BNE-HNL -> Hawaiian or Jetstar?

[QPProletarian]

As above,

Looking at either a JQ fare of $687 with possibily bag + SCs or 37,500 velocity points and $109.

WP with QF, but BNE lounge is pretty **** anyway, but nice to fill up on food before the flight.

Are the drinks complimentary on HA all through the flight or just one at meal service? Is it expensive to add a bag after on Jetstar? Can only seem to find the price if you add it at the airport.


Cheers.

 

[Cool Cat Phil]

My folks flew back HNL > SYD on HA using Virgin Australia points & whilst they were feed food & drink, they found HA not exactly an amazing experience with the need to purchase additional drinks they told me.

But the HA baggage allowance is very good.

As for myself I've flown both Y & J on JQ to HNL, obviously a major difference in service between the two cabins but JQ is quite OK in all fairness.

If you do buy a Y ticket on JQ & they do have low loadings In J two weeks out, you may find yourself with JQ sending you a very tempting email to upgrade to J, which may or may not come to fruition.

Congratulations on WP , great achievement mate!

 

[eric2011]

I've flown both airlines in J. Both were good but IMO HA were just a tad better FWIW

 

[QPProletarian]

Whats the better value you think though?

 

[eric2011]

whats the better value you think though?

IMO....HA. Was a bit more expensive but received more in return. On HA in J food was good and the drinks were complimentary.

 

[Limewood]

Have done JQ in both Y & J to from HNL, found room between seat in front tight, even star class (J) if front seat back, its in your face, I'd always go for bulkhead seats or not go at all.

 

[eric2011]

Have done JQ in both Y & J to from HNL, found room between seat in front tight, even star class (J) if front seat back, its in your face, I'd always go for bulkhead seats or not go at all.

Correct, I had row 1 and was good

 

[ozbeachbabe]

As above,

Looking at either a JQ fare of $687 with possibily bag + SCs or 37,500 velocity points and $109.

WP with QF, but BNE lounge is pretty **** anyway, but nice to fill up on food before the flight.

Are the drinks complimentary on HA all through the flight or just one at meal service? Is it expensive to add a bag after on Jetstar? Can only seem to find the price if you add it at the airport. Cheers.

What are your arrangements for returning HNL/BNE?

I have only done HA twice in the opposite direction of HNL/BNE both times on a Velocity partner award of 32,500 points plus taxes USD52.54 tax (1st time) & US37.74 taxes (2nd time).

HA really love ramming the fact that in their opinion they're a full service carrier and they maybe they are when compared to other US carriers however IMHO they fall way short of the mark. Too much mahalo this, aloha that in short all talk, not much action.

The cabin crew did the bare minimum before retreating to their crew rest which wasn't the 6 seats being the last two rows in the middle but an additional two rows in front of that plus the last 2 rows on either side of the aircraft so in total 20 seats for approx 9 cabin cabin crew & this was a day flight!

As you'd be flying overnight BNE/HNL checkin in BNE won't be an issue although you wouldn't have any lounge access. In the other direction ex HNL it's all self checkin for international flights & it's a complete rockshow as you'll need to weigh & tag each checked bag individually so the bag tags print out with the weight on it. If you've got a couple of kids in tow this task would take 20-25 minutes as opposed to about 5 minutes if you were allowed to checkin with a person.

The meals are not adequate given the durations of the flight with the same old main course being 75% rice & 25% chicken & gravy which is an entree at best (our definition of entree not the US version which they use to describe main course). There's then a 6 hour gap when you get nothing until 'high tea' which is a sandwich, shortbread & a chocolate. You really need to bring your own food as well so you don't go hungry.

They charge extra for snacks however on our last flight they forgot to load the mobile eftpos machines so they weren't able to charge people therefore no snacks were given out in between meals.

HA now operate the A330 to/from BNE so not sure whether the IFE is in the seatback or whether they charge for the portable DVD. On our last flight in April 2013 they forgot to load the mobile eftpos machines to charge people for the DVD rental (a separate company to the one that does the snacks) so there was no on demand IFE only whatever they're showing on the drop down tv such as documentaries on coffee plantations etc.



