It will soon be a year since Hawaiian Airlines made their massive move to the Amadeus reservation system. Despite the optimism for the future improvements associated with the well-liked industry-standard system, Hawaiian Airlines and its passengers continue to grapple with issues associated with the now not-so-recent upgrade. We had high hopes that by now, all of the massive problems the airline encountered in the upgrade would be behind us. But now we are less assured and can’t understand why, so long after the upgrade, Hawaiian remains so far behind other airlines flying to Hawaii in its customer-facing technologies.
This came to mind again yesterday when we encountered reservation issues ourselves and then reviewed what others had reported to us (below), as recently as this morning.
BOH editors received an email about an upcoming flight change. It was not a problem in and of itself, although the new flight time was now significantly earlier and no longer adequate to connect from another 10-hour flight. Going to both the Hawaiian app and website, we hoped to be able to select an alternate flight. It turns out that it wasn’t possible.
As a result, a lengthy call with the Hawaiian Airlines call center ensued. In the end, we ended up canceling the reservation and, after checking, quickly bought alternate tickets on Southwest while waiting for the Hawaiian agent to (hopefully) process the credit card refund. We received no confirmation of either the cancellation or the pending refund.
As an aside, the only other Hawaiian flight that would have worked came with an up-charge of $20. The SW tickets purchased, however, cost $20 each less than the prior tickets. So the difference was $40 per person.
The airline industry has moved to a functional, self-serve technology model.
We rather like that we can handle virtually everything online. As a result, we find that it is almost never necessary to call other Hawaii-centric airlines like Alaska, Delta, Southwest, and United, for example. Their systems can handle almost everything online without contacting customer service.
The aftermath of Hawaiian Airlines’ reservation system upgrade.
The transition from Sabre to Amadeus in April 2023, an industry-standard airline booking product, encountered substantial challenges, including a major technology breakdown. Unlike anything we’d seen or heard of previously, Hawaiian experienced an unexpected and complex technology meltdown during the upgrade, resulting in significant flight delays and disruptions to online bookings. Despite resolving most issues, the aftermath still continues to leave lingering problems even eight months later.
Numerous key features are to this day unavailable or pending resolution.
1. The ability to hold a reservation (for a fee) remains suspended. Their website says, “As of April 7, 2023, fare-hold reservations are temporarily unavailable as we upgrade our systems, which will allow us to provide an enhanced experience to our guests.” There is a link to more information, which leads to a 404 page not found error.
2. Reservation changes are not available online. The Hawaiian website says: “Please contact our Reservations Department. We will be implementing new, enhanced self-service flight changes on our website and app in the future.” That hasn’t been updated since the upgrade last April.
A recent comment today from Sasha said, “My big peeve is the inability of passengers to change flights without calling the airline and spending hours on hold. Please add this simple option.”
3. Cancellation of reservations is also not handled online. The website states, “Please call our Reservations Department. Cancellations cannot be done online.”
John A said about this: “And with this upgraded system, they absolutely 100% need the availability to cancel online or the app. The ridiculous amount of time spent and wasted on chat/text/calling is 2000. If they want to continue to compete with Southwest, which has an extremely polished and easy to use web/app experience, I’ll happily book there instead. Ease of use in 2023 is real.”
4. There is no “wallet” system where online credits can be stored and retried. Using prior travel credits online appears to not be implemented, requiring customers to contact the airline call center for assistance.
5. Hawaiian’s prior airfare calendar is gone. We switched to using Google Flights first in order to have a proper airfare calendar. Then navigate to the Hawaiian Airlines website.
Rose first alerted us when she said, “Have they done away with the fare calendar?” Then Brian S. commented about this “significant disappointment,” adding, “I almost always use the fare calendar to settle on my dates of travel, but now it has become tedious.”
6. The discontinuation of Companion Fare offers on the website, replaced by email-based discount codes, has also raised concerns, with some customers, including us, reporting never having received these previously promised offers.
Regular Lee expressed frustration, saying: “Companion Fare offers are no longer found on the website and will not be going forward. I did receive one of these emails, but the system wouldn’t let me use my companion fare discount even with the discount code from the email. Called 1-800 support no help. No one even answered the chat line. Filled out their complaint form and filed it online. I did get an answer in several days, but no help. I am really starting to wonder what the upper management is thinking. I assume they are not totally incompetent, but this is beyond puzzling!”
We look forward to hearing about your experiences! Mahalo.
My latest saga with HA Customer Service: Months ago when HA announced the first dates the 787 would begin service, I began regular checks of the website. On the day Hawaiian announced the first 787 flight from LAX – OGG I booked tickets to be on that first flight. Recently I went online to see how many seats were still available. Guess what? They have changed it back to the A330 without any announcement of a delay. I contact HA and was simply told that they do make changes to aircraft assignments. I understand, but when they made such a big deal about the first day and then to be silent about the change? Not a way to treat your Pualani Gold customers!