- Report: #656216
Complaint Review: Hawaiian Airlines - Honolulu Hawaii
Reported By:
James -
Ventura, California, United States of America
Submitted:
Updated:
-
Author Not Confirmed
Why?
Hawaiian Airlines
P.O. Box 30008 Honolulu, 96820 Hawaii, United States of America
Phone:
1-800-367-5320
Web:
www.HawaiianAirlines.com
Categories:
Business Rating:
(0)
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Hawaiian Airlines Consumer's Affairs Department Deceptive Advertising Cost Me Thousands Honolulu, Hawaii
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Hawaiian Airlines ripped us off not once but three times for thousands of dollars.
My wife of 46 years and I live in Ventura, California. Our son and his wife live on the island of Oahu, HI. We made plans to visit them in February of this year and began checking about ticket prices and went through Cheap Tickets (Ha!). Each time I checked the prices were going up, so, my son advised me I had better go ahead and purchase the tickets. I did so on October 22, 2009, and paid $579.00 for each of us. Our departure time was 8:30 a.m. which was going to make getting on the plane on time would require and extremely early get up and travel down to LAX. So, in check prices directly on the Hawaiian Airlines.com, I found that the ticket prices had dropped to $325.00 each for a total of $651.40. When I checked what penalty I would face to cancel my original tickets, it stated there would be a $400.00 penalty.
Since, even with the $400.00 penalty, I would stil have over $700.00 to spend on a future flight, I cancelled our flight reservation through Cheap Tickets and purchased the new tickets through Hawaiian Airlines with a more reasonable departure time of 5:00 p.m.
RIPOFF NUMBER ONE
Later on in 2010 we planned to visit some friends in Colorado, so I contacted Cheap Tickets to utilize the $700.00+ remaining on our account. I was notified that Cheap Tickets did not have the credit. Hawaiian Airlines held the money (credit). Well, there goes our Colorado trip. So, I contacted Hawaiian Airlines to see about purchasing tickets for a flight in 2011. I was told that it would cost us an additional $350.00 since we HAD TO PURCHASE THE NEW TICKETS AT THE SAME PRICE OF $579.00 EACH. I said, "No way," as well as a few other phrases.
As the deadline to retrieve the money owed us (October 22, 2010) we decided to put aside our pride and purchase tickets for $350.00 rather than loose the $1154.00 charged to our credit card.
This time, after going on to Hawaiian Airlines.com and finding two round trip tickets in February 2011 for a total of $668.00, I contacted Hawaiian Airlines to book the tickets for a surcharge of $350.00. The representative now told me the cost would be over $600.00. In other words, they were charging me virtually the same price it would cost for new tickets. I asked him, "What did you do with the $1154.00 that you charged my account?" He (who sounded like he was from/in India) went into a legalized sermon on why it cost so much. So, my canceling the original tickets cost my wife and I $1154.00, not $400.00 as stated in the online information.
RIPOFF NUMBER TWO
On February 1, 2010, I went online to Hawaiian Airlines to print out our (my wife and my) boarding passes. During that transaction I was offered to upgrade from coach to first class for $698.00. Since our original tickets totaled $651.20, and since they NEVER SHOWED US THE NEW TOTAL which was $1349.20, it made it appear as though the upgrade was going to only cost $46.60, I accepted the upgrade. They then told me that I could not print out my boarding pass and would have to check in at LAX. (I believe this was done to avoid showing me the new total would be $1349.20). Even when I checked in at LAX I was never shown the total amount.
It was not until I went online on February 8, 2010, to print out the boarding passes for our return flight when, once again, they offered me a chance to upgrade to first class for $698.00, that I realized what had happened. I declined the upgrade and they allowed me to print out my boarding passes. I then immediately called Hawaiian Airlines and complained about the deceptive method they had used to get me to spend more than twice as much for our airline tickets than we had planned and saved for over a year to purchase. They said that, since we enjoyed first class accommodations on the flight over, they would not return our money.
I have never purchased anything online from any website that had not shown the total amount of the purchase. This was an obvious intentional misrepresentation and trap that I'm sure has tricked more than nuts myself.
RIPOFF NUMBER THREE
Additionally, my wife had a pair of very expensive shoes stolen from her suitcase on the flight over to Hawaii. This could only have been done by an airline employee.
Hopefully, this information will make people aware of how deceitful and cold hearted is Hawaiian Airlines. A company that advertises how wonderful they treat their customers. Two tickets to Hawaii cost us over $2593.00 which we could not afford.
