Hawaiian Airlines pineapple upsidedown cake might be the best thing I’ve ever eaten at 35,000 feet (Photo: Chris McGinnis)
Last month Hawaiian Airlines invited me down to Honolulu for a couple days to meet with executives at its slick, newly refurbished headquarters. I was also there to poke around the city’s newest hotels, and to check out what’s been happening on Lanai since Larry Ellison bought it.
This was my first time ever flying Hawaiian Airlines, so I had my eyes wide open. Here are seven things I saw or learned that I’d like to share with you:
1- New planes. Hawaiian flies a 294-passenger Airbus A330 between San Francisco and Honolulu. I liked the spacious wide-body ride, so I was a bit disappointed to learn that some of Hawaiian’s west coast flights will eventually switch to narrow-body A321 flights in the next few years. The carrier has been on a plane-buying binge recently and will soon add more A330s and smaller A321s to its fleet. It’s slowly phasing out its older 767s which cannot reach distant cities like Beijing or New York. As of this week, Hawaiian’s fleet is comprised of 18 Boeing 717s and 3 ATRs (used for inter-island flights), plus 18 A330s and 11 B767s used on long hauls.
Hawaiian Airlines new Airbus A330s are its long haul workhorses (Photo: Chris McGinnis)
2- Aloha shirts, natch. I was surprised that our flight to Honolulu had an all-male crew.
Male cabin crew sharply dressed in teal aloha shirts and pressed gray slacks (Photo: Chris McGinnis)
3- Hawaiian has installed 40 “Extra Comfort” premium economy seats on its A330s. Up front they share same cabin with 18 first class seats. Current fares between the West Coast and Hawaii vary a lot based on demand, but looking at trips in early November, SFO-HNL roundtrips are running at about $550 in coach and $1150 in first/business class. Extra Comfort seats go for a premium of $60-$100 each way over coach fares and are only available on A330s.
4- Hawaiian is not part of any of the big three global airline alliances, but it maintains partnership agreements with eight airlines (including American, JetBlue and Virgin America), which allow members of frequent flyer programs to earn and burn miles on Hawaiian flights.
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The fore cabin of Hawaiian’s A330 houses both first and premium economy seats (Photo: Chris McGinnis)
Economy class on Hawaiian’s A330 is configured 2-4-2 (Chris McGinnis)
5- Good food! Hawaiian makes a big deal about the fact that it’s the only domestic US carrier that still offers free full meals to coach passengers. And it delivers, in both first and economy class. In addition to the melt-in-your-mouth, brown-sugary goodness of that pineapple upside down cake at the top of this post, first class passengers on morning flights get printed menus, mai-tais and a big hot breakfast. In coach, passengers get a big, warm manapua sandwich, stuffed with chicken, cheese, onions and mushrooms.
A big hot breakfast included fruit, savory beef patty on a biscuit w gravy (!) & eggs (Photo: Chris McGinnis)
Economy class passengers get free hot meals like this soft savory “manapua” stuffed w chicken & mushrooms (Photo: Chris McGinnis)
6- Hawaiian Air execs are very proud of their expanding route map to Asia… it now flies to four cities in Japan, plus Seoul and Beijing. It also flies nonstop to Auckland, Brisbane, Sydney, Papeete & Pago Pago. It launched nonstop flights to New York JFK in 2012 and is rumored to be considering adding nonstops to Boston. If you are looking for a nice way to add some vacation to your business trip to Asia, consider flying via Honolulu on Hawaiian which offers free stopovers in either direction. One downside to consider for long-haul flying is that its first/business class seats are recliners and do not lie-flat.
Hawaiian Asia-Oceania route network (Courtesy Hawaiian Airlines)
7- Hawaiian Airlines CEO Mark Dunkerley sits alongside other employees (most of whom wear colorful Aloha shirts to work every day) in a big bright new “open plan” headquarters adjacent to the airport. The HQ refurb (completed in January 2014) includes the spacious new “Lunch Box” employee cafeteria that even has its own Yelp page.
At Hawaiian HQ, eating at desks is forbidden, so the mod new lunchroom fills up fast! (Photo: Chris McGinnis)
How’d you like to work here? Hawaiian recently renovated its HQ next to the airport and it’s clean, bright and wide-open (Photo: Chris McGinnis)
(Disclosure: Hawaiian Airlines paid for my roundtrip flight between SFO and Honolulu.)
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I won’t fly anything else to/from Hawaii. NOT even Virgin America, and I fly them everywhere else on the Mainland and Mexico.
I LOVE HAWAIIAN AIRLINES!!!! I HOPE IT NEVER CHANGES!!!!
I miss Wi-Fi from NY to Honolulu. When it will be avaliable?
Love Hawaiian. Good service and best food. Mahalo!!!
can we please do something with the Hawaiian Terminal at HNL? awful.
very disappointing indeed to hear they will start flying narrow body jets – the trip to Hawaii is long enough so pax need to be able to use either aisle if the other one is filled with food cart etc.
I dont think I like the idea of first class and premium economy together. Makes first class less private and makes it noisier.
If only Hawaiian cared about the local residents and kept reasonable interisland fares to visit friends and famiy on other islands. Sad no competition for them in the local market to keep them honest .
Sigh…if only the big legacy airlines would learn from them! =( I am salivating over the upside-down pineapple cake. Just arrived from Kauai to SFO on United. No complaints, but it ain’t Hawaiian.
Mark Dunkerley has been a terrific CEO for Hawaiian turning it around and rebuilding an ambitious business plan that, so far, is succeeding. I suspect HA will bring in lie-flat seats on the A330s to compete better on longhaul (Asians are avoiding them) as the A321s come in on the skinnier/shorter routes.