We’re starting to hear from passengers about two severely delayed Hawaiian Airlines flights. One took place over the weekend while the other one took place just yesterday.
New York to Honolulu flight delayed over 30 hours.
In the most recent incident, the daily flight from New York to Honolulu HA 51 does not appear to have operated yesterday at all. On FlightAware, there is no indication of what happened. We are reaching out to Hawaiian Airlines for any further update on the cause of the problem. We do see that there are some flight delays out of New York due to weather, but delays of that extraordinary nature aren’t being reported.
Passengers told a local New York TV station that they were left stranded at the airport for over 30 hrs. And that was confirmed through multiple sources. Passengers said that during the entire time they waited, they were only offered a food voucher for $12. It was also reported that passengers weren’t offered accommodations, rerouting on other airlines, nor were they allowed to retrieve baggage in order to switch to other airlines’ flights on their own. Hawaiian Airlines said that they are working with the passengers who were affected in order to make things right.
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Delta Airlines also flies nonstop on the same route from New York’s JFK to Honolulu.
We cannot confirm reports that the cause of the delay was a mechanical problem with the Airbus A330-200 aircraft related to a problem with air vents.
Hawaiian’s Las Vegas to Honolulu flight was delayed over 24 hours this weekend.
A similar duration but unrelated flight delay occurred for passengers traveling from Las Vegas to Honolulu, when their flight encountered maintenance issues resulting in a delay of some 26 hrs.
Flightaware indicates that Hawaiian flight HA5 never operated at all on Friday. Due to mechanical issues, the aircraft underwent maintenance at Las Vegas. As a result of that delay, the available flight crew “timed out” and were no longer able to fly. Passengers were accommodated on Saturday’s flight instead. FlightAware says that the flight arrived in Honolulu following a delay of 27 hours.
On that flight it was reported that issues included a tire repair as well as a fuel leak. In that incident, passengers are reporting that they received both food vouchers and hotel vouchers from Hawaiian. Some did complain, however, that there was inadequate information provided them by the airline.
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I’ve flown to and from JFK, and then Boston, on HA ever since they began flying there. I have never had an issue. The only time there was a delay it was minor (an hour or so). They immediately deplaned, gave us drinks and snacks in the gate area, and then once we were airborne, they gave us free entertainment, upgraded our free meals to prawns etc.
I am both shocked, and highly disappointed to hear that they left passengers stranded for 30 hours with merely a $12 food voucher! That’s totally inexcusable, and ranks them lower than even Southwest. Actually I haven’t heard any stories worse than this one.
Shame On You Hawaiian Airlines!!!
Now I’m afraid to book my upcoming summer trip with them to New England.
I was on HA47 on 7/13/23 OAK to HNL. The scheduled departure was 8:35 AM. During the preflight maintenance check kit was determined there was an issue with the engine. Around 11 AM, it they decided to delay the flight to 11:15 PM using the incoming plane from HA48. They did issue food vouchers and hotel rooms. I inquired about rebooking to the next day which they would do at no charge but they wouldn’t release my luggage. I then had no choice but to fly out later that night. By the time we pushed back from the gate we hit the 15 hour delay mark.
We’ve heard of the issues with their A 321 neo. So what’s up with their A 330 fleet?
That explains it. I came into OAK on HA48 on 7/13 after my original HA12 HNL to SFO was cancelled. Was wondering why there were so many travellers at the gate.
HA is indeed experiencing a lot of equipment problems. My July 13 HNL/SFO flight HA12 was scheduled to depart at 1:15 PM. At 9:15 AM, I received an equipment change notification. The wide body A330 will be replaced by a single aisle A321. I quickly logged into the website and downloaded new boarding passes showing my seat assignment on the replacement aircraft. At 9:30 AM, I received notification that the flight had been cancelled.
A quick check of the website confirmed it. I immediately called the reservations department and accepted a seat on the HNL/OAK flight leaving at 12:20 PM. Although I requested to be placed on another airline’s flight to SFO, I was told that operations had not yet issued authorization permitting rerouting of affected passengers on other airlines. Though my experience was nowhere near what the NYC and LAS folks endured, I feel their pain. I was fortunate to have gotten home in a timely fashion though having to rush to the airport for a flight leaving an hour earlier and having to find ground transportation to get home from OAK. HA did promise me reimbursement for the ground transportation from OAK, but I got 5 different claim procedures from 5 different HA agents. That story will be for another day.
We were delayed 13 hours on HA 3 on April 22. Given the above story and the impact of delays on hotels, children, arrangements, appointments etc, I hope the airline does not calculate number of delay hours per total flights and say it’s good and do nothing. I would like to hear more on what is being done and not the “sorry’s for the inconvenience”. It’s time to expect operational excellence at the 99.9% levels!
