hans

This is the third time in my last three inter-island flights that Hawaiian has dramatically changed my schedule. In the latest example, I booked a November flight KOA-HNL leaving at 5:38 PM. OK, I know flight times change over a couple of months but when I checked this itinerary on-line, I'm now on a flight leaving Kona at 10:03 am. When I called, the answer (after being disconnected the first time and waiting on-hold 15 minutes the second time) was that they had some schedule changes.

There's still a flight at 5:38 but with a different number. Why move me 7.5 hours earlier and not tell me? Did they think it wouldn't make any difference to me? Why not leave me at 5:38 with the new flight number? The 10:03 flight has a different number as well; it's not like the previous 5:38 flight number is now being used for the earlier flight. I have business Saturday morning on the Big Island; that's why I booked a late afternoon return flight.

As I noted at the start of this rant, this is the third time in a row for this kind of change. What's up with Hawaiian?

Richard1148

Your post made me take a look at my next reservation and I also had a schedule change, but only from 8:46 AM to 8:51 AM. The change they made to yours is incomprehensible.

Ukalady

Thanks for the heads up--all four of my November flight times changed. Two were an hour later... The other two were eight minutes later and 48 minutes earlier. Grrr...I really wish they'd at least e-mail when they do that so I could forward the e-mail to my TripIt account and it'd update my trip automatically...

formeraa

Airlines have rudimentary schedule change algorithms -- mainly because they're not viewed as a revenue generator. For some reason, the algorithm changed your flight time dramatically. I had this happen on virtually every airline over the past 30+ years when I've booked early. My college roommate actually had a date change on a DTW-BOS flight (they cancelled all flights on Saturdays -- anyone remember Republic?) that he wasn't informed about.

The key is to keep an eye on your reservation, check it every week or two for changes, and be proactive. Ranting gets it off your chest, but honestly I don't expect things to get better anytime soon. After all, this is an airline that has put up with substandard facilities at HNL for years -- even though they're are HNL's best tenant.

JeffP

I understand airlines have schedule changes, but when they move you to a different flight and still have a flight leaving at the original time, that is just wrong. That is not a "schedule change". I discovered we also have the same problem for flights booked in February.

chuckworth

I just called HA regarding a time change they e-mailed me about for an upcoming flight that is about a month away. The CS rep mentioned that they couldn’t change or refund the flight unless the time change is greater than 4 hours. 4+ hours seems like an unreasonably large window of time to trigger a waiver of the change/cancellation fees due to their action. I could understand for a couple of minutes but 4 hours is a lot of time. She did offer to hold the funds good for use for one year but those would still be subject to the normal change fee at rebooking. Even worse in my mind, you are then forced to call reservations to rebook versus booking online = higher fares. Very customer unfriendly policy for an itinerary change on HA's part!

formeraa

Then, you must not fly much. It happens -- it's a computer program, not a human. What's WRONG is when you call in and they refuse to move you back to the flight at the same time like the previous poster.

If I were the previous poster, I would either call HA back and ask for a supervisor OR I would call HA Customer Affairs in Honolulu.

TWATWA

I agree! If Hawaiian refuses to help and honor the poster's original flight, epsecially since it is there this needs to be reported. Hawaiian is not known for great customer service in the Islands though, so it will be interested to see if they fix the situation without anymore hassle then has already taken place.

JeffP

HA had more schedule changes on our flight this week. I finally convinced them to consider the total changes from the original ticket but they still wouldn't allow us to change back to the flight leaving 3 minutes from the original departure time. The total changes were enough to allow us to cancel the ticket. Now we will just buy a ticket AGAIN on the original flight and see what happens.

formeraa

Absolutely ridiculous!!! Thank goodness I fly directly to HNL out of PHX, where there is exactly ONE flight per day!

Antonio8069

Interesting. 4+ hours is the "new" policy at UA as well. No one has been able to cite an enforceable (legal) standard so I am calling HA to ask for my own changes! At least UA asks me to "accept" sked changes!