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bvckystxn · 6 years

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I Trust You - Bucky x Reader

Disclaimer: GIF isn’t mine, but Tumblr wasn’t working properly so i had to get it off google. All rights go to the creator.

A/N: This wasn’t a request, but an idea I’ve been playing around with in my head. It’s also my first piece of fanfiction in years so I hope it’s decent. Basically, the reader finds Bucky while the Avengers are fighting Ultron in Sokovia.

Word count: 2879

Warnings: one or two swear words.

The Tower was empty and quiet, which was unsurprising as the Avengers had gone off to Sokovia to battle Ultron. I had even begun to miss Steve and Tony’s constant bickering, which was odd as they had only left earlier that day.

I thought I’d be happy to have the Tower to myself, but with my sprained wrist there was only so much I could do. It was safe to say that I was already bored, I had started to walk down random hallways aimlessly.

Around a year ago, when Steve found out that his old friend Bucky Barnes was still alive, he was a victim, a tool for Hydra to use. But after the big clash between Hydra and SHIELD Steve told me Bucky had disappeared. It was just as if he had dropped off the face of the earth. I promised him I would help him look.

I remembered my promise as I walked past Steve’s room. It’ll give me something to do. I thought as I laid my hand on the cold frame of the steel door and slowly pushed it open.

Steve always kept his room neat and tidy, which marvelled me as mine was always in disarray. I was constantly scolded about this, mainly by Steve, but I was repeatedly running late so I threw items of clothing around in order to find one specific top. Strangely, no one thought this was a good excuse.

I stood in the doorway for a moment, debating whether or not to actually invade Steve’s privacy by using his computer.

Steve was not only old-fashioned, but also naïve when it came to technology. This made my life easier as now I wouldn’t have to sit behind his desk for an eternity, guessing at his password.

I would have felt more at ease if I had been in my own room, using my own computer. But Steve wanted for this private mission of his to be kept on the down-low, so his was the only computer currently tracking down James Buchanan Barnes.

After Natasha released all of SHIELD’s files on Hydra to the public Steve’s system had picked up on several people saying that they had spotted the Winter Soldier shopping for groceries.

Steve now ignored all of these as every single one he had acted upon in the past had turned out to be a cry for attention from the internet.

I ran several different algorithms, searching for mentions of Bucky in the news, facial recognition, cardholder names etc. As per usual, nothing came up. I leaned back in Steve’s chair and drummed my fingers on the wooden surface of his desk.

Out of boredom I moved the mouse over to the section that would scan the internet for any and all mentions of Bucky, and clicked it. All of this was basically white noise. One post said that the Winter Soldier was showing off his moves in a ski resort in Italy and another said he was working out in some gym in Florida.

I let out a large puff of air as I kept scrolling through all of the posts, each one more ludicrous than the last one had been. Bucky was obviously hiding, he would never be at a ski resort or sunbathing in the Caribbean. How daft were some people, honestly? Sunbathing you did shirtless and if this guy did not have a metal arm, how could he possibly have been Bucky Barnes?

As I was about to close the program a picture caught my eye. Hardly any of the other people’s posts featured images, and on the rare occasion when they did they were very poorly photoshopped.

I enlarged the picture which portrayed Bucky across the road from where the photo had been taken. There were cars blocking my view of most of his body and he was wearing a baseball cap, but he still looked like the Bucky I had seen in pictures and vaguely remembered from DC.

To make sure I pushed myself up and looked around Steve’s room. I spotted a picture frame sitting on a shelf with an old photo of him and Bucky in it. I picked it up and carried it over to the desk to compare the two. I squinted and tried looking at it from different angles, but in the end I decided that this might actually be something worth checking out.

The two images were still very different; in Steve’s picture his friend seemed happy and full of life, and in the other one he just appeared tired and there was some other type of sadness that his eyes betrayed. However, I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, I hadn’t seen anyone with that kind of look in their eyes before.

As I fished my phone out of the back pocket of my jeans I swiftly ran my eyes over the comment that went along with the image, which mentioned something about a location.

“Steve!” I breathed into my phone’s microphone after it had stopped ringing.

Steve’s voicemail started to sound in my ear. “Cap, are you kidding? The one time I need you?”

