martin33

au contraire. on AA, Hawaii routes are treated just like any others in the North America/Caribbean/Central America elite upgrade zone: free for top level ex plat, and the usual paid or earned credits for lower two levels. also free for any Y/B fare passenger, though without any status it's only same-day availability.

WebTraveler

http://www.americawest.com/awa/conte...ontiguous.aspx

The regular award chart lists the mileage redemption requirements. 35K for a round trip. Thats decent. How much availability will there really be? If USAir actually does merge, any redemption possibilities will be extremely tight. Good luck to anyone who actually tries.....

khkchan

Just received an email from HP.

Elite First Class upgrade requires a $200 co-pay each way except Y & H fares to Hawaii.

Just hope that this trend will not propagate to other markets.

simba_az

OK, so I've been looking for flights on Hawaiian Airlines website (comparing fares and such) and I've noticed that you cannot book a flight on Hawaiian Airlines from HNL to PHX after December 14. The PHX to HNL flights still exist at this point. (Also, I noticed that the early Dec fares for Hawaiian seem pretty low, $159 per direction if you are a Hawaiian Miles member.) Is this maybe a temporary glitch, or could this mean that Hawaiian is ending their nonstop service?

simba_az

Well, I guess it must have been a temporary glitch, as all HA flights between HNL and PHX show available again.

WebTraveler

Time between Thanksgiving and Christmas is not all that busy. Once Christmas rolls around, fares go through the roof. Typically from experience, flights are completely full and airlines charge whatever they charge during Christmas since they know someone will be willing to pay for it.

For the time being, Hawaiian will continue to serve Phoenix.

Is America West establishing its own station in any of the Hawaii markets, or will they be contracting from someone?

iCorpRoadie

Why when Mesa is the largest airline in the US?

dlen111

NW does not offer free elite upgrades to HI even though their service is almosts identical to domestic service.

CO does not offer free elite upgrades to HI. they do however allow anyone to use miles and pay a fee ranging from $250-$350 (not quite sure on the amount) for a confirmed upgrade. i do believe they also offer some type of buy up upgrade to anyone on day of deptarture. its a lot for an upgrade but CO offers service very similar to their int'l busienssfirst service on the HI routes, so it makes it a bit more worth it.

asu-ua772

Probably not. Ground handling wise, work will most likely be contracted out to AQ, HA, or a company specialising in this. The last group I would expect to get their contract is UA. Doubt there will be any crew bases in the short run, or any true HP employees as well.

Corrections always welcomed!
asu-ua772

AZ Travels the World

Sorry...never mind. I found the answer.

sanFF

I am glad to see HP/US get into the Hawaii market again. They were the last major US carrrier to get into the act. I do not like the 757-200 to anywhere over three hours. Might as well be a 737!!!. Aparently there will be meals for sale on the 7 hour flight (what an insult) All other carriers still offer free meals. Are we charging for headsets and pillows too? Mileage reward is fair
at 35k for standard reward is the same for all the others. I hope they are not as stingy as Continental to redeem. Hawaiian I have no problen to go whenever and I can get 5 tickets if I want to. Lastly what about a lounge?
The Northwest Club really sucks in Honolulu but would be better than none.
Better would be to partner with United and get rid of Northwest as far as clubs go. My two cents. I wish HP well on this new route
As for me I will stay with Hawaiian

Bagels

Actual flying time should be less than six hours on this route.

And most other carriers do not offer free snacks/meals from the West Coast to Hawaii: AA, UA and NW offer snacks/meals for sale; DL provides only a WN-style snack (no option to buy) and TZ offers nothing (and no option to buy). Only HA, AQ, CO and NA (note that CO and NA offer one flight each -- much less than the other airlines listed) continue to provide free meals.

Summary:
If you're traveling to HNL this Christmas/New Year's from or via the West Coast on a scheduled service other than Hawaiian or Aloha, you would...

... not receive or couldn't buy a snack or meal on 5 flights.
... have to buy a snack and/or meal on 19 flights.
... receive free WN-style snack on 4 flights.
... receive a free meal on 2 flights.

sanFF

Well if this is true then Hawaiian is the best way to go. Even Aloha has crappy meals and discontinued free drinks (mai tais)in steerage and now charges for headsets. Its sad to see service go to hell like that.

formeraa

Yet, sadly, we want all those things FREE and a $298 roundtrip fare. In the 80's, I flew annually from BOS to HNL roundtrip and paid something like $800 roundtrip (yes that was the lowest fare available). Of course, the service in both F and Y was much better than today. However, do you want to pay $1600 roundtrip today ($800 adjusted for 20 years of inflation)???

Bagels

* Over the past 10 years, the biggest % jumps in ticket prices occured for travel to/from Hawaii -- 15x the national increase for HNL alone:
http://www.bts.gov/programs/economic.../table_01.html

* Hawaii doesn't follow traditional fare models.
- Tickets to Hawaii are rarely sold for cheap. When they are, it's usually because capacity has been flooded into the market (for example, a couple years ago AA, DL, HA and AQ each added significant capacity & mid-winter airfares dropped to $300-$400 inclusive from the East Coast).
- All airlines offer discounted airfares to tour operators in exchange for a percentage of each vacation package sold.
- Hundreds of surf boards are transported between Los Angeles and Honolulu each day... at a huge 'oversized' cost to the passenger.

* Take AA's ORD-HNL for example: rarely do tickets from the Eastern Time Zone drop below $700. AA's collecting further profits from their participation with tour operators (including their own) and transportation of cargo (they frequently fill the plane's cargo hold up with cargo being 'traded' to JAL). To connect with this flight, many passengers had to get up in the wee hours of the morning, arrive at their departing airport before the resturants opened, and endure a short connection at ORD. And now they don't receive any food on this plane, but can buy a small snack box and sandwhich - but NOT A MEAL - for $8. Not only is that a ridiculous offering for a flight in which most people will be on the plane for 10 hours, but factoring in many people won't reach HNL until they've been traveling to HNL for 20 hours with little/no food, it's a ridiculous offering.

Poor service indeed.