Flying to Hawaii soon? Don’t have a lot of money to spend? Hawaiian Airlines A330-200 economy is what I recommend.
- Not only will you get a free hot meal, you’ll get free Starlink internet access and a large video screen at your seat loaded with lots of great content.
- They also serve a complementary tropical-themed alcoholic drink prior to landing (for those who prefer to kick off their vacation with a stiff buzz).
This is a full review of my most recent experience. Without the buzz.
HA15
San Diego, CA (SAN) – Honolulu, HI (HNL)
Tuesday, May 6, 2025
Aircraft: A330-243
Registration: N361HA
Duration: 5 hours 39 minutes
Seat: 27G (Economy)
Checking in at SAN
The last time I flew Hawaiian Airlines flight number 15 from San Diego to Honolulu, it departed at 9:30 AM. This time? It was going out at 8:35 AM. I wasn’t about to let it go without me.
The boarding process
Boarding zones 1-3 on Hawaiian Airlines are reserved for first class passengers, active-duty military, Hawaiian Airlines credit card elites, and Extra Comfort passengers. My zone 4 boarding assignment was about as good as it could get for a lowly basic economy passenger such as myself.
The boarding process started exactly on time at 7:50am. The way in which they expedited the process led me to believe that they had done this a time or two before.
Hawaiian Airlines A330-200 economy seat overview
Those of you who are thinking that the basic economy seats are in any way similar to what you’ll get in Hawaiian Airlines A330-200 first class need to get your head out of your a**. Unlike the seats up front, the ones in the back are narrow and tightly spaced. But they are tropical.
Although basic, these seats are a huge improvement over what you saw in my Hawaiian Airlines 767-300 economy review. They’ve come a long way since the days of the old seven-six.
The departure from San Diego
It was 8:27 AM when they got us pushed off the gate. That was 8 minutes early – which was surprising considering that it was nearly a full load this morning. There were a few empty seats around the cabin, but I’d estimate the load factor to be 80%.
In-flight entertainment
The highlight of the in-flight entertainment experience on these Hawaiian A330’s is the complementary high speed Starlink Internet access (which is active for the entire flight – from gate to gate).
Another nice thing about these A330’s is the fact that there are videos screens at every seat. You won’t even get that on their A321neo’s for cryin’ out loud (which is a more modern aircraft).
Note: earbuds are not complimentary, so you’ll either have to bring your own or purchase a set onboard.
Food and drinks
Hawaiian Airlines is still serving a FREE hot meal to all economy class passengers on flights between Hawaii and the mainland. And you know what? It’s actually pretty good.
They also offer a full menu of food for purchase items. In my opinion, unless what they’re serving for free sounds absolutely disgusting to you, skip the food for purchase menu.
One complementary tropical-themed alcoholic drink is available to all economy class passengers over the age of 21 as well. You’ll have to pay if you want another.
The lavatory
Every time I fly Hawaiian Airlines, part of me secretly hopes they’ve come to their senses and added floral wallpaper to the interior of their lavatories. It disappoints me to report that the economy lavatories here on the A330-200 are as basic as they’ve ever been.
Seat and cabin comfort
Not gonna lie: the A330-200 economy seats are just too hard IMHO. In comparison, I flew Hawaiian Airlines A321neo Extra Comfort on the way back to San Diego from this trip, and that seat was far more supportive. And soft. And comfortable.
The arrival into Honolulu
Despite what seemed like an unusually long flight for SAN-HNL (nearly 6 hours!), we actually started the descent into Honolulu about 10 minutes ahead of schedule. Maybe it was the uncomfortable seat that made it seem longer? I don’t know.
Touchdown on runway 8L happened at 11:28 AM. Now 12 minutes ahead of schedule!
The taxi over to our gate took 13 minutes, and it was 11:41 AM by the time the captain turned off the seatbelt sign. We lost one minute during the taxi, so we had to settle for an 11 minute early arrival. Oh well.
Hawaiian Airlines A330-200 economy pros and cons
Even though I found at the seat to be somewhat uncomfortable, I’d still choose the Hawaiian A330 over the A321neo for a flight between the US mainland and Hawaii. Mostly because I’m old, and I consider flying a narrowbody out to the islands to be a total sin.
Pros
- Complementary Starlink Internet access. And it’s fast too!
- Having a video screen at every seat is pretty nice.
- The free hot meal. It won’t exactly be healthy, and it’s probably gonna be a little sloppy, but it’s definitely worth trying.
Cons
- There’s something about the seat that I found to be extremely uncomfortable. Too rigid maybe?
- Although there are USB-A charging ports, there are not any 110 V electrical outlets.
- You should probably bring your own food if the sight (and smell) of a gooey / hot / greasy sandwich disgusts you.
By the way-first class does not have any screens in the seats, you are offered a screen and headphones. We brought screens to watch, so did not try Hawaiian’s.
San Diego to Honolulu Airbus 330. We had to check baggage so found out about the far walk to drop of luggage. We got there two and half hours early and had our boarding pass. It was a short line with a long long wait to check in the bags for some reason.
We got to fly first class thru saved points and several travel snags on Alaska which got changed to Hawaiian Airlines. We were excited! The seats turned out to be not comfy at all. Yes they were roomy, but the backs were hard with a thin back. I had to use a sweater I brought and a teeny pillow under my back the whole time. Economy was more comfortable when I flew in same plane different day.