I hung up without leaving a message and quickly sent myself a link to the post before I shut down the computer.

I pushed the chair back from the desk and darted down the hallway, to my own room. I essentially flung myself to my knees and reached a hand under my bed.

Part of my training had been to always be prepared to run. I had taken that to heart and purchased a basic duffel bag, which was now filled with principle essentials for travel.

“FRIDAY?” I asked, addressing Tony’s bodiless assistant.

“What can I help you with, Miss Y/N?”

“I’m sending you a picture of a man in Bucharest, Romania. Can you use the security cameras in the city to track him and figure out where he’s staying?”

“Of course, Miss Y/N.” FRIDAY replied.

I made my way to the garage, got into one of the standard black cars and started to drive in the direction of the airport.

Bucky was Steve’s friend, I knew that. I didn’t know him. I had only seen him once, when Hydra attacked SHIELD in Washington. But the Avengers were fighting in Ultron in Sokovia and I hated missing out on action. On top of that, when Steve would return and find out that I had come across an actual solid lead for the first time and just let it go, he would have my head for that.

I got on the first flight to London and got a connecting flight from there to Bucharest. Everything was taking too long for my liking, but as I had not properly completed my training yet I was not able to fly one of the jets directly to Romania.

I checked into the hotel I had booked during my layover in London very early in the morning and just crashed on top of the bed. Sleep seized me in an in instant as I was incapable of sleeping on planes and thus exhausted.

The hotel hadn’t provided many options for breakfast at all and the coffee was a disgusting watery liquid. I don’t know why I had expected anything else, I had booked a cheap hotel very last minute, of course it was going to be crappy.

Nevertheless, I put up with it, I had had worse.

I downloaded the address FRIDAY had nailed Bucky’s location down to and headed into the streets of Bucharest.

As I neared a shabby-looking apartment block I walked past a beautifully huge fountain. It’s tall structure and gold detailing on the water-spewing lions seemed very out of place in this neighbourhood, but I ignored it and continued on walking.

Bucky Barnes was my mission, I had promised Steve I would help and that was exactly what I was doing.

The building had very poor security, which was unsurprising and allowed me to enter without anybody having to let me in. Strangely, the hallways did have a few cameras, not many, but apparently enough for FRIDAY to locate Bucky’s apartment number.

I cautiously started the walk up the staircase, due to the lack of windows this was no easy task. The only real light came from the skylight, which was incredibly filthy, so that was also obscured.

Bucky’s apartment was almost on the top floor and yet, with all of my training I did not want to appear even the least out of breath, so I gave myself a moment before heading down the corridor.

Every step I took brought me closer and closer to the man no one had been able to uncover for an entire year. If I was going to be honest, it made me feel special, like I wasn’t worthless for once. My lack of training caused me to be left out every so often and I secretly believed that that was the actual reason I wasn’t in Sokovia with the others, not my sprained wrist. It took a lot more for any of the others to be “grounded”.

Finally I reached Bucky’s door, but I didn’t knock on it. I didn’t know why. I just stood there, staring at it, thinking about everything that could possibly go wrong, which included this being just another dead end.

Oh, for fuck’s sake Y/N! I scolded myself and then raised my hand. I tentatively knocked on the door. When I didn’t receive a response I knocked again, a bit louder and surer this time.

Feet shuffled around on the other side of the door and then nothing, just silence and the distant sounds of traffic.

“Bucky?” I asked carefully, “Bucky Barnes?”

“Who are you?” a low voiced replied, slightly muffled by the door.

“My name is Y/N, I’m a friend of Steve’s.”

Silence.

“Captain America.” I clarified.

Silence.

A moment, that felt like an eternity, later I registered a clicking sound, which I presumed was him unlocking the door.

The doorway then slowly opened, creakingly, and revealed a tall man, with dark hair that reached his broad shoulders. The roots were greasy and it appeared as if it hadn’t seen a comb in days.

Bucky regarded me, caution radiating off him in waves, and I didn’t blame him. But I had come here for a reason. “Can I come in?”

The question hung in the air between us for a minute and then Bucky slowly nodded and opened the door completely, revealing a one-room apartment and windows that had been blocked out by newspapers.

