Hawaiian Airlines Reviews

I almost lost my job, I had to call from work, due to Hawaiian Airlines "Customer Service" hours. That was the first problem not being open on Saturday when I tried to make the ticket. Stress, and money charged to my card.

They kept transferring me to people who did not speak English well and I didn't understand them, so how do I know if they understood me? The bottom line, is Hawaiian Airlines would not take my miles for my trip, and said I should have known I was using an "outside" site, and should have called. Hawaiian Airlines was not open on Saturday to call and there was nothing on the Hawaiian Airlines site stating that I was leaving their site and going to "another" site for a car/hotel package. I want my credit card refunded and my purchase taken out of my miles like it is supposed to be.

I told the flight attendant that I saw her expression when my response to the lunch invitation was no, that I am trying to diet. People who have a problem with their weight or are obese need not go through such cruelty and made fun of. Even so, no one should have to suffer such cruelty. We are human and have feelings. Have you ever thought that there might be a health problem like I do, which cause me to be obese! Years ago I got into an automobile accident and lost my child in that accident. I have health problems and never been the same since. Even so, no one should make fun of a person with a weight problem or someone who might seem different or/and especially who has a handicap. I said, "You are getting enjoyment of a person's misery to make your misery feel better." There are people who get enjoyment by intimidating others to fuel their ego or just find it amusing to intimidate with such cruelty. I said, "Please don't be one of those people."

The stewardess apologized and I accepted, but when I got up to use the restroom, I was told to sit down and buckle my seat belt due to a turbulence rudely by another flight attendant. I was not notified by the attendant that I could get up to use the restroom and therefore I wet my pants. What made things worse, I happened to look towards the curtains on the right side of the airplane which was not drawn completely. Behind the curtain I saw another stewardess laughing and making a sign of a fat person with her arms and was getting so much enjoyment from what happened. I then saw the stewardess who apologized to me passing the undrawn end of the curtains making an angry, intimidating, disgusting look at me and quickly turned away since she saw that I caught her expression. I then knew she was not sorry, but was aggravated by my complaint!

When we landed she apologized, but due to what I experienced on the trip, I decided to withdraw accepting her apology and requested to speak to a supervisor. My heart was pounding and there was so much pain and pressure in my chest!

When we finally arrived in Honolulu at 4:00 am their time, we had about 4 hours’ sleep. We caught a small plane to the big island. The female flight attendant was either drunk or stoned. We tried to reschedule our return flight due to losing one day at the airline’s expense. They charged us $750 for 5 tickets to be rescheduled. Since we didn't have the money, we used vouchers they had given us. We had to use $1,500 in their vouchers that actually cost $750 just to be able to extend our stay due to the airline's delay. Then they told us that we couldn't get a flight out that day so we could go the following day. This cost us another day's vehicle rental and another day's rent at the condo. My husband took a day from his vacation to go to the Kona airport in person to arrange these matters. This also cost three of us lost wages for one day. But at least, we had return tickets with assigned seats.

On the day of departure, we had to get the vehicle returned by 7:30 am but the flight out of Kona was at 11:00 am. Instead of carrying around our baggage, we checked it at 7:30 am. No one told us that this would be a problem. When it came time to board, we were told that we really didn't have seats on the flight out of Kona. We sat and waited with baby crying while everyone else boarded the plane. My daughter was afraid that we would be once again stuck at the airport for hours like we were in Oakland. With baby in arms, she walked up to the airline employee at the gate and asked her if we were getting bumped. At that, the employee called security. I was fighting back tears due to frustration. Finally, they had to ask people to give up seats for us because they overbooked the flight. Once again, not our fault.

We boarded another plane in Honolulu and arrived in Oakland, CA at 9:15 pm. We got all the luggage except baby's car seat. Airline employee says we checked our luggage illegally in Kona and if it gets lost, it's our fault and that we were advised of this when we checked our baggage. Wait a minute. We were not advised of anything. They took our luggage and that was it. No talking at all. We produce the claim ticket for the carseat. Female employee says when they find it, they will ship to us COD. By the time we got out of the airport, it was 11:00 pm. We'd been up since 5:00 am. Baby was tired and hungry. My daughter and granddaughters were crying. My husband told the employee that we would not pay COD charges and that they could ship it to us at their cost when they found it. He also told the employee that we would never fly Hawaiian Airlines again and we would advise everyone we talked to not to use their airline. They had ruined our trip from beginning to end.

One year ago, my family and one guest traveled the airline from LAX into Honolulu, with a transfer into Lihue. (June 16, 2007). After arriving in Honolulu, we immediately checked in fir our flight for Lihue, and if memory serves, we were one of the first, if not the first, to check in for that flight, which would leave about 45 minutes from our check-in. The female agent who checked us in kindly offered upgrades into first class as the flight was "not very full." We thanked her, and accepted our upgraded seat assignments, got in line and sat down to await our flight, excitedly awaiting the beginning of our summer vacation.

