Beat of Hawaii and Beyond: Travel Deals, Tips, Events, Culture

At first I was excited to share with our Canadian visitors the “half-price” offer to Hawaii on Westjet. I’ve received numerous requests for Canadian deals, and unfortunately they have been virtually non-existent.

On first glance this sale seemed good though not great. The prices are listed without taxes and surcharges of nearly CAD 100 each way. Unfortunately, that took the steam out of my sails and got me thinking about how this relates to a much bigger picture.

Airlines and customer dissatisfaction.

The greater problem I see in this offer is that because it isn’t a deal, it sets false expectations for Westjet’s customers. While this situation is Westjet specific, it relates to an industry-wide problem. The issue is that customers have become increasingly dissatisfied with airlines. That is true even without regard to ticket prices.

In any event, here’s what the Westjet deals portends:

Details:

• Monday through Wednesday travel
• Ticket by July 23 for travel September 3 through October 31
• One-ways permitted
• Surcharges/taxes extra (add approx. CAD 200 round-trip)
• Good availability to Honolulu, very limited to Kahului

To Honolulu, Oahu (RT)

• Calgary CAD 460
• Edmonton CAD 510
• Ottawa or Montreal CAD 638
• Toronto CAD 610
• Vancouver CAD 388

To Kahalui, Maui (RT)

• Calgary CAD 518
• Edmonton CAD 538
• London CAD 638
• Ottawa or Montreal CAD 670
• Vancouver (unable to find sale availability)

With the addition of their separately priced fuel surcharge, the Westjet deal is in fact no better than the American Airline offer (although the routing is more convenient). Lastly, I find the Westjet website to be among the most difficult to navigate airline sites I’ve encountered.

I promise to keep a lookout for something better, both in terms of price and honesty.

Geo-targeted advertising on print-at-home boarding passes has started. Why didn’t I think of this first?

A new company recently funded with $20 Million, has signed deals with multiple airlines for ads that will be specific to where we are flying to.

According to Venture Beat, Sojern’s ads started appearing today on Delta. The other airlines that have signed thus far include:

• Continental
• Northwest
• United
• US Airways

Here’s Sojern’s demo. According to their video, the airlines want to make each trip more enjoyable for us with these ads. That really touched me.

I think if the ads are being printed on my paper and using my ink, I should have a choice of whether or not I want them. What’s your feeling?

This doesn’t duplicate the great deals we saw recently, but it’s a fair deal (from LGA or JFK), is easy to find, and available for travel starting August 13 through September 30.

• Airlines: Northwest and United
• Advance purchase: 30 days
• Tuesday or Wednesday departure
• Minimum stay: 3 days

I found good availability using Travelocity’s flexible date search.

The airline industry may lose as much as $6.1 billion this year, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA). I was thinking about the likely impact this has on Airbus and Boeing, and looked at each company’s recent comments thereon.

From my seat, it looks as though we’re going to be traveling on older planes for the foreseeable future.

Airlines are teetering on the verge of bankruptcy due to current and speculated future fuel costs. Given that, it isn’t likely that most of them will have access to the credit needed to acquire new and more fuel-efficient planes. Orders will likely be canceled or delayed.

Airbus.

The company indicated yesterday that as many as one-third of its airplane orders may be at risk due to the economic woes facing the airline industry. They have a record 3,663 plane backlog, worth an estimated $557 billion! Airbus is moving quickly to reduce costs and improve affordability. Last month they announced that they will begin assembling A320’s in Tianjin, China.

Boeing.

Boeing is, at least for the time being, taking a contrary and optimistic view. Their CEO, James McNerney, indicated this weekend that he believes soaring oil prices will speed up orders for more fuel efficient airplanes.

How does one company put a positive spin on the situation and the other a doomsday prediction?

I think Boeing just doesn’t get it and continues to believe that their orders are not at risk. They are also hoping to help the airlines in buying their new planes, via Boeing’s financial services company.

Chinese Competition.

China is committed to building commercial aircraft by 2020. They will be built by Shanghai-based Commercial Aircraft Corp. of China.

Originally it was thought that their first planes would be in the 737/A320 replacement size. They recently announced, however, it would carry more than 150 passengers, which would be more of a 757/A310 replacement.

Conclusion.

I expect to see Airbus predictions of cancellations and postponements to start coming to fruition for them and for Boeing in the very near future.

For the time being, we may well be riding in older and less fuel-efficient fleets. In the long run, don’t be surprised to be flying in planes either wholly made or assembled in China.

1.  Hawaiian Airlines: On-Time?  In May, Hawaiian had an 89% on-time arrival rate.  The highest of 19 domestic airlines.

That is not meaningful however, and here’s why.  Hawaiian has the majority of its flights operating inter-island, and within approximately 100 miles from its hub in Honolulu.  Add to that the lack of weather issues, and it is easy to see that these statistics aren’t helpful.  They do not look separately at Hawaiian’s mainland operations, which likely operate at a much lower on-time arrival rate.

2. American and United Airlines: Late.

AA had the worst May arrival rate, with one third of its flights arriving late. United Airlines was next worst, with a 72% on-time arrival rate, followed by Continental at 75%.

3.  U.S. Airways: Discontent passengers.  US just announced that it will be removing its in-flight entertainment systems (initially) for mainland, Mexico and Carribean flights.  Hawaii flights will likely join.  Don’t look to find a plane-full of happy customers here.

4.  Northwest: Joins the 1st bag fee club today.  That leaves Delta and Continental as the only majors not charging.  Look for that to change soon.

Two days ago, we published an article on smarterTRAVEL’s (Expedia) deal gone bad.  At the time, we were unable to locate the deal offered.  It was unavailable after checking multiple websites including Hawaiian Airlines.

Today however, on rechecking the Hawaiian Airlines website, I see that the deal offered has either been released or restored, I’m not sure which.

Here’s the Seattle to Maui deal:

• Book by July 4 (tomorrow)
• Travel through August 15 (availability is now wide open)
• Sign up for Hawaiian Miles to obtain an included $10 discount
• Dates beyond August 15 are available, for just slightly more.

Apology:

I want to apolize to smarterTRAVEL, while assuring them that I did everything to validate both their offer and the information in our article before publishing it.