Hawaii-based Airlines - Do I have any options with HAL?

I recently purchased four tickets on Hawaiian Airlines last month for a summer vacation with my family. The itinerary is - OAK..HNL, HNL..OGG, OGG..HNL, HNL..OAK. We will be visiting HNL to visit my family (thats where Im from) and then going to Maui for a little R&R.

The return leg from Maui to Oakland had to go thru HNL because at that time, there were no direct flights OGG..OAK. I happened to notice last night that there is now a direct flight from OGG..OAK. I plugged the same itinerary dates in with the exception of inserting the direct flight back to Oakland instead of connecting through HNL. To my surprise, the cost of the four tickets were a little cheaper than my original itinerary. (cheaper by about $25/ticket...which adds up)

I wanted to fly back directly from OGG to OAK all along. The flight gets in OAK about two hours earlier than the one from HNL.

Do I have any options in getting on this dircect flight even though I already purchased my tickets? I did not purchase refundable tickets. I got the bare bones tickets (which was about $830/ticket...grrrr). I realize I could probably pay a penalty to change it...but is there anything else that you gurus could suggest to get on this direct flight at a minimum cost?

Mahalo in advance

Bill R.

The readers of our Hawaii-based airlines forum may be able to help. I'll move the thread there. Ocn Vw 1K, Moderator, TravelBuzz.

I have no real solid answer for you. If you call the 800 number for Hawaiian air...you will get the Phillipine call center. If you poke around here on FT you will find that even those of us seasoned on FT and HA have no joy for that route. They are not customer service oriented even when you wait for multiple holds while they talk with a supervisor. That route will likely cost you about 45 min of your time and shave about 1 year off of your lifespan. Again...its a painful call center.

So, that route will not prove to be very fruitful. What you may want to do since you do have 4 tickets purchased is to stop by OAK to discuss with a supervisor in person. Just make sure you stop by at a time they will be there. They are there 2 hours prior and about an hour after the AM flight 4 sure. I do think you got a little hosed on the ticket price but that may give you the leeway you need if you do get a chance to discuss this option in person.

Good luck

thanks for the reply "thehoax". Heres what happened. I called the 1-800 number and you can tell by the accent that I was in the Phillipines as you mentioned. I did however (after going through the menu items) receive someone on the phone relatively quick. I fought my case and you can tell she was just a robot insisting that I be charged the $150/ticket change fee. I quickly gave up with her and realized I wasnt going to get anywhere with this person. So I asked for a supervisor....

I got Joseph on the line and he was already briefed as to what my problem was. I indicated to him that when I made the reservation, there was no flight direct from OGG to OAK. He was able to confirm it through a little research. I may have tipped my hand a little by indicating that I would be willing to forfeit the price change difference (which was actually $75/ticket) to just get on the direct flight. I figured, I already paid the money and was ok with that price at that time. It doesnt take away the angst of seeing a cheaper fare :)

Joseph agreed and booked my family on the direct flight with "no" change fee. I say "no" change fee because in reality its about a $75/ticket change fee when you consider a new reservation is that much cheaper.

None the less....HAL was able to accomodate my request to my satisfaction. It does sound like they have a "NOTE" in their system that tells them not to do this for me again. He made it clear that it was a one time complimetary change. Fine with me.

Thanks for you reply. I do have a little more respect for this airline than any other airline because of this transaction. I hope the intinerary goes as smoothly.

Aloha,

Bill R

Just FYI, most "notes" are reservation-specific, not traveler-specific. So, if you need help next year, I would call again and try the same thing.@:-)

Just FYI, most "notes" are reservation-specific, not traveler-specific. So, if you need help next year, I would call again and try the same thing.@:-)

Thats good to know...thanks! I love this forum:)

Bill R