Greetings from Hawaii. Yesterday I flew in Hawaiian Airlines First Class aboard the A330-200 from Los Angeles to Honolulu and want to share my initial impressions of the flight here.
Hawaiian Airlines took delivery of its first A330 with new premium class seating in 2016. The seats are unique in that they are exclusive to Hawaiian and Hong Kong Airlines, but are fully lie-flat and quite comfortable.
I pulled an all-nighter before the flight and intended to use the six hour to journey to sleep. Thankfully, I was able to enjoy about three hours of sleep enroute, which fueled me through the rest of the day.
Unfortunately, Hawaiian offers pretty lackluster bedding: an economy class pillow and a comfortable but very small blanket.
Brunch began with macadamia nuts, followed by seasonal fruit and a warm croissant.
Although menus were distributed, there was no choice for the main course, but it was a very hearty, very tasty quiche with mushroom.
Dessert was totally unnecessary, but I picked at the chocolate cake.
The Mai Tai is fairly sweet…I recommend sticking to the guava cocktail.
I think what I appreciated most about Hawaiian was that it puts you in the Hawaiian spirit. The pre-boarding music, uniforms, and friendly service all make me think of Hawaii…I guess that is the point.
CONCLUSION
I’ve flown in far better business class seats, but found the seat comfortable, food tasty, and service excellent. What more can you ask for on a domestic U.S. flight in a leisure market?
Hi Matt,
Just curious since you have a baby, what seat you would choose if you were flying with your little one?
I liked the last row, three. I’d take that and out the kid in the window seat.
It’s a real pity that even in “First Class” Hawaiian using canned juice beverages. It’s terrible. Water and sugar and 12% fruit juice.
They’re not “exclusive to Hawaiian”. Select Hong Kong Airlines planes have the exact same seat. Otherwise, nice review.
Thanks Alvin. Which ones?
The ex-Emirates ones. Search up “B-LHA business class” on Google Images and the first result that pops up should be a picture. The aircraft were leased, so they couldn’t install their own product. I’ve linked an article in my website link above.
My biggest note (and something you noticed as well) is the pathetic bedding. Offering a decent pillow and blanket (like what JetBlue offers in Mint) would I suspect greatly improve the experience.
It’s worth noting too that Hawaiian uses this same aircraft/seat on long haul international flights so perhaps that’s a better standard to judge it by than US Donestic first class. Certainly given that Hawaiian is operating a leisure focused buisness I would not expect a world beating buisness class but that pillow and blanket was pathetic. Hopefully on international service the soft product is a bit better.
how is hawaii treating ya? its kinda weird, since i live here i flown Hawaiian first class (domestic) and business class (long haul) and they change around the level of service dramatically from amenities and food. If you fly HNL-JFK on Hawaiian though, its full long haulbiz class.