Food was Terrible! We looked forward to having a first class meal-croissant served with yogurt, granola and fruit plate that I had to get because of an allergy to the other choice was not edible. Fruit was okay though. Yogurt was spoiled or something because it was so sour it was definitely off. The croissant was over microwaved (?). It was so hard I could not eat it.
I asked if I could buy something else, but was told no. The snack was a small dish of unsalted raw macadamia nuts and last snack was the same Honolulu cookie you had which I gobbled up mine and my husbands because his omelet was filling.
We were offered one drink and then no one came by again because of turbulence. Nothing we could do about that, of course.
I am bringing a sandwich from my hotel for on the way home. Hopefully I can go thru TSA with it.
I know I am complaining about getting to fly first class with a roomy seat, but the food and seat did not match the other first class and business class I have flown on other planes for work. Mahalo!
Thanks for sharing thoughts about your experience Candace. Yeah, Hawaiian Airlines has never been known for offering a stellar first class product. Some aircraft types are better than others however. Things got so much better when they introduced the 787-9, but it sounds like those aircraft will be moving over to Alaska Airlines (and the sub par A330 will remain as the ‘flagship’ Hawaiian experience).
Hope you got that sandwich through TSA!
This honestly looks like a really solid Economy product. And not only that, but it also has character, between the turquoise blue seats, tropical IFE interface, guava juice, the pre-landing cookie and the fact that they’re the only US airline serving free food on all mainland-Hawaii flights (I think Delta serves a meal on their Midwest/East Coast flights, but not on their West Coast ones). Here’s hoping Alaska doesn’t discontinue the Hawaiian brand!
Also, just curious, why do you dislike the A330’s 2-4-2 configuration? Yeah, those 4 middle seats can be underwhelming, but I’m a huge fan of having 2 seats by the windows.
I meant to say “overwhelming”. Lol…
That’s what I figured!
I’m pretty sure that part of me will die inside if Alaska kills the Hawaiian brand. That would be such a huge loss IMHO. It’s not the best economy class product, but it’s certainly unique.
I do like (and prefer) 2-4-2 if I am traveling with someone. It’s just slightly inconvenient as a solo traveler IMHO. 3-3-3 would provide more opportunities for having an empty seat next to me I think. At least it seems that way – but I haven’t done the math on it. Maybe I’m wrong. I don’t know lol.
Hi Scott, were you affected by that Cessna Citation crash? But anyways, great review as always, I would actually would like to try the world’s longest domestic flight(As I live in Boston) seeing that the economy class is bearable.
It was pretty far east of me thankfully. I didn’t even hear about it until later in the afternoon while I was browsing YouTube. Scary stuff!
Glad you enjoyed the review! BOS-HNL on Hawaiian would be a lot of fun I think. Not sure I could do it in economy though, as that seat was awfully hard.
Nice review as always…I have flown the A330 to HNL, during the time the fuel pipeline busted and we had to go to LAX for fuel…made for an interesting take-off on RWY 9…
I fly the ERJ out of SAN and love every time I see the A330 either take off or just parked when we’re in the penalty box waiting for our gate.
I’m sure it was inconvenient at the time, but on the plus side, you’re one of the very few people who have ever flown from San Diego to Los Angeles on a Hawaiian A330. 🙂
And I agree. Still, after all these years, that airplane is one of my favorites at SAN.
Actually, this doesn’t look too bad. And the complimentary drink at landing sounds very nice. Flying to Hawaii should be a special experience, even in economy. I know Southwest does this route as well, but I’m sure it’s not nearly as nice. Hopefully you’ll have a chance soon to fly in Hawaiian First for comparison.
It was pretty nice. And yes, a lot better than what Southwest Airlines is currently offering.
I actually have done first class in every aircraft in the Hawaiian fleet except for the 717:
A321neo First Class
A330-200 First Class (the old version)
A330-200 First Class (the new version)
787-9 First Class
A330-200 economy is nowhere near as good as first class (duh), but it is still fun!
Indeed you have! I’ll take a look at it. For some reason I thought the last time you had flown Hawaiian in first class was pre-Covid.
You were right about Porter, Scott! They are gone as of late June. No big loss though as Air Canada is still there and we’re getting KLM and Copa.
I have to say the food in Hawaiian economy looks as disgusting to me as ever. How do you compare this trip with your Southwest flight to Honolulu awhile back?
I heard the news about Porter about three hours after I published this review. On one hand, it feels good knowing that my Spidey sense is still sensing correctly. On the other hand, it’s never a good feeling knowing that we’ve lost an airline at SAN. I didn’t think it would happen this quickly actually.
I can’t fault you for thinking that the breakfast sandwich looked disgusting. That was my first impression as well. But it was good! You had to be there man. lol
Compared to Southwest Airlines, well, there is no comparison. Maybe it’ll be better once Southwest starts with the assigned seating and extra legroom option? Even then, there’s nothing quite like flying Hawaiian out to the islands.
Keep them coming, Scott. Always love your videos and reviews. Thanks!
CHRIS
Thanks Chris, I really appreciate the support. Lots more to come!