Lunch served about an hour ex HNL.



High tea served about 1.5 hours prior to landing in BNE

 

[eastwest101]

There seems to be a similar thread just about every 2 weeks asking for advice flying from Australia to Hawaii - usually asking for comparisons between flying QF JQ and HA - maybe the mods could look at creating a sticky with ozbeachbabes and other knowlegable responses to save them answering the same questions over and over?

Probably the sticky should specify that posters must include budget, proposed class of travel, dates, destinations, FF status and price expectations so that way when the same question pops up here again one of the mods can just close and redirect to the sticky thread? Maybe the sticky should be "Thinking of flying QF HA or JQ to Hawaii? Read first..." or something similar. Would be quite a good resource as over the many threads in the last year of two there have been a lot of good comparisons and information given out.

Not meant to be an attack on the OP or on the contributors but just a suggestion ?

 

[ashleyn]

There seems to be a similar thread just about every 2 weeks asking for advice flying from Australia to Hawaii - usually asking for comparisons between flying QF JQ and HA - maybe the mods could look at creating a sticky with ozbeachbabes and other knowlegable responses to save them answering the same questions over and over?

Probably the sticky should specify that posters must include budget, proposed class of travel, dates, destinations, FF status and price expectations so that way when the same question pops up here again one of the mods can just close and redirect to the sticky thread? Maybe the sticky should be "Thinking of flying QF HA or JQ to Hawaii? Read first..." or something similar. Would be quite a good resource as over the many threads in the last year of two there have been a lot of good comparisons and information given out.

Not meant to be an attack on the OP or on the contributors but just a suggestion ?

Good idea Eastwest, it's a popular route that is not particularly well serviced so lots of inquiries on the best options.

 

[QPProletarian]

I did actually try to go through all of these old threads, and did see/read ozbeachbabe's pictures; but was still interested in more and I guess a value proposition for my circumstances; so such a thread probably isn't a bad idea.

I'm not returning from the route, I'm flying to London from HNL through the US in J on AA/BA, so fortunately it's likely to be a one-time one-way fare on these two.

I don't fly Virgin often, so thought it could be a useful way to burn the points, but tbh I'm not sold on either option.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

I'm not returning from the route, I'm flying to London from HNL through the US in J on AA/BA, so fortunately it's likely to be a one-time one-way fare on these two.

I don't fly Virgin often, so thought it could be a useful way to burn the points, but tbh I'm not sold on either option.

What date are you looking at? Have you explored the Classic award option for the JQ flight yet vs spending $600.00 plus? Although the JQ 'taxes' are more that a VA award on HA they're less than if redeeming on QF metal.

 

[eastwest101]

I did actually try to go through all of these old threads, and did see/read ozbeachbabe's pictures; but was still interested in more and I guess a value proposition for my circumstances; so such a thread probably isn't a bad idea.

I agree I often use google search to search for older threads that I know exist on AFF but haven't been active in a while, the search thread function in AFF does not seem to be very comprehensive, effective or intuitive. And this is all predicated on the searcher knowing something close to the exact title of the thread, which is not always easy to do. No doubt as the aircraft change on this route with HA going from B767s to A330s and QF going from B767s to A330s and JQ going from A330s to B787s then information needs to be updated.

I don't fly Virgin often, so thought it could be a useful way to burn the points, but tbh I'm not sold on either option.

Seems a common theme with this route - no matter which airline people choose (JQ,QF or HA) its nearly always described as 'the least bad of a pretty bad lot".

Depending on the time of year, airfares and flexibility from the previous threads it seems some people do burn points to fly to HNL - sometimes because the airfare prices are so silly that people can't justify paying cash for the products on offer. Things should be getting better though, with a decreasing AUD vs US$ slowing demand and HA bringing on more capacity to various Australian ports, slightly more capacity and a better product coming from QF, and a slight increase in capacity from JQ as they go from A330 services to the new sardine can B787 services.