JerMah

A330 JFK to HNL first was pretty underwhelming, relatively speaking. Decent but felt "aged." Service was good but seat and IFE were lacking IMO.

This was 3/22/15 JFK-HNL. Flying HNL-JFK tomorrow 3/27/15 and will report back.

Alex909

I think that what might appear aged to one passenger might be perfectly fine for another.

If I am taking my wife to a hard earned annual vacation in a luxury resort in Kihei then, sure, I would go for the most luxurious seat to impress her, and probably use frequent flyer miles. But I would only be on that plane once a year, so there would have to be many of me to make money. If I am a regular business traveler to Tokyo or Beijing, then I will go for premium economy and leg space over everything else because in this day and age of web- and video- conferencing my employer will rarely pay business class fares (unless I am executive VP level).

It would be interesting to attempt a "segmentation" of the most dominant groups of people on the Hawaii/Far East and Hawaii/Mainland routes in order to understand their seating needs and preferences. In my experience, there is tremendous diversity out there: Are you a once- or twice-a year vacationer to Hawaii or Japan? Are you Kamaaina traveling to Far East to explore your family roots or to visit family? An International student visiting home? Are you doing business in Far East, regularly, or only once a year? Or, are you a busy professional from New York or Tokyo taking several short "getaways" to Hawaii every year? I see all of these groups on HA flights regularly. I think you might have to have at least a rudimentary understanding of this diversity and the size and preferences of each group to design the optimal future Hawaiian cabin. My intuition is that copying other carriers lie flat would be sub-optimal, because Hawaiian has a unique segmentation due to its hubs being out in the middle between Hawaii and the "Far East". This might be a great opportunity to innovate and come up with something new that nobody else has, something that truly fits the unique audiences above. So far, Alaska Air, Southwest, and Virgin America seem to be the only ones in the industry that are truly innovating in this area, but there is no reason Hawaiian couldn't join them..

WheelsFirst

I think what makes HA unique is that it's an airline based in Hawaii, and I think they do a really good job of bringing that experience into the cabin. Their food and beverages are unique, and they are the only airline that feeds domestic US coach passengers. I think they have a great niche, I don't think it would make any sense to turn into a far east focused carrier, there are Asian flag carriers far better suited to this.

Alex909

Bringing-Hawaii-into-the-cabin works as a differentiator only for one or two customer segments and leaves the other segments in the cold. Alaska Air, for example, has 80% co-opted the Hawaiian experience but then they also offer unique targeted benefits to frequent flyers and people who fly mostly for both business and pleasure like myself, so I know it is possible. As a small-time investor in Hawaiian I would love to see them also step up and broaden not only their network, but also develop products and services that appeal to the other segments of people that I see on their planes. I feel that Hawaiian has only begun to exploit the potential from that larger star network that they now own, connecting the mainland with Far East.

sportsguymichael

I'm wondering about the First class seat from Sydney to Honolulu on the A330. It looks from reading this thread and the HAL website, that it is a regular first class seat. I was hoping for a lie flat seat or at least angled flat. Can anyone chime in with their experiences? Thanks.

747FC

It is a decent product, so long as you can suspend your desire for lie-flat or angle-flat. I have flown it a lot, and it is serviceable.

sddjd

It's a recliner, more akin to domestic 1st on most narrow-bodies. Recline is minimal, a small footrest extends forward (not much use if you're 6'), but that's about it. IFE is via an armrest-mounted pop-up monitor.

IMO it's acceptable for west coast mainland flights but woefully inadequate for Oceania & Asia bound flights. QF's angled lie-flats on their 330's would be my preference, possibly even better if QF puts one of its reconfigured business suite aircraft on the route. HA's being left behind it's westbound competition while it debates whether an upgraded hard product "fits".

cssaus

Having previously flown HA's "first class" between SYD & HNL I would say it's not worth the extra cost in terms of the benefits provided. This past February we flew return in Economy and upgraded to "economy comfort" and apart from not getting the benefit of the first class meals & complimentary drinks, it was very copeable.

Prior to departting Sydney we had dinner at the airport and for the return we purchased fresh wraps, salads & snacks from the nearby ABC shop.

