Redeeming points - Honolulu to Melbourne

[Jenelle]

Eeek.

I am looking at going back to the States in Feb using points, and thought it would be ideal to have a stopoff for a few days in Honolulu to see what it was like and have some relax time on the way home.

Doing a search, the only flights on offer are those operated on Jetstar!!! Ergh.

Check out what they say about the the A330 Economy -

The economy class cabin will offer 265 leather covered seats each with a 31 inch seat pitch. Each seat will have an adjustable wings in the headrest. There is a water fountain in the economy class cabin with cups.

How nice of them!!

Then -

For economy class passengers, there will be a limited quantity of Video on Demand units available for hire. Passengers can reserve and pay for a unit at the time they make their booking or once on board.
In the economy cabin, there will also be several screens along the aisles which will show films and TV programs. Passengers can purchase a set of reusable headsets once on board to tune into these programs or the range of audio programs which will also be available.


Then-


..economy class passengers can pre-select and pay for the option of having their meals included during their flight when they make their booking or they can purchase from a range of food and beverage items once on board. When pre-selecting the option of having meals, passengers can indicate if they would like vegetarian meals. Pre-purchased meals will include a beverage of the passenger's choice, which they can select once on board during the meal service. Additional snacks and beverages will be available for purchase inflight. Beverages will include water, juices, soft drinks, tea, coffee and a range of alcoholic drinks.


So - is this the way we are going?! It isn't like some MEL - ADE flight.. I thought they'd at least offer *some* kind of service.

I haven't been following the whole Jetstar thing - are Qantas cancelling all services to Honolulu and just going to be running Jetstar from now on?
Had anyone purchased/booked flights to Honolulu on Qantas and have now been shunted over to Jetstar?

It is frightening... and so now... no stop in Honolulu for this passenger!

 

[oz_mark]

I haven't been following the whole Jetstar thing - are Qantas cancelling all services to Honolulu and just going to be running Jetstar from now on?
Had anyone purchased/booked flights to Honolulu on Qantas and have now been shunted over to Jetstar?

It is frightening... and so now... no stop in Honolulu for this passenger!

Passengers travelling under a QF flight number (i.e. a Qantas codeshare) get the meal and headsets for main screen entertainment as part of their ticket.

 

[Altair]

Sorry to quote you quoting JQ but....

The economy class cabin will offer 265 leather covered seats each with a 31 inch seat pitch. Each seat will have an adjustable wings in the headrest. There is a water fountain in the economy class cabin with cups.

I believe these will be the same QF slimlines seats but leather covered with AC power. Most long haul aircraft have water fountains....but do you trust the quality? I have seen many studies that say "No".

For economy class passengers, there will be a limited quantity of Video on Demand units available for hire. Passengers can reserve and pay for a unit at the time they make their booking or once on board.
In the economy cabin, there will also be several screens along the aisles which will show films and TV programs. Passengers can purchase a set of reusable headsets once on board to tune into these programs or the range of audio programs which will also be available.

Well for many airlines that are non-international you do have to pay for the headsets or there is not even audio in the first place. Oh there are quite a few FF that have their own noise cancelling or noise isolating, see thread on Noise Cancelling headsets. With the portable DVD players you need a good set as the QF supplied ones make hearing a movie very difficult, but at least you get this option comparerd to UA for instance.

..economy class passengers can pre-select and pay for the option of having their meals included during their flight when they make their booking or they can purchase from a range of food and beverage items once on board. When pre-selecting the option of having meals, passengers can indicate if they would like vegetarian meals. Pre-purchased meals will include a beverage of the passenger's choice, which they can select once on board during the meal service. Additional snacks and beverages will be available for purchase inflight. Beverages will include water, juices, soft drinks, tea, coffee and a range of alcoholic drinks.

Yes this is rather frightening, you pay for a meal and I think you get ONE drink.

So - is this the way we are going?! It isn't like some MEL - ADE flight.. I thought they'd at least offer *some* kind of service.

I haven't been following the whole Jetstar thing - are Qantas cancelling all services to Honolulu and just going to be running Jetstar from now on?
Had anyone purchased/booked flights to Honolulu on Qantas and have now been shunted over to Jetstar?

