When I first started researching award flights to Hawaii, I was determined to book a first class flight with fully lie-flat seats. Many first class flights between the mainland United States and Hawaii have first class cabins with either recliner seats or angled lie-flat seats rather than fully flat beds. Some airlines clearly state when a flight has a flat bed but some do not. Fortunately in the last couple of years airlines are adding flat beds to more routes to Hawaii.
Here is a list of all airlines and routes that I found with fully lie-flat seats between the mainland and Hawaii. Please note that for some routes, not every flight will have a flat bed seat so it is a good idea to double check the seat map before you book an award ticket.
List of Airlines & Routes With Lie-Flat Seats to Hawaii
Hawaiian Airlines
Hawaiian Airlines offers lie flat seats on these domestic routes on its new Airbus A330 with a 2-2-2 seat configuration:
- Los Angeles, California (LAX) and Oahu – Honolulu, HI (HNL)
- Los Angeles, California (LAX) and Maui – Kahului, HI (OGG)
- San Diego, California (SAN) and Oahu – Honolulu, HI (HNL)
- San Francisco, California (SFO) and Oahu – Honolulu, HI (HNL)
- San Francisco, California (SFO) and Maui – Kahului, HI (OGG)
- Las Vegas, Nevada (LAS) and Oahu – Honolulu, HI (HNL)
- New York (JFK) and Oahu – Honolulu, HI (HNL) 130K
- Seattle, Washington (SEA) and Oahu – Honolulu, HI (HNL)
- Seattle, Washington (SEA) and Maui – Kahului, HI (OGG)
- Seattle, Washington (SEA) and Maui – Kahului, HI (OGG)
- Boston Logan (BOS) and Oahu – Honolulu, HI (HNL) – New route begins April 4, 2019
How to know if a Hawaiian Airlines flight has flat bed seats: Super easy. Hawaiian Airlines makes it clear when flights have lie-flat seats both in the search results and when looking at the seat maps. They also have a page on their website which is regularly updated that lists the current routes that offer a A330 premium cabin.
How many miles to book? If using Hawaiian Airlines miles to book an award flight, a First Class Saver award is 40,000 miles and a First Class Flex award is 80,000 -130,000 for a one way flight. I am only seeing 130,000 on the JFK and BOS flights.
The flights from California had the best availability for flex awards probably because they are shorter and less people want to splurge for first class. I looked at several dates and finding a first class saver award is nearly impossible for the JFK- HNL or BOS -HNL routes but finding an flex award was pretty easy. If you want to fly Hawaiian Airlines on the JFK- HNL or BOS -HNL routes, you will likely have to use 130,000 Hawaiian miles for a one way flight.
Delta First Class
Delta has a very comfortable flat bed seat on the routes below with a 1-2-1 seat configuration. For anyone traveling solo, it is the best first class cabin because they don’t have to sit next to anyone else.
1) Atlanta (ATL) – Honolulu (HNL) – Boeing 767 with a 1-2-1 seat configuration
2) Minneapolis/St Paul (MSP) – Honolulu (HNL) – Airbus A330-300 with a 1-2-1 configuration (See my Delta One A330 first class flight review on this route)
3) Los Angeles (LAX) – Honolulu (HNL) – This route has several flights a day but only one flight on a Boeing 767-300 has a flat bed
4) Salt Lake City (SLC) – Honolulu (HNL) – Boeing 767 with a 1-2-1 seat configuration
5) New York Kennedy (JFK) – Honolulu (HNL) – Seasonal service on a Boeing 767
6) Salt Lake City (SLC) – Maui (OGG) – Seasonal service on a Boeing 767-300 (This route has lower priced award flights)
How to know if a Delta flight has lie-flat seats: Delta makes it fairly easy to find flights with lie-flat seats. When searching for flights on a particular route, look for the bed icon as an amenity in the search results.
How many miles to book? It is pretty easy to find Delta award flights with lie-flat seats to Hawaii but you might need a lot of miles. The number of mileage required for a one way flight varies and can range from 67,500 to as high 150,000 for a one way ticket! Delta has a flexible search feature with a 5 week calendar which makes it easy to look for dates with lower priced awards on a route.
American First Class
1) Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) – Honolulu (HNL) – Boeing 777 on a 1-2-1 configuration
2) Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) – Maui Kahului (OGG) – Boeing 777 on a 1-2-1 configuration
3) Chicago O’Hare (ORD) – Honolulu (HNL) – Daily winter service starting December 19, 2018 on a Boeing 787-8 on a 1-2-1 configuration
4) Phoenix (PHX) – Honolulu (HNL) – This route sometime flies an Airbus A330-300 which has flat bed seats in a 1-2-1 configuration and sometimes an Boeing 757-200 which has recliner seats.
