Boy do we have some bad news for you. American Airlines, Continental Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and United Airlines all offer direct redeye flights from Honolulu to Los Angeles – and each offers less than standard first-class accomodations on the aircraft that fly this route. Choosing the “best” first-class seats among this group is akin to picking your favorite way to get hit in the face. We’re going to have to give the nod to American Airlines, which flies a Boeing 757 on this route featuring, hold onto your seat, a whopping 39″ pitch and 21″ width. Remarkably, those measurements beat all of the competition on this route. Continental flies a Boeing 737-800 and United a Boeing 767-300, and both come in at a 38″ pitch (and United’s seats are only 19 inches wide). Delta comes in last with a 37″ pitch on its Boeing 757-300. Ah, but you mention foot rests are important to you. Sorry, that doesn’t help narrow things down at all, as footrests aren’t installed on any of these aircraft. If you prefer not to use your carry-on bag as a defacto footrest, you might look into this folding footrest from Magellan’s. Now, with all that in mind, if you aren’t irrevocably committed to the idea of a redeye, there is a better option. Hawaiian Airlines flies an Airbus A330-200 on the route with a 45″-46″ pitch in first class and, you guessed it, footrests! The catch? Their last flight of the day departs from Honolulu around 3 p.m. Then again, with the choices available, it might just be worth it to leave a little earlier and book a hotel room for the night. In fact, it might very well be the only option that will leave you well rested the next morning. Continue reading...
Delta's 757-200s that do Hawaii-Los Angeles tend to have footrests that come out of the seat. The 757-300s and 767-300s do not. The A330-300s that are on Atlanta (and Detroit/Minneapolis for another few weeks) are full BusinessElite seats with the angled-flat seats.
Not to LAX. To LAX they only fly the 737s and those are just domestic F seats. The 767s that CO flies to IAH and EWR are a nice product but definitely not flat.
Right you are on both counts, Wandering Aramean. But who wants to go back to SAN via LAX rather than through EWR?