The time came to board the aircraft, and as we approached the ticket agent, we were asked to step aside, and given no reason for this embarrassing predicament, which after 9-11 seems highly suspicious to passers-by. Though we kept asking curiously to speak to someone, no one was available, and the now long line of people who were obviously boarding the flight kept filing through, boarding the aircraft. We had to wait until the plane was entirely boarded, before anyone would speak to us and then explained the following:

We should not have been offered the upgraded seats, as the plane had been overbooked, and the passengers who originally booked those first class seats had since arrived, and were of course given their seats back. We understood, and expected our original seats to be assigned back to us so we could board. We were told that they had been re-assigned to others who checked in after us, and could not be given back, (even though the first class tickets that were erroneously reassigned were given back to those customers). Apparently, we were told, this is a regular occurrence; that Hawaiian over-books to be sure all flights are full, not expecting everyone to show up; but this time everyone did and so we were offered $500 flight vouchers to make up for the "inconvenience", and food vouchers to use "ANYWHERE in the airport" while we waited the 2.5 hour lay-over.

Naturally, we were concerned about our luggage which had already boarded the aircraft, thus we were told next to check in with some baggage office who would instruct us what to do when we finally arrived in the Lihue airport. (A fact that seriously stressed us out, betting the luggage would be 'lost'). Given no choice, we accepted. What else were we to do? No managers were present at any time to discuss this with, even though we repeatedly asked to speak with one.

When we went to eat, there was understandably quite a long wait at the bar/diner, and we had to rush our order once we were finally seated to ensure making our newly assigned flight. Attempting to pay for our food, we were told they didn't accept food vouchers there, and again there was no manager to speak to. We decided to use the vouchers in a gift shop to buy some snacks, but alas,after having our chldren pick out their favorits snack items for the week, they were (incredibly) not accepted there, either, as the checker looked at us with a dumbfounded stare, and of course it was now time to board. This was getting further embarrassing by the hour.

One week later, during our pilgrimage home awaiting the return flight, again in the Honolulu airport awaiting our flight to LAX, we again had a layover , and decided to try to use our food vouchers once more, knowing we would loose them eventually if not redeeming now. After arriving at our specific terminal, which seemed to be a 20 minute walk from the check in point, we attempted to use the vouchers at a food cart, which was almost closing for the evening. We were told they didn't accept them!, but if we could walk the 20 minute trip back to check in we would find a manager in which to discuss this with, who "may" validate them after hearing our story. We decided to attempt once more to use the vouchers, only to be treated quite roudely as were told with great defiance, "these expired one week ago, don't you read?"

Knowing that we had the 20 minute walk back to the terminal, we again headed back, now completely exhausted with this airline and determining that after we used the flight vouchers next year, we would never use this airline again. Did I fail to mention that upon arriving back at our terminal the food cart was now closed, so even if we wantd to pay in cash, we had no food options?

Today, I was told that the airline vouchers expired 2 weeks ago, a fact to which I am embarrassed to admit after everything else, I didn't realize. We travel almost yearly to Hawaii, so if we were told to use within one year, I would not have registered it, (specially after all else had transpired)assuming I would of course use it in that time frame. Not only had it expired, they were good for $100.00 each, not the $500.00 vouchers we were told we would each be given. As there were 5 of us traveling that day, she may have meant to say she would be issuing us a TOTAL of $500 in vouchers, but she clearly represented the vouchers as being given at $500 a piece, and not $100 each.

I am so frustrated by last year, and now this present predicament. Having been treated so rudely last year, and not having had the opportunity to use ANY vouchers from that experience makes me incredibly more-so frustrated, and I am appealing to you for some justice.

Please re-read my story and contact me with any comments you may have. I am curious what your response will be. PS I still have the baggage claim letter/holding pass given to me after the original bump off from the Honolulu flight into Lihue--which documents the bump-off which predicated the need for the special baggage claim letter. Alsotill have the ridiculous vouchers.

Another closing thought I want to add is this: in light of all that happened, how does the airline justify that we paid the same price for our tickets as did others who were not inconvenienced, and whom also checked in for their flights after us? We paid cash for our lunch that first day awaiting the 3rd flight option, ($60), and loss of vacation time estimated to be about 3-4 hours. On the return flight, our children were not given dinner, due to the comical sequence of events around the food vouchers, and settled for peanuts and juice during the flight into LAX.

Well, they boarded us on something, but it was a larger Jet, in a different gate, than the jet from Maui. We boarded and flew out between 11 and 11:15PM. Needless to say, we lost one whole day and night in Honolulu. We were up for 25 hours without sleep. Today, vouchers in the amount of $400.00 each showed up in the mail. I'm not happy with that small concession. Is there anything else I can do? Hawaiian should have brought another Jet in right away instead of lying to us and keeping us there for 12-1/2 hours before departure!!

