How would you have handled the situation if you were kicked off a flight for apparently no reason?
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84 thoughts on “Passenger Kicked Off Hawaiian Goes Viral + Our Experiences”
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How would you have handled the situation if you were kicked off a flight for apparently no reason?
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Mistakes happen. I’m like that old Army commercial; I make more mistakes by 9:00 am than most people make all day. Hawaiian made one. Everybody is short staffed. Everybody is doing the best they can. Freaking out rarely, if ever, helps. Based on what I read here, HA owned up to it and tried to make it right. Big shaka to the passenger for remaining calm. It seems everything is frustrating and stressful these days, and we all need to keep the big picture in mind. You’ll live longer.
I book flights early. With Hawaiian I keep checking as they always completely change the schedule by the time the flights go and normally put you in terrible seats and or at ludicrous times. Interisland is not a bad service but Hawaiian scheduling has always been bad and prepare for a long wait if you try to call them. Delta or American are both much better in that respect.
Given the horrible PR for Hawaiian Airlines (big mistake on their part), in addition to the refund, it seems that he has grounds to sue for “pain & suffering”, loss of reputation, time lost (2+ vacation days), and not to mention being grossly & unfairly humiliated by this airline’s “mistake” (incompetence). In addition to his refund(s), at the least, he should get an all-expense-paid trip to anywhere that this airline flies, for his entire immediate family: that travel voucher should therefore be at least $10G.
Stuff happens, we don’t know the full story and everyone experiences techno issues.
HA did make it right.
Thank you for your efforts in keeping us informed through the “Beat of Hawaii”! The more I read, see, hear about traveling nowadays, the happier I am that I’m not one of those persons with ants in their pants that has to be going somewhere all the time!!! Love where I live and never bored!!!!
Hi Angela.
Thanks. Interesting perspective.
Aloha.
Thanks BOH for the heads up about HA schedule changes. Several months ago we booked nonstop LIH-KOA in Nov.
I checked HA for a schedule change…sure enough our flight departure has changed. Have not received notification from HA.
Hi Mmajor.
Thanks for the heads up. That makes five traveling parties in the same boat.
Aloha.
The Airline provided an apology, the refund of $2000 and also provided round trip tickets for his daughter and himself. Seeing as he already had round trip tickets with Delta, those HA tickets can be applied to a future trip. His immediate family was not inconvenienced, so not entitled to compensation due to they were already enjoying themselves at their destination. Cynnia B
I’m always amazed that people will pay Hawaiian’s prices for the “feeling that their vacation had already begun”.
From our west coast departure city they have always been *considerably* more expensive than other carriers (eg Alaska). Perhaps it’s different from other departure cities.
I’m in my sixties and have traveled extensively, worldwide, for decades. I have no recollection of not being notified of a departure time change, ever. Could this be just another example of corporate mismanagement due to covid? We’ve certainly seen how slow companies have been to pivoting to these new realities.
We were in Maui when the pandemic closed everything down. No notice at all from Hawaiian Airlines that they were no longer flying passengers to the mainland. It took three months of inquiries to get our money/miles back for the four (4) unused return tickets. Being a cardholder for many years it was very disappointing customer service. Hawaiian Airlines you can do better.
If there was a seat available for him on the plane the flight crew should have worked with him and the reervation desk to let him stay on the flight with his agreement to buy another ticket. If his ticket was proved to be valid he would get a refund. This was particularly essential since his daughter was on the plane. If it delayed the flight a few minutes it won’t be the first time a flight was delayed.
Aloha Ken,
I agree. Seeing how he & his daughter already had a seat taken up on that flight, Hawaiian Airlines could have–and should have taken That route to get things corrected. I’ve sat on the plane (at the gate) multiple times (once for about 30 minutes).
Come On HA…I know you are better than this. (at least they used to be)
Lived in Hawaii nei for 36 years now, plenty changes so that many things are unrecognizable. Always flown Hawaiian with very few issues to speak of, mainly Interisland. But I am highly proactive (learned from military) and personally check & reconfirm regularly, scheduling is the weakness with all airlines. Remaining calm in any difficult situation is admittedly hard to do and often counter-intuitive with our independent natures. But it keeps you “alive” in the problem solving.Imagine if passenger Demarre had no family or friends to retrieve his baggage? More intl. challenges are on the way, the world is smaller. Clear thinking, problem solving, and a well- adjusted attitude is pono brah! Goin kokua you with all kine pilikia. Aloha nui loa
I wish Alaska Airlines would still do non-stop to Maui from Sacramento. I am stressed every time I fly HA, and only do so as a last resort.
