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United operates some flights on its San Francisco to Honolulu route with an internationally configured 777-200 with fully flat beds in first class but not business.
If you live in New York City (or are willing to connect there), that flight can be hooked up with an SFO-JFK P.S. service to get fully flat beds all the way to and from Hawaii. 
This three-cabin first option costs 50k each direction. United charges 40k each direction for its normal domestic first class product, a recliner with 7 more inches of leg room than coach.
This is a far better deal than 40k each way for a slightly bigger recliner in normal domestic first class.
50k United miles is the exact price of USA to Europe on a flat bed. The only European flights that will match the 10+ hours you can get on a bed to/from Hawaii would be to/from the west coast to Europe.
I also consider this a better deal than HNL-ORD-LGA for 37.5k American Airlines miles in first class on an angled lie flat for the Honolulu to Chicago leg.
How do you figure out if you’re getting a bed?
If any legs of an itinerary from the mainland to Hawaii are in three-cabin first class, the itinerary will price at 50k miles. If the itinerary is pricing at 40k miles, the whole thing is in recliners.
But just because the itinerary prices at 50k doesn’t mean the whole thing is in beds.
The beds between San Francisco and Honolulu are on 777-200 aircrafts. The aircraft is listed on the right side of the award.
But not all 777-200s have flat beds in first class. To determine if the one you’re eying does, click View Seats. The seat map should look like those above if the seats are beds. Recliner seats will show up as a square.
The San Francisco to JFK legs should be operated by a 757-200. Again click View Seats to double check whether you’re getting a bed.
Recap
You can get 10+ hours in a bed domestically to or from Hawaii if you route through JFK and San Francisco. That amount of bed time for 50k United miles isn’t mind-blowing, but doing it within the USA is a great option. Especially since ordinarily United charges 40k miles each way for its far-inferior, recliner-first-class product.
If you book these beds, be sure to drop me a mahalo in the comments. Also if you can find the pattern to which days SFO-HNL-SFO has the magic 777-200 with beds, let us know.
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looks like there are also HNL to Houston lie flat seats as well..
Hmmm…how can I work this into a last leg of an open jaw and only pay an extra 2500 miles…Would this work?
Can these flights be integrated into a JFK-Asia award that results in a stopover in Hawaii enroute? For only 20k more, wouldn’t that would be a better value?
Can this be used in combination with a “free oneway?” That would make this fantastic.
Just some notes on United 777s:
If a 3-class 777 has 3 rows of seats in First, it’s the old United First.
If a 3-class 777 has 2 rows of seats in First, it’s the new United First that’s in all of their 747-400s and 3-class 767-300s.
With some 777s still doing retrofits, there could be a switch the day of the flight, especially since more and more of them are going to 3 rows to 2 rows in First. I’d avoid booking a seat in row 3 just in case, otherwise you’ll be left without a seat and may be downgraded to business (which would be the new lie-flat business, but still).
This happened to me on a recent LHR-LAX flight, where up until 2 days before my flight, I was scheduled for old F before I suddenly had new F. Luckily, I was booked in row 1 so I didn’t lose my seat.
On the SFO-JFK and LAX-JFK flights, First is in the process of being taken out … if you find a 2-class 757 running those flights, those are likely the BusinessFirst seats (the ex-Continental style) which are pretty decent. It’d be a reason to stick with Business than First since you still get a flat-bed on the overnight flight.
[…] I’ve written before about how to get to Hawaii in a bed, and I am reprising the subject because I see amazing availability to Hawaii in international-style first class and in flat beds for as little as 40k miles. […]
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Quick question…we are booking a flight to Honolulu from Detroit…we have various options of where to stop to continue the flight…Chicago, Houston, Newark or Dulles…after calling United I was told that from Houston for example even Business Class has the lie flat seats even though on the website the business seats don’t show that configuration. I am trying to find people who have recently flown these flights that can confirm if Business is truly lie flat??? There is a big price difference between booking First and Business Class and if Business has lie flat I am fine with that option. Any help or direction would be appreciated 🙂
Look at the seat map of the flights you want online. There is a difference between “bed” and “seat” icons.