United First Class SFO-HNL on 767-300?
 

I have decent coach seats and am trying to decide whether to use mileage to upgrade to first class. This would be a two-class plane. I know first class is overall better, but sometimes it's not much better and I've never flown first-class to Hawaii before.

Can anybody share their experiences or observations?

First class is ALWAYS a lot better. How long is the flight?

Whether or not it is worth it is up to you and depends on how many miles you have, how you plan to use them, and how quickly you accrue them. It is about 2400 miles and a little over 5 hours from SFO to HNL.

This will be the kind of flight where the difference between coach and first is not as great. If you were on United then your seat would be like this:
http://www.united.com/page/article/0,6722,1934,00.html

Compare that to the "suite" used on some international flights:
http://www.united.com/page/article/0,6722,1932,00.html

The upgrade on United would cost 15,000 miles or five 500-mile certs.

No, the FC seat is worse than the one on the page mrwunrfl gave you. The 2-class 763 on UA to Hawaii has domestic first-class seats, which is 38" pitch, 19" wide, barely different from coach. And no personal video screen either.

Check out seatguru.com

Well, I asked for input, and your responses give a pretty good range and depth of it. I've decided against the upgrade.

The other passenger is my mother, who's 81 and has advanced cancer; she can use every bit of assistance and comfort. We're in first class HNL-SFO because there were no aisle seats in coach. BUT, the combined 30,000 miles we'd save on the return could be used for 6 round trips on Aloha for a family member who's been flying between Maui and Oahu for over a year to help care for Mom. That's what made it a tough call.

Thanks for helping to steer my thoughts to a decision.

First Class on a United 767 is going to be similar to Business Class service. The section is bigger than on a 777 or a 747. The service would be much better than coach but not quite like other First Classes. (I used to be a UAL Flight attendent~no stones please!)