Virgin Airlines flying club members get miles and tier points when flying on Hawaiian Airlines.
At San Francisco Hawaiian Airlines uses the International Terminal for its flights – even though Hawaii isn’t an International destination from within the USA.
Check in staff were warm and friendly and after check in informed us that we could use the Delta Airlines lounge which is located just after security. This was unexpected as everywhere I looked no one had mentioned this so it was a nice bonus and we knew that Hawaiian didn’t have their own lounge in SFO.
For those of you familiar with SFO International terminal and where the Virgin Atlantic flights leave from, you may well know that the Virgin Clubhouse is just prior to security, well the Delta lounge is just after the same security area but is located on the left.
Security was really fast and efficient with access through the priority lane, after that we headed over to the Delta lounge where we were met by two lounge agents on the door. We were welcomed in and told what was available and told to help ourselves. We arrived about 6:30am and for a while were the only people in there. The lounge isn’t that big but is divided into two separate areas, the first area just has some seating and tea and coffee facilities, whilst the area at the rear had a food area with a small selection of cakes, pastries, tea, coffee and soft drinks which you just help yourself to. There is plenty of seating and a view out on to the ramp area and the start of the 01L & R runways. After spending an hour and a bit there a few other people had come in but it was time for us to head to our gate.
Hawaiian use the same gate areas that Virgin do and we were due to depart from A8, so a short stroll down the concourse and we arrived at out gate just before boarding was due to start. This was going to be our first long distance flight with Hawaiian having previously only flown them between the Hawaiian Islands.
We were welcomed on board our A330 aircraft and directed to our seats 01A & 01B in the small first class section of the aircraft. There are only 3 rows giving a total of 18 first class seats. Please remember these are US domestic style first class seats so they aren’t that special. They were pretty comfortable covered in blue leather and the leg room was good. We had the bulkhead row so didn’t have any seats in front of us but overhead locker space wasn’t a problem. I don’t know if the same would have applied if we had been in economy where they charge to check luggage in so everyone tries to bring everything on board and stuff it in the overheads.
We were given the customary boarding drinks which were either: water, champagne, guava juice or a combination of champagne and guava juice. The cabin crew were cheerful and friendly and boarding was completed reasonably quickly given our flight was full.
After a short taxi we departed off runway 01R and turned left out over the Pacific Ocean. Shortly after take-off a drinks round was done along with a generous portion of cold nuts and the meal menu was handed out.
Hawaiian Airlines post their menus on their website, but to save you the trouble for our Brunch service we were offered:
First Course:
A warm breakfast muffin and a selection of fresh seasonal fruit.
Main Course:
Vegetable omelette with cheese, country potatoes with Portuguese sausage and a “sweet treat” for us this was a lemon cheesecake.
The food was OK, nothing really special but it did its purpose and filled us up. It was appreciated that there was a vegetarian option included within the menu so my partner could at least have something; it’s a shame that other US based airlines don’t always bother doing this (United airlines take note).
In-flight entertainment was via individual touchscreen monitors that were stowed in the arm rest so you couldn’t use them during take-off or landing.
Shortly before we started our descent they handed out some Hawaiian potato chips and a Koloa Breeze rum punch which was quite nice but not strong enough really (for my taste anyway).
We encountered some mild turbulence whilst in the descent and shortly before landing one of the flight deck crew gave a nice running commentary of the views of Oahu out on the right hand side of the aircraft. As we were sitting on the left we didn’t get to see that but got a great view as we lined up on 08L of Hickam Air Force base along with President Obama's 747 that was parked up whilst he was on his Christmas vacation on the island.
After a 5 hour and 12 minute flight we had a smooth touchdown and a short taxi to our gate, as soon as the doors were opened you knew you were in Hawaii as the warm air drifted into the aircraft, a short walk through the open air terminal to collect our bags then out to the Commuter Terminal for the next leg of our trip to Molokai.
