IAH-OIL-TRASH

Let me start out by saying that Island Air, on the few times I have taken it, has been OK.

That being said, I was supposed to be on 2:09p flight today OGG-HNL for a 5pm function at UH-Manoa. Return tomorrow. Plane from HNL had to turn back and they had to get replacement. New plane arrived OGG near 4pm. At that time, I figured with passenger unload, passenger load, flight time, time to Thrifty, rental process, drive in HNL traffic to Manoa, it be close to 6 before I got there.

In the meantime, they had endorsed the mainland-bound passengers over to Hawaiian. They wouldn't do the same for me, even though I had documentation of my function. Fine - trip in vain - give me a refund.

"Call the 1-800 number"
I did - "No refund" was the answer. I said "trip-in vain".... Was put on hold and then told to go to airport counter. I did - " we don't deal with tickets like that - call the 1-800 number." I did - " you have to call customer relations at a different 1-800 number"

Locals taking Island Air for a time-specific event can be messed over by the lack of frequency. The tourists were taken care of. Maybe that's why I didn't notice a higher percentage of locals in the gate area. I watched 3 Honolulu-bound HA jets taking off while waiting for tardy Island Air turbo-prop. If I was going to HNL without the time constraints, I wouldn't be huhu about this and would have tolerated the lengthy delay.

Just a rant and I'll post what their customer relations come back with. Refund would be nice, or a credit for future use.

Update: got very quick response from Customer Relations. They gave me credit and will waive change fee and fare class difference on future booking. Pleased with response, but still annoyed about missing function.

I'll probably still use Island Air as long as I don't have a function on the same day on another Island.

slippahs

All's well that ends well, I guess. I've come to rely on HA for reliability and get me to my destination within +/- 20 minutes of the scheduled departure time. If you need to be somewhere at a certain time, fly HA, don't fly WP or MW. The reasons aren't just reliability but it's schedule frequency so there's a backup if you absolutely need to be somewhere, and the 717s can handle weather better in the event of storms. Worth the extra $, IMHO.

stravels

Did you ask when they would endorse to HA? If they wouldn't do it for the function that you were to attend would they also not do it for doctor's appointment, etc.? Haven't flown AI in a long time, but noticed that now that Go! is gone the delayed/cancelled flights flashing on the boards are usually AI.