The long anticipated Hawaiian Airlines announcement of lie flat premium seating has arrived. CEO Mark Dunkerley indicated today the company will also significantly increase the total number of premium seats on its entire 21 plane fleet of Airbus A330-200 aircraft in both premium economy and first class.
Beat of Hawaii has awaited the addition of a true premium cabin on Hawaiian Airlines for some time and last wrote about it in our December 2014 post, “Hawaii Airlines | What to Expect From Alaska and Hawaiian in 2015/2016.” The change was largely needed to be competitive on international and east coast routes, and to a much lesser degree in relation to the highly regarded premium service of Virgin America, which is soon to arrive on Hawaii’s shores.
New Hawaiian Airlines First Class | Lie Flat Seats
Hawaiian Airlines’ Airbus fleet will now include 18 lie flat seats with 76″ between them. The implementation will begin during mid-2016 and be completed in 2017. Flights serving international routes are likely to be the first to see the new seats.
More Premium Economy/Extra Comfort Seats
The Airbus fleet will also receive an additional 28 premium economy seats, for a total of 68 on each plane. These provide on average five additional inches of legroom compared with standard economy. The cost of “Extra Comfort” seating ranges from $70-$125 per flight.
When will this change happen?
The first A330-200 was outfitted in early 2016 and has been flying on the LAX-OGG route. Starting in fall 2016 the remainder of the A330-200 fleet will be retrofitted.
Chime in Here
What do you think – will you be upgrading to Extra Comfort or lie-flat first class on Hawaiian Airlines?
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Aloha! When my hubby and I flew to Maui last May on Hawaii Air, we ended up with numb bums because the seats were board-like. Our return flight was on Alaskan was much more comfortable, even though it was a smaller plane. Why? Because Alaskan actually puts padding in the seats. So until Hawaii Air gets a clue and pads the economy-seats, we will be flying over on other airlines. Mahalo!
looking to travel from LAX to Lihue on July 27 2016 for five days and then to Maui for ten days returning to LAX on Aug 11. Hawaiian Airlines has a price of 786 per person for the multi flight. Any ideas on waiting or buying now? Also I can find flight prediction websites for round trip but not multi destination. Any suggestions for one?
Mahalo
Hi Patrick,
If that includes 3 flights it isn’t bad. It might be best to buy soon since you are traveling in peak summer season. Demand remains high for travel generally, and here in Hawaii.
Aloha.
Hawaiian needs to make this upgrade, otherwise no business traveler would book them. Many of the Asian airlines product is so far superior that this is only the first step. The next, I suspect, will be alignment with one of the different airline alliances. Here’s why, I am a Star Alliance traveler (for better or worse – that’s a whole separate conversation) so when I book a flight to Asia, I look for a Star Alliance partner. When I fly coach, their service is exceptional, their seats are comfortable. What incentive do I have to book Hawaiian? And on the rare occasion that I treat the wife to Asiana business class, it is absolutely unbeatable from HNL to their Korean hub and beyond.
Here’s an actual event to show the level of service with Asiana. At HNL, they had a mechanical issue, so they had all passengers disembark back to the holding area at the gate, THEN, the entire flight crew came out and started continuous service for ALL the passengers. This was then followed by the pilots who made announcements and apologies…never had this level of service from any domestic airline…and doubt I ever will.
Any chance air fares from Seattle to Kona will be going down any time down soon for 12/1 travel (returning 12/8)? We scheduled our trip for those dates partly based on your recommendation and it’s not really working out. Travel immediately before and after 12/1 is much cheaper!
Hi Bryan.
$458 on those dates. What’s wrong with that?
Aloha.
Maybe, when Hawaiian starts making inter island flights affordable for residents. Hawaiian Air has demonstrated a wanton disregard for kama’aina and it will not be easily forgiven when they go through tough times, as they surely will when competition increases.
Yeah, a new option to United’s high fares and low customer service.
let me know when you will fly from phl to kauai
It sounds like there will be less of the economy seating, the only seating I can afford;?) Lots of other airlines to choose from, I guess!
Hi Krissy,
While there certainly are other airlines, the move to more and varied premium offerings is an industry trend and isn’t specific to Hawaiian Airlines.
Aloha.
and again………. coach seating is what a lot of us can afford may be the way to cut down on who will be flying
Seat Guru seat map shows 3 rows of 2-4-2 Extra Comfort seats. Their box score on the right of page says 30 seats. Your article says 40 seats now increasing by 28 to a total 68 Extra Comfort seats. The 18″ width is the same as regular economy but has 4″ or 5″ higher pitch.
Hi Dan,
Seat Guru shows 40 premium seats just as we indicated. Look further back in the plane as they are in 3 areas. Same seats, more legroom.
Aloha.
I have a family of 5, I can not afford an extra $500 each way.