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Hawaiian Airlines Rebate Scam makeing rebate very hard to claim, Web site scam involving deceptive practices. Honolulu Hawaii
On 12/03/2008, I booked a round trip to Hawaii from Portland OR. I did that at that time ONLY because my wife and I were offered $100 e-certificates which claimed it was good for interisland travel. So the combination of the fare and the certificate made the trip work for us. After booking the trip I was told by the web site that the certificate would appear in my account in about ten days.
On 12/15/08 I was trying to book some interisland flights and make use of the e-certificate. This is where I started becoming unhappy about Hawaiian Airlines.
There was no information available to see how to apply the e-certificate. This is rip off #1. They give a rebate but don't let you use it or make it very hard to use.
I could not find out the terms and conditions of the e-certificate was ; when I clicked on the link for "terms and conditions" for these certificates, nothing happened. The bottom line is that I received no info. I attempted this on two different computers with were different security systems so it was not a problem with just one computer.
So on 12/15/08 I called the Hawaiian Airlines customer service and they transferred me to their web site technical service (or was it their rebate scam manager? ) and I was told "after you book your trip your e-certificate will automatically apply". After more attempts to book flights and use the certificate I gave up and went to bed. Note that she did not tell me I had to book a round trip interisland trip to use the e-certificate as I later found out. As I said, the web site does not show the terms and conditions and appears to be designed to work as such.
On 12/16/08 I attempted several times to book interisland flights and use the e-certificate without having the web site work as expected . So going on what the Hawaiian Airlines customer service rep in the Philippines told me, "book it and the e-certificate will apply" I booked a trip for Jan 16th and confirmed as the certificate was to be applied later.
So I booked what I thought was a flight on JAN16th afternoon and another flight on a deferent day in the afternoon. This is where we get into scam #2. I believe that I booked the flights as required for Jan 16 2009. I believe that is what I confirmed on my screen, what was printed was the wrong info.
What printed out was a flight for the same day leaving 3 minutes after the booking time and returning that same day when I am 3500 miles away. That is scam #3. They cannot sell something in the past. I think this is credit card fraud, if not then it should be.
So after all of this hassle on your web site I believe I made a reservation for Jan 16th and saw that on my screen and confirmed it but later when I called your rep today to find out why the e-certificate was not applied I was told. that the flight was for yesterday. And they would not refund my credit card that was scam #4. Refusal to refund in a case of what was at worse an obvious mistake on my part due to what appears to be a deliberate attempt to make it difficult to use the e-certificates. All of this caused no actual loss to the company (the plane they said I booked on was already closed and on the departure runway they could not have sold the seats anyway.
Philg
Kelso, Washington
U.S.A.
2 Updates & Rebuttals
Steve
Mesa,Arizona,
USA
It appears as if system flaws are part of their system to create additional profit
#3Consumer Suggestion
Thu, October 28, 2010
It would not be a problem to set the system up the way that a discount or coupon is applied automatically when booking the flight like on any other website where there is a box that says "Apply Coupon" at the bottom. I have seen this hundreds of times - the customer can see that the coupon was applied and print it out at the end.
I am under the impression that HA's marketing strategy is "Give out something to the customer without honoring it so that he has to continue to make bookings"
This seems to be the case with coupons as well as with Hawaiian Miles: their favorite answer to customers who call because they try to apply these Miles is
"Sorry, nothing available but it is available if you use your credit card"
So the customer will give them his credit card number accrue additional miles and hope to be able to apply them the next time.
Steve
Mesa,Arizona,
USA
Similar experience with their website
#3Consumer Comment
Thu, August 19, 2010
I agree with you: 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:
NEW ! 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
Note: there was no footnote, asterix or any kind of restriction mentioned.
After I had transferred about 40,000 points from my American Express account I tried to make use of this option and found out that each time when I switched one leg from Dollars to Miles, the other leg would switch as well. I called their CS and was told "Sorry for the inconvenience but this option only works on specific flights". Great - I transferred my Amex points which I could have used for something better like gift cards and now I am stuck with HawaiianMiles which are practically useless because upgrades are always "unavailable" or only available if I pay twice as many miles. Flight awards with their partner airlines are always unavailable, whenever I call (done this about 5 times, always the same answer...)