We just had some experiences changing flights on two Hawaii-centric airlines. This came as your editors are traveling around the state again for Beat of Hawaii. Sometimes, “the best-laid plans of mice and men go awry,” to quote Robert Burns. And so it is for us. We were both planning to be in Honolulu later this month. But life got in the way, and a change in plans became necessary.
It’s neither pleasant nor easy to change travel plans. And sometimes, it isn’t even about the money, but rather about how you are treated in the process.
No airline change fees? No problem? Not always.
For the most part, airlines aren’t assessing change fees, per see. But is that true, or is it hype? It all depends. Here are our experiences, and we look forward to hearing about yours with these and other airlines.
Case #1: Changing flights on Hawaiian Airlines.
The original Hawaiian interisland tickets for two cost $108 roundtrip. Jeff scored these during an interisland fare sale. Great price. He also figured he’d be able to change them if circumstances required it. That part did not quite work out as planned.
Hawaiian wanted a $700 difference in fare to change dates.
We purchased the original tickets online. Rebooking a ticket can be done online or via a call to the Hawaiian Airlines call center. Jeff opted to call.
The first call center attendant was unable to complete the change request. For whatever reason, although the call center answered almost immediately, after 30 minutes, they said they could not complete the change, and Jeff was transferred to another department’s agent. The first agent had said, however, that there would be a fare difference of nearly $700 for the two tickets. A second call ensued that continued for almost another hour.
The screenshot below shows the fare difference charge (online) when exchanging two purchased one-way tickets. The cost per person per flight was $137, or $548 roundtrip for two. This was slightly less per person than via the call center:
The screenshot below was the cost of buying one new ticket for the very same flight shown above:
Here’s what Jeff did next.
The second agent reiterated that the fare difference they were required to collect was just under $350 per person, roundtrip, or nearly $700 in total. But remember that Jeff has been in the travel business for decades and arrived at this call well prepared. He was not, however, prepared to pay a $700 change fee on a $108 ticket.
Before the call, he checked online and found the flights he needed were available for purchase at $192 roundtrip for two passengers or $96 per person. While that was more than the prior flights he’d purchased, that was expected since the original dates were mid-week, while the new ones were weekend dates. That was reasonable.
When the second agent restated the $700 fare change, Jeff explained what he found on their website and that he would instead opt to return the $108 credit to his account and buy new tickets.
How it ended up with Hawaiian Airlines leaves questions.
Jeff purchased the two new tickets for $190, while Hawaiian is depositing the original money back into his account. He isn’t sure he’ll ever get to use his $108 based on how they do flight changes. Even including the loss of $108, the total cost for the new tickets was $298. That’s a far cry from the $700 the airline first proposed.
Exactly what’s going on?
The issue is that the fares available online are not applicable to changes but to new tickets only. What happened raised the question of whether this was or was not in essence, a change fee. You decide.
This practice appears to contradict the advertised concept of no change fees. The Hawaiian Airlines website says, “Book now, change if you need to… There are no change fees for guests who purchase tickets or redeem HawaiianMiles…Please note that a fare difference may apply if the rescheduled flight exceeds the value of the original ticket price.”
Case #2: Changing flights on Alaska Airlines.
This was a funny coincidence. Jeff planned to go to Portland in June and purchased expensive last-minute tickets for $1,600 roundtrip in economy. Ouch. Worse yet, he found out two days later (after the 24-hour free period for cancellation expired) that he no longer needed to go. He called Alaska (but could have done the same thing online).
Jeff canceled the ticket, and the $1,600 was returned to his Alaska wallet. Since then, he was able to buy two sets of tickets for two to the west coast. These were purchased during an online sale. Jeff used the wallet money from the Portland trip to pay for it all.
However, one caveat with Alaska is that the new tickets must be issued within one year of the original ticket purchase date.
Case #3: How ticket changes work on Southwest Airlines.
Southwest also lets you put the entire value of the ticket back into your account for use at any time in the future on any Southwest Airlines flight. We like that.
Starting July 28, 2022, Southwest also eliminated expiration dates on all flight credits from canceled or changed tickets. The only requirement is to cancel your itinerary at least 10 minutes before departure.
Southwest said, “Flight credits don’t expire’ aligns with the boldness of a philosophy to give our Customers definitive simplicity and ease in travel, just like Bags fly free, just like No change fees, just like Points don’t expire — they’re a first-in-our-industry combination of differentiators that only Southwest offers.”
Buyer beware on Basic Economy tickets.
The tickets we changed at both Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines were regular economy tickets. Had Jeff opted instead for the $40 per flight savings on Alaska Air, he would have ended up with non-changeable,
Please share your experiences when changing flights!