I slipped past him and as I stood in the centre of the room I realised that there was also a tiny bathroom adjacent to it.

“How did you find me?” Bucky had closed the door, but was still standing next to it, as if were an escape route. Which I supposed it was.

“You didn’t make it easy,” I admitted, “but we have really advanced technology.”

Bucky looked at me with a blank expression, making me feel slightly uneasy.

“I come in peace.” I blurted out and silently cursed myself the second those ridiculous words left my lips.

The corner of Bucky’s mouth twitched upwards. The smallest hint of amusement and a giant relief for me.

“I’m sorry.” I muttered, ashamed and looked down at my shoes, which had all of a sudden become the most interesting thing in the room. They were simple white tennis shoes and they made me feel as if I was walking on clouds.

“Y/N was it?” I looked up, Bucky had moved from his post next to the door and was now walking towards the kitchen counter.

“Yeah.” I told him, rather sheepishly.

“Did Steve put you up to this? Is he waiting outside?” he questioned me, casting a worried look toward the front door.

“Um.. No, not exactly.” I replied hesitantly, wondering if saying that Steve wasn’t involved was a good idea.

“Is he here?” Bucky repeated his question.

“No.”

Bucky’s eyebrows furrowed together as he gave me a sceptical look. “Steve is not here.” I restated.

I couldn’t believe what happened next; it was as if Bucky let out a sigh of relief. He closed his eyes for a second and his shoulders sagged. His whole body just seemed to relax.

I took this as a sign that it was okay for me to loosen up a little bit too, and allowed myself to sink down into his small couch that had been pushed up against the kitchen island.

“I’m sorry, I don’t understand. You’re happy that Steve is not here?”

Bucky took a tentative breath as I tried to study his expression; there was still a hint of the relief he had just shown, but now it was mixed with worry and what I believed to be timidness.

“Yes.” he said after a while.

I widened my eyes at him, kindly urging him to explain. I had come all this way to be able to inform Steve I had finally found his missing friend and now that friend was telling me that he didn’t want to be found by specifically Steve.

“If Steve were here…” Bucky started and then stopped, looking down at the kitchen counter.

This time I didn’t urge him on, it had become clear to me that this was not an easy subject for him to talk about. So I just sat on his couch and waited, giving him some time to figure out whether or not he wanted to tell me. I started to think about how disappointed Steve would be when he returned from Sokovia.

I got so lost in my own whirlwind of thoughts that I barely noticed Bucky sitting down on the arm of his couch. He took a deep breath and started again: “If Steve were here I would have to be Sergeant Barnes, but now I can just be Bucky.”

I watched him as he looked down at his hands, absent mindedly running his flesh fingers along the metal plates. He looked up and directly at me. “Do you understand?” he asked.

“Not completely.”

My answer made a disappointed and sad shadow appear on his face, obscuring his features. I took a chance and reached across the couch with my hand, laying it on top of his as a sign of encouragement.

“But I want to.”

The shadow didn’t disappear entirely, but I did register a faint gleam in his eyes as he looked at me. I tried really hard to maintain a calm and welcoming expression on my face as he did so.

“Okay.” he said after a while, shifting his body ever so slightly towards mine.

“As you undoubtedly know, I lost all of my memories, but now I am very slowing recalling little things. The thing is, after seventy years of having your slate constantly wiped clean there are certain things that you lose for good. From our last encounter I have reason to believe that Steve figures that that’s not true. I remember him never wanting to give up, and no matter how many times he tells me that I’m not the Winter Soldier, I know I am. I know I will never be that Bucky again, the Bucky he grew up with, Sergeant Barnes. But he believes I can be and every time I prove him wrong I remember the disappointment on his face. After what Hydra did to me, I can never go back, it will always be a part of me. Don’t get me wrong, I want to remember, I even document every memory that comes back to me, but I just can’t face his disappointment again. At least, not yet.”

After Bucky had finished talking I didn’t know what to say, what the right words would be.

“That must have been very difficult for you to admit to me.” I told him after I had let it all sink in, “Thank you for trusting me and explaining.”

“Please don’t tell Steve.” Bucky said suddenly, grabbing hold of my hand, surprising me.

“That you don’t want to disappoint him?”

“No, please don’t tell him that you found me.”