In the last 4 flights I have taken since late 2019, I rec’d notifications that the flight schedule was changed. The obvious thing to do is check website for new schedule. I went to the website and was informed (in 2 of those situations) there was no record of my reservation (despite my HA CC being charged and confirming e-mail months before). Tried to reconcile with their “chat” option, but to no avail.
When I finally did get thru to a live person, was told there was a problem with their computer system. Thought all was OK, until I arrived at the airport and on 1 of those 2 occasions, not so.
We purchased tickets with United in 8/21 OGG- ORD and chose our seats.I’m 6’3″ and paid extra for Bulkhead seats. Shortly before the flight United changed our seats to an exit row . When we got to the Gate we were told I could not sit in the exit row because I use a cane. They gave us 2 sardine seats next to a handicap bathroom whose door swings out. I can’t count how many times I got somebodies butt in my shoulder. I was extremely upset.The flight attendant offered us $100 each for the inconvenience.I asked to have a supervisor waiting at the gate at O’Hare, we told our story and he offered us an additional $100 each.I had to file online for a refund for the premium seats and got rejected,And never got the other inconvenience money either
Such pathetic service is unacceptable. United left us stranding Chicago once. Cancelled our flight. No help finding another flight. No compensation. No Nothing. That was pre cell phone and apps. Have never flown United since. Sorry for your stressful trip.
I can understand ticketing mix ups. Our company use to use discount booking sites and we had problems, 10 hour flights that turned into 36 hour including layovers. Mr. DeMarre said he used the Hawaiian Card and booked through web site. Should have been easy fix for gate agent.
To bad Hawaiian has not brought back customer service to the islands for phone service.
In the end, Hawaiian did the right thing. Mr. DeMarre was a gent in the best of terms.
Flight cancelations and overbookings are just hurting travel at most levels. Hopefully pilots come back to work that resigned, fired or retired and get things moving correctly.
Aloha,
One of my all time favourite activities is Not Flying. Lousy airlines, lousy airports, snotty airport staff. My wife was on hold for over an hour twice last week. What a waste of a life.
Mahalo
Your comment put a smile on my face. We are almost ready to join you :0) Flying, eating out, doing anything that requires ‘customer service’ is just a pathetic experience anymore and we are beginning to wonder if it will Ever change? I think companies have managed to figure out how to make money WITHOUT giving good customer experiences and it will never be the way it used to be again. Very sad, but probably true.
We really enjoy sipping our drinks under our Hula Umbrella on our patio under our lovely shade trees and listening to the little waterfall on our little pond. Beats racing to catch a connecting flight. ha ha ha As Dorothy so aptly said, “There’s no place like home, there’s no place like home…….”
Aloha Hawaiian Air, are you gonna make this right?
Aloha BOH,
As always, thanks for all the info and updates you provide for those traveling to the Islands.
We did travel from OAK to HNL in June on Hawaiian Airlines and did receive a notification from Hawaiian in March that there would be changes to the flight times (which in the end, worked in our favor), so I’m feeling pretty good about Hawaiian right now.
Mahalo and keep up the good work!
Hi Eric.
Thanks. Glad the changes worked out well for you. Ours were okay but both now require a change of planes instead of being non-stop. No big deal. The lack of notification was concerning.
Aloha.
Aloha Rob+Jeff So mahalo for the info. I decided to check my Lihue-Kona flight in October and it was changed to a later time also. I will now check it weekly until then. Am wondering if Hawaiian was going to let me know and when they would. I have gotten emails from them alerting me to changes before, so we’ll see if +when they do. Thanks again. I really appreciate you two. And all the others that post helpful comments and experiences.
Hi Debra.
Thanks! That makes at least four others who have had what appears to be the same issue. And we concur with you, not knowing until the day before when you go to check in, is a really bad situation. Because at that point most everything would be sold out and then there would be very few options. This way it worked out fine.
Aloha.
It is the new Hawaiian airlines. Fly Southwest. It is way better.
My niece, husband & 1 yr old are flying from Maryland to Oregon in 2 weeks to visit. I asked my sister for their itinerary a few days ago and looked it up myself while we were on the phone. Southwest had canceled their flight completely and not notified them. They would’ve had no idea until the last minute had I not checked for them. I know all airlines are having schedule issues right now, but not notifying the customer is inexcusable.
Sheri, SWA seems to lead the pack of airlines that cancel or change flights. It’s pretty common with them. They are a large mainland airline and Hawaii is just another destination among a huge web of connecting flights and destinations. They have to be fluid with so many destinations. Their inter island flying is particularly vulnerable because they use their planes from the mainland and crews from the mainland to cover it. A delayed mainland flight messes up their inter island.
