United flatbed to Hawaii?

[GeezerCouple]

Has anyone had experience with the United flatbed seats between either Newark or Dulles and Honolulu?

 

Were they truly flat/horizontal?

Were they comfy?

 

Feedback about meal service would be nice, but is less important than a good sleep ;)

 

Thanks very much.

[Mr. Click]

I cannot speak about the service to HNL but we have enjoyed the flat beds from London to Newark. They are comfortable but I would not spend $6000 for one...if you can find a bargain fare or do a mileage upgrade go for it. The food is better than coach but far from great. The "diiner" on our last UA transAtlantic trip in coach was unidenifable and inedible. Some kind of mystery meat patty covered in ketchup being passed off as bar-b-que chicken.

[CruiserBruce]

To my knowledge, United only has true lie flat business and first class seats. No "angled" seats like some airlines. I have flown most of their lie flat plane types.

 

Food is even more subjective on airlines than on cruise ships. If you don't believe me, look over on FlyerTalk. Wear your flame proof suit. In 30 years of flying on United, I can count the number of bad meals I have had on one hand, and have several fingers left over. But others will insist it is only one step above starvation. It's all so subjective.

[fbgd]

I've used them on other routes and they are comfortable and fully lie flat. It's certainly a bonus on domestic flights compared to most of the Hawaii services.

 

AA also has flatbeds on their 767s from DFW.

[Bowie MeMe]

Oh be very careful on this route. EWR to HLN is one of the longest DOMESTIC flights in the world. It seems longer than eternity. Being domestic -- at least in the cheap seats-- no dinner at all was served! I think it was 12 hours long and 2 small cups of soda. They offered for sale a few sandwiches but not really much and price was high. Really did not see the flight attendants much-- they were on for four hours or so then off for 2-3 in their little curtained area. They dimmed the lights and closed the shades for this daytime flight for about 8 hours so that passengers could "enjoy their rest". A really boring and tiring and snack/junk food filled flight. Probably the worst of my 200+ flights because nothing broke up the boredom. I finished 2 full books and 1 movie but even the entertainment system less than what the international flights of that length offer. Maybe BC would be that much better but know for sure. United was not fun on EWR to HNL and HNL to EWR. Good thing Hawaii is worth it!

[CruiserBruce]

The "blocked" time for the EWR-HNL flight is just under 11 hours. United has recently upgraded the meals on this flight to something close to an international flight.

[waterbug123]

Has anyone had experience with the United flatbed seats between either Newark or Dulles and Honolulu?

 

 

Oh be very careful on this route. EWR to HLN is one of the longest DOMESTIC flights in the world. It seems longer than eternity. Being domestic -- at least in the cheap seats-- no dinner at all was served! I think it was 12 hours long and 2 small cups of soda. They offered for sale a few sandwiches

 

It sounds like you were seated in the economy cabin, and the OP is presumably booking business class, as their post is about flatbed seats. Big difference!

[silkismom]

Just did UA DEN-HNL in biz/1st, definitely not lay flat, meal was ok, mai tais were good. Gave us tablets w/nothing of interest, I just read my book. FAs sang to people w/birthdays/anniversaries and played a ukulele & tried to hula just before landing which was hilarious. Flew back YVR/DEN which had the worst meal ever, couldn't eat it.

[CruiserBruce]

Just did UA DEN-HNL in biz/1st, definitely not lay flat, meal was ok, mai tais were good. .

 

This seat is reflective of normal domestic First. However, to make the longer non-stop flights from IAD or EWR, they use planes more commonly used for international flights, and the commonly have lie flat seats in Business or First.

 

Occasionally they use planes with lie flat seats out of DEN, but not a regular occurrence.

Edited May 21, 2016 by CruiserBruce

[iMedic]

Also remember on UA it's 2-1-2 configuration, so unless you're in the centre you'll have to climb over or be climbed over by your seat mate.

 

Delta has lie flat service from atl and seasonally from msp and AA has it from dfw. Both these options are in a 1-2-1 configuration.

 

Avoid air canada as they've rouged most of their Hawaii flights.

[marchanxiety]

We did United IAD-HNL in BusinessFirst last summer. It was a 767 and configured like international business--2-2-2. Seats were lay flat. I hadn't wanted to take the flight because we had done Kona to Denver on a 767 in First a couple of years before and the seats were standard domestic First. It really seemed like international business.

[GeezerCouple]

We did United IAD-HNL in BusinessFirst last summer. It was a 767 and configured like international business--2-2-2. Seats were lay flat. I hadn't wanted to take the flight because we had done Kona to Denver on a 767 in First a couple of years before and the seats were standard domestic First. It really seemed like international business.

 

Thanks to all.

 

First, yes we realize how long that flight is (ugh), which is why we want flat bed!

Stopping overnight on the West Coast would just drag it out, and we don't have the time to add a mini-vacation in California, etc.

 

The IAD-HNL is now (for next winter, anyway) a 2-1-2 configuration, as is the Newark flight. Or so it is indicated now.

 

We'll grab a pair, since the "other person" won't be a stranger for the "climbing over" problem ;)

 

I think we'll have a chance to try these seats home from Anchorage in a couple of weeks.

The outbound will be regular coach to Vancouver, which we do about once a year (both ways, for a conference).

We decided to give the return a try on these flatbeds, for something less than 11 hours, and see if we could really sleep - and comfortably.

If not, time to be thinking about a Plan B for Hawaii...

 

For the HNL flight, we are thinking of connecting in Dulles rather than Newark, hoping that will be less likely to have a weather problem.

 

But this is tricky, because IF we miss the connection (early flights), there's nothing else like it 'til the next morning, and it could be sold out.

Getting re-routed on recliners... well, we wouldn't have chosen that 11 hour leg in that case.

(Wondering if we should try to go to Dulles the afternoon before, because of the vagaries of winter travel.)