I wanted to go to Tahiti this summer and the only airline serving that destination from Hawaii is Hawaiian Airlines. My son is under 12 years old and according to the contract of carriage on HA website is entitled to a child fare.

So I go online and try purchase our tickets only to find out that it does not give my son his child fare. So I call HA and am told that the only way I can get a child fare is to call the reservation department. But if I do that, I will also have to pay a $25 fee.

So my 2 choices are either book online and pay 3 full fares or book 2 full fares online and the child fare through the phone + pay the $25 fee. Of course I chose option 2. The difference in price was almost $400.

So now I am trying to dispute that $25 fee and so far the only answer I got was NO. HA policy says that you book through the phone = you pay the fee.

I do not think it is fair that the only way to book a discounted child fare is only via the phone and get slapped a fee.

As a test, I went on Expedia and it quoted me a two adults + one child fare.

So now I have 2 confirmation numbers and initially the reservation agent could not assign a seat to my son for the flight back (that was resolved after more phone calls).

Who knew it would be that difficult to book 3 tickets for our summer trip. Next time I'll stick with going to the mainland.