One other thing, if flying HA in economy it's worth purchasing your own headsets as the ones they hand out are the in-ear buds which are terrible.

azj

They're well beyond that stage in the process.

stususs

I have four long flights: JFK-HNL, HNL-BNE, AKL-HNL (red eye) and HNL-JFK (red eye). All seats are in standard coach, and I am not inclined to spend $125 per segment to upgrade to Extra Comfort.

Each of my current seats is the aisle seat of a 2 seat configuration.

I am two weeks away from JFK-HNL and HNL-BNE. I am five weeks away from the two red eye flights, AKL-HNL and HNL-JFK. Each of these flights is showing rows with either 4 of 4 open seats or 3 of 4 open seats in the 4 seat configuration area.

Should I change my seats to one of those rows figuring that at this late moment the seats are not likely to be filled and I might gain the benefit of one or more empty seats next to me or should I keep what I have?

laxsnaogg

Can anyone please clarify what type of power outlet is available under the economy comfort seats? The website says "electrical/power", which I assume means something you can actually plug into, not a USB port. Any specifics would be greatly appreciated.

When I flew in standard coach last year, the USB ports didn't provide enough power to charge my ipad, only my iphone (first world problem, i know )

azj

The F and Extra Comfort seats have regular power outlets. The USB is still available.

LIH Prem

Are they still taking delivery of new A330s?

This one spotted in TLS mid-May

azj

#21 arrived last month and the final delivery, #22 will be later this year.

FBWFTW

Random to jump in here a couple months later Alex-but ive been thinking about this segmentation/opportunity since we were talking about the EC seats the other day and I had this page open on my iPad.

Right now, an Extra Comfort seat from JFK-HNL is $1026 rt(776rt plus $250 for EC seats and that price seems to be fairly stable. I haven't really looked at the West Coast flights tbh because they'll be A321Neo's soon enough but i'll just assume there's a good bit of competition out that way and that you can get sub $500 RT's in economy on occasion.

As for designing the HA cabin of the future. I think they've got a really good opportunity with the new planes to do a TRUE premium economy. For instance-take me: I'm a 1-2x(if I'm lucky 2x) a year or 1 every other year LESIURE traveller to Hawaii. When I book airline tix (VX/HA/B6) on any of the carriers I tend to fly-I ALWAYS go for the Main cabin Select, the EMS, or Extra Comfort. I'd GLADLY pay an extra $200-300 (say $1300-1400 RT or a bit more) to get similar seating/food/service that's the current HA first/biz class as a "true" SQ/CX/LH type premium economy.

In my head-if Hawaiian is going for the biz/leisure/cheap deal market, they've got a great chance to split the differences through the cabin while making everyone "happy" so to speak. Their current main cabin offering is nice-better than most in pitch and the fact that you get food on long hauls! Their extra comfort has more legroom and is even better, with the same service food wise, plus a free tv pack. The first class-well, reading this thread, most FTers aren't impressed.

My suggestions would be to configure as follows:

-Move the current first class back to the row 13 bulkhead and add a row or two making it a true premium Econ product with the upgraded meals and recliners.

-Once the recliners are moved back-put in 10-12(or as many as will fit) herringbone style lie flats up front(assuming they can fit that many while pushing back the current first) they could charge upwards of $5000 for the lie flats I'd think(basing that on my peek at UA's EWR-HNL service) $1300-1500rt give or take(probably take) for the premium Econ recliners.

-When that's done-IF it's POSSIBLE to do in the "back 9" they could put in a number of rows with current Extra Comfort pitched seating (14/34 already have EC pricing iirc) in for the ancillary revenue at $125 or whatever it might be up to by then each way. They're obviously on to something if they've jacked up the Extra Comfort within a year and change of launch. I'd assume it's selling like hotcakes since they raised it. But the question for them as far as the first/premium Econ is HOW much would the "premium leisure" folks like me pay to get a NOT quite first but still MUCH better than economy product. If I'm basing it on today's JFK-HNL prices of ~$3200rt in first and $1026 in economy, I'd go up to 15-1600rt personally for a TRUE premium economy a-la SQ's new offerings. Having not been in first for a long while, or ever having paid for first, I don't know what they could get for a lie flat-but I know there's definitely untapped demand for premium economy-think about it... What percentage are honeymooners and couples doing a "big" trip to HI? If it's ~50% or so, I'd wager a guess that maybe 1/3-1/2 of that 50% would drop $ on the premium economy but not first...

Just my two cents-I'd love to hear your ideas! And thanks again for the info on 11C the other day.