Hawaiian Airlines’ reservation system and customer service problems have already dragged on for 18 months, leaving travelers frustrated by dysfunctional systems, long waits at foreign call centers, and unreliable online tools. Despite Alaska Airlines’ new oversight, promises of improvement remain unfulfilled, and passengers face a significant wait before seeing much-needed changes.
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I’ve been using the HA app for about 2 months. I used it to book a flight in Feb 2025. No issues to report. I open the app and the flight info pops right up. So far, so good. I hope I didn’t jinx myself.
I am experiencing their shotty customer service now and app. I had to cancel my flight last minute. I could no longer get a refund but could get a voucher. Hawaiian said they have no way of sending me an email confirmation that I do infact have a voucher. I have to trust the phone agent and make sure I hold on to the confirmation code associated with the canceled flight. To use the voucher I cannot book online or on the app, I will have to call to use it. This headache (among other obvious benefits) is why I usually book southwest, but unfortunately Hawaiian was the cheaper option this time.
Hawaiian’s commercials misleading state that you can cancel without penalty. But when they don’t honor the entire amount and only apply base fare against base fare and taxes and fees against taxes and fees, this will result in loss of credit and/or paying more out of pocket, i.e. rebooking is not free but results in addition charges and loss of credit. I think it’s deceptive, regardless of whether it’s the system. It’s their system and their customer service agents that is not honoring the no rebooking charge. Is a classic action the answer?
I don’t think Hawaiian’s leadership had a clue about what they were doing when they stepped into this. Alaska better jump in fast, or this could get even worse.
Hawaiian was always my go-to for Hawaii travel, but after I got caught up in last year’s mess, I’ve ended up switching to United. At least their systems work.
Brah this Peters fault…. Peter stay with Hawaiian for 20 years and couldn’t turn it around? What was he doing???! Someone check his free flights cause he must’ve been busy in the air instead of checking the ledger….
Makes you wonder….
HA was profitable before Covid. And since HA revenue is back at what Covid was but without the Japanese market being back due to the low yen exchange and inflation.
Every time I try to book a flight, something goes wrong. Whether it’s the website, the app, or customer service, it’s always a hassle. Please get this fixed sooner than 2026!
The Hawaiian call center is completely useless. I’ve called three times about the same issue, and I’m still waiting for a resolution. How does this keep happening?
Is it just me or is it absurd that they can’t even figure out how to apply flight credits properly and allow for banking of it. How does something so simple become so complicated?
My biggest frustration is the app—it never works when I need it. If Alaska can’t fix this soon, I’ll be flying with someone else by 2026.
I’ve never seen a major airline struggle this much with basic customer service. It’s like they’ve forgotten how to run an airline entirely. Alaska has its work cut out for it.
I don’t think the problem is not being able to figure it out. The problem is they literally don’t care about anyone or anything but their bottom line. From delayed flights, to completely canceled flights. My flight back to Hilo from Vegas last week was delayed 2 hours. Then another 45 minutes once we were already on the plane, waiting for “maintenance paperwork”. My girlfriend sat on the plane for her flight back to Vegas for an hour because “they didn’t have anyone to load the luggage onto the plane”. Once we got to Oahu we sat in the plane another 40 minutes because there was no one to drive the jet bridge. The easiest way to tell that they’re full of BS is the fact that the excuses are never the same. Bit I give them props for at least being creative. Bottom line, customer service isn’t something they care to fix. It never has been. Sad but true. Side note, 2 weeks ago to book a flight from Hilo to Maui was $300 One Way. The only thing Hawaiian about Hawaiian is their name.
Aloha,
So glad to see this article. I’ve been flying to Hawaii for 20 years , mostly United. Last year I bit on the Hawaiian MasterCard pitch. A year ago I booked a Hawaiian flight and had beyond bad online and customer service. I was shocked, and not in a good way, the difference an airline website etc makes. Frustrated and disappointed in Hawaiian. Consumers have a choice and lousy interface is a recipe for disaster, no wonder. I hope they get this turned around ASAP.
I’ve had no trouble in recent years with Hawaiian CS (short/wait, knowledgeable/efficient CS agent, etc) on my mainkand flights (mostly changing travel dates), altho the website/app remains rudimentary at best.
Oh the synergy, oops I mean irony. Now it must be obvious to even the most ardent merger cheerleaders that Alaska plans to do what is best for Alaska.
