Hawaiian Airlines

The HA.com website is selling non-refundable fares as refundable. I discovered this when I bought a “refundable” OGG-HNL ticket. After as call to reservations and web support with no luck I went straight to the DOT, FTC and BBB. With in 15 hrs of filing the DOT complaint customer care resolved the situation. (Though at this time 7/9/10 the website is still broken on this issue.)

HawaiianMiles
= WorthlessMiles

My
wife, and I, have been using Hawaiian Airlines and a Hawaiian Airlines/Bank of
Hawaii credit card for the last four years to accumulate enough miles for two
round trip tickets to Europe on Hawaiian’s partner airline – Delta.

We
have accumulated more than 130,000 miles to date, which is more than enough
(110,000 miles) for two round-trip tickets from the Mainland to Europe.

On
July 28, 2011, I first called HawaiianMiles to make reservations for the
subject tickets. This was only 307 days before the early end of our travel date
range, and significantly after the 330-day period when airlines supposedly
release their seats for mileage programs.

We
tried to be flexible in our dates, departure sites, and arrival sites. In spite
of this, HawaiianMiles was unable to arrange travel to and from any of the
sites in the U.S. and Europe that we provided.

The
woman I spoke to promised to get back to me in 72 hours to inform us whether
any of our desired seats were released (she never called back). She also
suggested that we try every day to see if the situation had changed. I wasted
more than 22 minutes of my valuable time for nothing.

On
July 29, 2011, I again called HawaiianMiles. The result was the same. Nothing
available. I wasted another 24 minutes of my valuable time for nothing.

On
August 1, 2001, I again called HawaiianMiles. We tried 8 different departure
dates (May 30 – June 6, inclusive), 4 different Mainland departure sites
(Seattle, Minneapolis/St. Paul, New York, Boston), 3 different return dates (19,
20, and 21 days after departure to Europe), and 5 different Europe arrival
sites (Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Copenhagen, Brussels, Paris). After trying these
480 combinations, the “customer service” representative could only come up with
one option from Minneapolis/St. Paul to Frankfurt. He would have to request a
return flight from Frankfurt.

On
the afternoon of August 4, 2011, more than three days later, I received a call
from HawaiianMiles informing me that there were no seats available from
Frankfurt to Minneapolis/St. Paul for my wife and me. I wasted another 1 hour
and 27 minutes of my valuable time for nothing.

After
wasting a week, more than 2 hours on the telephone to HawaiianMiles, and not
having any luck with more than 480 travel possibilities, I gave up on
HawaiianMiles. It was apparent to me that they would not/could not help me and
I was forced to make alternative travel arrangements on another airline at an
out-of-pocket cost of $2,169.

I
filed a complaint with Hawaiian Airlines about their lousy customer service and
my inability to use my miles on August 4, 2011. I did not receive a response
until late on August 5, 2011.

On
August 5, 2011, Eddy Mundo, from the Hawaiian Airlines corporate office called
me to ask me what she could do to assist me. I stated that this offer was after
the fact and that I was forced to make alternative travel arrangements. I
expressed my great dissatisfaction with Hawaiian Airlines and HawaiianMiles.

She
stated that since the merger of Northwest and Delta that Hawaiian Airlines was
having problems with their partner and difficulties in fulfilling requests. No
kidding. She then stated that she would request the telephone conversations I
had with HawaiianMiles (for what reason, I do not know), review them, and get
back to me. She further asked me what I wanted Hawaiian Airlines to do for me
and my wife.

I
gave Eddy’s question some thought and came up with a proposed resolution to my
complaint. I submitted this proposal on August 6, 2011. On August 11, 2011, Hoyt
Zia, Senior VP, General Counsel & Corp. Sec., rejected my offer and
rejected any compromise. His response was flippant and offensive, and was
indicative of the standard Hawaiian Airlines response to customer complaints.

Eddy
never did get back to me. I had to call her on August 9, 2011 to determine the
status. She claimed she had still not gotten copies of the telephone calls. She
claimed she would get back to me by Friday, August 12, 2011. She then abruptly
hung up on me. Very rude. Very unprofessional.

When
I first filed my complaint with Hawaiian Airlines (August 4), I was promised
that they would get back to me within 3 business days (August 9). They did not.
When I followed up on this promised response, they then claimed that it would
be another 5- 7 business days for a response. A subsequent email stated 30
days. It was apparent that they were just trying to blow me off.

Don’t
fly on Hawaiian Airlines. Don’t join their HawaiianMiles program. Don’t use
their credit cards. There are other, better alternatives.