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Queenie says
Southwest is hands down the best airlines when it comes to flight credit and exchanges. You recieve 100% of your purchase cost if you change or cancel your flight to apply to a future travel. Whereas with Hawaiian you lose the value of your ticket when changing your itinerary. For example, our team’s travel for an upciloming trip got rescheduled for a later date. Although we purchased tickets outside of a airfare sale, when we rebooked our new flights the new route was lower. We saved over $50 per ticket, however Hawaiian absorbed the remaining value and said its would be a one-to-one exchange. Go figure. A’ole Aloha.
Jay says
Southwest has the best change fees and credits don’t expire the way it. Should be.
However if you buy the cheapest SWA ticket it will cost extra to change to a different flight!
Jim C says
Anyone who flies even semi-regularly knows that if you change a reservation, particularly close to the travel date, there is going to be a big UPcharge. That’s just the way it works.
I’ve experienced it numerous times. I don’t like it, but that’s just the deal. There are lots bigger fish to fry than that,
jr L says
I didnt read all of the paragraphs because this reminded me of my experience. I opted to just buy a new ticket and eat the cost of the original ticket. a nightmare, and this is before they made money hand over fist for checked baggage.
Dawn says
Regarding Hawaiian Airlines, when advertising their fares, in order to use your hard earned priority privilege of choosing your seat, you need to pay Extra to upgrade from the advertised Main Cabin Basic to Main Cabin That Is an Additional $60. fee on your fare! I find this to be a scam. And after paying this fee, there were times I still couldn’t chose my seat and had to call them several times regarding this. I am Very Disappointed and Frustrated with Hawaiian Airlines and wish they would correct this.
Mark says
You know that Hawaiian Air is not the only airline with routes into Hawaii, right?
TammyB says
Speaking for myself in the Bay Area, other airlines don’t work for us schedule wise and they often are more expensive.
HA is #1 for schedule and pricing compared to Alaska, United and American. SWA is now included as far as pricing, especially free bags and ease of changeability, but their flight times don’t always work best for us BUT I’d definitely choose them over Alaska, United and AA.
And I should add that my #1 is the ability to fly out of OAK and HA and SWA do (in addition to SFO).
Jeanie M says
A frequent flier and long time H.A. customer, I am also a victim of this deceitful practice. I had purchased a round trip ticket, but needed to cancel one direction. After noticing a charge on my Hawaiian credit card, I found that they charged me more to fly one way than the original round trip booking price. I canceled that ticket, purchased one online for 70% less, and am now hoping that they’ll change their policy before the credit expires. The end result will definitely affect my sense of loyalty toward them!
TammyB says
Based on what you pointed out, it would seem to be a very deceitful practice on HA’s part to mislead its customers into thinking that a rescheduled flight fare is what we see online.
BOH: “The issue is that the fares available online are not applicable to changes but to new tickets only
HA: website says, “Please note that a fare difference may apply if the rescheduled flight exceeds the value of the original ticket price.”
If they do not explicitly state this (I’m just going off of what was said here) then it seems like a classic bait and switch scheme which obviously isn’t good for the company’s customer service and maybe something the DOT needs to be made aware of.
Peter R says
I fly LAX to HNL round trip every year for the last ten years. In 2021 I did it twice flying first class both times. For the very first time in my life I changed one leg of my flight and Hawaiian Airlines only charged me for the difference in price which turned out to be less than a hundred dollars. After reading this article I will check Southwest Airlines and compare, but I have almost always been a HA passenger. Alaskan had a great WiFi feature on one of their planes that was a great feature. Mahalo
PH says
Peter That is exactly how it is supposed to be. I’m a retired travel agent & all these “new” rules are very surprising. Back when it was a change fee & the difference of the new fare and the old fare is what you owed + the change fee.
I’m shocked by HA policy! Yes, non-refundable tickets are still changeable but no refunds given, only credits good for 1 year.
Linda S says
Ever since Southwest started flying to Hawaii we stopped using Hawaiian airlines and their credit card. We go 2 or 3 times per year. Southwest is by far the consumer friendly airline. Changing flights is easy and if the new flight is less you get flight credit back that doesn’t expire anymore! No charge for 2 checked bags per person is reason enough to fly with them.
Jwi says
SWA is very customer friendly. Last min cancellations, free luggage, non-expiring credits, OK no first class, but can’t win then all.
LYNN A says
Aloha!
I had booked a LIH-LAX-LIH for the end of Aug. The fare was under $300 RT. As it turned out I had to reschedule the trip…I found some dates online later this year that would work, and the fare was only slightly more than $300. I put that trip on HOLD, and then called Hawaiian. The agent rescheduled the Aug trip for the dates that I had on HOLD, and paid the fare difference of about $57.00. The call took about 10 minutes. I anticipated that I would have to pay the fare difference, and I believe that by putting replacement flights on HOLD before I called made it easier to reschedule.
