Originally Posted by
jsloan
Happy to help, and yes that does make more sense.
And, yes, I should have considered the return trip. Still, it's $25, not $35. $35 is the second bag fee, which isn't waived for Silver. Basically, you will get a total of three free pieces -- one each -- on United. If any of you have a second bag, it would be $35. (And, a third bag would be $200).
As for Hawaiian -- each of you should sign up for a free HawaiianMiles account, which will get you a discount on your bags to $15 for the first bag (per person) and $20 for any second bag.
Whatever decision you make, I hope this helps, and have a great trip.
Originally Posted by
WineCountryUA
That agent was confusing the credit card benefit (only 1 companion receive first bag waiver) with the Silver benefit (all companions on the PNR receive first bag waiver).
Note the waivers only apply when checking in for an UA operated flight,
Thanks everyone for the quick replies. We wound up renting snorkel equipment for $5 per person per day from Boss Frog's (x2 - my wife doesn't snokel) and were very happy with it; their gear was way better than the crappy stuff we'd rented several years ago at various Caribbean resort towns. I did sign all of us up for Hawaiian Air frequent flier accounts, but since they were booked on Delta points (which I have coming out of my ears due to work travel), they said they cannot apply our Hawaiian frequent flier numbers to the reservation. I checked later and the T&Cs do say that the only FF number attached to a PNR has to be the Hawaiian FF account. I was a little peeved, but finally just let it go and paid the $25 per bag for 2 bags and carried the others on. A minor inconvenience, but a total of $20 each leg wasn't worth the heartburn of trying to fight it further.
And yes, I eventually did figure out the UA rep was thinking the Silver companion upgrade benefit. Interestingly, there was a problem with *my* PNR (not the wife and daughter) and I was unable to check-in online or using the automated kiosks at the airport. We never did figure out what the problem was, but I suspect it was because the flight was booked by Singapore there was some sort of issue there. They had to get a supervisor involved, who contacted their help desk, and after about 15 minutes they were able to get me checked in, with the free bag allowance included. The interesting part is that they had to split my PNR off from my wife/daughter and they 'inherited' my silver status such that when we got to the gate they had both been upgraded to Economy Plus seats on the long-haul portion of the trip. And I hadn't! But after speaking with the agent, we got it 'fixed' so that I got upgraded as well. The same thing pretty much happened on the return trip, with the exception that I had to get a supervisor to waive the checked bag fees for my wife/daughter when we checked in for the HNL-ORD leg since we were now on separate PNRs. Certainly a one-off type of situation, but I'm not complaining!
Anyway, thanks again for the replies!