Hawaiian Airlines Boeing 787 Will Fly To New York (JFK)

HA 330 are 1-2-1? Or rather 2-2-2

@ Peter -- Whoops, fixed, thank you!

JFK certainly makes sense as it’s a high yield, flagship route. But I wonder if AS/HA’s choice to use their dated A330s instead of the 787s for the SEA long haul launch may hurt them in the long-term.

They will not be able to update their business class cabin for a decent amount of time and it’s hard to shake bad first impressions. Many travelers, especially premium and business travelers do indeed make decisions on which carrier to fly because of hard product, especially when it’s inferior hard product like 2-2-2 without direct aisle access. Given that AS/HA is still US point of sale focused, the closest analogy I can draw is US travelers preferring UA metal because of how LH is still flying majority 2-2-2 without outdated seats, meanwhile UA has a proper Polaris config for all of their international longhaul widebodies.

AS/HA certainly have quite the uphill battle, especially as they now functionally serve as direct competitors to JAL, one of the world’s best airlines.

What happens after August 20?

Given this is a leisure route, the 2-2-2 layout in the A330 isn’t bad for most people.

As for economy, I actively avoid the 787 at all costs, free WiFi or not. Generally speaking, I’m either upgrading or not flying on the 787 (that goes for the 10 across 777 too). I’m out of BOS, and if Hawaiian brings the 787 there, I’d rather take Delta’s A330. Either that bring on a proper PE cabin.

A minor note. HNL-ICN flights are longer than those to NYC. But you may have meant BOS and NYC are the longest US* flights

@ CJ -- I might be missing something, but HNL-ICN covers 4,577 miles, while HNL-JFK covers 4,983 miles.

It's probably the flight time due to strong headwinds and jet stream over the Pacific during this time of year.

Last time I flew JFK to HNL was on a business trip, so it's not all leisure

This is a nice upgrade - but I would love to see them fly the 787 from HNL to LHR 🙂

Completely agree with you about economy. 9 across 787 and 10 across 777 are the two configurations I actively avoid (also out of BOS, btw). At least we still have JAL 787 with 2-4-2 economy (and a couple of inches extra legroom). Don't know if there are any 3-3-3 777s left.

A premium economy product would be nice. Especially if it's 2-3-2 on the 787 and A330s.

And to answer your question regarding who still has 9-abreast 777s:

-EVA has a subfleet of them (will be replaced by A35Ks)
-SQ (will be replaced by 10-abreast 779s)
-Garuda
-Thai
-JAL (on their way out in favor of the A35Ks) (they even had 3-4-2 772ERs)
-Korean, Asiana (who knows how they'll reconfigure them)
-The mainland Chinese carriers
-Biman (surprisingly)

That's all I got for now, but those would be the major carriers that have 9-abreast 777s

@Ben
" I might be missing something, but HNL-ICN covers 4,577 miles, while HNL-JFK covers 4,983 miles."
Ben you are right. HNL-JFK is longer than HNL-ICN by distance measured. But as @Mike O mentioned some flights duration depends on strong headwinds and jet stream.

Not happy with the comfort plus seating of 3-3-3. Flying in November and hope to see the return of the 330 plane. Next year will switch to Delta if 287 continues