When I first started researching award flights to Hawaii, I was determined to book a first class flight with fully lie-flat seats. Many first class flights between the mainland United States and Hawaii have first class cabins with either recliner seats or angled lie-flat seats rather than fully flat beds. Some airlines clearly state when a flight has a flat bed but some do not. Fortunately in the last couple of years airlines are adding flat beds to more routes to Hawaii.

Here is a list of all airlines and routes that I found with fully lie-flat seats between the mainland and Hawaii. Please note that for some routes, not every flight will have a flat bed seat so it is a good idea to double check the seat map before you book an award ticket.

List of Airlines & Routes With Lie-Flat Seats to Hawaii

Hawaiian Airlines

Hawaiian Airlines offers lie flat seats on these domestic routes on its new Airbus A330 with a 2-2-2 seat configuration:

• Los Angeles, California (LAX) and Oahu – Honolulu, HI (HNL)
• San Diego, California (SAN) and Oahu – Honolulu, HI (HNL)
• Los Angeles, California (LAX) and Maui – Kahului, HI (OGG)
• San Francisco, California (SFO) and Oahu – Honolulu, HI (HNL)
• Las Vegas, Nevada (LAS) and Oahu – Honolulu, HI (HNL)
• San Francisco, California (SFO) and Maui – Kahului, HI (OGG)
• Seattle, Washington (SEA) and Oahu – Honolulu, HI (HNL)
• New York (JFK) and Oahu – Honolulu, HI (HNL) 130K
• Seattle, Washington (SEA) and Maui – Kahului, HI (OGG)
• Seattle, Washington (SEA) and Maui – Kahului, HI (OGG)
• Boston Logan (BOS) and Oahu – Honolulu, HI (HNL) – New route begins April 4, 2019

How to know if a Hawaiian Airlines flight has flat bed seats:  Super easy. Hawaiian Airlines makes it clear when flights have lie-flat seats both in the search results and when looking at the seat maps. They also have a page on their website which is regularly updated that lists the current routes that offer a A330 premium cabin.

How many miles to book? 

If using Hawaiian Airlines miles to book an award flight, a First Class Saver award is 40,000 miles and a First Class Flex award is 80,000 -130,000 for a one way flight.  I am only seeing 130,000 on the JFK and BOS flights.

The flights from California had the best availability for flex awards probably because they are shorter and less people want to splurge for first class. I looked at several dates and finding a first class saver award is nearly impossible for the JFK- HNL or BOS -HNL routes but finding an flex award was pretty easy. If you want to fly Hawaiian Airlines on the JFK- HNL or BOS -HNL routes, you will likely have to use 130,000 Hawaiian miles for a one way flight.

Delta First Class

Delta has a very comfortable flat bed seat on the routes below with a 1-2-1 seat configuration. For anyone traveling solo, it is the best first class cabin because they don’t have to sit next to anyone else.

1) Atlanta (ATL) – Honolulu (HNL) – Boeing 767 with a 1-2-1 seat configuration
2) Minneapolis/St Paul (MSP) – Honolulu (HNL) – Airbus A330-300 with a 1-2-1 configuration (See my Delta One A330 first class flight review on this route)
3) Los Angeles (LAX) – Honolulu (HNL) – This route has several flights a day but only one flight on a Boeing 767-300 has a flat bed
4) Salt Lake City (SLC) – Honolulu (HNL) – Boeing 767 with a 1-2-1 seat configuration
5) New York Kennedy (JFK) – Honolulu (HNL) – Seasonal service on a Boeing 767
6) Salt Lake City (SLC) –  Maui (OGG) – Seasonal service on a Boeing 767-300  (This route has lower priced award flights)

How to know if a Delta flight has lie-flat seats:  Delta makes it fairly easy to find flights with lie-flat seats.  When searching for flights on a particular route, look for the bed icon as an amenity in the search results.

How many miles to book? 

It is pretty easy to find Delta award flights with lie-flat seats to Hawaii but you might need a lot of miles. The number of mileage required for a one way flight varies and can range from 67,500 to as high 150,000 for a one way ticket!  Delta has a flexible search feature with a 5 week calendar which makes it easy to look for dates with lower priced awards on a route.

American First Class

1) Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) – Honolulu (HNL) – Boeing 777 on a 1-2-1 configuration
2) Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) – Maui Kahului (OGG) – Boeing 777 on a 1-2-1 configuration
3) Chicago O’Hare (ORD) – Honolulu (HNL) – Daily winter service starting December 19, 2018 on a Boeing 787-8 on a 1-2-1 configuration
4) Phoenix (PHX) – Honolulu (HNL) – This route sometime flies an Airbus A330-300 which has flat bed seats in a 1-2-1 configuration and sometimes an Boeing 757-200 which has recliner seats.

