ejcrowe

I posted here a few months ago with a similar question, but I wanted to repost since I know my husband's business trip sponsors have agreed to pay business class airfare for the two of us (yes, I'm delighted by that luck!).

They will not pay for us to fly 1st class on Continental, which leaves us with business class in the other airlines where we collect FF miles. Do you have a preference for one over the other, and if so, why? What are the entertainment options on the various ones? (And if there's a website you can direct me to so I can find the answers out for myself, please point me there.)

Thanks! I'm starting to get excited about this trip now that my travel has also been taken care of. It will be my first trip to Hawaii.

rkkwan

BDL - HNL is a domestic route, and basically all airlines offer two classes - first and economy.

You need to understand the nomenclature first. There's no "business class" to Hawaii on any US airline.

First class seats offered by Continental and Northwest on their flights to Hawaii are the same as their <b>international business class</b>, meaning 55&quot;+ pitch, 170+ degree reclining seats.

First class on the other airlines to Hawaii have seats equal to their <b>domestic first class</b>, which means 38&quot; pitch and much less recline and narrower than CO and NW.

Therefore, you should get First Class seats on CO or NW.

Nobody offers &quot;business class&quot; to Hawaii.

AAFrequentFlyer

AA does fly 767s on HNL routes which means new generation business class seats. Very comfy but no individual entertainment. Very nice food service. Just make sure it is the 767 service not the 757 service. Few of the west coast-HNL routes are operated by 757s.

As rkkwan already explained, the cabin is called First class, not business class.

If the company's policy is to buy business class only then it may be difficult to convince the corporate TA to put you in First. I know it sounds silly but that's how most corporate travel policies are set.

ejcrowe

Okay, I got the nomenclature wrong. THanks for clearing it up. I was under the mistaken impression that two classes of service were business and economy and on a three class service flight it was first, business, and economy.

Okay, so we're going to be booked in domestic first class. Whatever it's called, I'm happy not to be flying in coach! I don't think the university has a set policy on what class of service they can book--they just allotted a certain amount to cover our expenses, which just happens to coincide approximately with two first class tickets.

If Continental doesn't offer a 3 class service to HNL, why are the seats approximately $4000 pp instead of $2000 like the other airlines I'm looking at?

I just went back and checked the itineraries I was considering. On American they list the DFW-HNL leg as a 763. On Northwest it's listed as an Airbus 330 for the MSP-HNL leg. On American's site I can see what seats are still available but I can't seem to find that same infomation on aa.com.

Thanks for the responses!

ejcrowe

Oops--make the end of that last sentence read, I still can't find that same information on www.nwa.com.

rkkwan

An airline will charge what the market is willing to bear. On CO from BDL to HNL, it means connecting through EWR. EWR-HNL on CO is the only non-stop flight from the NYC and the Northeast to Hawaii, and CO offers an international business class seat for this 10-hour flight.

FC is almost always full, so there's no reason for them to charge for less.