To set the stage I fly to american samoa a few times a year (among other places in the pacific) and the only way to get there is either from Honolulu, Apia, or New Zealand. HA used to fly twice a week to PPG on Sun and Thurs. This has changed to three times per week on Mon, Tue, and Thurs. In my curiosity, I wanted to understand how they set the schedule, and the following online query was sent to HA:
Hello,
I am curious about your schedule for HNL to PPG and back. I noticed you moved from SUN and THURS flights to Mon, Tue, and Thursday flights, with the Tue flight ending with the flight on 8/23. Then, it will just be Mon and Thurs flights.
My question is, how long do you plan to keep this schedule and is there ever a chance you do something like Sunday, Wednesday, Friday to American Samoa?
With that flight nearly always being FULL CAPACITY, why not make that flight schedule a bit more condusive for people going there for vacation or business (staying the work week or a vacation week). The citizens of Am.Samoa will take the flight regardless of the departure day, but you would probably increase traffic or at a minimum, make your passengers who fly HNL & PPG much happier.
Please let me know, I'd love to understand this better.
Thanks, FFP
The response I got from HNL after 2.5 weeks:
Response (Ram)06/21/2011 04:56 PM
Aloha,
Thanks for the inquiry and we apologize for the delay.
Please call Reservations department regarding your inquiry - 1-800-367-5320
mahalo!
Now I don't know who "Ram" is but he/she is lucky they were not within throwing distance when I read their response to my question.
I then called Reservations as I was told in the event "Ram" was not avoiding my question, and was told by reservations (prepare for shock) that they: 1. do not make the flight schedule ("we book travel and do not make the schedules")... 2. Cannot find someone who can answer my question in the scheduling department... and 3. Do not understand the flight day changes that have taken place with the HNL to PPG route.
So... is there anybody out there that is close enough to HA customer service that understands my question and may actually have a thought on this particular route to & from HNL & PPG?
I would appreciate any thoughts... (or similar stories about how effective the HA customer service team is)