Hawaiian Airlines’ new A330 Premium Cabin has lie-flat seats. (Image: Hawaiian)
Hawaiian Airlines has revealed details of the planned makeover of its A330 fleet, including a new Premium (business class) Cabin with lie-flat seats and the addition of more “Extra Comfort” (premium economy) seats with more legroom than regular economy.
The new Premium Cabin will still have 18 seats, as Hawaiian’s Business/First cabin has now. But the new seats will recline into beds that lie flat, featuring 20.5-inch width and 76-inch length. They’ll be in a 2-2-2 configuration, offering “intuitive” seat controls as well as two USB ports and one A/C power outlet for each seat.
Intuitive seat controls include a unique wheel that regulates the degree of recline. (Image: Hawaiian)
Those seat controls include a new “reclining wheel” that passengers can use to set the exact amount of recline they like, up to 180 degrees.
“An advanced in-flight entertainment system is powered by the next generation of large-format tablets resting on an adjustable telescoping arm for optimal viewing angle and comfort,” Hawaiian said. You can see more about the new Premium Cabin here.
In the past, Hawaiian was primarily a West Coast – Hawaii operation. But recently Hawaiian has added new nonstops to New York (10 hours) and is building up at a transpacific powerhouse with flights between its Honolulu hub and biz travel destinations in Australia, China, Japan, Korea and New Zealand. To compete in these long-haul markets, it needs a lie-flat seat up front.
In-flight entertainment can be seen on tablets that rest on an adjustable arm. (Image: Hawaiian)
Meanwhile, the A330’s Extra Comfort (premium economy) section will get an additional 28 seats, for a total of 68. Main cabin seating will be reduced from 236 to 192. Extra Comfort seats provide 36 inches of pitch, and purchasers also get priority boarding, complimentary on-demand entertainment and a power outlet. Hawaiian said seat pitch in the standard economy will still be 31 inches on the reconfigured planes.
Today, Hawaiian’s A330’s seat 294 passengers, with 18 in Business/First Class, 40 in Extra Comfort and 236 in economy. See our Trip Report of Hawaiian’s A330 flight between SFO and HNL. The new configuration will have fewer (278) seats overall: 18 in Business/Premium Class, 68 in Extra Comfort and 192 in the economy.
Premium Cabin seats have adjustable privacy dividers. (Image: Hawaiian)
The airline said the first newly configured A330 will start flying in West Coast-Hawaii service during June, but it won’t say where. “Sales for the Premium Cabin are expected to commence in the fall, when the first dedicated routes will be revealed along with new signature service elements and a host of new amenities,” the company said. The overhaul of its A330 fleet is expected to be completed by early 2018.
Hawaiian is not part of any of the big three global airline alliances, but it maintains partnership agreements with seven airlines (including JetBlue and Virgin America, but no longer with American), which allow members of frequent flyer programs to earn and burn miles on Hawaiian flights.
Related: Trip Report: Hawaiian Airlines A330 SFO-HNL
It’s increasingly unlikely that we’ll see Hawaiian’s lie-flat seats on the West Coast over the long term because the carrier will soon begin to deploy its newest 190-seat Airbus A321 on these shorter routes where a lie-flat seat is likely superfluous.
Have you flown Hawaiian Air? What did you think? Would you consider it for a transpacific trip? Please leave comments below.
NOTE: Be sure to click here to see all recent TravelSkills posts about: United’s newest, longest flight + Tipping Uber drivers + Qantas 747 Trip Report + Confusion over PreCheck policies + No-fee earlier flights
Do you follow us on Twitter? It’s a great way to keep up with the latest news!
Please join the 125,000+ people who read TravelSkills every month! Sign up here for one email-per-day updates!
NIcest staff and plane but the food in first was the worse ever. They tried to be so fancy that the food was not edible. If I ever take HA again in first, I am bringing my own sandwich.
See the comment I posted above-HA has alresdy said they won’t just dump West Coast A330 service. For one they likely need the cargo capacity out of SFO/LAX.
As of today-theres only seasonal service with 767’s to LIH-an A321 would perhaps allow that to go year round.