How to know if an AA flight has lie-flat seats:  It is much harder to know if AA has lie flat seats compared to Delta and Hawaiian. AA does not explicitly state whether a flight has a flat bed, but you can tell by looking at the online seat map and comparing it to the seat map on seatguru.com. For example, below is the seat map on aa.com:

There is no way to tell for sure that this flight has lie-flat seats from the seat map, but it is a good sign that there is a 1-2-1 seat configuration.   Some aircraft have different versions, in which case I look at all versions on seatguru.com and match up the seats based on the seat map on aa.com.

How many miles to book? 

Using AA miles, a one way first class is 40,000 if it is a MileSAAver award but these might be hard to find depending on your travel dates.  If there are no MileSAAver awards, you will either have to use 67,500 (AAnytime Level 1) or 90,000 (AAnytime Level 2) miles.  It is pretty easy to find which dates have awards using the calendar feature and it was pretty easy to find awards at 67,500 miles.

United

1) Newark (EWR) – Honolulu (HNL) – Boeing 767-400ER with a 2-1-2 seat configuration
2) Washington Dulles (IAD) – Honolulu (HNL) –  Boeing 767-300 with a 2-1-2 seat configuration
3) Chicago O’Hare (ORD) – Honolulu (HNL) –  Boeing 777-200 with a 2-4-2 seat configuration
4) Denver (DEN) – Honolulu (HNL) –  Boeing 777-200 with a 2-4-2 seat configuration
5) Houston (IAD) – Honolulu (HNL) –  Boeing 777-200 with a 2-4-2 seat configuration

6) San Francisco (SFO) – Honolulu (HNL) –  United offers several nonstop flights on this route but only some flights have lie-flat seats on Boeing 777-200.
7) Los Angeles (LAX)- Honolulu (HNL)  – United offers several nonstop flights on this route but only 1 flight a day has lie flat seats on a Boeing 777-200.

Other United lie-flat routes:
United seems to be adding more planes with lie-flat seats.  I don’t recall seeing all of these when I first started looking but I see a few more United flights to Hawaii that have switched to lie-flat seats according to their seat maps:

To Kauai Lihue (LIH) – some flights to Denver (DEN) (seasonal) on a Boeing 757-200 with a 2-2 seat configuration
To Maui (OGG) – Denver (DEN) on a Boeing 757-200 with a 2-2 seat configuration; Chicago O’Hare (ORD) seasonal service on a Boeing 777-200 with a 2-4-2 configuration

How to know if United flight has lie-flat seats:  United does not show whether a flight has lie-flat seats when searching for flights so you need to look at United’s online seat map and double check by comparing it to the seat map on seatguru.com.

When looking at the search results on united.com, click on “Seats” and you will see the seat map. The seats in first class on this route look like they are lie-flat:

A search on seatguru.com confirms this flight has flat bed seats:

Some aircraft have different versions, in which case I look at all versions on seatguru.com and match up the seats based on the seat map on united.com.  Note: Since United recently added flat beds on additional routes, seatguru.com might not be up to date on these routes.

How many miles to book?

If using United miles, a First Saver award is 40,000 miles (50,000 miles for flights between Hawaii and Chicago O’Hare, Denver, Houston Intercontinental, New York/Newark or Washington Dulles).  A First Everyday award (used to be called standard) is 90,000 miles for a one way flight (95,000 miles for flights between Hawaii and Chicago O’Hare, Denver, Houston Intercontinental, New York/Newark or Washington Dulles). Finding a First Saver Award on a route with lie-flat seats is nearly impossible so you will likely need to use 95,000 miles for a First Everyday award.

If you are interested in flying on a flat bed to Hawaii, start looking for flights on these airlines and routes but double check the airline’s seat map and seatguru.com (especially for flights on American). AA and United make it much harder to find lie flat seats compared to Delta and Hawaiian.  Unfortunately, Saver award availability will be hard to find. That means you might have to use more miles for a standard award.

(See related post: How to Earn United MileagePlus Miles Without Flying)

These are all the routes I found with flat beds to Hawaii from the mainland. Hopefully I didn’t miss any! Let me know if I missed any routes with lie-flat beds and I will include them.

Originally published on April 6, 2017 but updated to reflect current routes.