Upgrading on Hawaiian Airlines: Hawaii to/from the Continental U.S.

Upgrading on Hawaiian Airlines is relatively easy compared to the methods followed on the larger U.S. carriers. The most common way is to redeem miles for an upgrade (click HERE to view Hawaiian's redemption chart).

HAWAIIANMILES REDEMPTION
Since I'm flying to Las Vegas, let's look at the Hawaii to/from the U.S. mainland redemption offers. The choices are under two categories:

• First/Business Saver - the lowest mileage First/Business Class flight award. This award does not have to be purchased online.
• First/Business Flex - can be redeemed for travel on Hawaiian Airlines with twice the miles of a First/Business Saveraward when a First/Business Saver award is not available.
• Upgrades - must be processed through Hawaiian Airlines Reservations. All award upgrades must be ticketed 26 hours prior to the flight departure.

For a first class ticket, the mileage options are:
40,000 First Class Saver
80,000 First Class Flex

To upgrade from coach ticket, the mileage options are:
25,000 First Class Saver
50,000 First Class Flex

So depending on the miles you have in your account, you have your choice of using miles to upgrade or to redeem them for a first class seat. Hawaiian keeps it simple by allowing you to call HawaiianMiles customer service for redemption. The agent will confirm your available miles and which reward is available for redemption.

Naturally the closer you book to your departure and the availability of first class seats will be the factors on whether a "first class saver" or "first class flex" reward is necessary. The scarcer the number of first class seats, the option using more points is then required. Keep in mind that the upgrade must be ticketed 26 hours prior to departure.

STANDBY FIRST CLASS UPGRADE
This option is available on the day of departure and available to all coach passengers. First class upgrades on the day of departure are completed through online or airport check-in within 24 hours prior to departure.

The catch is the fee for standby upgrade varies by season and route for International and North American flights. The fee also varies depending if the passenger is a Puulani Platinum or Puulani Gold holder in the HawaiianMiles program or Hawaiian Airlines Visa Card Holder.

Click HERE to view Hawaiian Airlines fee chart. According to this chart, standby upgrades cost $349 to $449 each way on flights to/from North America.

MY EXPERIENCE USING BOTH METHODS
Last month when I flew from Honolulu to Las Vegas I upgraded using miles. It cost me 25,000 miles each way and I redeemed the miles by calling the HawaiianMiles Service Center (Toll-Free 1-877-426-4537; Mon-Fri 8am-4:30pm HST). I called a week before to book the upgrade to Las Vegas and two days before to book the upgrade to return to Honolulu. The customer service rep handled the transaction, advised me which first class seats were available and sent an email to confirm the details.

Today I had the opportunity to use the "standby first class upgrade" option for my flight from Honolulu to Las Vegas. Since I am a Puulani Gold member in the HawaiianMiles program, the cost to upgrade is $270 including all taxes. This is much less than what is shown on Hawaiian's fee chart. I booked this upgrade at the self check-in kiosk at the airport. I confirmed a seat in the first class cabin and a receipt for the transaction is printed at the kiosk.

Using either option is easy on Hawaiian Airlines and I would use either method again. Of course upgrades are always debated based on the comfort, amenities and service that is provided. But that's a different article.

Hawaiian Airlines First Class on the A330-200 Part 1

Row 3 in the first class cabin.
(photos: TheHopefulTraveler)

When the opportunity presents itself, go for it. My Hawaiian Miles account has been accruing miles for over seven years and I've only made a withdrawal once to augment my Hilton HHonors points for a hotel stay in New York City two years ago which still left almost a 100,000 miles left to spare. So a quick telephone call to the Hawaiian Miles service center a couple of days before the flight I was able to upgrade my coach ticket for a first class seat on one of Hawaiian's new Airbus A330-200 jets.

One nice thing about this flight HA18 and this aircraft departing from a gate at the international terminal is separate jetways are put into use, one that leads to the first class cabin and a second to economy. Since Hawaiian really makes their money on the coach seats, the airline is reputed to pack in as many coach seats as possible when choosing an airplane interior design. The coach cabin seats 276 in a 36 row 2-4-2 configuration on this wide-body jet. First class seats 18 in a 2-2-2 configuration in three rows. Only one restroom located behind the cockpit is designated for the first class passengers. If this one is occupied, two additional restrooms are located after the first three rows of the coach cabin.

Though the seats do not lie anywhere near flat, the seat do recline and come with a footrest. The seats feel roomy especially with the extra armrest space between seats. As usual for a first class cabin on a wide-body (and one filled with light packers), there is ample room to stow carry-on bags. I'm sure in the coach cabin the story is not the same.

A view of the cabin from my seat.

Each seat comes with a personal entertainment monitor with  a touch screen that is hidden in the armrest. A selection of movies, television shows, music and video games is offered.