Mahalo!
Lynn
TammyB says
Was there a Hold fee?
Christine M says
We have flown with Alaska Air since Aloha Airlines went out of business. We used to own a home on the Big Island so a lot of back and forth. Never have had a problem!!!
So far they are Awesome! In all the years we have had only one delay due to ice on the wings in the mainland. I have their credit card and get amazing discounts. 1 bag free for every person In my party. The picture above is misleading, should have been a Hawaiian Airlines plane.
Patrick H says
I have a very similar experience with Hawaiian Airlines. I found out the hard way that “no change fees” means they just charge you in less transparent methods not explicitly stated on the website. Rebooking is limited to “rebooking” fares only (often much higher fares than the online flight search results). If you rebook to an itinerary that costs less (e.g. change from transpacific to interisland), you lose the fare difference. If you’re taking to an agent that talks slow, the low fare may increase back to a high fare while they’re talking. I tried to file a complaint with their customer service, but didn’t get anywhere. I then filed a BBB complaint, where they were more responsive, but still don’t seem to be getting anywhere. Beware!
Ana W says
We booked a flight to Kona with a 1-hour layover in Honolulu. Hawaiian Airlines then changed his flight schedule, creating a 3-hour layover. With interisland flights pretty much leaving every hour, we tried to book an earlier flight to Kona. After all, there were two other flights…each one with seats available. The fee to change? An extra $900 for two of us. Yup. That is even though HA (not us) changed the flight schedule. And, like many of you experienced HA‘s customer service was useless. The agent was not helpful, and the IT system was slow. Sticking with the “new” 3-hour layover, we are quite disappointed with Hawaiian Air.
Kim B. says
That’s awful!!! I loved Aloha Airlines for interisland flights; Hawaiian has been an 800-pound gorilla for too long and have forgotten what customer service is. Having Southwest should cause them to make changes or suffer the consequences.
TammyB says
I just learned that it’s a Federal law that if they change your flight significantly that you can cancel and get a refund. Reasonable airlines should also work with you (meaning no charging if there’s a higher fare difference in a new flight that you want to now take, even on a diff day to avoid the customer wanting a refund).
Jaime M says
This is the same thing that happened to me with Hawaiian Airlines. It would’ve cost me just as much to change my flights as to purchasing new tickets. So I forfeited my tickets and purchased new ones, due to a change in dates for a funeral that I needed to attend. Why do we have to pay more than what we paid for our tickets in the first place to make a change. Isn’t it supposed to be lesser than the usual cost.
Jon D says
Aloha-From the photo, one would get the implication that Alaska is the airline that charged you $700. Any reasoon why yuo didn’t show a Hawaiian plane?
thanks
Beat of Hawaii says
Hi Jon.
It was a discussion about Hawaiian, Alaska, and Southwest, the Hawaii centrists. The photo includes Alaska, Hawaiian, and United. We didn’t have and couldn’t find a photo with all three. And honestly we just try to keep the photos mixed and interesting. Thanks for the input and more than 100 comments.
Aloha.
Roy says
Anyone who does much in the way of flying gets the pleasure of hitting a wall now and than.
Aloha Guys
Mark G says
Not surprised with your Hawaiian Air experience.
This past Feb we flew HA First Class on 6 segs starting in Las Vegas and ending at JFK. We needed to change the first segment & the fare was $1,000 per person less but they refused to issue a credit. Subsequently we made a change to one of the inter Island segments and they charged us $59 per person additional. The agent refused to apply the fare reduction against the new charges. Upon returning I wrote to HA and they credited the $59 to my CC + a $100. voucher for future travel. Have yet to receive my full mileage credit on DL Skymiles from HA 6 months later. Needless to say they can keep their $100 vouchers as I will not fly with them again. They are not consumer friendly.
Wendy N says
Pre Covid I had booked to fly round trip Hilo to Brisbane, Australia. Cost of round trip was $1100. Finally able to rebook, the new fare was $2300. No change fee, as such, but I didn’t like having to pay more than double the original fare. If I want to do the same trip this Christmas the fare will be $3500! I won’t be going.
Leah R says
Wow Wendy, that’s a crazy price though it would be summer there which is understandable. We paid $1300 pp in April with Hawaiian roundtrip from San Jose, Ca to Sydney but then again, it was their wintertime. Still was a great trip. It was cheaper for us to fly from the West Coast to Sydney than it was to break up the reservation and fly just from HI to Australia. Hope you get there eventually at a reasonable cost.