There is nothing better about southwest at all
The more I read the more I’m Never going to Hawaii!
So sad!
…as long as there were no security concerns. The airlines owed this passenger an explanation as to why he was being removed at the time of removal (again Unless there were security or safety concerns and in that case one would think airport security or police would be involved as well).
Again, armed with proof of purchase, I would have insisted on being left onboard this flight but would have cooperated with HA at the destination. Was this flight full? Did HA board another passenger (or two) when this man and daughter were removed? There has to be more to this story and it will be interesting to see what additional facts are made public.
I saw a similar thing happen last week when I went to Oahu. I was in a window seat and there was a guy by the isle. There was a girl who looked to be in her 20s between us. Right before they closed the door they came and got her and asked her to get off the plane, that something was wrong with her ticket. She immediately complied and was polite to the attendant. The other guy asked if someone else was taking the seat. No one else did. I don’t know if she was standby or what (which would still make no sense). I found it perplexing but I don’t know what preceded that or the status of her ticket. It was strange they boarded her and then deplaned her. It left us curious what happened. The girl took it in stride very well.
Although I use airline apps when we travel, I also print a copy of all documents related to our trip as well. This includes the airline reservations (which includes payment), any car rental documents, as well as accommodation documents. I do all of this just in case my phone is unable to access the internet (for whatever reason(s)).
I am mentioning that here because I wonder what would have happened in this situation if the traveler being removed could have produced the printed physical documents as well. It is not that I am advocating for a passenger to be uncooperative with airline staff, but if I have documents in hand proving I had purchased ticket(s) for the flight I was on, I would not get off the plane…..
We live in Kona; we had the reverse itinerary in late September on the non-stop flights – booked weeks ago – and have NOT been notified of the drastic time change for the non-stops. From your article we called Hawaiian to re-book one-stop flights at similar time to the original flights. Lack of notification two months out is totally unacceptable. My wife communicated that on the survey at the end of her reservation call. A slight change in the Dollar car rental did save me over $300 from the earlier reservation!
Thanks for keeping us informed!
Hi Michael.
Thanks. So that made 3 of us who all had the same experience. That’s disappointing and hopefully this will help get it corrected.
Aloha.
Good on you guys Rob and Jeff for bringing this up! Hopefully they will respond. Seems to me between the Google flights deal and this they need to look at their IT department a little closer. Still can’t imagine how this could happen. Just weird to get that far and then be pulled off the flight! Hope they respond with the full story for you!
Hi John.
Thanks for the input. So far we’ve heard from five parties with the same no-change-notification issue. As one said, they couldn’t remember ever not being notified of a schedule change, and neither can we. When we asked Hawaiian Air’s corporate office about the Google Flights discrepancy, they chose not to respond.
Aloha.
Bottom line despite my speculation here, outsourcing of a call center seems to be a clue here, especially since he said he “called” the airline.
Hi John.
Perhaps so. Doubt we’ll ever know. Their call center always sends us emails before the end of the call which they ask you to confirm. So at least there is that paper trail.
Aloha.
Takeaway I get is it sounds like he made the reservation over the phone? I’m thinking that these days having a hard copy of an online
reservation may have helped? I no longer trust what any agent says on the phone till I have an email or proof of purchase printed up in my hand.
Also this is such an unusual situation (how did he get through the boarding process?) and his response almost seemed staged and recorded?
Not reading into this too much but it would be very interesting what really happened. Incident’s like this just don’t happen normally on any airline….hope there is a “rest of the story”
My flight on American out of Seattle changed Flight numbers and I received both emails and texts about the change. Literally just the flight number and I always periodically check my upcoming flights versus current pricing to see if contacting the airline would save me $’s. Unfortunately, Hawaiian hasn’t figured that out yet because they changed a couple of my flights on my last trip while inconvenient still allowed me to travel with just a hours longer layover in Honolulu.
Thanks to your aticle I checked my own HA trip from Lihue to Kona in the fall. Sure enough it’s now about an hour and a half later with no notice. Thank for the heads up.
Hi Rick.
That’s so odd that it happened to you too. Happy that the tip-off helped.
Aloha.
Did they ever explain why they changed your flights?
Hi Rick.
No they did not.
Aloha.
Changed itineraries without notification has occurred to us with several airlines. It doesn’t matter the class of ticket purchased. Checking the flight itinerary regularly regardless the airline has now become part of our trip planning.
I have flown on HA at least 50 times for business since 2011. Only one late departure in all those years but my wife and I are very cognizant of how Covid has turned the airline industry into a mess. Because of this we have delayed our vacation until December thinking the airlines will back on track.
