Hawaiian Airlines Hawaiian Airlines' website is a scam , Internet
What Hawaiian Airlines offers on their website is a scam and I am surprised that an airline is obviously able to commit false advertising without having to take responsibility for it.
This is what they are advertising on their website:
N E W ! Combined Dollar / Miles Flights
You can now book award flights by redeeming HawaiianMiles
for one way and paying for the other.
Just log in to your account then visit the booking tool and
select "Miles" in one direction and "Dollars" in the other
direction.
* Offering More Flexibility with Your Miles
* Making Award Travel Even easier to Reach
* Log in to your HawaiianMiles Account to view This Option
After I transferred about 40,000 points from my Amex account into my Hawaiian Miles account I tried to use this option and found out that it would not work. For a return ticket I would have needed at least 120,000 miles but I had only 95,000 miles on my account and was planning to pay one leg with 60,000 miles, the other one in cash. Each time when I switched on leg from Dollars to Miles the other leg would switch as well. i called their CS and their answer was "Sorry for the inconvenience but this only works on specific routes, we are not able to do this manually for you.
My "Hawaiian Miles" are going to expire in a few months and again, i was not able to use them. For the 40,000 points that I had transferred from my amex account I had spent roughly $ 40,000.- and I could have ordered some gift cards instead. I feel that Hawaiian Airlines cheated me.
3 Updates & Rebuttals
Steve
Mesa,Arizona,
USA
Update: Hawaiian Airlines turned around and refused to make it right
#4Author of original report
Fri, October 29, 2010
Update: First I was under the impression that Hawaiian Airlines acknowledged that they made a mistake by advertising something that their system would not allow and make it right.
Now it is a rude lady from Hawaiian Airlines "Consumer Affairs Office" who is taking care of this issue, not the nice guy who talked to me before anymore. Her name is Robyn Lopez - today she informed me that she closed the case. Until now she never lost one single word about the real issue: that their website offered to accept Hawaiian Miles for one leg and Dollars for the other without making it clear that this would only be possible on domestic flights. It appears that now, after having complained for several months, they recently fixed it and made this option also available for international flights.
She believes that this is an acceptable resolution: I was not able to use my Hawaiian Miles for the last 2 bookings but I am welcome to book a 3rd flight with them and use the miles in the future.
I don't think that I ever want to fly with these scumbags any more, even if I have to pay more money to a different airline. Probably I will have to take this issue to court. Hawaiian Airlines is not interested at all to create a good relationship with the customer, it is just the image that they are trying to create without really standing behind it. Instead of the Orchid they should have a Dollar Bill as their brand symbol.
Steve
Mesa,Arizona,
USA
Update: Hawaiian Airlines turned around and refused to make it right
#4Author of original report
Fri, October 29, 2010
Update: First I was under the impression that Hawaiian Airlines acknowledged that they made a mistake by advertising something that their system would not allow and make it right.
Now it is a rude lady from Hawaiian Airlines "Consumer Affairs Office" who is taking care of this issue, not the nice guy who talked to me before anymore. Her name is Robyn Lopez - today she informed me that she closed the case. Until now she never lost one single word about the real issue: that their website offered to accept Hawaiian Miles for one leg and Dollars for the other without making it clear that this would only be possible on domestic flights. It appear that now, after having complaint for several months, they fixed it and made this option also available for international flights.
She believes that this is an acceptable resolution: I was not able to use my Hawaiian Miles for the last 2 bookings but I am welcome to book a 3rd flight with them and use the miles in the future.
I don't think that I ever want to fly with these scammers any more, even if I have to pay more money to a different airline. Probably I will have to take this issue to court. Hawaiian Airlines is not interested at all to create a good relationship with the customer, it is just the image that they are trying to create without really standing behind it. Instead of the Orchid they should have a Dollar Bill as their brand symbol.
Steve
Mesa,Arizona,
USA
Update: It appears as if they are going to make it right
#4Author of original report
Fri, August 27, 2010
Here is an update: I wrote a letter to their Customer Satisfaction Dept. and it appears as if they are going to make it right. The way how they responded is very different to US Airways or United and I am under the impression that they are taking my complaint serious.
Hawaiian called me within a few days and it was not the usual "sorry for the inconvenience". thank you, Hawaiian Airlines