What: 2 First Class tickets with a 15-month-old lap baby. We are making the most of the lap baby option in business/first class while we still can—time flies, and before we know it, she’ll be 2! For domestic flights in coach, we buy her her own seat.
Cost: 80,000 HawaiianMiles per person one-way. While 35,000 HawaiianMiles can get you a roundtrip coach ticket from Hawaii to the mainland, we redeemed 160,000 miles for this flight (11 hours with a toddler was totally worth it). To cover the cost, we converted American Express Membership Rewards points to HawaiianMiles.
Bottom line: The flight was stellar. We were nervous about flying nearly 11 hours straight with a 1.5-year-old (especially since the flight from HNL to Portland was challenging), but she did great. The lay-flat seats made a huge difference, and the flight crew was wonderful. Special thanks to Sarah, our purser, for being so sweet!
We flew on Hawaiian Airlines’ Airbus A330-200 (seat map via Seat Guru here). We chose seats H/J in row 1. The lavatory was in front of seats A/B, so we weren’t bothered by people getting up to use the restroom.
Before takeoff, we were offered complimentary mai tais, sparkling wine, or other beverages. I went with water because flights are super dehydrating!
In-Flight Dining
First course: a watermelon salad with feta and tomatoes. While the bread wasn’t great (too hard and not warm), the baby didn’t seem to mind—she ate most of it!
Cabin Experience
The cabin lights were dimmed for rest, creating a relaxing ambiance with constellation-like pinpoint lights. We fully reclined our seats to lay flat, which was a game changer. The baby (our sweaty little angel) took two naps during the flight. Hallelujah!
Throughout the flight, there were self-service snacks like potato chips and cookies. About an hour before landing, a second meal service included pastrami Reubens—not as good as Katz’s, but I ate the whole thing anyway!
