In 2008 Paula and I were heading off to an Affiliate Conference in the US. We decided to fly with Hawaiian Airlines and spend a couple of days in Hawaii before travelling on to Los Angeles and our final destination, Las Vegas.
We arrived at the Sydney International quite early in the day for our flight to Hawaii and had to wait for the Hawaiian Airlines check in counters to open at 6pm. Although our flight wasn’t until 9pm, it is a 3 1/2 drive from Canberra and Paula had a few things to do in Sydney. So we made sure we had plenty of time, especially after our trip to Bangkok when we nearly missed the plane because of fog in Canberra causing a problem with our domestic flight connections.
Booking in was a pleasant experience and our customer relations operator, Angela, was extremely helpful with the seating. She arranged for us to have 2 seats behind the bulkhead, which satisfied Paula’s request for an aisle seat and mine for a window.
Paula asked if there was any chance of a free upgrade. There wasn’t, but for $535 we could have upgraded to business class. We declined and after boarding the plane, we were quite thankful that we didn’t spend the extra money because the business seats weren’t much better than economy class.
There was no personal inflight tv screen, although we were lucky enough to have a small screen in front of us because of where we were sitting, behind the bulkhead, which meant we could not see the large screen. This arrangement also meant we did not have a choice of movies to watch and unfortunately the movie that was playing wasn’t one we would have chosen to see.
There were all sorts of problems with the tv system and it kept shutting down and the movie would start from the beginning again.
The Staff
After about an hour into the flight we felt that the cabin crew were a little aloof. This first impression lasted for the full time of the trip. It was hard to determine what the problem was, the crew were not rude but they just did their job and did not show any enthusiasm or go out of their way to do anything more than the basics of what would have been expected of them.
The Meals
- Dinner was a choice of chicken or pasta and like most of the passengers around us, we had the chicken.
- it was chicken korma which was quite nice and it was served with rice and beans a well as a green salad with balsamic vinegar, a bread roll and butter and some very nice macadamia chocolates for dessert.
Breakfast
- very uninspiring – a small muffin and a Ski Double Up – Paula was so looking forward to a hot breakfast, so this was disappointing.
General
There were a number of little things that we are used to getting on other airlines that were missing from this trip.
- no toothpaste
- pillows were very small
- no socks
- no eyemask
- no menu
- hot towels but they are only tiny and thin
- just general little things like no water bottles – they just come around every now and then with a big bottle of water and fill up your cup
- inflight magazine was a little dull – would have liked a little more on the basics of Hawaii since it was my first visit
All in all this was an average flight. It really felt more like a domestic flight than an international flight.
We are booked through to LA with Hawaiian airlines so it will be interesting to see if the next leg and the return journey is any better.
How would we rate Hawaiian Airlines:
- Booking in – 4/5
- Onboard service 3/5
- Dinner 3/5
- Breakfast 1/5
- Extras 1/5
- Inflight entertainment 2/5
How would you rate Hawaiin Airline? Give us your comments below.
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