20170628

20170406: HA458: HaNeDa » HoNoluLu


Date: 2017/04/06
Flight: HA458
STD/ATD (Push Back): 2130JST/2126JST
STA/ATA (Touch Down): 0945HST/0936HST
Aircraft/Registration: A330-200/N382HA
Class: Business (Restricted Fare)
Seat: Hawaiian New Business Class

Prologue

After the unpleasantness with JAL's discontinuing its HND «» HNL route, Hawaiian Airlines got my business.   With JAL gone, only ANA and Hawaiian fly between Haneda and Honolulu.  I chose Hawaiian because (1) they were cheaper than ANA, and (2) I wasn't impressed with ANA when I flew with them to HKG back in 2015.

Reservations
The Hawaiian Airlines websites have limitation.  I said websites, plural, because its Japan-site doesn't offer English.  Its English site, offers prices in USD only.  I ended using the Japanese site because I wanted to see prices in JPY.

Pre-boarding

TIAT Lounge
Check-in & Security
Hawaiian Airlines has two flights leaving from Haneda to Honolulu daily.  Mine is the earlier one, at 21:30.  The later one, HA856 departs at 23:55.  I was late in getting to the airport, and didn't arrive till an hour before departure time.  The business class counter seemed crowded.  On closer look, ground staff has told passengers on the later flight to wait till all passengers on my earlier flight are done.  I was grateful for that as I was running very late.

There was one counter for business class.  It was manned by an efficient, no-nonsense lady.  Once the boarding pass had been printed, I asked her to enter the Hawaiian Mileage membership number into my record as I had just joined.  Their Japan-based website had refused to let me enter it.   She had to reprint the boarding pass.  By the time check-in was completed, I only had 50 minutes before departure.

Body scanners were newly installed in Haneda from 2017/04/01.  So, everyone involved was getting used to them.  That meant very slow-moving security queue.  By the time, I'd cleared immigration, I had may be 15 minutes tops, to visit the lounge.


Lounge
Though short on time, I was determined to go to the lounge. That's because JAL had taught me a tough lesson when I flew them from Haneda to Honolulu a year earlier.  I had skipped dinner due to a lack of time.  And I didn't have time to go to the lounge.  I wasn't worried as I was sure dinner would be served.  I recalled Korean Air served a pretty good dinner when I flew them from Narita to Honolulu 2 years ago.

It was a mistake.  JAL only offered a light snack, very light snack.  I had to wait till breakfast just before landing in Honolulu.  It was horrible.

So, this time around, I was determined to go to the lounge.  If there wasn't enough time for a meal, I hoped to pocket a few おにぎり (rice balls) for consumption on the plane. Hawaiian Airlines passengers were directed to the TIAT Lounge Annex. It is one of the lounges operated by by the Tokyo International Airport Terminal entity. Other than Hawaiian Airlines, it seemed to be used by mainly SkyTeam airlines, e.g. China Airlines, Delta Airlines, Garuda Indonesia, China Southern Airlines, and other PRC airlines.

There was no one else in the lounge.  The decor was modern and understated.  It looked better than the JAL Sakura lounge, and the ANA business class lounge.  The hot food offered were not extensive but I managed to wolf down some rice with 肉団子 (Japanized-Chinese meat balls,) as well some 焼き鳥 (Japanese charcoal-grilled chicken on skewers.)   Washed it down with some Coke Zero (which isn't available in some other Airline Lounges.)

I wish I had more time to enjoy the lounge.

At the Gate
Departure time was at 2130.  As I walked towards gate# 143, a gate agent walked towards me to confirm if I were on the Hawaiian Airlines flight.  I said I was.  I overheard her conversation on the walkie-talkie saying she has found the last passenger.  The time was 21:13. I asked her if departure time wasn't 21:30.  She said indeed it was 21:30.  I didn't ask, but why the hurry?   I was seated and buckled-in by 21:16.

