Showing posts with label Honolulu. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Honolulu. Show all posts

20170701

20170411: HA855: HoNoluLu » HaNeDa


Date: 2017/04/11
Flight: HA855
STD/ATD (Push Back): 1755HST/1741HST
STA/ATA (Touch Down): 2205JST/2139JST
Aircraft/Registration: A330-200/N730HA
Class: Business (Restricted Fare)
Seat: Hawaiian New Business Class

Prologue

This is the return flight, saying a sad goodbye to Paradise.


Pre-boarding

Check-in
Although this was an international flight, check-in was at Terminal 2, the "inter-island terminal."   When I arrived at 16:20, there was no wait.  Check-in was done in about 5 minutes.

There were only a few people in line for security and the whole process took about 5 minutes.  I thought people didn't have to take off their shoes anymore but I was wrong.

After security, there was a Starbucks, some fast food outlets.  In general, this terminal had a very provincial, by charming look and feel.


Lounge
As a first timer, it took me a while to find the right lounge. I had wandered into the busy "Premier Club" and was told I had to go to the "The Plumeria", one level above.

This lounge looked a lot more peaceful than the "Premier Club." There were only a handful of people.  Food offerings were limited but that was expected, matching my expectation of business class lounges in the U.S.  However, their extensive offerings of premium tea (yes tea!) compensated for the lack of decent food.

On Board

Cushion-cum-pillow

Seats
Hawaiian Airlines was in the midst of introducing their new business class (aka "first class" in domestic US) seats.  At the time of booking, an aircraft with older business class seats was assigned to this flight.  Thus, I was pleasantly surprised when upon boarding, I found the new upgraded business seats, the same ones that had brought me to HNL.

A nice feature that I have yet to mention is how the cushion/pillow can be strapped onto the back of the seat with the built-in elastic band to make a very comfortable headrest. Usually, I wouldn't know what to do with those mini pillows, taking up too mush real-estate of my seat.  This is an elegant and useful solution.

Food
Though I was seated by 17:35, ahead of the 17:55 departure, I was once again the last to board.  And for that, once again, no Mai Tai was offered.

After take-off, drinks and warm nuts were offered.  Since they didn't have any sparkling mineral water, I had water.

There were choices of Japanese or Western dinner.  I had the western, which was a two-course affair.  I guess the first course was an appetizer; Prosciutto and Asparagus Salad with Grilled Shrimp.  There were 3 choices of main dish and I had (1) the Minced Beef and Sauteed Vegetables with Oyster Sauce and Chow Fun Noodles.  The other choices were (2) Salmon Filet Wrapped in Rice Paper and Sage with Edamame Spinach Risotto, and (3) Spicy Eggplant with Lilikoi Sauce and Steamed Thai Jasmine Rice.

Desert was Passion Chocolate Cake.  Again, I like how full-size mugs were used for tea/coffee. Though the minced-beef was a little too salty, everything else was tasty and satisfying.

Appetizers: Prosciutto and Asparagus Salad with Grilled Shrimp

Minced Beef and Sauteed Vegetables with Oyster Sauce and Chow Fun Noodles.
Passion Chocolate Cake

About 80 minutes before touch down, a pre-landing meal was served; Hawaiian Style BBQ Chicken Sandwich with Grilled Pineapple, with a small dish of fresh fruits.  Delicious and surprisingly satisfying.

Hawaiian Style BBQ Chicken Sandwich with Grilled Pineapple

Service
Flight attendants friendly, but sometimes too enthusiastic. When hot towels were handed out, I was busy in filling out the Japanese customs form or whatnot. I'd put the towel to the side, on the armrest. Before I had a chance to use the towel, an overly enthusiastic flight attendant used her tongs to retrieve the used towel. Before I could say something to stop her, the towel had landed in her tray of used towels. When I said I haven't used it yet, she said "oopps," shrugged her shoulders and that was that.  I thought she was going to bring me another towel but I was mistaken. And that set the tone for the rest of the in-flight service. Service was rushed. It was obvious that the crew had a schedule to go by. However, they cared more about sticking to the schedule then if, for example, I had finished using the towel, or some other passenger has had enough time to finish the meal before asking to collect the plates.

I'd noticed the in-seat a/c power outlets weren't activated. I asked the same enthusiastic flight attendant for help. But she needed to get help from her colleagues. Four hours after take-off, the in-seat a/c power outlet started to work.

I sat in the bulkhead and noticed something for the very first time; whenever the cockpit crew needs to use the toilet right outside the cockpit door, they would phone the FA. One of them would then use a food cart to block the passage from the cabin into the galley, as a security precaution. That's all good. On this particular flight, the captain was particularly chatty with the FAs. After he has done his business, he would chat with the FAs, leaving the food cart blocking the exit. And he used the toilet a few times and every time he would chat with the FAs for a few minutes. So, even though there wasn't a queue for the toilet, I found myself having to wait for the captain to finish his chat before I could use the bathroom myself. There is nothing wrong with this. It's merely a note to myself.

Unlike the flight from Haneda, I was free to use my GoPro suction-cupped onto the window.

A good blanket.
One last thing to mention; the blanket provided is not the usual flimsy, prone to static electricity ones found on other airlines, it's a comfortable duvet-like blanket.

Epilogue

Similar to the flight from Haneda, an amenity kit (but in a different color,) and a small box of Honolulu cookies were offered.  These were not only nice touches but it worked well with the overall branding of the airline, as well as Hawaii itself.   There is no better way to fly to and from Hawaii.


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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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