So LIH, KOA and maybe even ITO could also benefit from HA using the A321Neo. Right now UA/AA et al use 757’s on routes to these airports. So perhaps the thin routes to Hawaii will see some of the first “tests” if you will of the A321neo as a potential 757 successor.
I think HA missed the mark with not going for a TRUE premium economy seat-they fly domestic and Intl. Some lesiure travellers who want more than extra legroom but can’t swing $5K RT would gladly pay for a true premium economy product!
It’s gonna be LAX-OGG HA33/34 daily starting as soon as next week-seatmaps on the LAX-OGG route are updated for the new cabin.
How was that not friendly and good natured? I even started my comment by considering the possibility that I was missing something and therefore not a mistake on your part but a misunderstanding on mine. The comment was intended as friendly feedback, just as friendly as the 2 other comments I posted on this article. It seems like you may be way too sensitive about feedback, Chris.
Hey Kirk: Thanks for the feedback, but hate to tell you that you were not the only one who noticed and we rec’d several emails about those missing words. When people inform us of mistakes and typos in a friendly or good natured way (even bloggers make mistakes!) we are happy to acknowledge. If you’d like to take your negativity and troll elsewhere, go for it. –Chris
Ya, the paragraph you quoted didn’t say that yesterday, there was no mention of long term. Chris realised I was right and decided to quietly fix it without acknowledging the mistake, I guess he was hoping no one would notice.
I think it means that they will initially run the newly-configured A330’s on the West Coast routes and then transfer them to the East coast routes as the new A321’s become available. At least that is how I read this:
“It’s increasingly unlikely that we’ll see Hawaiian’s lie-flat seats on the West Coast over the long term because the carrier will soon begin to deploy its newest 190-seat Airbus A321 on these shorter routes where a lie-flat seat is likely superfluous.”
I’m not sure all leisure is cheap, some people want and can afford a nicer product, even when traveling for fun. Plenty of people are spending $500/nt or much more to stay at the Four Seasons or Ritz props in Hawaii, so those same people might spend $1,500 or more for a nice F/J product like jetBlue has with Mint.
Good point. Free stopover in Hawaii on your way to Asia could be a quite compelling offer for some people
Yes, and Icelandair offer free stopovers in Iceland, which can be fun. Obviously Hawaii can offer that too.
Even so it seems that this change is aimed at benefitting those flying from the East Coast who will get the nice planes that the folks on the West Coast used to get.
I agree with Kirk, the Hawaiian market is mostly vacation and families that don’t want to spend money on premium seats at a higher value.
A bit disappointed with the premium cabin seats. Again these heads of the airlines don’t seem to understand we need more room from left to right instead of back and front. The seats are too tight because there are too many of them in a row, I would say that until the airlines eliminate one seat per row it’s not a comfortable seat. I need more room for my big butt, not my fat legs.
Look at Virgin and British Airways on London flights, they are now offering premium coach in which one seat has been taken out and people love it.
Hopefully these folks on domestic airlines will see that and have a seat taken out of each row.
I guess they’ll try to compete on cost. Icelandair does the same thing in the Atlantic. They offer to fly you from North America to Europe, on narrow-body jets, with a connection in the middle of the Ocean. But they charge less
Hawaii routes are generally leisure-heavy routes. As such, lie-flat seats aren’t profitable. Massive amounts of coach seats are favored on these routes. JetBlue Mint service, on the other hand, operates on premium transcon route. Those are the exact opposite, they are business-heavy routes and that’s why every carrier runs lie-flat planes on those routes.
“the first newly configured A330 will start flying in West Coast-Hawaii service during June”
“It’s increasingly unlikely that we’ll see Hawaiian’s lie-flat seats on the West Coast”
Umm, am I missing something? That sounds like a contradiction
A321’s are fine but Hawaiian currently makes a big deal of being the only airline flying widebodies to Hawaii. If they switch to A321’s out of the west coast, that advantage will be lost.
And why would I change planes in Hawaii en route to Asia when I have to fly in a A321 and sit in a “domestic seat” for the first five hours?