Just canceled reservations, trip no longer shows on website, but mobile apps still shows it for some reason.
I flew on Hawaiian during Thanksgiving with no issues, I tried to book a flight this past weekfrom Kona to the Mainland and when I enter my name it turns red because my name is not correct. How is that possible? And I called at least 10 times to customer service and they are pretty much useless. They say something is wrong with my credit card and I tried 5 cards and the website still doesn’t recognize my name. I am unable to book flights, I wrote an email to Customer Service and they said to try to book again! What kind of idiots work there? If I can’t get this resolved I am going to start using another airline.
Good luck getting someone that can even speak English. Wait 45 minutes for a representative then you can’t understand a word they’re saying and they can’t understand you either. It’s beyond frustrating.
A great article that summarizes all of our frustrations!! Thank you. One more huge problem with Hawaiian is the inability to use a flight credits across more than one reservation. Say I have a $500 credit. If my new reservation is only $300…Hawaiian keeps the $200 balance because their systems are so antiquated. 😡
Fact of the matter is that Peter absolutely failed at this integration, regardless of who was at the helm of IT. Further, someone in the Csuite from Hawaiian should’ve made phone calls to Amadeus executives to get their you-know-what’s to Oahu and fix their system!
Integrations are tough, but success is measured in prescriptive and exacting planning. Then more planning, then planning some more then using standard IT practices for change management and rollouts.
It’s complex, but I’ve worked on more complex. This was a failure of leadership.
Right on Bob!
Hawaiian Airlines has been losing customers and money all during and since Covid. They were headed for another bankruptcy, and Alaska bailed them out to fly another day. You are correct when you say it is a management problem. Keep the traditions and heritage, but completely clean house wherever there are glaring deficiencies.
Amadeus was there on site in the major locations. So…ya.
I’m glad you’re calling this out. As a regular HA traveler, I feel like no one is listening to us anymore. In fact not for a long time.
That’s nuts. We’re all stuck waiting until sometime in 2026? That’s just unacceptable. What are they even doing in the meantime?
Call centers in the Philippines are not the basis of the problem—it’s their lack of training, knowledge, systems, and the inability to fix simple issues in a reasonable period of time!
Honestly, it feels like Hawaiian Airlines had just given up a long time ago. Alaska should have taken control of this by now.
I had a similar experience with their call center again recently. Long wait times, no fast resolution. Very disappointing and makes me dread ever needing to go through it again!
The 2026 timeline feels a slap in the face to customers. How hard is it to prioritize a basic functioning reservation system?
The 2026 timeline feels a slap in the face to customers. How hard is it to prioritize a basic functioning reservation system?
What surprises me most is how long this has been dragging on. You’d think Alaska would want to fix this immediately after the merger. It’s already been a year and a half and you’re now saying it will go on for that long again?
The acquisition was only approved by the government in September.
It’s not just the reservation system—it’s the entire customer service experience that’s fallen apart. Alaska Airlines, are you even paying attention to this? You do so much better. Why can’t this be fixed?
I just canceled then rebooked a ticket last week, and the whole process took over an hour. How is this even acceptable in 2024?
I’ve flown Hawaiian for years, but the tech issues and call center delays are beyond frustrating. Alaska really needs to step up and fix this sooner than 2026.
This has been going on for way too long. How does Hawaiian Airlines expect loyal customers to stick around when they can’t even get the basics right?
I seriously don’t understand why Hawaiian Air (& SW?) advertise that flights can be changed or canceled without penalty anytime. It just adds to the chaos! I flew Hawaiian from Oakland, CA many times in the past without any issues. I also flew Hawaiian from & to OGG-HNL without any issues and hope my upcoming flight from & to OGG-LIH next week will be the same. However, I use my laptop to make the online reservation, print it with the confirmation # and don’t change my flights). However, the Mobile app hasn’t worked so far ….
Are you saying you get a penalty with SWA when you change or cancel? What penalty would that be?
I think that Hawaiian is in Catch-22. Their PSS systems are badly in need of “repair”, but that costs money. If, indeed, their PSS systems will merge (or better yet be replaced by) Alaska’s systems then why pump a bunch of money into the existing system that will be gone by 2026? In the meantime, Hawaiian’s customers suffer, and potentially so does their business. So they need to update those systems, which costs money, which they don’t want to spend… and around and around we go.