I looked into Bucky’s eyes and for a split second they reminded me of a dog’s. They were big, pleading, full of genuine fear and they looked straight into mine.

I knew Steve would murder me if he ever found out, but Buck’s eyes made me feel so guilty and it was as if I could feel his fear seeping into me through them. I was aware that that wasn’t possible, but yet I agreed to keep it all a secret. I just felt so bad for him.

“I just have one question.” I said.

“Yes?”

“Why did you tell me everything?” I loved the fact that he told me, but I was so confused when it came to why as I was a complete stranger.

“I don’t know.” he admitted, confusion lacing his voice, “I guess I get this feeling that I can trust you.”

Tags: @ravishyourheart

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un-enfant-immature · 4 years

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Africa Roundup: Nigerian fintech gets $360M, mints unicorn, draws Chinese VC

November 2019 could mark when Nigeria (arguably) became Africa’s unofficial capital for fintech investment and digital finance startups.

The month saw $360 million invested in Nigerian focused payment ventures. That is equivalent to roughly one-third of all the startup VC raised for the entire continent in 2018, according to Partech stats.

A notable trend-within-the-trend is that more than half — or $170 million — of the funding to Nigerian fintech ventures in November came from Chinese investors. This marks a pivot in China’s engagement with Africa to tech. We’ll get to that.

Before the big Chinese backed rounds, one of Nigeria’s earliest fintech companies, Interswitch, confirmed its $1 billion valuation after Visa took a minority stake in the company. Interswitch would not disclose the amount to TechCrunch, but Sky News reporting pegged it at $200 million for 20%.

Founded in 2002 by Mitchell Elegbe, Interswitch pioneered the infrastructure to digitize Nigeria’s then predominantly paper-ledger and cash-based economy.

The company now provides much of the tech-wiring for Nigeria’s online banking system that serves Africa’s largest economy and population. Interswitch offers a number of personal and business finance products, including its Verve payment cards and Quickteller payment app.

The financial services firm has expanded its physical presence to Uganda, Gambia and Kenya . The Nigerian company also sells its products in 23 African countries and launched a partnership in August for Verve cardholders to make payments on Discover’s global network.

Visa and Interswitch touted the equity investment as a strategic collaboration between the two companies, without a lot of detail on what that will mean.

One point TechCrunch did lock down is Interswitch’s (long-awaited) and imminent IPO. A source close to the matter said the company will list on a major exchange by mid-2020.

For the near to medium-term, Interswitch could stand as Africa’s sole tech-unicorn, as e-commerce venture Jumia’s volatile share-price and declining market-cap — since an April IPO — have dropped the company’s valuation below $1 billion.

Nigeria’s Interswitch confirms $1B valuation after Visa investment

Circling back to China, November was the month that signaled Chinese actors are all in on African tech.

In two separate rounds, Chinese investors put $220 million into OPay and PalmPay — two fledgling startups with plans to scale in Nigeria and the broader continent.

PalmPay, a consumer oriented payments product, went live last month with a $40 million seed-round (one of the largest in Africa in 2019) led by Africa’s biggest mobile-phone seller — China’s Transsion.

The startup was upfront about its ambitions, stating its goals to become “Africa’s largest financial services platform,” in a company release.

To that end, PalmPay conveniently entered a strategic partnership with its lead investor. The startup’s payment app will come pre-installed on Transsion’s mobile device brands, such as Tecno, in Africa — for an estimated reach of 20 million phones.

PalmPay also launched in Ghana in November and its UK and Africa based CEO, Greg Reeve, confirmed plans to expand to additional African countries in 2020.

OPay’s $120 million Series B was announced several days after the PalmPay news and came only months after the mobile-based fintech venture raised $50 million.

Founded by Chinese owned consumer internet company Opera — and backed by 9 Chinese investors — OPay is the payment utility for a suite of Opera developed internet based commercial products in Nigeria. These include ride-hail apps ORide and OCar and food delivery service OFood.

With its latest Series A, OPay announced it would expand in Kenya, South Africa, and Ghana.

Though it wasn’t fintech, Chinese investors also backed a (reported) $30 million Series B for East African trucking logistics company Lori Systems in November.

