Review of Delta Air Lines flight Los Angeles → Honolulu in Domestic First

INTRODUCTION

The next part of the journey will bring us to Hawaii, three years ago, I already had the chance to organize a combined Alaska/Hawaii trip and we loved the cold/hot experience. We decided to do it again.

As we travelled with separate tickets, there was a long haul ticket, a ticket to Alaska and another to Hawaii, I went for a layover in LAX to allow some buffer in case of any misco or problems.

LAX Terminal 2 and 3

We took the hotel shuttle that dropped us off at T2. I was looking forward to taking off from T2 since it was entirely renewed but no. We checked in there but had to go to the old T3 to board.

This is the check in zone:

Who checks where:

TSA was a breeze and in no time we were at T3:

The major concern of the old T3 is that there is almost no views to the exterior. Very very few windows.

The FIDS:

Our flight was leaving at 08:10 and to be on the safe side since early morning can be crowded, we took the 05:00A shuttle. See it is 05:42, we had the shuttle, checked in, cleared TSA. If I had known, we could have slept a bit longer. But you never know.

Morning fuel:

On time flight:

This 757 goes to MSY:

Info screens for the pilots:

This A321 goes to ATL:

WestJet 738:

Fuselage shoot of a 752:

Theme Building:

E75:

The flight wasn't full, good for non rev:

the flight

Boarding started on time:

The Delta One cabin:

I wanted that flight as this is the only one from the West Coast to use a wide body. The flight takes around 05H30 making it almost a long haul flight. I was disappointed to see that the pillows and the blankets were standard domestic first and not long haul ones. Sad.

I took a coffee as  welcome drink:

DL A330:

The seat pitch:

Safety Card:

The headset is the long haul one:

We pushed back on time:

Flight information:

And off we go:

The massive winglet:

This way please:

Hot towel to start:

The tray table:

Aperitive drinks are offered, I took a Mai Tai:

The IFE selection is pretty large with lots of movies in French:

I was also very disappointed by the catering, since we got exactly the same breakfast as the day before from Fairbanks to Seattle. I believed that the flight from LAX would be considered as "outbound" vs the Fairbanks flight as "inbound" and have at least a different catering or even better, an extended offer due to the duration of the flight, but no.
Apart from the aperitive service, there wasn't any difference:

Cream cheese was available upon request but our cabin attendant forgot to serve the bagels to go with. Not a big deal, she noticed her mistake and came with it shortly after.

Then a tour to the lavatories:

I then took a two hours nap to finish my night:

When I woke up we were in the middle of the Pacific:

Snacks are handed out:

Together with an apple juice:

Later we started our descent:

This is Maui, we have been there the year before, a great island but not our favorite. At this point she was #2 (first one was Big Island). Here you can see the airport, OGG:

Winglet shoot:

This is the city of Lahaina:

We overflew Lanai:

And Molokai in distance:

Then comes Honolulu and the Oahu island. Lots of people think that Hawaii is the name of Honolulu's island but no. It is definitively Oahu. The island of Hawaii is also known as Big Island, the last island south of the archipelago. Hawaii is also the only island with two majors international airports: Kona and Hilo. Also the only one with active volcanoes.

Diamond Head:

And Waikiki:

HNL in distance:

U Turn for us:

Kalaeloa Airport, with a beautiful DC8-63CF pax / combiATI that belonged to ATI, the last airline that operated DC8 pax.

Almost there:

On the ground:

HA 717:

JAL 772:

I love those pictures of this beautiful bird:

Re JAL:

We parked next to another 767:

We deboarded the plane and the crew wished Aloha to Hawaii to everyone.

For us, HNL wasn't the last stop, we headed to the inter-islands terminal.

The fameous japanese garden:

AS with a special livery followed by ANA:

HNL control tower:

Air Asia A330:

and the Disney AS 738:

To conclude an hotel bonus and some more spotting.

We decided to overnight at the Marriott, being a Titanium member (at that time the highest status was Platinum, which I had) I knew the chances to get upgraded where high and we were assigned balcony rooms instead of the standard ones.

The bathroom:

And the beautiful balcony with pool view:

But the must is the lounge on the 18th with great views over LAX:

FedEx MD11:

UA 738:

B1900D:

TN A340-300, long gone:

A300-600R:

And Great Lakes again ready for boarding:

Sunset:

NZ to AKL:

Interjet from MEX: