| Hawaiian Airlines |
| Hawaiian Airlines HawaiianMiles Hawaiian Airlines canceled upgrade behind my back reversing HawaiianMiles transaction Honolulu, Hawaii |
| 16th of Nov, 2010 by User273066 |
| In October 2010 I purchased two tickets, one for myself, another one for my fiancee. When I called HA asking them for 2 upgrades using my "Hawaiian Miles" I was told "there is only one upgrade for Hawaiian Miles available" so I upgraded my fiancees flight from Honolulu to Phoenix and printed out her reservation. However I was told "You can get another upgrade if you pay cash". It was clearly showing "First" instead of "Coach". However, there was no seat assignment. I called several times to inquire why the reservation was not showing a seat and I was told that there are always 4 seats that Hawaiian Airlines keeps without assigning them to a passenger but I was told that I would not have to worry - a First Class passenger would not get bumped for not having a seat assignment. When we arrived at the airport and checked in we were given two boarding passes for Coach and I showed what I had printed out. The answer was "What you printed out does not have any meaning, what matters is what we have in our system and it is not showing that she has a seat in First. I asked for a supervisor and she came back with a complete printout of their system records showing that a manager canceled the upgrade that had been given to her previously and returned the Miles to my Hawaiian Miles Account. This happened behind my back without my knowledge or approval. What I believe is that a manager needed the seat for himself for for one of his family members (probably Hawaiian Airlines employees don't travel in Coach). Another possibility is that they preferred to sell this seat for cash ($ 600.- one way) What I have learned from this experience is that Hawaiian Miles are worthless, this company treats you like you own some kind of toy money and even if your reservation is clearly showing the upgrade they can cancel it at any time without informing you. |
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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. |
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