Thanks for your timely information.
God bless him for being calm. I’d be sooo mad. Totally not right. That is scary since we only fly Hawaiian to Hawaii. I pray this never happens to us. I’d be crying if I missed my flight due to their error. I always have paper receipts in a folder with me. I don’t like this phone scan with a “ticket” on it. I am one of those people that keeps paper in my folder in my backpack just to prove I’m right.
I visit Hawaii from the west coast several times a year to see my mother who lives in Honolulu, and I’ve flown Hawaiian exclusively since about 2013 or so. I’ve had a couple of hiccups with reservations over the past two years (I didn’t travel in 2020), but all were resolved well before I got to the airport.
The most recent was this spring. I booked a ticket online using miles and got an error notice telling me I had to call. I immediately did and was told the “fares” no longer were available, and I’d have to use significantly more miles. I didn’t accept that, so the agent flagged my itinerary for review by her superiors. It was all resolved within 24 hours, and my itinerary was confirmed. Annoying, but I still love Hawaiian.
In this day and age not checking on your flight 5 days and the day before departure is asking for trouble. I am disabled and require special seating without which I cannot even get on the plane. We fly United and are registered with them for this situation, however sometimes unknowing agents have changed our seats at the last minute. Fortunately those with higher authority have always fixed it. My spouse has a hard time staying calm when things go wrong, though.
I don’t understand how airlines can charge passengers for changes and not be charged for changes they make. It’s time for an amendment to the passenger bill of rights.
The employees of Hawaiian Airlines treated him like dirt. The rude way they order him out of his seat with no explanation or apology is horrendous. I would never fly Hawaiian Air again after seeing that Tikvid.
Way past time flight attendants stop bullying customers.
I sure didn’t see what you are talking about? I just saw a couple agents politely ask him to deplane and he didn’t make scene…..in fact at the time he didn’t know he wasn’t getting back on. Weird deal, never heard of anything like this and would love to hear how these agents and passengers both got stuck in a situation not of their doing. I’m always slightly suspicious of technology glitches causing a problem, this has sure fed that fear!
Are these typical policies of Hawaiian Airlines to change details of one’s flight without proper warning?
The lesson learned would’ve been keep checking app until last minute.
I know many people (husband) who’d accept the initial schedule and not keep up with app (he will not even be curious enough if there was one). How awful !!!
As an aside, I worked for a Disney travel company for a few years, & at that time (2 decades almost), United Airlines was the most notorious for making more than minor schedule changes without notifying passengers. 😡. We had to keep a very close eye on United (also US airways in those days), to make sure our guests didn’t have any unpleasant surprises. Whatever happened to great guest
Service anyway???
We had a problem with the Hawaiian Airlines website as well. We flew to Maui in April and returned in May, ONT-HNL-OGG. HA changed our arr/dep time a couple of times and one flight number completely. Then I found I could not verify our flights using the HA APP or website. When I tried it said our confirmation number was invalid. Like you I called and it took some time but the HA CSR finally was able to see it and said we were OK. It is unnerving when you cannot verify for tickets using their app or their website. Has to use paper boarding passes.
Once after returning home on a H/A flight, I had surgery & had other things on my mind. Finally realized 2-3 months later that my H/A account didn’t have the miles posted so called & asked. In return I received a nice “aloha” letter stating too much time had passed–sorry. That was some years ago. Never flew on Hawaiian again. After that, Alaska started flying directly to Kauai & stayed with them forever. Their customer service is the greatest & I accrued enough miles to upgrade to 1st Class several times. It was a little thing to H/A but they lost a lifelong customer.
Wow! Unbelievable. No explanation on how or why his ticket was supposedly “invalid”. Huge kudos to this gentleman for keeping his cool though he knew HA was at fault & his trip to Maui was messed up.
I’ve seen some pretty interesting “shuffling” of
Passengers over the years. 🙄
As for substantive flight changes w/no notification whatsoever, that’s outrageous. Plus, if the airlines changes your flight more than 2 hours, they are Required to book you a flight w/schedule you want as long as it’s the same City pair And dates, so what the heck was up with HA giving you guys such a hard time?? Especially when they hadn’t even notified you. 🧐
“They don’t know what happened”? Of course they know what happened! I’m sure they went to the agents who said the ticket was invalid and asked them. They just don’t want to share the embarrassment truth with the public.
I used to think that airlines matched luggage with people in their seats. I guess not. I guess they’ve forgotten Lockerbie.
I Hope he used his HA Visa to buy the Delta tickets
Way to be classy in a tough situation. You’re an excellent example to your child!