Where Hawaii Sits In Just Announced Southwest Expansion Plans

Go Big and Predatory: Southwest Hawaii And Costco

Southwest Hawaii. How’s it going now? “The other airlines can’t touch you… Predatory and opportunistic—which we like.” — SW and SWAPO

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160 thoughts on “Go Big and Predatory: Southwest Hawaii And Costco”

  1. And in my previous remark though I mentioned musubi from small stores, there is no substitute for the fresh stuff at the farmers markets. Go farmers markets!

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  2. I’ve been disappointed by Hawaiians fees and policies many times. On southwest you can change without a fee, if you cancel they bank your money, you can take your luggage free, and the seats are consistent and ok. So I take them if possible. Costco pays their people well, better than target or Walmart and probably mom and pops. There is room for advancement. They are good about returns and sell good quality stuff. These guys win. But when I go to the island I buy stuff to bhq and so on there; I use the smaller stores for all that other stuff so I don’t have to buy in bulk. Plus musubi.

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  3. I find it interesting that people believe that SWA will be keeping these ridiculously low fares after they quash the competition. That is not, nor has it ever been, the plan.

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    1. So would you rather have them charge more? And pay like someone mention $480 instead of $157 to fly between islands? Let’s not forget that Hawaiian is a publicly traded company whose responsibility is to its stock holders. Not me not you not the people of Hawaii but to themselves. This is not hawaiian airlines of 60 years ago with all the aloha etc. it’s a business whose goal is to pull every dime it can from its customers so the stock can go up 25 cents. Nothing more. Where was hawaiian whe aloha was going down the tubes? Don’t think they were saying let’s raise prices to help out aloha.

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  4. The price of gas changes almost daily in most places due to market forces far beyond the control of local station owners. But certainly more competition anywhere is typically better for consumers. And as long as the Costco / WalMart / Home Depot’s of the world stay in business–and stay in any given market–the loss of local “mom and pop” stores is usually not going to be much of a loss for consumers. Think about the huge difference in products that a store like Costco brings into any given market–and jobs as well. But if Walmart were to go bankrupt and fail–like, say, Sport Authority–which had bought up or driven most of the national and local sporting goods chains out of business–that can create big problems–as it did on big island

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  5. All I want to point out is …Hilo, Southwest has tripled the daily flight choices to one of the fastest growing areas on the Big Island. Thank You Southwest. Lets Go Hilo-Vegas!, P.S We used to fly the heck out of Go airlines when they had poorly maintained aircraft, fell asleep at the helm, and passed Hilo, but they were very nice and offered cheaper airfares Aloha Airlines had vacated.

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    1. I think is subject is more about community and how people might want to protect it than “free enterprise” and “socialism”

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  6. HAWAIIAN Airlines hasn’t cared about Hawaii in a long time. Ever since Aloha Airlines, they have forgotten Locals. Unless you are rich. H A L does not care. In 2019 I traveled Hilo to L A. 20 trips each flight was high priced, higher and higher in price. Never a deal. So Far I’ve flown SWA And each flight has been a Better Price, Friendly Service, and on time. The Bonus is my bags fly free. The draw back is HNL Airport has the crummy est food options. And The Costco theory’s is B S. There are more Walmarts And Target….. Mahalo Plenty

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  7. Hawaiian is just getting a taste of their own medicine. They forced out All the competition, remember? Remember Aloha, Mahalo, Royal Hawaiian, I forget all the others. Using Costco as a comparison is dumb. I have no sympathy for Hawaiian; Hawaii needs competition. Why don’t you ask people on Lanai how much they pay for gas? There’s only one gas station there; bet it’s way over $6/gal. , and that’s not Costco’s fault… it’s the fault of lack of competition.

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  8. Costco’s business model is to make a profit on membership sales. I believe goods are marked up a maximum of 14% to cover direct costs. So they make money from the membership annual fee, not on the products it sells.

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  9. Southwest is a cheesy, corner -cutting airline. I would much rather fly on Hawaiian, United or Alaska than Southwest.

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    1. Dave, with all due respect you couldn’t be more wrong. Southwest leadership and employees work hard to make sure safety comes first. They do Not cut corners on their aircraft and to say so is flat wrong I say this from personal experience working with the good people that work for Southest . FYI I am not and have never been a direct employee of the airline.

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      1. Southwest has no clue how to treat passengers on a 5 hour flight to and from the mainland. No food or snack packs to purchase and just one drink service. Alaska has the cart come by three times… pathetic service.. the flight attendants don’t bother with the customers.

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    2. You are welcome to your opinion but can I respectfully point out that you are also comparing apples to oranges. SWA has always been and promoted itself as a low cost but efficient airline. And you can’t go wrong with two Free checked bags. I’m not sure where the cost-cutting costs you mentioned would be?

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    3. Amen Dave

      And with SWA came the over crowding and lack of local respect from their passengers. Hawaii has never been worse off than it is now.

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    4. No way,,,SWA is friendly, we always make our connections from Kona/Honolulu to Denver. Alaskan landed several times as our connection was leaving, and the service was always rude when we were looking for another flight to complete our trip.

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    5. Do explain. Seems like a coach/economy product is just that economy. If you purchase that early bird you get a low boarding number and you get to choose the best seats. Hawaiian flys the airbus version of the 737. So I’m not sure I get the “cheesy cutting corners” comment. The flight is 25 min long. What does one need? Flying to the mainland, well they seem to provide as much as every one else. Guess we should be happy we have choices.

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