Review – Hawaiian Airlines A330 New Business/First Class

by Zac George
a seat in a plane

This post is quite delayed but I’ve finally gotten around to writing the last of my Hawaii posts. I’m still working on the Hyatt Maui review but in the meantime, here’s the review of Hawaiian’s new Business/First Class onboard their A330 from Honolulu to Brisbane.

For this flight, I wanted to try get an aisle seat as the cabin is in a 2-2-2 configuration but they were already taken so I settled for 3A. The advantage of having a window on this flight was that I got a pretty nice view when departing Honolulu.

a plane at an airport

Hawaiian Airlines A330

Boarding commenced right on time and they commenced Priority boarding straight after passengers needing assistance. One thing I like with U.S airlines (yes, there’s something to like about American carriers) is the fact that they will actually enforce Priority boarding and it’s sort of efficient.

a seat in a plane

Hawaiian Airlines New Business Class

At first glance the seats look awfully thin and you’re not wrong, they’re quite thin. When you arrive at your seat you’ll find your duvet, pillow which attaches to the headrest, small amenity kit and a larger pillow used for sleeping. The seat doesn’t have too much storage so it’s best to just keep your essentials with you and keep other objects in the overhead bins. One thing to point out is that the cabin crew use the bins in Business, usually in the centre bins so you’ll want to get your bags up there sooner rather than later as there was a lack of space.

a seat in a plane

Hawaiian Airlines New Business Class

Even though the seats look very thin they’re actually fairly comfortable. The new seats can be made into a flatbed at 180-degrees so this is a massive improvement over the old recliner seats which were terrible.

a seat with pillows in the back

Hawaiian Airlines New Business Class

One thing quite a few people commented on was the footwell and it being too small. I honestly found it more than sufficient and didn’t have a problem with it. One interesting thing is that there’s a net for storing things in the footwell which I thought is quite a strange place to store objects.

a stack of white and blue chairs in an airplane

Hawaiian Airlines New Business Class

The space underneath it however was great for storing things like headphones or cameras.

a chair in a plane

Hawaiian Airlines New Business Class

The seats are really quite great for customers flying together as a couple and for a solo passenger, the privacy was ok. There’s a privacy shield which can be raised after take-off.

a seat in an airplane

Hawaiian Airlines New Business Class

Each seat has a USB power outlet and below it are the lighting controls and crew alert button. There’s also a power point located at the bottom of the seat.

a close up of a device

USB Power

Above the USB power is the controls for your seat. Instead of having traditional buttons, the seats use a scroll wheel which I really liked.

a light on a device

Seat position slider

Once settled in my seat, the friendly crew came around to each passenger welcoming them onboard, handing out the menu and offering a pre-departure beverage which was either a Mai Tai or Orange, Guava and Passionfruit drink, I chose the latter. The drink was quite refreshing and not too sweet which was nice.

two glasses of orange liquid on a napkin

Hawaiian Airlines Welcome Beverage

Here’s the menu for the flight:

a white paper with a person's picture on it

a menu of a restaurant

Menu

Shortly after takeoff the cabin crew came around to set the tables and hand out the In flight entertainment device which is an IPad Pro. If you’re at a window seat, you’ll find a small circle looking thing in the centre console and you’ll need to push down on it hard to bring out the stand for the IPad.

a laptop on a chair

IPad Stand

The amount of entertainment options on the device was quite disappointing and there really wasn’t much to choose from if you’re wanting new releases or tv series. I will give them a plus for having new technology though as the IPad has a really big and bright display.

To begin the meal service, I started with some warm Macadamia nuts and a glass of Coke.

a plate of food and a drink on a tray

Macadamia Nuts and Coke

Following the nuts and drink, I had the Lobster Bisque which was really quite lovely. It was packed with flavour and really creamy, It maybe one of the best dishes I’ve had on a plane.

a bowl of soup on a table

Lobster Bisque

Next dish was the Heart of Baby Romaine Salad with Prosciutto which was well…Interesting. The Prosciutto was quite nice but I didn’t get the ‘salad’ concept and found that a bit odd.

a plate of food on a table

Heart of Baby Romaine Salad with Prosciutto

And for the main dish I had the braised beef shortribs which were quite chewy but had some nice flavour.

a plate of food on a table

Braised Beef Shortribs

And to finish the meal service, I had the Pear pie which was really nice and a good size, not too small, not too big.

a small dessert on a plate with a fork and a strawberries

Pear Pie

After eating and watching a few shows, I decided to sleep and got around 5 hours of sleep which I was pretty happy with. Once I wake up I usually find it near impossible to go back to sleep so I decided to watch some downloaded Netflix on my phone and chose to watch Narcos.

When we were about 1 hour and a half out from Brisbane, the cabin lighting was brightened with mood lighting and the arrival meal service started to begin.

a group of people sitting in a plane

Hawaiian Airlines New Business/First

The arrival meal was a grilled teriyaki and pineapple sandwich with fresh fruit.

a plate of food on a tray

Grilled Teriyaki and Pineapple sandwich with Fresh Fruit

We arrived into Brisbane on time shortly after but were stuck at the gate for around 15 minutes as the crew had to spray the cabin with insecticide which is required by the department of agriculture in Australia.

Overall I had a fantastic flight on Hawaiian and would recommend them if going to Hawaii or even the U.S mainland.

 

 

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2 comments

MrB January 9, 2018 - 3:05 pm

Thanks for the review. How would one book such a flight with award points?

Caroline February 19, 2018 - 10:50 am

I disagree. We had terrible service and the pictures you see or the ones even you have posted were not what we received. We didn’t even receive a drinks list. My seat was broken both on the way there and on the way back. They didn’t have snacks and we were told we had to pay for them – in Business??? The staff were rude and had a galley party on the way over so we couldn’t even sleep. My tablet holder was broken on both trips also along with another passengers but as they were full they couldn’t move us. In my opinion, it was the worst airline I have EVER sat in in Business and I’ve now lodged formal complaints for false advertising. It’s nothing like they advertise.

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