My wife of 46 years and I live in Ventura, California. Our son and his wife live on the island of Oahu, HI. We made plans to visit them in February of this year and began checking about ticket prices and went through Cheap Tickets (Ha!). Each time I checked the prices were going up, so, my son advised me I had better go ahead and purchase the tickets. I did so on October 22, 2009, and paid $579.00 for each of us. Our departure time was 8:30 a.m. which was going to make getting on the plane on time would require and extremely early get up and travel down to LAX. So, in check prices directly on the Hawaiian Airlines.com, I found that the ticket prices had dropped to $325.00 each for a total of $651.40. When I checked what penalty I would face to cancel my original tickets, it stated there would be a $400.00 penalty.
Since, even with the $400.00 penalty, I would stil have over $700.00 to spend on a future flight, I cancelled our flight reservation through Cheap Tickets and purchased the new tickets through Hawaiian Airlines with a more reasonable departure time of 5:00 p.m.
RIPOFF NUMBER ONE
Later on in 2010 we planned to visit some friends in Colorado, so I contacted Cheap Tickets to utilize the $700.00+ remaining on our account. I was notified that Cheap Tickets did not have the credit. Hawaiian Airlines held the money (credit). Well, there goes our Colorado trip. So, I contacted Hawaiian Airlines to see about purchasing tickets for a flight in 2011. I was told that it would cost us an additional $350.00 since we HAD TO PURCHASE THE NEW TICKETS AT THE SAME PRICE OF $579.00 EACH. I said, "No way," as well as a few other phrases.
As the deadline to retrieve the money owed us (October 22, 2010) we decided to put aside our pride and purchase tickets for $350.00 rather than loose the $1154.00 charged to our credit card.
This time, after going on to Hawaiian Airlines.com and finding two round trip tickets in February 2011 for a total of $668.00, I contacted Hawaiian Airlines to book the tickets for a surcharge of $350.00. The representative now told me the cost would be over $600.00. In other words, they were charging me virtually the same price it would cost for new tickets. I asked him, "What did you do with the $1154.00 that you charged my account?" He (who sounded like he was from/in India) went into a legalized sermon on why it cost so much. So, my canceling the original tickets cost my wife and I $1154.00, not $400.00 as stated in the online information.
RIPOFF NUMBER TWO
On February 1, 2010, I went online to Hawaiian Airlines to print out our (my wife and my) boarding passes. During that transaction I was offered to upgrade from coach to first class for $698.00. Since our original tickets totaled $651.20, and since they NEVER SHOWED US THE NEW TOTAL which was $1349.20, it made it appear as though the upgrade was going to only cost $46.60, I accepted the upgrade. They then told me that I could not print out my boarding pass and would have to check in at LAX. (I believe this was done to avoid showing me the new total would be $1349.20). Even when I checked in at LAX I was never shown the total amount.
It was not until I went online on February 8, 2010, to print out the boarding passes for our return flight when, once again, they offered me a chance to upgrade to first class for $698.00, that I realized what had happened. I declined the upgrade and they allowed me to print out my boarding passes. I then immediately called Hawaiian Airlines and complained about the deceptive method they had used to get me to spend more than twice as much for our airline tickets than we had planned and saved for over a year to purchase. They said that, since we enjoyed first class accommodations on the flight over, they would not return our money.
I have never purchased anything online from any website that had not shown the total amount of the purchase. This was an obvious intentional misrepresentation and trap that I'm sure has tricked more than nuts myself.
RIPOFF NUMBER THREE
Additionally, my wife had a pair of very expensive shoes stolen from her suitcase on the flight over to Hawaii. This could only have been done by an airline employee.
Hopefully, this information will make people aware of how deceitful and cold hearted is Hawaiian Airlines. A company that advertises how wonderful they treat their customers. Two tickets to Hawaii cost us over $2593.00 which we could not afford.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Steve
Mesa,Arizona,
USA
Deception is part of their marketing strategy
#2Consumer Comment
Thu, October 28, 2010
I just got off the phone with a lady in their corporate office - I had tried to explain to her that their "Consumer Affairs Department" would not address the issue of my complaint. She cut me off several times screaming at me "I can't help you, you have to talk to Consumer Affairs". When I tried to explain to her that Robyn Lopez, the "Resolution Coordinator" sent me several emails in response to my complaint without ever addressing the issue, it was "You have to talk to Consumer Affairs" and hung up on me.
I asked Hawaiian Airlines to reverse my AMEX points conversion and to give me my 49,000 points back since I was not able to use the Hawaiian Miles that I had purchased in April 2010 for a trip to Manila. The answer was "Sorry, once you send the points to us we can't return them to you but you can continue to book flights with us and try to use the miles." They are funny: First they rip you off and their "Resolution" is that the cheated consumer should continue to do business with them ????
Not even one word about the fact that I was not able to use the Hawaiian Miles that I had purchased in the way it was advertised on their website. ("Pay one way in Miles and the other way in Dollars") I start to hate this airline more and more and I have filed a complaint with the Airconsumer Advocate.