It is frightening... and so now... no stop in Honolulu for this passenger!

Well some flights are QF codeshare and the 747-300 will disappear from this route to be replaced by a 767-300, which is not much really. JQ do offer service but yuo just have to pay for it. QF will probably drop HNL from its mainline service but you can still try Air Canada or Hawaiian (which are matching JQ prices). ANZ will also get you to HNL but it will not be much better than QF especially if you do not like the stops....

 

[NM]

Assuming by "redeming points" you mean you are going to use QF FF points to purchase the flight, then you will booked on the QF flight number and hence get the benefit available to all people booked on the QF codeshare, which include:

• Meal plus beverages (I assume 1 alcoholic beverage is included, but may be more)
• Headphones for mainscreen and audio IFE

And if purchasing a paid QF ticket you also get QF FF points and status credits.

So its really not much different to the current 747-300 in-flight experience.

 

[Altair]

So its really not much different to the current 747-300 in-flight experience.

Although not quite AVOD the 747-300 do have PTV giving you some choice and if you are into that sort of thing games.
I actually prefer the 747-300 for some reason, fond memories of family holidays when I was a tike perhaps , even though I think the A330 is a more comfortable plane to fly in.

 

[serfty]

... So its really not much different to the current 747-300 in-flight experience.

Methinks NM may have been referring to 767-300's here. The QF 743's all have personal IFE in WHY.

(theres a [/list] missing as well.)

 

[maninblack]

Eeek.

I haven't been following the whole Jetstar thing - are Qantas cancelling all services to Honolulu and just going to be running Jetstar from now on?
Had anyone purchased/booked flights to Honolulu on Qantas and have now been shunted over to Jetstar?

It is frightening... and so now... no stop in Honolulu for this passenger!

QF are not cancelling HNL at this time and still show it as scheduled well into 2007. They will be changing from 743's to 763's in January which is a real bummer for Y class passengers, no personal IFE. QF passengers are not being shunted to Jetstar. As to what JQ's international service will be like, who knows? I don't believe that it is actually in operation yet.

 

[NM]

Methinks NM may have been referring to 767-300's here. The QF 743's all have personal IFE in WHY.

(theres a [/list] missing as well.)

Nahh, NM was living in the past again .

 

[JohnK]

Doing a search, the only flights on offer are those operated on Jetstar!!! Ergh....

I haven't been following the whole Jetstar thing - are Qantas cancelling all services to Honolulu and just going to be running Jetstar from now on?
Had anyone purchased/booked flights to Honolulu on Qantas and have now been shunted over to Jetstar?

It is frightening... and so now... no stop in Honolulu for this passenger!

QF metal is still scheduled to fly SYD-HNL in February.

QF3 SYD-HNL on Wed, Fri, Sun and QF4 HNL-SYD Wed, Fri, Sun.

 

[Skyring]

I am looking at going back to the States in Feb using points, and thought it would be ideal to have a stopoff for a few days in Honolulu to see what it was like and have some relax time on the way home.

I spent a couple of days there in April SFO-AA-HNL-QF-SYD nand to tell the truth I wasn't that impressed. Waikiki is pretty much Surfers Paradise without the good beaches. Honolulu itself is fairly ordinary - just a town with wharves and marinas on one side. Pearl Harbour was special for me because I have an interest in military history and I was able to tour the battleship Missouri as well as the USS Arizona memorial.

I'm told that it is less touristy and more pleasant on the north shore of Oahu and on the other islands.

As for breaking the flight, it certainly does that. I hate that long 14 hour overwater flight, and dividing it into two more manageable portions is worthwhile if you have the time to spare for the break in Hawaii and the money for taxis and hotels.

I found a reasonable hostel (a converted motel) at the north end of Waikiki, and the shuttle bus wasn't too bad, bit of a discount if I bought the return leg as well. However, Honolulu's public bus system is excellent and cheap and services to Honolulu and Waikiki depart regularly from the airport.

Honolulu airport is a reasonable size, and as a planespotter I like the fact that there are some parts of the terminal (on elevated walkways) where you can get close to aircraft without intervening windows or fences. There's also a bunch of F-15s sharing the runways.

