Honolulu Business Class

[mlob]

I am interested in taking my family of 4 to Honolulu next year. ideally I would like a business class product for the trip but in particular for the overnight trip on the way over there. i have enough points in theory with both Qantas and Velocity but having no luck. despite following Qantas's release of award seats, i have seen no classic award J seats released only economy. Jetstar star class seats seem to then follow about a month behind. Hawaiin J class seats available through Virgin and Aadvantage seem to release only one J seat per flight. i have looked at Alaskan mileage also with no joy, despite Fiji air offering somewhat better connections.....still only 2J seats at not great award value.
Am i missing something here. anyone had luck with qantas business award seats? TIA

 

[Mattg]

Business class reward seats can indeed be difficult to get. Hawaii is a very popular destination and often only a few business class reward seats are made available on each flight - and that ones that are made available are usually snapped up pretty quickly. Unfortunately I don't think the chances of getting 4 J seats on the same flight are good at all.

Could you perhaps fly over on two different flights?

Alternatively JQ may be your friend as they usually have the cheapest paid business class product. Perhaps also FJ but I think that would involve two stops en-route.

 

[mlob]

thanks Mattg. yes we would consider breaking up the group. by chance ... do you knowbthe actual time qantas releases their seats? they must be getting snapped up within minutes as i havent seen any despite watching closely.

 

[mlob]

FJ actually offered quite good times (day travel hours) despite the two stops via Alaskan Mileage. did require a Nadi overnight though. Qantas and Alaskan offered different Fj connections interestingly. preferred Alaskan.

 

[Cool Cat Phil]

+1 for a value-for-money offering that is a JQ J seat.

This is quite reasonable value & on par with PE on the Red Roo.

(although it must be said, that even JQ knows the popularity of their J cabin cabin to HNL as they charge approx $200-$300 more on the HNL sectors in the J cabin, than to other similiar JQ sectors such as MEL/OOL > NRT in the J cabin)

The J classic award seats on QF on this route & to SCL are as rare as hen's teeth.

I have heard of people flying to LAX & back-tracking on AA...... certainly not everyone's cup of tea, but another option to be considered if time is on your hands.

 

[mlob]

+1 for a value-for-money offering that is a JQ J seat.

This is quite reasonable value & on par with PE on the Red Roo.

(although it must be said, that even JQ knows the popularity of their J cabin cabin to HNL as they charge approx $200-$300 more on the HNL sectors in the J cabin, than to other similiar JQ sectors such as MEL/OOL > NRT in the J cabin)

The J classic award seats on QF on this route & to SCL are as rare as hen's teeth.

I have heard of people flying to LAX & back-tracking on AA...... certainly not everyone's cup of tea, but another option to be considered if time is on your hands.

Thanks. I might actually check this out. Ive been looking at all sorts of hops about the Pacific looking at good flying times and points cost. Might as well check out LA!

 

[Mattg]

thanks Mattg. yes we would consider breaking up the group. by chance ... do you knowbthe actual time qantas releases their seats? they must be getting snapped up within minutes as i havent seen any despite watching closely.

Yes, Qantas release their reward seats 353 days in advance, at 00:00 GMT. (Around 10am AEST.) However if you call up on the morning, before 10am, the telephone agents may be able to sell you a seat.

Having said that, Qantas may only release 1 business class seat per flight on the SYD-HNL route - or none at all - initially.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

What city would you be departing from and for which dates?

We purchased an upgradeable fare SYD/HNL for Feb this year which was only about $40.00 more than the cheapest sale fare at the time so wasn't any great loss if the upgrade didn't come through. There were three of us altogether of 3 separate pnrs but the upgrades came through for all three of us 60 hours prior to departure which gave us enough time to seat ourselves together and pre-order our meals via Qeat.

When we travelled BNE/HNL on JQ we'd booked a sale fare but received an upgrade offer a few days out to upgrade to star class for AUD300.00 or AUD400.00 if we wanted points & 120SC (plus lounge access if not already accessible with ff tier status) so we took the latter.

Didn't get an offer on the way back however it was a day flight in that direction so do-able in whY.

The FJ option ex NAN to HNL vv is an overnight flight outbound and day flight inbound. It's probably more economical to use 25K points for the NAN/HNL vv flights then just purchase a fare ex Aust to NAN & return. If you use VA for that it's a good way to maintain status if using family pooling.

 

[Alanslegal]

Is there any lay flat / angled flat option to/from HNL ? I always believed QF and JQ all have inferior premium economy seating, whilst paying full business class points. That said, I don't mind economy to/from HNL with JQ And I find their timings out of Sydney perfect for me ie 6pm departure, 10hr flight time (and sleep most of it is possible), arriving (not too lagged) 7am in the morning Hawaii time

 

[N860CR]

Qantas runs the 330 now with the skybed 1 seat

 

[JohnPhelan]

Qantas runs the 330 now with the skybed 1 seat

And by the end of the next year will have the new J suite.

But with the older config A330s now used, it means that QF currently offers angled-flat beds.