There is something about Hawaiian's meal service with dishes by acclaimed Hawaii Chef Chai Chaowasaree. The flight attendants has the entire cabin withdraw their tray tables to lay the requisite cloth placemat/table cloth. I was seated in row 3H which is an the aisle seat in the last row. Flight attendants began serving to passengers in 3A and thus began a long upside-down "U" meal service working from the last row along one aisle of the cabin then to the first row then crossing over to the other aisle to serve passengers starting with row one and serving the seats in the third row along this aisle last. I sort of felt immobile beneath my tray table since it felt rather long before my meal was served.

I really shouldn't complain about this service since it's a first class meal rather than the smaller version served in the coach cabin. But is it a first class meal? This is where the meal service takes on a unusual method and design. After boarding the flight attendants pass out a menu that lists five entree and which each first class passenger picks three. This may explain why the service feels slow. Depending on which three each passenger orders the flight attendants prepares the three choices first for those passengers being served first.

My three mini-entrees: fish, cheese & crackers and spinach gnocchi.
The prosciutto-wrapped asparagus is hidden beneath the crackers.

My choices were the assorted cheese, grilled fresh catch and spinach gnocchi. There is no salad course. It's these three mini-entrees and then dessert. The cheeses with crackers with prosciutto-wrapped asparagus and fish with lemon butter sauce and mashed potatoes were fine. But the spinach gnocchi weren't the tender pillows I was expecting and it was cold. The other choices were crispy wonton tacos and Hawaiian-style chicken.

Dessert almost became a comedy: an ice cream dessert covered in a hard white chocolate shell, I'm guessing it's frozen and supposed to be defrosted a bit before serving which obviously it wasn't. I observed that the passengers could scarcely crack the candy shell with a spoon without some elbow grease. When I got my dessert I realized it was a challenge. How do you break the frozen exterior without letting the dessert or your spoon fly into the air. I dipped my spoon in my coffee and that helped to melt the white chocolate shell. The slight bitterness of the orange flavored interior indicates a liqueur is an ingredient in the dish.

The infamous hard white chocolate shell covered orange ice cream.

Since I already saw most of the films offered, I skipped the personal entertainment and watched a movie on my iPad instead. Once the cabin lights were dimmed I immediately noticed the colored mood lighting that is now characteristic of new jets.

The trademark of Hawaiian flight service is the hospitality of the airline's flight attendants and I really can't complain about their pleasant demeanor that began with serving a pre-flight Hawaiian Sunrise cocktail (guava and champagne). This flight number HA18 departed from Honolulu International (HNL) at 2:55pm and arrived at Las Vegas McCarran (LAS) at 11:35pm. It's my thing that I can't sleep on planes, even in first class so I was looking forward to checking into my hotel, unpacking, taking a shower and getting a good rest before the first day of at a business conference that I had to attend.

At this point I can say I'm going to call the airline tomorrow to see if I can get upgraded to the first class for the return trip. There's enough miles earned to spare. It's a 1:55am departure on Saturday morning so you can see why.

500-Mile Upgrades X 11 (from HNL to NYC via DFW)

Not much can be said of domestic first class after experiencing the Flagship Suite service on an American Airlines flight last year to London. After vowing never to upgrade on a domestic flight again because of some service issues I experienced for which American compensated with bonus miles, I realized with a busy afternoon planned after arriving in New York some rest could be had in a comfortable airline seat. Plus I've been hoarding my upgrade units for a while.

EARNING AND USING 500-MILE UPGRADES ON AMERICAN:

Complimentary upgrade rules vary by airlines. On American Airlines the upgrade account is separate from a passenger's mileage account. All members in the AAdvantage program earn miles for rewards. However AAdvantage members holding Platinum or Gold elite status earn four upgrade units for every 10,000 qualifying miles flown. Each upgrade unit is then required for every 500 miles of travel. Click HERE to view the rules of American's 500-Mile Upgrade program. Since flying to New York City is a little over 5,000 miles one way, an elite Aadvantage member must possess at least 11 upgrade units to be upgraded all the way through.

Upgrades are always to the next class service. So a passenger holding an economy ticket would be upgraded to first class on flights with two classes of service or to business class on flights with three classes of service. The upgrade program applies to all domestic flights and only select international destinations.

If passengers are short one or two upgrade units, additional units can be purchased for $30 each online. Being upgraded is not automatic. The upgrade must be requested on the passenger's reservation and being upgraded will largely depend if seats are available in the next class of service and what elite level the passenger holds. So Aadvantage Platinum members are upgraded 72 hours before departure while Gold members upgraded 24 hours prior to departure. On flights with connections, the passenger may request to be upgraded on only one of the two connecting flights. This is what I did for this flight to from Honolulu (HNL) to New York La Guardia (LGA) via Dallas-Ft Worth (DFW). I upgraded to Dallas (Flight #8) but not from Dallas to New York (Flight #704).

If a requested upgrade has not been confirmed 24 hours prior to departure, its likely there are no seats available in the next class of service. The passenger can always request the upgrade at the airport should a seat be available then.

Alternatively all passengers can use their miles for a reward of a first class ticket or upgrade. Click HERE to view the Aadvantage Rewards Chart.