Review: 5 airline reviews on similar flights.

[ohioNCLcruiser]

Greetings everyone,

Just thought I would give a review of some of my airline experiences to Hawaii from Cleveland ohio with connections. This isn't a specific review of one flight but since 2006 I have flown to and from Hawaii on Continental airlines 5 times, Northwest once, ATA once, Delta twice and United three times. Here are my tips and thoughts about

 

Continental Airlines:

seats:

 

They use 777-200s, 767-400/200 and 757-200s for international flights. My flights to hawaii have been on their great 767-400 aircraft. Each seat in coach offers a comfortable, basic seat pitch and width but each seat offers a PTV (personal TV) that has a selection of movies, tv shows, video games and music. The negative side of the selection is its not avod (audio video on demand) so all the films reset every 2.5 hours. Overall its a good product and they now only charge $1 for headphones. In the businessfirst cabin the seats go to a almost flat position with a very nice width. Another plus to Continental airlines 767 businessfirst seating is the cabin is 2 seats aisle one seat aisle 2 seats so that middle row is great. AB-D-KL.

 

meals:

 

Continental is one of the last US airlines that serve meals at meal times. In coach my meals had a salad, bread roll, hot entry with veggies, sometimes a pizza or burger and a brownie for dessert. Before landing they come around the cabin with a snack such as a turkey sammy with some sides and a chocolate. In businessfirst they have a long meal period on table clothed trays. The flight attendants start by passing out hot towels followed by warm nuts and your choice of wine or any other mixed drink. Next they pass out the appetizer such as salmon rolls and shrimp. Next is the delish salad with your choice of dressings. After that they give you a selection of 5 main entrees and I'm a fan of the Steak, Chicken breast and the Veal. After that they offer a selection of bread followed by rounds of white or red wine. They finish it off with a ice cream with a topping cart. Very good. Halfway into the flight they bake cookies on the plane so you get to smell them and then have a mid flight milk and cookie break. Before landing they give you a delish large fruit tray and a Turkey Ham, sometimes Ruben sandwich with two truffles.

 

Overall:

 

Continental has IMHO the best crew and service you could possible have to Hawaii and tops out all US airlines anywhere in the world.

 

NORTHWEST:

 

Seats:

 

Note I have only flown from Hawaii on their 757-300 aircraft. They offer a better product on their newer Airbus A330 aircraft with flights to Seattle and Minneapolis.

The 757-300 with Northwest isn't special but it isn't bad. This is more of the standard among US airlines. The seats didn't have personal tvs but they had monitors hanging from the ceiling and they play movies or tv shows. Not bad but not great. Note this is a very long airplane so try to sit as forward as possible to get off the plane quickly when you land. Its in a three seat, aisle three seat configuration.

 

Meals:

 

NWA sells meals in coach on their flights. I haven't tried any of them but they do offer a range of items from sandwiches to salads.

 

Overall I like Northwest because I can get my onepass elite miles to my Continental account and they have better odds of getting a free first class upgrade. Not bad for the shorter west coast to hawaii flights.

 

 

United:

 

seats:

 

United flies domestically configured Boeing 777-200s and 767-300s to Hawaii. My experience has been on the 777. To be honest, I'm not a fan of United's coach seats but they do have a Y+ section that has 5 extra inches of leg room and I LOVE that if I have to fly on United. Makes the flight in coach very nice. WARNING their 777s to Hawaii have 2 seats, aisle, 5 seats aisle then 2 more seats. XX-XXXXX-XX and trust me you do NOT want to have two people on both sides of you. United doesn't have personal tvs in these aircraft but have monitors from the ceiling.

 

meals:

 

United is another buy on board airline. I purchased a $5 snack box and it wasn't worth it and smelled. The person next to me had the can of tuna snack box and it smelled for the rest of the flight. I will no longer buy any meal on United to Hawaii.

 

overall:

 

United isnt great but its not the worst and if you get Y+ it can really help make the flight pass. Also if your flying to Hawaii from Chicago they play the halfway to Hawaii game when you have to guess the time the plane will be exactly halfway to Hawaii and if you win you get some prizes.

 

Delta:

 

seats:

 

I flew on Delta from Honolulu to Atlanta and on Saturday the other way around. I must say the seats were very uncomfortable and I was in one of their new cabin 767-400 aircraft. They had no PTVs but had monitors and played two movies and a few tv shows. this had the XX-XXX-XX coach cabin like Continental's 767-400s but their first class is XX-XX-XX unlike Continental's XX-X-XX seating.

 

meals:

 

Props for Delta. While they don't give free meals on their US flights they do to Alaska and Hawaii. After take off we had a small salad, roll, warm chicken rice and carrots and a brownie. Closer to landing they gave you a breakfast of granola bar, diced pears and yogurt.

 

overall:

 

While the seats were bad, they did offer a free meal. It is not worth the price to pay for first class with Delta. Seats were just a tad bit larger.

 

ATA:

 

No meals and I had to pay for a bottle of water and a pillow/blanket. Think of ATA as a cheap greyhound of the skies. Good for a low price if you get it but don't expect anything special.

 

 

 

Worth the price of first class to Hawaii vs coach:

 

Continental: YES YES YES! Best way to get to Hawaii.

Delta: NO

United: 50/50

NWA: You can get cheap $150 upgrades so yes it is for that price.

ATA: Only FC on a few planes.

 

James

[fti]

NORTHWEST:

Overall I like Northwest because I can get my onepass elite miles to my Continental account and they have better odds of getting a free first class upgrade. Not bad for the shorter west coast to hawaii flights.

 

NWA: You can get cheap $150 upgrades so yes it is for that price.

 

James

 

Thanks for your review. Just a couple of comments on Northwest since I fly them a lot:

 

a) if someone is concerned about elite miles (i.e. flying at least 25,000 miles a year), flying Northwest and crediting miles to Continental is a bad idea - most fare types only give 50% elite qualifying miles to Continental Onepass when flying Northwest.

 

b) upgrades on Northwest to Hawaii are less and less frequent and not offered on every flight.

 

 

John

[ohioNCLcruiser]

Yeah I was surprised to find out yesterday on a flight I was booking on NWA that it didn't show the normal "would you like to upgrade for XXXX" screen.

James