Qantas upgrades Sydney-Honolulu to 787

Holiday-makers bound for Hawaii can look forward to making the 10-hour trip on a Qantas Boeing 787 from the end of this month.

The airline is swapping out an older Airbus A330 for the modern Dreamliner on flights QF103/QF104 – a move which notably adds premium economy as an option for travellers.

Further up front, the 787 Business Suites are a refined version of their A330 siblings, with one of the key improvements being a retractable panel between the middle seats so that passengers travelling together – and there’s a lot of those on this getaway route – can share more of the journey with their partner.

Qantas 787 business class.

Honolulu has always been a popular premium route for Qantas, going back to when it was served by the Boeing 747 jumbo jet.

The 787 upgrade delivers an additional 50% of business class seats compared to the A330, plus 28 premium economy recliners – at the cost of losing 100 economy seats.

Even so, at the time of writing we’re seeing plenty of Economy Classic Reward seats up for grabs at 31,500 Qantas Points (plus $216 in fees and taxes) for those prepared to make the 9-hour Sydney-Honolulu trek down the back (fortunately the return leg is a daytime flight).

Towards the end of 2022 Qantas refreshed its Honolulu International Business Lounge, upgrading the buffet with a breakfast spread appropriate to the late morning departure of QF104 to Sydney, alongside self-serve Bloody Mary and Mimosa stations.

Make time for a Mimosa at the new-look Qantas Honolulu lounge.

But Qantas’ 787 won’t be star of the show at Honolulu, with Hawaiian Airlines taking delivery of its first Boeing 787 ahead of flights to San Francisco, Los Angeles and Phoenix across April-May 2024.

Hawaiian Airlines' first pair of Boeing 787s will take wing to the US West Coast in March 2024.

Hawaiian Airlines’ 787 business class cabin is both inspired by and reflects the carrier’s island home and Polynesian heritage, with unique touches like middle ‘Cabana Suites’ to Koa wood-patterned flooring and wall panels to ceiling-mounted LED lights depicting the constellations of the night sky.

Hawaiian Airlines’ new Boeing 787 business class.

The new premium suites  will be branded as Leihoku Class, with Leihoku meaning ‘garland of stars’, and are based on the Ascent design from Adient Aerospace.

Hawaiian Airlines’ new Boeing 787 business class

The paired Cabana Suites in the middle of each business class row are “a really important feature for Hawaiian Airlines passengers who are usually celebrating a vacation or special occasion while they're visiting the island,” explains Adient Aerospace’s Stephanie Faulk.

The paired middle seats are Cabana Suites in Hawaiian Airlines' new Boeing 787 business class.

“There’s a privacy divider, so if a traveller is by themselves they can put up the divider, but the (panel) does lower down – there’s two buttons that need to be pushed simultaneously in order for that to fully lower flat – so it allows for couples that are travelling together to have a full suite that feels like one harmonious cabana instead of two separate suites.”

However, while those coupled activities including “watching a movie together or having a meal together,” the outwards-angle of the seats means they don’t become a proper double bed.

The middle seats of the original Adient Ascent design illustrate how ‘Cabana mode’ will look.

Hawaiian Airlines intends to be flying three Boeing 787s by the end of 2024, with the rest of the 12-strong order arriving across 2025-2027; the Dreamliners will be dedicated to major trans-Pacific routes spearing out from Honolulu.

And as previously reported, Hawaiian Airlines could end up a de facto Qantas partner if it joins the Oneworld alliance following a US$1.9bn merger with Alaska Airlines, with the deal expected to be in place by mid-2025.