I have had OK experiences and horrible ones with both the app and the agents. Being hearing impaired, it is especially difficult to deal with the agents.
I have been at the airport unable to open the app to get my boarding pass.
Aloha BOH…
Yes, to the frustrations since the upgrade! One work around is I always check in at the desk and get paper tickets as a backup.
As Alaska and Hawaiian continue to merge do you have any information on when the FF programs will completely integrate? As a many year HAL Pualani Platinum frequent flier (I fly monthly PDX-LIH) I am looking forward to transferring into their elite tiers. That became especially clear when last month I flew PDX to Newark on Alaska without it.
Also I was excited to see that when I booked my PDX to LIH flight late January that there was finally a daytime direct flight choice but it was under Alaska and because the HAL reservation system said it was ‘another airline’… I was even unable to reserve a seat and also would have none of the other perks that come with Platinum. I declined to purchase it because of this and will instead do my usual leg stretch walk in HNL.
Mahalo’s for all of your good work gentlemen!
Hi Leonie.
Thank you. No we are not getting firm dates from them at this point. Our sense is sooner then later on the FF programs. But then who would have thought it might take years to fix the HA reservation system. We’ll keep you posted.
Aloha.
There used to be a premium to book a Hawaiian flight on the Alaska website but I noticed that has disappeared in the last day or two. Same fares can now be found on both sites. However, I’m not sure if I can book a flight on the Alaska site and use my Hawaiian Miles number. If I can, would I be able to select seats based on my status?
You can move HA miles to AS, and vice versa, on a 1:1 basis, now for free.
You need a AS mileage plan membership first.
Thanks BOH for your candid and spot on analysis of the HA reservation/online/high tech issues. I had to make a change in our upcoming inter island flight itinerary for a late January LIH-HNL flight. It was a ridiculously clunky and an outdated process requiring a call to the service center and unacceptable inefficient customer service. I remarked to the agent that it took longer to rebook than the entire flight from LIH to HNL. Alaska needs to address these issues immediately. Hawaiian Airlines legacy and history will only carry it so far. Customers will not remain loyal if the reservation system, app, and website are not vastly improved and overhauled. HA has fallen well behind other carriers in this important customer service area.
Not sure I agree with everything posted. Being a Pualani elite I never wait more than 5 minutes for an agent. If I am lucky the agent will speak English that I can understand.
Alaskas’ website has been ok I wouldn’t say great.
I have had AS call center waits of an hour more than once.
Unlike HA the AS rep is easy to understand and for the most part knows what’s going on.
However, they are really not up to speed with the integration of HA.
Some questions they just can’t answer as the integration is very dynamic.
LOL!!! No worries………..Hawaiian Airlines will fix it on “Hawaiian Time” LOL!!!
“Hawaiian Time” can also mean “Polynesian Paralysis”.
The word nightmare comes to mind when I think about the phone interactions. Maintaining any sense of aloha is readlly difficult. While not quite as bad, logging in and not finding my booked flight readily available is highly frustrating. Will definitelty see if booking thru Alaska helps. As a frequent traveler to Hawaii 2026 can’t come soon enough.
Having just flown Hawaiian from ITO to HNL yesterday, upon on-line check-in, the Hawaiian app showed me with two identical reservations! Talking to the Philippines res agent was an exercise in futility that ended up with the agent saying that she could not do anything and I should check-in early at ITO. There is dire need to do all of these reservation issues on-line and through the website.
HA keeps sending me ‘flags’ from their website to check on ‘something’. When I sign on, the flags (indicating I had 4 msgs/alerts pending), disappear. This has happened time and time again. I had no reservations/flights pending, nothing.
I’ve given up trying to use the website on my iPhone. I sign on to check a flight, there is no flight shown, zilch. I have slightly better luck using my PC. The persons on the call center in the PI mostly have heavy accents and speak in low voices, making it often hard to understand them, not to mention getting a resolution for your problem. This is pitiful, and doesn’t reflect well on customer service for a ‘modern’ airline.
Agree completely. Unfortunately the off shore call center in the Phillipines is a total joke of incompetence and inefficiency. Shut it down, and move it to Seattle!
Totally agree with both of you.
As we would say in the old days…”How same for the family”…aka HAL & their PI counterparts.