AA8 HNL-DFW

December 28th, 2020

Check-in:

To call 2020 a write-off would be an understatement. Me personally, 2020 marks the first year in which I probably covered more miles on the ground than in the air. However, we were fortunate enough to make up for it in the last month of this otherwise peculiar year with a pretty epic trip to Hawaii. You can check out the reviews of our hotel stays here.

We had originally intended to return on Christmas Day. But after an amazing week on the Big Island, we decided to outstay our welcome and visit Oahu for another 3 nights. We originally booked the return ticket on American Airlines (AA) for 20,000 AAdvantage miles per person, but the paid fare for our new return date was $250 and some change/pp, which presented a better deal in my calculus. Thanks to my Executive Platinum status with AA, upgrades to first class were confirmed 100 hours out.

We arrived at Daniel K. Inouye International Airport (HNL) at around 6:30pm for our 8pm flight to Dallas. The airport was as ill-attended as one 2020 Tulsa rally whose tickets were booked out by knavish K-Pop fans. It was disheartening to see the infrastructure used to support 3 daily A380 departures to Tokyo, whilst now the most exotic destination is the Southwest flight to Oakland.

In true Hawaiian fashion, the lady at the AA priority check-in counter was full of aloha and didn’t bat an eyelid over our 70-pound checked bag. The rest of the process involving the airport was painless, and we were at the boarding gate in less than 10 minutes.

Boarding:

Since there’s normally no lounge access for domestic first class passengers even pre-Covid, and all the Priority Pass options were closed, we people-watched by the gate for a brief moment before boarding commenced.

AA’s Boeing 777-200s were fully refurbished in recent years with the B/E Aerospace Super Diamond seats, which I prefer over the other competing products. I first flew this product almost three years ago from Narita to Dallas and had a good experience.

Upon boarding, we were greeted by your typical and friendly Dallas-based flight attendant. I’ve iterated this many times before but I’ll say it again - having an Asiana Airlines flight attendant kneeling down and putting a pair of plush slippers on your feet sure is nice but nothing beats a Texan grandma force-feeding you your third butterscotch sundae of the day.

Before we dive into the cabin pictures, the product we were in was actually business class, as it was only marketed as first class when operating a domestic flight.

The interior of the business class cabin was extremely… business? The color scheme is neutral to the point that it screams corporate America - like if Blackstone and BlackRock had formed a chartered airline, this would be how I envision it would look like (very black). The black gold leaked from the Louisiana Gulf coast had poured into the cabin from the engines because nothing is as American as energy independence. Well, maybe I’m fracking too many jokes here. All spillage aside, I did not mind this interior at all - it’s nothing flashy but reliable, just like the greenback. Only in this case, the black (seat) back.

If you are dubious of the fully loaded amenity kits on a domestic flight, it is because the photos were taken on another flight, as I didn’t feel particularly comfortable snapping shots in the congested aisle with people’s heightened awareness of personal space. That being said, amenity kits were indeed not provided on this flight. There was, however, a Casper bedding kit consisting of a pillow and a blanket.

Behind the business class was the premium economy cabin, which was equipped with the same standard premium economy seats you could find on virtually any other airline.

Awaiting at our seats were the menu for the flight, as well as a pair of Bang & Olufsen headphones. These headphones used to be from Bose, which I personally vastly preferred.

Inflight:

Service started almost immediately after we passed 10,000ft. Given the shorter duration going east bound and the redeye departure time, the meals were being heated while the plane was still on the ground. The selection was the same as on our flight to Kona. But I believe the return flight was prepared by the Honolulu catering, as it tasted significantly better than on the Dallas-Kona flight.

A welcome apéritif was naturally the first to be eliminated. “Sorry sir, we’re in a global pandemic. We need draconic fiscal policies to stimulate the economy (aka money printer go brrrr) not handcrafted cocktails to stimulate your average palette before your meal.”.

Rather the whole meal was served on a single tray with everything covered in saran wrap.

As if I hadn’t had enough mai tais on this trip, I ordered another to wash down dinner with, which came pre-mixed in minibar bottles. And boy was it potent.

Needless to say the service had been modified due to, you know, like literally everything that is going on. But I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the food on this flight. The bread was a rather stale and cold bun you’d normally get in, mmm how do I say it without being canceled, ah, the main cabin, which made me nostalgic about those warm and luscious cheese rolls and pretzel bread AA used to serve that you could oh-so-effortlessly spread butter on. If we can get those back in 2021, I swear I’ll never complain about airlines not serving hot towels on a dish again.

The starter was quite nice, with roasted ponzu cauliflower and ginger tahini sauce. The ginger tahini sauce did suspiciously taste like mayonnaise, though.

I chose the teriyaki salmon with Shanghai egg noodles, sautéed vegetables and teriyaki sauce. While the portion of the salmon was on the small side (trying times nowadays I get it), it had to be one of the best fish I’d had on a plane - it was perfectly seasoned so the teriyaki sauce on the side was redundant. The salmon was crispy on the outside with a good char and moist on the inside, the egg noodles were not soggy and even the decorative red bell pepper slices were crunchy and fresh.

My partner had the braised beef short rib with wasabi mashed potatoes, baby bok choy and baby carrots, which was every bit as tender as a short rib should be. Additionally, I was impressed that each main course had a little bit of local flair, such as the adoptions of wasabi, edamame, ponzu sauce and of course, teriyaki. Hawaii had been and is to this day heavily influenced by Japanese culture.

Or I don’t know, maybe I was just ecstatic about being on a plane and going somewhere. Maybe the food tasted like shit, don’t screenshot what I said😤. You gotta disclaim everything you say in this day and age.

Service on the flight was generally on par with what you’d expect on a domestic flight in the US. While the flight attendant working my aisle was great, and we bonded over our mutual obsession with Goyard (Canal Street special) when she spotted my tote, the flight attendant working my partner’s aisle had a visible disdain on her face when she walked by and smelled Clorox wipes some other passengers had been wiping their seats with.

On Arrival:

After a satisfying dinner and trip, I quickly reclined my seat into the lie-flat bed that it was meant to be and woke up about 15 minutes out of Dallas. There was a pre-landing fruits and yoghurt service, should you be interested.

I would obviously like to share the Covid-related measures on this flight. Each passenger was offered two sanitizing wipes upon boarding, with the modified meal service, that about summarizes the topic. There supposedly was other measures behind the scene, such as cleaning of the highly-touched surfaces, electrostatic spray of the cabin and the HEPA filters, but I couldn’t vouch for the execution or the efficacy. Comfort level is a personal matter, and we of course felt comfortable enough to travel.

AA, as do most airlines en masse, takes masks very seriously. There were several announcements made by the flight attendants and even the captain to remind everyone to not only wear, but to correctly wear their masks, because ladies in 2021 we don’t celebrate mediocre men for doing the bare minimum anymore. My partner’s mask fell below his nose while he was sleeping and was promptly woken up by the flight attendant to pull it back up. All the passengers I observed were respectful of other people’s well-beings.

I would definitely recommend going through Dallas or Chicago to hop on one of these big girl planes with lie-flat seats if logistically permitted, as opposed to going through LA or Phoenix. I also can not recommend the Big Island enough. Please go, it’s one of the most enriching trips I’ve ever taken.

Here’s to a happier, healthier and more hopeful New Year. Mahalo and a hui hou!