My Step-Mother has been a flight attendant for AQ for 35 years. It's the only job she has ever had. It appears they won't be getting their March paychecks either. It's a sad day in the Islands.
TalkBoard Member/Moderator: Travel Safety/Security, Alaska Mileage Plan, CommunityBuzz!, OMNI and OMNI/PR
Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: Currently: Southern California
Programs: Rapidly Burning Miles and Points with Delta and Marriott
Posts: 18,139
Quote:
Originally Posted by DanTravels
What did I miss out on, that I'll now never have the chance to experience?
Direct service from a user-friendly, not to mention close to my home, airport (SNA vs. LAX).
Eight AM departure from CA, noon arrival in Maui. No change of planes. Most every airline required a change of planes in HNL.
Very friendly FA's.
Meal service that kicks the legacy carriers butt from here to wherever. FC meals on AQ's transpac service were three or four course events spread out over a couple hours. Top quality food served on real china.
DL, as a contrast, (and as a 6 million-miler on DL I have flown them more than a few times to Hawaii), left LAX at 5 PM, arrived OGG at 9 PM, first day in paradise shot to hell. FC meal service, all plastic-ware, was a corn pizza flung at your seat 20 minutes after departure.
And I forgot the biggie.
AQ would have a direct flight back to the mainland from OGG at noon each day. DL only offered a red-eye leaving at 11:45 at night, thirteen hours after you had to vacate your Maui hotel.
Other than those few differences, AQ was pretty much the same as everybody else.
A person familiar with the negotiations told Pacific Business News that a deal with Hawaiian was seen as a "last resort" by Aloha executives, who have been trying to find a buyer for the debt-ridden airline since it declared bankruptcy on March 20.
Under the deal, Hawaiian would have acquired Aloha and kept the smaller airline operating interisland and possibly on some Mainland routes and would have continued the Aloha brand for at least several years.
Programs: United 1P Alaska MP Cessna/Piper Captain
Posts: 144
Well, I'm going to have to call Orbitz again. I've got a trip to LIH scheduled for next Sunday (4/6). HA 25 from PDX to HNL and AQ 71 on to LIH, returning on the 12th. All the idiots at Orbitz could recommend is cancel the entire itineray and get my money back. Fat chance. I'm still going on the 6th. Guess I'll have to call them again and find out what the AQ portion of the whole fare was.
Oh, and the United flights that I could have taken in place of AQ are full. Surprise, surprise.
Sorry, all, but I booked the HNL - LIH - HNL legs on Go!. Got to salvage the vacation. And re-scheduling is not an option. $280 for two people rt.
I'm Premier Exective on United. Remind me again why I didn't just burn miles last October when I booked this trip?
Programs: Random acts of kindness and senseless beauty
Posts: 857
Thank you all
Thanks to the info I found here, we bought Hawaiian tickets for our family of 6 HNL-LIH for May. The Aloha tickets were $49 each way; the ones on Hawaiian were $79 HNL-LIH and $59 LIH-HNL. I presume we will get a refund from out credit card company, so I think all things considered we will we have done pretty well. I am sure the prices will only go up.
Flyertalk rocks!
__________________
You can't have a favorite place until you have seen them all. -- Hyatt ad
Programs: AA Platinum (lifetime), Starwood Gold, lotsa miles on UA and NW too, but just a basic member now.
Posts: 7
Code share runaround
I have a reservation on Aloha around Thanksgiving time from the mainland to Maui, connecting in the islands both ways. The mainland flights are code-share flights on United planes.
According to Aloha's FAQ on their web site, the code-share flights on United would still be honored. But when I called United to confirm that, and to ask what my options were regarding the interisland flights, United told me that since the ticket was on Aloha stock, they couldn't do anything with the interisland flights and weren't sure if the United portions (with AQ flight numbers) would be honored. They told me I needed to cancel the original reservation and rebook.
Seems like classic finger-pointing by both sides, with no real way to verify what's correct (Aloha isn't answering their phones, or maybe the lines are just jammed.) So I'm disputing the charge with my credit card company and will rebook.
Programs: AA: PLT MM, HA: Pualani Tinfoil, UA: 125 Grocery Miles at a time!
Posts: 16,732
I've never flown either of the Hawaiian airlines to or from the mainland, but fly inter-island quite often. I would only fly AQ if the cheap flights were gone on HA (nor could I imagine why anyone else would - other than UAMP). I'm sorry for all the jobs lost, but my concern now will be prices. I just bought a HNL-LIH-HNL ticket on HA for May a couple of days ago. I wonder what the going rate will be after things settle down.
Location: San Antonio, TX; CO Platinum; DL Gold; UA Premier Executive
Posts: 9,298
Although I only flew AQ twice, both times on ancient 737-200s, I am sorry to see AQ go. I can't imagine their departure will bode well for inexpensive inter-island fares.
It is also disconcerting to see the "you have two days to redeem your frequent flier miles or else" announcement, even though I am not personally impacted. How badly have our resident Hawaiians been affected? Or did you guys see the writing on the wall and liquidate your mileage balances long before today's announcement?
Sad to see them go. Their OAK-LAS and former SNA-LAS flights kept some key mainland fares in check. The 737-200s were also an interesting piece. It made flying NWA seem like traveling on a modern aircraft.
Quote:
Originally Posted by daviator
I have a reservation on Aloha around Thanksgiving time from the mainland to Maui, connecting in the islands both ways. The mainland flights are code-share flights on United planes.
<snip>
Seems like classic finger-pointing by both sides, with no real way to verify what's correct (Aloha isn't answering their phones, or maybe the lines are just jammed.) So I'm disputing the charge with my credit card company and will rebook.
Welcome to FlyerTalk, daviator!! Glad to have you here albeit in stressful times. As for United, you were probably speaking to their often incompetent Indian call center which you can learn all about in the United forum. Per the United website, your flights from the mainland aboard UA will be fine. Your interisland flights are canceled. Thankfully, you have plenty of time to work a viable solution with United or antother airline for the interisland flights.
AQ also had fresh baked chocolate chip cookies, mai tais, and extremely friendly service (in comparison to experiences on other carriers). Their last minute/specials pricing was amazing.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cholula
Direct service from a user-friendly, not to mention close to my home, airport (SNA vs. LAX).
Eight AM departure from CA, noon arrival in Maui. No change of planes. Most every airline required a change of planes in HNL.
Very friendly FA's.
Meal service that kicks the legacy carriers butt from here to wherever. FC meals on AQ's transpac service were three or four course events spread out over a couple hours. Top quality food served on real china.
DL, as a contrast, (and as a 6 million-miler on DL I have flown them more than a few times to Hawaii), left LAX at 5 PM, arrived OGG at 9 PM, first day in paradise shot to hell. FC meal service, all plastic-ware, was a corn pizza flung at your seat 20 minutes after departure.
And I forgot the biggie.
AQ would have a direct flight back to the mainland from OGG at noon each day. DL only offered a red-eye leaving at 11:45 at night, thirteen hours after you had to vacate your Maui hotel.
Other than those few differences, AQ was pretty much the same as everybody else.