Failed to mention HA48 for Saturday 7/15 was canceled late Friday night after many were in bed already. No additional details followed, just a text that said flight canceled, more details to follow. Never got a call, no offer of lodging for extra night, nothing. Limited availability by their “General Inquiries” folk, whom have no authority at all. No guarantee of compensation of added costs incurred from extra day. Just told to fill out online form with the Consumer Affairs Department, which has no phone number. They give themselves 30 days to respond. Same General Inquiries folk then said the CAO was not getting to claims back in mid May, so they are 2 months behind. Best part, to get my family to sit together after they tried to separate us on a Sunday flight, including my 9 and 11 year old little girls, and my autistic son, I had to pay another $200 to get seating together, which I had previously in the extra comfort level, and the seats were a downgrade from extra comfort! I will not be using HA moving forward as I have now done research on them and their ranking with FAA and consumers affair (federal) is awful! Highly doubt I will get any reimbursement at all as no one will get back to me save for generic emails saying they apologize for the inconvenience experienced and please allow them 30 days to respond. But in the mean time snail mail all my receipts to them for them to “potentially” reimburse me.
They truly acted like they had no clue what to do, no actual plan in place for this type of situation, and completely not prepared to make things right. Their own “Rule 21” was violated as they failed to offer lodging of their choice or food vouchers. Just left all customers on that flight in the wind, and forcing everyone to jump through hoops in which we assume they will screw over in the long run or try to force compensation with miles or airline credits to force you to fly on them again!
I will not fly HA outside of Hawaii. They do not have the infrastructure or support when things go wrong in these markets where they have one flight a day; Boston, Long Beach, various cities in Japan, etc. If you look at Flight Aware’s flight history they have a pretty sad flight history on these flights. Contracted help usually helps several carriers so making it right for Hawaiian passengers is limited and not a priority.
Interisland fares a lot better since they have enough staff to take care of things.
Maintenance move to Phillipines maybe not so great decision?
Mexico would be a far better choice than the Philippines. I would be very afraid of ‘it is only one screw, no one will notice.’ I live in Hawaii and have witnessed such an attitude, more times than I care to imagine.
And those are not all. They have had several major delays from Vegas to maui on their A321 aircraft the past several days. I have been keeping an eye, as I have upcoming reservations. Unfortunately, I did not read about their A321 problems until after I already had reservations. I do not think their CEO is being forthcoming enough about the issue. If you do a little digging on flight aware, it appears they still have a large number of A321 fleet still grounded. I’m not holding my breath about getting to Maui on time. But, with that said, I would rather they take every precaution on their maintenance to get everyone their safely. They just need to be honest with their customers.
SWA abandoned dozens of people from infants to elderly in wheelchairs at the Denver airport. Plane delay in Dulles waiting for 5 pieces of luggage from another flight. Landed in Denver and connecting flight at the gates but connecting passengers not allowed on. One gate agent trying to start fight with passengers. No accomodations, food, water, blankets, cots, etc. offerrd. They agent said it was coded as weather so they owed nothing. They also knew no one would make their connecting flight and no hotels available i Denver due to Swift concert. Outgoing flight was delayed 2 hours in the morning due to jet bridge issue and nothing offered. Agents told people they could get a refund and find their own way home. Total time from Dulles to Sacramento was 22 hours from 7/14-15. Not one sorry.
As far as the JFK flight, was the flight delayed or cancelled? Is HA blaming the delay to “weather”?
When you look at the D.O.T website as to what and how much HA will provide, it really is slim pickings – not much and pretty much aligns with Allegiant, Frontier and Spirit. Very consumer un-friendly for an airline that models itself “full-service”.
transportation.gov/airconsumer/airline-cancellation-delay-dashboard
If it were me, I would have booked a hotel near to JFK with a shuttle – if the delay was a “creeping” delay and obvious that it was going into the late night hours.
If HA tells me to “pound sand” as far as reimbursement, I would file a formal complaint with the D.O.T – explaining exactly what occurred at Kennedy and requesting all reasonable and out-of-pocket expenses to be reimbursed (food, hotel, shuttle/car service, new ticket expense for another airline, etc.).
I have had to use this tactic in the past with other airlines, and it has worked successfully for me – YMMV.
When you file a “formal” complaint with the D.O.T., keep in mind it does become public record – and I redact my information (addresses and other personal identifying information). I also succinctly detail in the complaint what it is I am seeking as redress/recovery (reimbursement for expenses, full refund of paid ticket, action against the airline, etc.).
As far as the offer of a $12 voucher, is that really worth anything at JFK? Vendors at JFK are supposed to offer “street pricing”, but when I travel in and out of Terminal 7 (Alaska) and Terminal 8 (American) the prices in those two terminals are not “street” pricing. Even though it is New York City – nowhere near street pricing in those two JFK terminals.
Now with the NEA agreement ending between AA and Jet Blue, hopeful that HA moves back into Terminal 5 at JFK – even though the HA A330’s take two gates when parked at JetBlue’s Terminal 5.
I’ll always opt for being inconvenienced by a maintenance issue on the ground rather than once in the air.
Hawaiian islands dodged the eye of hurricane Calvin as it passed south toward west path. Rain & wind bands affected some areas but Kona remains dry.
Wow! As I mentioned several days ago, my family and I are on Kaua’i, and have noted that local media have not reported on the recent missteps attributed to Hawaiian Air. I am a former news person from Alaska (KICY-AM & FM, Nome) and cannot help but wonder why you are about the only media that seems to care!?
Jim E
Keep outsourcing your maintenance!!!!