 

[maninblack]

I spent a couple of days there in April SFO-AA-HNL-QF-SYD nand to tell the truth I wasn't that impressed. Waikiki is pretty much Surfers Paradise without the good beaches. Honolulu itself is fairly ordinary - just a town with wharves and marinas on one side. Pearl Harbour was special for me because I have an interest in military history and I was able to tour the battleship Missouri as well as the USS Arizona memorial.

I'm told that it is less touristy and more pleasant on the north shore of Oahu and on the other islands.

As a regular in HNL I couldn't disagree more. Honolulu and Waikiki are both great areas for a thousand reasons that I won't go into here and it is a glib assertion to compare them to Surfers P. As for the outer islands, yes wonderful both for resorts and for a broad range of experiences.

 

[Skyring]

As a regular in HNL I couldn't disagree more. Honolulu and Waikiki are both great areas for a thousand reasons that I won't go into here and it is a glib assertion to compare them to Surfers P. As for the outer islands, yes wonderful both for resorts and for a broad range of experiences.

Honolulu has a lot of history and some great restaurants, but as a tourist destination, it would never be on my recommended list. Not sure what you see as special about Waikiki - I stand by my description as Surfers Paradise with second-rate beaches.

 

[maninblack]

Honolulu has a lot of history and some great restaurants, but as a tourist destination, it would never be on my recommended list. Not sure what you see as special about Waikiki - I stand by my description as Surfers Paradise with second-rate beaches.

Sure Waikiki is not the worlds best beach, somewhat overcrowded and dissapearing sand, mind you the water is still lovely, but it is very much about the history and the mystique, which for me at least has not waned. I just love arriving there, getting into the water, looking at Diamond Head and start daydreaming. Great shopping too and none of the hooliganism of SP. I will admit though that I usually only spend a few days there before heading off to one of the other islands. It should not be anyones sole Hawaiian experience except for a convenient 4-5 day stopover.

 

[Skyring]

Sure Waikiki is not the worlds best beach, somewhat overcrowded and dissapearing sand, mind you the water is still lovely, but it is very much about the history and the mystique, which for me at least has not waned. I just love arriving there, getting into the water, looking at Diamond Head and start daydreaming. Great shopping too and none of the hooliganism of SP. I will admit though that I usually only spend a few days there before heading off to one of the other islands. It should not be anyones sole Hawaiian experience except for a convenient 4-5 day stopover.

OK, I'll pay that. It gave me a thrill to see Diamond Head for the first time. A famous view. I had a couple of great sessions at Duke's Beachfront Bar. Nothing like a cold beer, good company, that fabulous view, and some fresh fish with mesh chips. My companion was a bloke from San Francisco who lived for scuba diving there. We came in on separate flights from SFO and hit it off as hostel roomies. He dragged me along to Dukes and I loved it.

If it wasn't for the cultural resonance, I'd write Honolulu/Waikiki off completely. It doesn't live up to the hype, but then does the Gold Coast?

 

[Altair]

OK, I'll pay that. It gave me a thrill to see Diamond Head for the first time. A famous view. I had a couple of great sessions at Duke's Beachfront Bar. Nothing like a cold beer, good company, that fabulous view, and some fresh fish with mesh chips. My companion was a bloke from San Francisco who lived for scuba diving there. We came in on separate flights from SFO and hit it off as hostel roomies. He dragged me along to Dukes and I loved it.

If it wasn't for the cultural resonance, I'd write Honolulu/Waikiki off completely. It doesn't live up to the hype, but then does the Gold Coast?

Skyring are you talking about the YH Hostel? I spent my first night ever in a hostel there and loved it. Dukes was one of the few bars open on Christmas and I had many other good nights there. Honolulu has a few other points over Gold Coast, but lacks the theme parks, but there is a lot more interesting geography and activities there than GC. Pearl Harbour is a must and I too felt the same way as your visit to the Arizona and Missouri. Ohterwise I rate Honolulu like the Brady Bunch episode, safe, generic and just a place to sloth out and unwind.