On Board

Refreshingly Simple
Seats
According to "Australian Business Traveler" and "Aviation Wire" (in Japanese) the seats were designed by a partnership between the Italian manufacturer Optimares and US design and branding agency PaulWylde.  To say the least, they were very unique.  My amateurish photos wouldn't do the wonderful cabin justice.  For more details,  head over to: Hawaiian's site.  Nice photos of the seats are also here.   The one-switch control for the seat was refreshing.   One turns the wheel forward to recline the seat, backward to bring it upright.  Why are other seats so complicated?

iPads as IFES
iPads (big ones) were handed out in lieu of an in-seat IFE screen.  The iPads can be rested on the a specially built tube which can be extracted from the armrest.  A fair amount of movies and audio tracks are loaded onto the customized iPads. Movies with Japanese sound tracks (but not subtitles) were offered.  I found the selections, both audio and video, limited.  Perhaps that's due to the limited storage on the iPads?  Another thing I missed was the real-time flight maps, which are only displayed on 2 LED screens at the bulkhead.



Food
Hawaiian Airlines surprised me in a good way, with a decent dinner.  There wasn't a lot of food but it was dinner; Fresh Mixed Salad, Kalua Prok with Lilikoi BBQ Sauce, Assorted Seasonal Steamed Vegetables and Steamed Rice.  It was delicious.

Actual Dinner!

Desert was Rum Raisin Bread Pudding.  The full-size mug for tea or coffee was a nice touch.  




Before take-off, the flight attendant asked for my choice of either a full breakfast, or a continental breakfast.  For those who wanted to sleep to the last possible minute, the continental was recommended as they wouldn't serve that till something like 30 minutes before landing. I opted for the full breakfast and it was served with less than an hour before landing.  Again, there wasn't a lot of food but it was a hot breakfast.  As a reference, Korean Air offered a full dinner, but only a continental breakfast on the NRT » HNL route.

The hot portion was a Dashi Omelet with Miso Cream Cheese, Caramelized Onions, and two pork sausages.  The combination of dashi and miso cream cheese gave it a taste that may not please everyone  It wasn't bad but I'll have to try it again before rendering a verdict.  The pork sausages tasted like it had come straight out of a tin can.  The croissant was warm and soft.  Despite the small portions, it was satisfying.  Again, a full-sized mug of tea or coffee were offered.

Full Breakfast
Service
As a punishment for being the last passenger to board (though I wasn't late,) I didn't get the pre-departure Signature Mai Tai.   But they made up for it with their meal service.  The crew was attentive and friendly.

I have only one complaint; the crew told me to remove my GoPro which I had suction-cupped onto the window.  At first, one flight attendant asked what it was and I said it was a camera. She said as long as it didn't receive or emit radio signals, such as a GPS device, it was fine.  This was during taxiing.  A minute later, another flight attendant asked me the same question but this time, she said that because the window pane was not a designated storage area, I had to remove the GoPro from the window pane.  I could hold it in my hand though she said, and further added that she was worried that the camera would fly off and hit someone if the aircraft was to come to a sudden stop. As the chance of the camera flying out of my hand to hit someone is greater than it being dislodged from the suction cup, I stopped recording and stowed all camera gear into my bag.  Note that this is the first time I have been told to not use the camera because "...the window is not a designated storage area."

To be fair, they just didn't know what I had and I concur with their policy of betting be safe than sorry.  The funny thing is, I was successful in using my GoPro-on-suction-cup for the landing. I'm sure the flight attendants saw the camera but they didn't stop me this time.

The bottles of Hawaiian Springs water, the cute amenity kit, and a small box of Honolulu cookies at the very end of the flight were nice touches.  As compared to JAL, no amenity kit to speak of, and no dinner service, this Hawaiian Airlines flight was infinitely better than my JAL flight a year earlier.




Epilogue

Hawaiian Airlines is infinitely better than JAL.  As advertised, once you board their air-craft, you're in Paradise.


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