With OPay, PalmPay, and Lori Systems, startups in Africa have raised a combined $240 million from 15 Chinese investors in a span of months.

There are a number of things to note and watch out for here, as TechCrunch reporting has illuminated (and will continue to do in follow-on coverage).

These moves mark a next chapter in China’s engagement in Africa and could raise some new issues. Hereto, the country’s interaction with Africa’s tech ecosystem has been relatively light compared to China’s deal-making on infrastructure and commodities.

There continues to be plenty of debate (and critique) of China’s role in Africa. This new digital-phase will certainly add a fresh component to all that. One thing to track will be data-privacy and national-security concerns that may emerge around Chinese actors investing heavily in African mobile consumer platforms.

We’ve seen lines (allegedly) blur on these matters between Chinese state and private-sector actors with companies such as Huawei.

As OPera and PalmPay expand, they may need to do some reassuring of African regulators as countries (such as Kenya) establish more formal consumer protection protocols for digital platforms.

One more thing to follow on OPay’s funding and planned expansion is the extent to which it puts Opera (and its entire suite of consumer internet products) in competition with multiple actors in Africa’s startup ecosystem. Opera’s Africa ventures could go head to head with Uber, Jumia, and M-Pesa — the mobile money-product that put Kenya out front on digital finance in Africa before Nigeria.

Opera’s Africa fintech startup OPay gains $120M from Chinese investors

Shifting back to American engagement in African tech, Twitter and Square CEO Jack Dorsey was on the continent in November. No sooner than he’d finished his first trip, Dorsey announced plans to move to Africa in 2020, for 3 to 6 months, saying on Twitter “Africa will define the future (especially the bitcoin one!).”

We still don’t know much about what this last trip — or his future foray — mean in terms of concrete partnerships, investment, or market moves in Africa from Dorsey and his companies.

He visited Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa and Ethiopia and met with leaders at Nigeria’s CcHub (Bosun Tijani), Ethiopia’s Ice Addis (Markos Lemming), and did some meetings with fintech founders in Lagos (Paga’s Tayo Oviosu).

I know most of the organizations and people Dorsey talked to pretty well and nothing has shaken out yet in terms of partnership or investment news from his recent trip.

On what could come out of Dorsey’s 2020 move to Africa, per his tweet and news highlighted in this roundup, a good bet would be it will have something to with fintech and Square.

More Africa-related stories @TechCrunch

African tech around the ‘net

#Miscellaneous

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touristguidebuzz · 7 years

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Review: Hawaiian Airlines (A330) First Class From New York to Honolulu

Hawaiian Airlines has been flying between its Honolulu (HNL) hub and New York’s JFK airport since 2012, and with flights between the two cities clocking in at about 11 hours, it’s unfortunate that the flag carrier of the Hawaiian Islands failed to have a more modern, lie-flat product up front, especially considering United offers lie-flat nonstop service from Newark (EWR) and typically from Washington, D.C. (IAD) and Delta offers lie-flat seats seasonally from JFK and other major hubs.

Thankfully, that’s all ancient history now that Hawaiian Airlines has given its Airbus A330s major upgrades to better establish itself as the best option for getting to Hawaii from the continental US. Several months ago, we got an an early look at the carrier’s retrofitted A330s, featuring its brand new, fully lie-flat First-Class product, which just began flying between HNL and JFK a few days ago. Yesterday, I had the chance to try it out for myself.

Booking

As soon as I learned that Hawaiian Airlines’ retrofitted A330s would be flying to JFK this month, I searched Google Flights and bought a one-way ticket to Honolulu for $1,153.28 using my Amex Platinum card — I ended up earning almost 5,800 Amex points since the card gives you a 5x bonus on airfare when tickets are booked directly with an airline or through Amex Travel.

If you want to use points to book this flight, Hawaiian charges a minimum of 40,000 HawaiianMiles for a one-way saver award in First Class, though availability for saver awards is extremely rare. American Express Membership Rewards and Starwood Preferred Guest are both transfer partners with Hawaiian if you don’t already collect HawaiianMiles. Since I don’t have a practical use for HawaiianMiles, I decided to credit this flight to JetBlue’s TrueBlue program. My ticket was booked in the ‘A’ fare class, meaning I earned 1 TrueBlue point for every 2 miles flown — a total of about 2,500 points.

