[maninblack]

Greetings from Kauai. Flew into HNL last week on QF3. As in the header a sad and happy flight. Almost certainly my last trip to HNL on a Qantas 747. Sad because the old bird is such a great aircraft, happy because the 743's really are just too clapped-out. Still, a beautiful climb out of Sydney (after a one hour delay due to a fuel spill on the tarmac) to the north and the most gentle landing at Honolulu some 9 hours later. Up front in a 747 is still the best ride in the sky. The Dreamtime seat was truly awful though after using the skybed so often recently and having not been on a Dreamtime since my last HNL trip.

Sad also because QF are moving to 763's on this route, will be flying home on one probably followed by dumping the route altogether some time in the next year, though this is only conjecture at this point.

Hope this doesn't come to pass and also hope QF eventually puts A330's and later 787's into service on this route. Somehow though I doubt it will happen.

So a fond goodbye to QF 747's at HNL.

Aloha and mahalo

[NYCguy]

The conjecture about HNL services is probably right - I'd bet any money that OneStar will be on that route quicker than you can say "leisure market".

[maninblack]

Jetstar already are post Christmas. The real issue is whether QF sees demand for a premium service (which they already don't really provide). Without being overly sentimental, it's true to say that everything now is about $$$ and nothing else, thats just the way of business. Shame though because SYD-HNL really is a long flight and 10 hours on the return leg. A real bummer without a J class seat/bed.

[maninblack]

743 not quite finished into HNL. Scheduled for a one-off on January 24th. Must be heavily booked with holiday makers returning home.