Lost one whole day and night in the Resort that was already paid for. We were up for 25 hours without any sleep.

So I wrote to Peggie at Hawaiian's Consumer Affairs Office, and she double talked about how those seats go so fast. Well, if they really did, why weren't some seats occupied on those flights? Anyone savvy enough to know to go online 331 days before their planned trip would definitely get seats at the same time, especially if the seat selector page comes up automatically in Hawaiian Air! So....do you think travel agents that are tied into the airlines machines grabbed up those seats for THEIR customers? I am so furious with Hawaiian that I am transferring all my miles for 2 times the amount of Hilton Honors Points!

I went to Alaska Air and booked my flight for 17,500 miles with absolutely no problems. They even give you 3 days to change your mind with NO penalties at all! I also booked my flight from Kona to Honolulu on Aloha Airlines for $49!

What was not stated is that we always purchase insurance on line. Since we were not able to make our reservation online, and we needed assistance by phone, it voided the insurance. That was not explained to us. I do have a copy of the online reservation that I tried to make with proof of insurance, and all they stated is that that is voided because you made the reservation by phone.. My husband spent 2 hours talking to customer service. We are "preferred customers"; what a joke. Hawaii Air would not give us a phone number to call, but faxed it to consumer affairs and were told they will get back to us. It has been 3 days and yet have not received a call. We own a condo in Kona and fly there frequently. We will no longer fly Hawaii Air, and I would not recommend them to anyone.

Therefore, I contacted Hawaiian Airlines on 1/03/08 to learn how this was to proceed. In that conversation I was told I would be charged a fee against my origianl $1,200 tickets that they had since last year. That fee could be between $125.00 - $175.00 per person. As stupid as this may be, I understand it and I was willing to pay it to utilize my $1,200.00. On 1/9/08 I called to order the tickets. At this time, I was was rudely informed that the fee was $175.00 per person per way bringing us to add $750.00 in change fee orders due to a death in my family. During this call and the call with theri Supervisor Peter (Badge PB) no one even told me that I could have this fee waived because of the death. I had to get so irrate that I pulled the Consumer Advocate number from him and place a call and complaint. The CAO-Manager is just as useless as they send you a goofy condolence message and then requested us to send the Death Certificate in order for them to review if they will waive the cost. Here is the point I am talking about waiving only $350.00 with this multi-million dollar company. I am willing to pay a change fee but $700.00 is a crime! They already have my money made a profit and cost them nothing because that flight was filled last year. But they have a chance to utilize their position and drag out more money from the common man it is disgraceful! My family has relocated and I need to have reprinted a death certificate and all has to be done and processed in three days. They know I can't and I just won't. I'd rather lose this money then pay this airline another dime. Going to Hawaii choose any other airline then Hawaiian.

Fyi, the current instruction from station managers is to approximate a total bag count multiplied by 35 pounds. Transpac can curtains are not secured as the manufacturers standards and sometime tied off with strings.

Hawaiian Airlines employees are not screened by TSA before entering the sterile/black top area when entering the Hawaiian Airlines cargo area, admin area behind customer service, inflight lounges, and Elliot street parking lots. This may cause a serious security problem for passengers and other airport employees.

I was not looking for a refund. What I was hoping for is that I could get credit with Hawaiian Airlines as a gift certificate for this flight that I did not get. There was a documentation that I did call on the same day the order was made. The agent that I spoke with, did not complete any other information as to why I called, but it's on my copy of the print out. What I would like to have done is to have a higher supervisor or even someone higher that can take care of my concern. I believe, as a consumer, that I should receive what is fair and that I get what I paid for. In this case, I did not get a return flight on the date stipulated, Sept 4th, 2007.

As I went to their website today to check on my departure details etc, I noticed that if I booked the same itinerary and class of service the fare was about $120 LESS expensive.

It goes without saying that I was more than a bit irritated - given that I had made and paid for my reservations several months ago and here it is a week before the start of the travel to find the same flight to be about 25% less.

I contacted the company to discuss the situation and rememdy. I was told that it is not their policy to make refunds for lower fares and that the only option would be to reticket it, but there would be a $100/ticket fee to do so and the remainder would be a credit for future travel.

I can see this being the case if after making a commitment to them I needed to change my plans of date, time or class of travel - but in this case it was the exact same flight, date, time, seat.

I know the airline provided a type of remedy (to reticket the flight and leave me with a relatively worthless credit on their airline for future travel) but with that kind of remedy I will not want to travel with a company that penalizes customers so heavily for making reservations and committing to them early.

I have until the 21st to book the flight and that is subject to availability. When I asked to speak with a supervisor, I waited 15 mins on the phone. The supervisor never came but told the ticket rep that I'd have to pay the $500 or lose my ticket. i have paid a thousand dollars and received no services from Hawaiian airlines.

I feel blackmailed by Hawaiian Airlines. Either pay an additional $500 or be out the $968 I already paid for my tickets. I will never do business with them again.