How to know if an AA flight has lie-flat seats: It is much harder to know if AA has lie flat seats compared to Delta and Hawaiian. AA does not explicitly state whether a flight has a flat bed, but you can tell by looking at the online seat map and comparing it to the seat map on seatguru.com. For example, below is the seat map on aa.com:
There is no way to tell for sure that this flight has lie-flat seats from the seat map, but it is a good sign that there is a 1-2-1 seat configuration. Some aircraft have different versions, in which case I look at all versions on seatguru.com and match up the seats based on the seat map on aa.com.
How many miles to book? Using AA miles, a one way first class is 40,000 if it is a MileSAAver award but these might be hard to find depending on your travel dates. If there are no MileSAAver awards, you will either have to use 67,500 (AAnytime Level 1) or 90,000 (AAnytime Level 2) miles. It is pretty easy to find which dates have awards using the calendar feature and it was pretty easy to find awards at 67,500 miles.
United
1) Newark (EWR) – Honolulu (HNL) – Boeing 767-400ER with a 2-1-2 seat configuration
2) Washington Dulles (IAD) – Honolulu (HNL) – Boeing 767-300 with a 2-1-2 seat configuration
3) Chicago O’Hare (ORD) – Honolulu (HNL) – Boeing 777-200 with a 2-4-2 seat configuration
4) Denver (DEN) – Honolulu (HNL) – Boeing 777-200 with a 2-4-2 seat configuration
5) Houston (IAD) – Honolulu (HNL) – Boeing 777-200 with a 2-4-2 seat configuration
6) San Francisco (SFO) – Honolulu (HNL) – United offers several nonstop flights on this route but only some flights have lie-flat seats on Boeing 777-200.
7) Los Angeles (LAX)- Honolulu (HNL) – United offers several nonstop flights on this route but only 1 flight a day has lie flat seats on a Boeing 777-200.
Other United lie-flat routes:
United seems to be adding more planes with lie-flat seats. I don’t recall seeing all of these when I first started looking but I see a few more United flights to Hawaii that have switched to lie-flat seats according to their seat maps:
To Kauai Lihue (LIH) – some flights to Denver (DEN) (seasonal) on a Boeing 757-200 with a 2-2 seat configuration
To Maui (OGG) – Denver (DEN) on a Boeing 757-200 with a 2-2 seat configuration; Chicago O’Hare (ORD) seasonal service on a Boeing 777-200 with a 2-4-2 configuration
How to know if United flight has lie-flat seats: United does not show whether a flight has lie-flat seats when searching for flights so you need to look at United’s online seat map and double check by comparing it to the seat map on seatguru.com.
When looking at the search results on united.com, click on “Seats” and you will see the seat map. The seats in first class on this route look like they are lie-flat:
A search on seatguru.com confirms this flight has flat bed seats:
Some aircraft have different versions, in which case I look at all versions on seatguru.com and match up the seats based on the seat map on united.com. Note: Since United recently added flat beds on additional routes, seatguru.com might not be up to date on these routes.
How many miles to book? If using United miles, a First Saver award is 40,000 miles (50,000 miles for flights between Hawaii and Chicago O’Hare, Denver, Houston Intercontinental, New York/Newark or Washington Dulles). A First Everyday award (used to be called standard) is 90,000 miles for a one way flight (95,000 miles for flights between Hawaii and Chicago O’Hare, Denver, Houston Intercontinental, New York/Newark or Washington Dulles). Finding a First Saver Award on a route with lie-flat seats is nearly impossible so you will likely need to use 95,000 miles for a First Everyday award.
If you are interested in flying on a flat bed to Hawaii, start looking for flights on these airlines and routes but double check the airline’s seat map and seatguru.com (especially for flights on American). AA and United make it much harder to find lie flat seats compared to Delta and Hawaiian. Unfortunately, Saver award availability will be hard to find so you might have to use more miles for a standard award.
(See related post: How to Earn United MileagePlus Miles Without Flying)
These are all the routes I found with flat beds to Hawaii from the mainland – hopefully I did not miss any. Let me know if I missed any routes with lie-flat beds and I will include them.
Originally published on April 6, 2017 but updated to reflect current routes.
How about flights from Asia and Australia to Hawaii?
Did not include flights from Australia and Asia in my research but that is a good idea. I’ll see what I can find out and maybe do a new post.
Hi, Did you ever do an Asia post?
Starting to show up on certain California to Hawaii flights. SFO and LAX in part at least. Just returned from LAX-Kona non-stop RT. Flew First both ways using miles. Had done LAX-HNL-Kona RT First last November. Daughter joined via SFO-HNL-Kona RT First on the November trip. In November she had the lie flat seats both ways on SFO legs . Our Nov. trip had older seats both ways on LA-HNL legs. Had older seats on LA-Kona this June trip, lie flatt HA 62 Kona-LA on the return. Frankly don’t like the old or the new. Old have a footrest mechanism that we gave up trying to make work. New lie flat seemed hard, we both needed to double up the pillow to get any neck support at any reclining angle, pillows kept slipping off since the headrest area is open on both sides.