Airport and Check-In

Hawaiian Airlines operates out of JFK’s Terminal 5, which is also home to JetBlue, Aer Lingus and TAP Portugal. The departures hall at T5 is overwhelmingly JetBlue-focused, and Hawaiian Airlines occupies only a few desks at the far end.

Considering the ridiculous security lapse that happened at JFK over the weekend, I was very curious to see how the TSA was handling things. Agents definitely seemed to be making an extra effort to contain passengers in line and keep a a closer eye on those passing through the terminal — they were not at all amused when I pulled out my camera and tried to snap a few pictures.

Since I’d arrived after the early morning rush, I was through security within 15 minutes and on my way to the gate, which was located far away from the security checkpoint at the opposite end of the terminal. There were a few food options throughout the concourse, but I knew that I had a large meal waiting for me on board, so I headed straight to the gate. I was already running late due to traffic on the way to JFK, but if I’d had more time before my flight, I would have stopped by the Airspace Lounge, which Amex Platinum cardholders have complimentary access to.

Cabin and Seats

Hawaiian’s retrofitted A330s now sport a first-class cabin with 18 lie-flat seats arranged in a 2-2-2 configuration. Each seat has 76 inches of pitch and is 21 inches wide.

Hawaiian Airlines added more Extra Comfort seats to the main cabin in the retrofit, so these planes now feature 68 of them, up from the original 40 on the carrier’s non-retrofitted A330s. Each Extra Comfort seat is 18 inches wide and features 36 inches of pitch. There are also 192 seats in regular economy arranged in a 2-4-2 layout, and each of them is 18 inches wide with 31 inches of pitch.

There are several rows of Extra Comfort seats on either side of the aircraft — not in the middle, as you can see in the photo below, since the airline found passengers were more open to paying for extra legroom seats if they had access to a window or aisle. That makes perfect sense to me.

Another interesting feature of this specific aircraft is the two rows of Extra Comfort seats located directly behind First Class. This mini-cabin is very private, especially if you’re seated on either side of the plane.

Up front, the first-class cabin is bright and airy, with each ‘pod’ of two seats giving off tropical vibes. As a whole, the cabin looks totally fresh, its color scheme a constant reminder that you’re going on vacation. It’s a unique design that makes the space more fun than the typically buttoned-down business-class cabin you’d find on most other carriers.

My seat, 3H, was located in the last row of the first-class cabin, adjacent to the aisle, which was great for this long flight. At each seat, decked out in very attractive dark leather, was a small pillow attached to the headrest, as well as a large pillow and pink blanket that added to the fun, vacation vibe of the cabin.

Each seat had a fixed ottoman that acted as a foot rest while it was in the upright position — it then became part of the bed when the seat was in lie-flat mode. As you can see below, there’s a small space between the ottoman and the pod of seats in front of it, which is supposed to be a pass-through so the person sitting at the window seat can sneak by without disturbing your sleep. I was skeptical of this at first, but actually found it to work well in practice — the extra bit of space also allowed flight attendants to serve the window passenger without having to lean over me.

While the seats are operated by a simple toggle switch and recline into a fully-flat bed, they aren’t the widest.

If you like to spread out, you might find yourself a bit squished, but I thought the bed was perfectly comfortable and was able to take an excellent nap after a few hours of watching movies and getting some work done.

Another great feature of these seats was the availability of power ports — you can plug into one of the two USB ports or the full AC power port. Having the ability to charge more than one device, especially on such a long flight, was a huge perk and something more airlines should emulate.

Since I was traveling alone, the privacy divider was important and I think Hawaiian Airlines did it right with these new seats, despite having the 2-2-2 arrangement. The divider was substantial enough to make the seat feel private, but also looked great and since it was light-colored frosted plastic, I didn’t have to worry about feeling like I was deliberately blocking out the person next to me — it’s basically the best of both worlds.

These particular seats don’t feature an in-seat IFE system (more on that later), so in-flight entertainment is provided via iPad Pros that were distributed shortly after takeoff. The airline installed an interesting holder for the iPads, which consisted of a metal arm that pops out of the seat and has an indentation designed for the tablets to fit and stay (mostly) secure. I didn’t have too much trouble with this setup, but if you tend to move around a lot and don’t want to adjust the iPads, you’re going to have a problem.

