of lot to Asia - While Hawaii is west of the US, and looks on a map to be much closer to Asia, the fact is that it is also so far south negates a lot of that time savings.
You can fly nonstop BOS-TYO in 13h 50m - flight time HNL-TYO is still 8h 30m, so you'd be flying 11 hours to Hawaii - and still have a long flight ahead of you to get to Tokyo.
Sep 17, 2018, 3:42 am
#24
Join Date: Feb 2015
Location: Boston, MA USA
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We’ve been watching and waiting for this flight for a few years now and plan to do it in the following winter if it’s successful.
Now instead of waking up at 4am or earlier for the first flight down to JFK, we can sleep in til 6/7 (we live ~7 min from Logan) and still be in Waikiki for sunset with a drink in our hands. I read a while back (on here or another aviation type site iirc) that there’s a large Polynesian community/diaspora in the Greater Boston area so that may have played a role. Certainly wish this route the very best and I hope they keep the A332 on it cause unless they do proper W or more upgraded EC on the 78’s, they’ll be more painful down the back. Aloha and good luck to Hawaiian on this route!
Sep 20, 2018, 10:46 pm
#25
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Wow! What a nice surprise! Isn’t first-ever nonstop from Boston to Honolulu? I hope this flight will be so successful. I remember Delta who have a multiple stops from BOS-ATL-LAX-HNL by operating L1011.
Sep 21, 2018, 11:24 am
#26
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As a student in BOS back in the late 80's, I would have welcomed a nonstop to HNL (as my family vacations in Hawaii every Christmas). Instead, I had to endure a connection in ORD, LAX, or SFO. It took forever to get there with the inevitable delay and the only entertainment was a movie on the overhead screen and the looped music (or you could bring a book). It was torture back in the day.
Sep 21, 2018, 11:59 am
#27
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: SAN
Posts: 1,171
Same for west coast kids going to Europe via ATL or JFK. I still have bits of a Bill Cosby routine memorized from hearing it several times on a single flight on Delta's comedy channel.
Sep 25, 2018, 11:11 am
#28
Join Date: Jul 2013
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Franky, I'm amazed by this launch. I've lived in the Northeast. Very few people from this region regularly vacation in Hawaii. It's a really long, expensive and uncomfortable domestic flight (or two). When I tell people I routinely take 12 hour flights and it doesn't kill me, they seem surprised. So it's a trip you save for a special occasion, like a honeymoon. Easterners have much easier warm-weather destinations to go to: like Florida and the Caribbean.
I assume that's why there is so little East Coast nonstop service to Hawaii. United has a EWR flight and Delta has an ATL flight. Hawaiian has operated the JFK flight, I assume, because there are just so many people in NYC and they can get a little connecting traffic from JetBlue. I don't see this math working from Boston.
So it's a trip you save for a special occasion, like a honeymoon. Easterners have much easier warm-weather destinations to go to: like Florida and the Caribbean.I assume that's why there is so little East Coast nonstop service to Hawaii. United has a EWR flight and Delta has an ATL flight. Hawaiian has operated the JFK flight, I assume, because there are just so many people in NYC and they can get a little connecting traffic from JetBlue. I don't see this math working from Boston.
"Boston is the largest U.S. travel market that currently does not receive non-stop service to Hawaii, and it is estimated that nearly 500 people fly between eastern New England and the islands of Hawaii most days. The airline said that travel between Boston Logan International Airport and Honolulu’s Daniel K. Inouye International Airport generated around $76 million in ticket sales last year."
“The greater Boston market currently brings some 60,000 visitors to the island each year..."
https://www.forbes.com/sites/ericros.../#53f30dcb4ffc
Sep 25, 2018, 3:07 pm
#29
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Quoting Forbes article:
"Boston is the largest U.S. travel market that currently does not receive non-stop service to Hawaii, and it is estimated that nearly 500 people fly between eastern New England and the islands of Hawaii most days. The airline said that travel between Boston Logan International Airport and Honolulu’s Daniel K. Inouye International Airport generated around $76 million in ticket sales last year."
“The greater Boston market currently brings some 60,000 visitors to the island each year..."
https://www.forbes.com/sites/ericros.../#53f30dcb4ffc
"Boston is the largest U.S. travel market that currently does not receive non-stop service to Hawaii, and it is estimated that nearly 500 people fly between eastern New England and the islands of Hawaii most days. The airline said that travel between Boston Logan International Airport and Honolulu’s Daniel K. Inouye International Airport generated around $76 million in ticket sales last year."
“The greater Boston market currently brings some 60,000 visitors to the island each year..."
https://www.forbes.com/sites/ericros.../#53f30dcb4ffc
Sep 25, 2018, 4:28 pm
#30
Join Date: Jul 2013
Programs: AA, B6, UA, HH, WoH
Posts: 455
Quoting Forbes article:
"Boston is the largest U.S. travel market that currently does not receive non-stop service to Hawaii, and it is estimated that nearly 500 people fly between eastern New England and the islands of Hawaii most days. The airline said that travel between Boston Logan International Airport and Honolulu’s Daniel K. Inouye International Airport generated around $76 million in ticket sales last year."
“The greater Boston market currently brings some 60,000 visitors to the island each year..."
https://www.forbes.com/sites/ericros.../#53f30dcb4ffc
"Boston is the largest U.S. travel market that currently does not receive non-stop service to Hawaii, and it is estimated that nearly 500 people fly between eastern New England and the islands of Hawaii most days. The airline said that travel between Boston Logan International Airport and Honolulu’s Daniel K. Inouye International Airport generated around $76 million in ticket sales last year."
“The greater Boston market currently brings some 60,000 visitors to the island each year..."
https://www.forbes.com/sites/ericros.../#53f30dcb4ffc
I guess that's why BOS was picked. But those pax numbers do not seem great enough to support a BOS-HNL leisure route (a business route where you could sell expensive premium cabin seats might be a different story). Remember, unless you're going to HNL, this flight is unlikely to save you any travel time.
When you analyze the numbers in the quoted Forbes article, they seem contradictory:
60,000 visitors per year from greater Boston = 164 visitors per day.
500 visitors per day from “eastern New England”.
Where, in “eastern New England”, not including greater Boston, are they getting the remaining 336 visitors per day from?