So what did you end up booking to/from Hawaii? Which method did you use?
Not sure I understand your question. As for what we ended up booking, we flew 1st class outbound and return. Nonstop LAX-Kona both ways (summer only route for Hawaiian). We booked all portions of the trip using Hawaiian miles from credit cards.
Thanks Randy! Yes! That was my question. You guys listed a few ways to get to/from Hawaii from the mainland so I was curious to see which option above ultimately worked out the best for you. Were you able to find 40k saver awards for Hawaii or you guys booked the flex 80k? I’ve been looking and like you said above, the 40k is impossible =( Maybe I’ll just fly coach…I’m the east coast though so it’ll be a really long flight. Sucks I have the miles, but can’t find award availability, even a year out =(
We booked at the 80k level as best I recall. As with you, finding lower level awards is nigh impossible. Good luck. In all candor the 1st class service is far from impressive. We may opt to fly coach in the future just to hoard miles. Flying from LA is of course easier than an east coast location.
Thanks for the update Randy. I see on their website that Hawaiian is now flying lie flat between SFO -HNL and SFO-OGG but I don’t see it from LAX. Did you see from your seat maps that your flights would be lie-flat when you booked or did they surprise you?
Sorry to hear neither flight was that comfortable. When I flew to Hawaii in February, I was debating between Hawaiian and Delta but chose Delta because it looked like the seat was more comfortable and private.
As best I recall, having the lie flat seat show up on the Kona-LA return was a surprise. We had not looked at seating charts beforehand. Keep in mind we were a captive audience for this trip in that we used miles and very specifically wanted the nonstop LA-Kona route to avoid the change in Honolulu. The type of first class seat was irrelevant for us on this trip.
I am looking at a flight from HNL-ORD on united. (UA 218 on 777-200) The seat map on the united site indicates lie-flat beds. However… Seat Guru has 3 versions of this plane and the one labeled “hawaii” appears to have crummy business class seats! The seat map on united doesn’t look like any of the versions on seat guru! How do I verify the seats on this bird!
Hi Jon, Sorry I missed your question until now. I would go with the United seat chart as seatguru is not always up to date on recent changes. United recently started flying planes with flat beds on more routes including HNL-ORD. I’ll update the post but here is more information from United: https://hub.united.com/united-airlines-says-aloha-2567373445.html
Many times I’ve taken Hawaiian Airlines LAX to OGG round-trip, 1st class, non-stop. I think it was flight number 33&34. Leaves L.A. about 9:25 a.m. Lie flat. The airline servers said that Hawaiian is in the process of changing the 1st class reclining seats to lie-flat on all of their flights to Hawaii.
The latest version has a great feature. They designed the lie-flat so that the passenger on the window seat does not have to step over the legs or feet of the aisle passenger, even at full recline. There’s a small space behind the seat in front of the aisle seat that you can slide through and not disturb your neighbor.
I don’t understand your distinction between “lie-flat” and “angled” as though angled is a negative. The only angle I know on the flights has been on the latest flight in Dec. 2017 the lie-flat seats were at an angle as shown on the map, and they were comfortable, and space to move from window to aisle without stepping over anybody.
One problem: I’m 6’2″. I stretched out on my lie-flat angled seat on the aisle this past December, but when I bent my knees they were into the aisle just enough to get bumped when somebody walked by. I adjusted, but next time (this April) I’ll take the window seat and not worry about getting in and out my usual five times per flight.
Lie-flat means when fully reclined in bed mode, you’re lying parallel to the floor.
Angled (or angled-flat) means you’re sleeping at a (slight) angle when in bed mode, even though the bed may be “flat,” as in, straight. You might slide downward while sleeping.
What about flights from the mainland to the Big Island, specially KOA? What are the best airlines to look at flying first class to that destination? I believe United and American both have first class flights to KOA. Which is better?
November 2018 thoughts – when seat maps aren’t clear, Kayak is excellent at identifying the seats in their detailed flight info, available from your initial search. Kayak also has a very helpful filter to omit airports you don’t want to connect through – if it doesn’t offer lie-flats for your routing.
Also – for all the vegans out there: Hawaiian offers no option for you, even in first class. None, zilch, zero. I’d done my research and knew this before my HNL-SYD flight but when you have so many airlines to choose from, HA is shooting itself in the foot by not having something on boards to satisfy all potential customers.
What flights Returning From HNL have lay-flat seats?
I have 440K Chase UR and 420K Amex awards, trying to arrange FC tickets from PHL or EWR to LIH on 12/20 and return from OGG on 1/3/20. Any thoughts on the best strategy to do this? Transfer all to Singapore or British Airways and book via them? I am just worried about stranding all my miles/points with an airline I would otherwise never use. Thanks.