Hipa Hipa to Hawaiian Airlines' excellent 787-9 up front productRunway Girl

The long wait at Hawaiian Airlines is over, as the carrier finally launched revenue service with the Boeing 787-9 twinjet on 15 April.

With its promise of a gorgeous new cabin, both up front and down back, we knew we had to try this Dreamliner as soon as it came out.

The airline provided Runway Girl Network with tickets in the cabin dubbed Leihōkū — meaning “lei of stars”, its newest class of premium travel — from San Francisco to Honolulu. It also provided return travel to Seattle in economy class. Our opinions, of course, remain our own.

But, spoiler alert, it isn’t hard to write an excellent review when everything is, well, excellent.

The adventure began at the airline’s first class check-in desk at SFO. There was no line, and a single agent had me on my way to Terminal 1 in no time.

Boarding began on time, and I made my way into the jet in Zone 1. First impressions are strong: tropical mood lighting, an overhead floral pattern of a native island plant and wood paneling that mimics the ribs of the iconic outrigger canoe set an immediate vibe.

Walking down the aisle of this premium cabin, I first noticed the star lights on the ceiling. I’ve seen this sort of pleasant addition on other airlines, but Hawaiian adds another layer. The stars are meant to evoke the ancient seafaring Polynesians, who would have used the stars to guide them on their travels.

I settled into my suite, 9J, and dove right into what it has to offer.

Hawaiian chose the Adient Aerospace Ascent suite. There are 34 in the cabin arranged in an industry standard 1-2-1 mixed herringbone configuration. Each seat has 77” of pitch, 21” of width and is full-flat capable.

It’s comfortable, though the footwell can be a bit tight. I took a short mid-flight power nap with the pillow and blanket.

Window seats face the windows, while interior seats face the aisle.

Each seat has a privacy door, which at first felt kinda gimmicky but grew on me as the flight went on.

Interior pairs have privacy screens which can be raised at any time, but only lowered if the folks in both seats hit the button at the same time.

Each suite has an 18” exceptionally crisp IFE screen, large rotating pull out tray table, a small storage cubby for headphones, a vanity mirror and a sconce light. There are three charging power methods: a Qi wireless surface, USB-A, and a universal port. The airline says there is a USB-C port, but I couldn’t find it.

A small work area is cleverly split level, enabling drinks to have their own dedicated mini shelf.

The cabin color palette contains plenty of browns and blues. The color of Hawaii’s volcanic soil can be seen in the seat upholstery while the carpets feature shades of ocean blue.

Most of the rest of the heavy lifting, color wise, is done by the overhead LED lighting.

Pre-departure beverages started off the service, with a choice between water, guava juice, and of course Mai Tai cocktails.

A ‘first class meal’ menu at the seat detailed the two brunch options for the flight, as well as an above average list of beverages. The cocktail list was especially promising, and I put in a request for one after departure.

Service began not long after takeoff, with the tropical cocktail and a plate of delicious macadamia nuts serving as a starter.

Brunch appeared not long after. My first choice, an omelette, was long gone. But the pancakes held up fine. The fresh fruit was the highlight.

The entire affair lasted 90 minutes, after which I switched over to a constant stream of guava juice for the rest of the flight.

The inflight entertainment, a Panasonic Avionics system, is great. It can be controlled via touch or a small tethered remote.

Hawaiian stocks an average selection of content with 60-ish movies and a similar number of TV shows. Some of TV shows have a few episodes each, while others are full seasons.

The crew were very pleasant and proactive without being intrusive. They also offered me an economy meal to supplement the brunch option as my first option was already out. I’d be more than happy to fly with them again any day.

There is no Wi-Fi on board, though Hawaiian intends to outfit the jet with Starlink eventually. It’s the only significant issue with the jet, in my opinion.

We landed on time in Honolulu, and I regretted having to get off.

For now the jet will stick largely to short-haul West Coast routes like San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Phoenix. I imagine it will eventually end up plying the carrier’s longer routes like Boston, Seoul and Sydney, but no commitments have been made yet.

If you’ve flown Hawaiian long-haul before, this is a huge upgrade from the airline’s existing 2-2-2 Airbus A330 premium cabin. And it finally places them in a competitive spot against their rivals, no matter the route it’s placed on.

Anyone can launch a new plane with a smashing hard product and decent meal. What puts Hawaiian over the top, though, are all those built-in cultural features.

I’ve already noted several, but there are proverbial Easter eggs hidden throughout the jet: patterned inlays on each economy cabin armrest, native floral patterns on each lavatory wall and figures in native Hawaiian dress.

Consider too, the entryway. the carrier could have slapped a Hawaiian logo on the wall and called it good. But that extra mile to add the outrigger-inspired wood paneling, something uniquely Hawaiian, sets an immersive tone right out of the gate.

The whole of the experience is greater than the sum of its individual parts. Hawaiian’s new Leihōkū product is a memorable experience for all the right reasons.

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