Hawaiian Airlines

SYD-HNL-SYD Economy. An older B767 but for a 3 star airline I thought service was pretty good. They looked after the kids with kids meals and were always offering free drinks and mid flight snacks. We also flew to Maui return from HNL and the service was the best I have experienced.

Excellent service on LAX-HNL flight on new A330. The seat is a mistake but everything else top rate. The food service IFE. I hope they continue with their current meal service and don't adopt the mistake they've made on their international runs by changing it!

Seats cramped - even for 5'6" and 140 lbs and the equipment is ancient. Mine had bilingual German/English everywhere. They charge for everything almost. Want to use a headset -you pay. Want to use your own headset to watch the movie - you pay. Don't want the mystery meat sandwich - you pay ($12 for a hamburger that would be like a buck at Mac's). You want overhead room - get on board first and expect no help from the cabin attendants standing around talking about their personal lives with one another. You want to rent a DVD player. Maybe you can maybe you cannot. They had the players but forgot to bring batteries on board. Hawaiian is like a poor man's Southwest. Unless the fare you get is way below the competition I cannot see why you would fly with them.

We were supposed to leave at 3PM but due to aircraft problems we ended up taking off at 2am the next day to begin our trip home to San Diego. The flight attendants were wonderful and very supportive. Hawaiian airlines gave us a free shuttle to a local mall while we were at the airport. We got free movie tickets and a $200 voucher and gave us good snacks etc. We also got a discount on our next purchase.

LAX-HNL-LAX. Check-in in LAX was good. New A330 service in F class to HNL was good. Seats are not flat. Return to LAX with aged B767. Check-in staff in HNL rude and charged me $50 extra for an overweight bag by 3lbs even I'm a 1st class pax. My overweight bag was lost upon arrival in LAX which was returned to me almost a week later. The delivery man was lost so I met him 20 miles from my residence. If HA wants to be a world class airline they should take some lessons leading airlines in Asia and Middle East.

Portland to Lihue return with change of planes in Honolulu both ways. No real problems until we arrived home to find our camera was stolen out of our checked baggage.

Phoenix to Oahu on Hawaiian and on return flight had a 4 hour delay due to a mechanical problem on plane. The food was awful and even the food they charged for looked awful. The positive was that staff were friendly.

Honolulu-Manila Business Class. Very disappointed to note that Hawaiian Airlines new upgraded inflight service is a real downgrade. They've ditched the tapas style menu for a slow food service. In addition they are no longer catered by Chef Gannon and for the first time in years I was served bad food on Hawaiian Airlines. The flight attendants were wonderful but clearly embarrassed by the downgrade. In addition the new printed menus are tacky. Also time to retire the 767. Just not up to standard for a 10 hour plus flight!

HNL-LAS-HNL on new A330. Hawaiian is probably the best of the US carriers. Both flights full but service was good with frequent water runs - although the complimentary food was awful served in a cardboard box!

LAX-HNL-SYD-HNL-LAX.Flew from the US to Australia on Hawaiian in first/business on a discounted fare. Seat comfort is significantly better than US legacy carriers domestic first class but well short of modern international business class standards but comfortable enough for the long flights - an old style business class product. Service and food exceptional. The cabin staff go the extra mile in attentiveness up front and the tapas style menus were creative and tasty. IFE is good not great. Lounges in LAX and HNL are dreadful but HA business class passengers can access the Air New Zealand lounge in SYD which is exceptional.