It’s never pleasant to have to change travel plans. How three Hawaii-centric airlines handle changes.
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56 thoughts on “$700 Fare Change On “No-Change-Fee” $100 Hawaii Airfare”
It’s never pleasant to have to change travel plans. How three Hawaii-centric airlines handle changes.
No change fees are are a bait and switch advertising! I tried to change a flight on the same day and the web had the same cost as the flights I originally purchased. I wanted to change but when trying to change you have to call, can’t do it online and they were charging me $35 more for an interisland flight to change. I had to cancel for a credit and rebook to avoid the fee. So I got a supervisor and explained to him calmly what was happening and he was able to change it with no fee!
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.
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!
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,
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.
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.
You know that Hawaiian Air is not the only airline with routes into Hawaii, right?
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).
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!
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.
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
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.