The first-class cabin had one lavatory and featured some additional toiletries, but other than that, it was a standard, small airplane restroom.

Food and Beverage

A few minutes after boarding, the extremely friendly flight attendants offered me a pre-departure beverage — a choice of pineapple juice, Prosecco or a Mai Tai. The passenger next to me had a very healthy-looking açai bowl that made me hesitate when ordering a cocktail at 9:30am, but I just couldn’t pass up the chance to get into the Island spirit with a Mai Tai. I don’t regret my decision one bit either.

Shortly after takeoff, the flight attendants distributed small water bottles as well as the menus for our flight. They came around again a few minutes later to distribute the iPads, allowing me to get set up with my entertainment before having lunch.

After handing out hot towels, the FAs asked for my choice of beverage — there were several beers, wines and cocktails, including the excellent Mai Tai that I had before. I settled on a Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand, which appeared moments later with a dish of salted macadamia nuts. Both were delicious.

Next, I got to choose between two appetizer salads and two main course dishes. For the appetizer, there was either a crab meat salad or a burrata and tomato salad. Being a total cheese head, I went for the Caprese salad and it didn’t disappoint. Another thing that impressed me was that the butter was served at room temperature instead of as the freezing cold brick you’d end up with on other airlines.

For the main course, there was a choice of a tofu noodle bowl with vegetables or chicken with caper sauce and roasted vegetables. I chose the chicken and once again, it was delicious.

Pineapple upside down cake was served for dessert. I was so impressed by the first two courses that dessert ended up being my least favorite course — then again, I’m really not a dessert person anyway so I may be biased. Either way, I had no trouble eating the entire piece.

Shortly before landing, I was served chicken with sticky rice and chicken with rice noodles, scallions and broth. The sticky rice was phenomenal, but the soup was a bit bland.

Amenities

When I boarded the plane, I wasn’t offered an amenity kit and didn’t notice any in the overhead bins either. According to a press release from Hawaiian Airlines I’d received, passengers were supposed to receive newly-upgraded amenity kits on this JFK-HNL flight. I’ve since reached out to the carrier for clarification.

Another important thing to note is that this aircraft is not equipped with Wi-Fi (at this point). To some, that’s a huge drawback, but for those looking to totally unplug and relax, this could a great thing. But if you want to stay connected at all during the 11-hour flight, don’t plan on it if you’re on this plane.

In-Flight Entertainment

As I mentioned above, Hawaiian Airlines supplies entertainment to the first-class cabin via iPad Pros that are pre-loaded with content — if you’re seated in coach, though, you’ll still have a seat-back IFE monitor in front of you. The iPads in first class come in a smart-looking leather case, which you can see in the photo below.

Inside the case, there’s also a power cable so you can plug into the USB port that’s part of the seat, as well as a microfiber cloth for cleaning the screen. The airline offered over-the-ear headphones but I brought my own to use instead.

If you don’t want to hold the iPad in your lap or on the tray table, a metal arm folds out from the seat and is designed to hold the tablet in place. I already mentioned this, but the design makes it difficult to move from your seat while keeping the iPad in place, which could get annoying if you — or worse, your neighbor — moves around a lot during the flight.

As for the entertainment itself, the selection was decent. I had no trouble picking out two movies to watch, but if you’re planning on staying awake the entire time, you might tire of these options. In addition to movies, there are a number of TV shows, music and games to keep you busy.

The interface was simple, intuitive and featured sharp graphics thanks to the iPad Pro. However, some features that you’re likely used to seeing from other business-class products, such as the Airshow or point-of-view cameras, are lacking (though technically, the airshow is shown on screens mounted to the front wall of the cabin).

Overall Impression

Hawaiian Airlines’ new first-class product is a supremely comfortable way to travel between New York and Hawaii. The seats are brand new and comfortable, the cabin is fresh and fun and the food is excellent. Combine all of that with extremely attentive and friendly crew members and it becomes an experience that’s unique and hard to beat these days.

Does anyone have a flight booked in Hawaiian Airlines’ new first-class cabin? What are you looking forward to the most?

All photos by the author.

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