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Hawaiian Airlines - Bid-Up to First Class

Old Sep 27, 2016, 8:36 am
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Last edit by: yahrite808
Please report results of your bids

Include date, airports, # of pax, your bid/seat

Successful

Aug 10, 2016, HNL-SFO, 2 pax, cost of upgrade at check-in
Sep 30, 2016, SJC-OGG, 2 pax, $225
Sep XX, 2017 OGG-LAX, 1 pax $335
Sep XX, 2017 OGG-SEA, 1 pax $375
Sep 23, 2017 SFO-HNL, 2 pax $335 ea
July 14, 2018 OAK-OGG 2 pax $245 ea (minimum bid). Note that 5 F seats were available at 48 hours prior.
October 14, 2018 HNL - LAX $300 (min bid) red eye flight.
November 2, 2018 LAX-LIH 2 pax, $300 each
Feb 16, 2019 OGG-SJC 2 pax $330 ea (only two F seats available 48 hours prior)
July 2022 HNL > PDX 1 pax $300

Unsuccessful

Jun 22, 2016, OAK-HNL, 3 pax, $200
Jun 29, 2016, HNL-OAK, 3 pax, $200
Aug 10, 2016, HNL-SFO, 4 pax, lowest level
Sep 23, 2016, SFO-OGG, 2 pax, lowest level
Sep 29, 2016, OAK-HNL, 3 pax, $200
Jun 23, 2017, PHX-HNL, 1 pax $305
Aug 6, 2017, HNL-LAS, 2 pax, $310
Mar 4, 2018, PHX-HNL, 1 pax, $450
April 2019, HNL-LAS, 2 pax, $420
July 29, 2019 PDX - HNL (A321) $375
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Hawaiian Airlines - Bid-Up to First Class

Old Aug 13, 2018, 8:16 pm
  #106  
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Join Date: Feb 2001
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Originally Posted by ShinyO
Hi all,...
Hi there, ShinyO. I'm not sure, but I don't think you can bid for the upgrade until something like a week before the flight when you get the email. Regardless, they're not going to make a decision until somewhere around 24-48 hours before your flight. The idea for the airline is to get something rather than nothing for the premium seats. But they can't sell the premium product too cheap, else it would hurt full-price sales.

Look at the wiki at the start of this thread to get a sense for bids that won and lost. Good luck.
ShinyO likes this.
dhuey is online now  
Old Aug 24, 2018, 10:25 pm
  #107  
 
Join Date: May 2009
Location: California
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SFO-HNL on A330, Cleared 7 days prior. $275. Lowest price allowed. 8 seats are still open.
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Old Aug 30, 2018, 10:05 am
  #108  
 
Join Date: Aug 2018
Posts: 1
Hardly seems worth it.

I was just checking flights for next year. From San Diego to Maui - SAN - OGG on HA 37 is $384.30 coach or $734.40 first class. That's exactly a difference of $350.

Based on the succesful bid ups I see - very few are less than $300. I'm not seeing substantial savings. This seems to be more marketing ploy to sell off the seats near what they would have cost anyway.
jcherrie11 is offline  
Old Sep 7, 2018, 4:57 pm
  #109  
 
Join Date: Aug 2011
Posts: 2
Originally Posted by eeflyer
Hi, thanks for your report! I was going to update the wiki but wanted to clarify, do you mean you had bids accepted for 6 seats? Or got one seat confirmed with 6 seats available in the cabin?
I'm sorry i did not reply in the same year :-). That means I had bids accepted for 6 seats. I dont recall how many were available... I think 6...
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Old Oct 14, 2018, 6:49 pm
  #110  
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Min bid $300 accepted HNL - LAX red eye flight. Got an email a few days before asking if I wanted to increase my chances and bid more. Kept original bid.
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Old Oct 31, 2018, 1:47 pm
  #111  
 
Join Date: Jul 2018
Posts: 187
Bid offer by email but no seats available?

I received a bid upgrade offer by email for flight HA45 SJC to OGG Nov 10.

I was was tempted to bid because I had originally booked their preferred seats for some extra legroom but got downgraded due to an aircraft swap and bumped from row 11 back to row 30.

The last time I checked the HA website it listed a couple open seats in first, both in the center section (its a 767). Today I checked and the HA website shows there are no available seats on the plane.

Do I bother placing a bid? I would do the min bid if its not too onerous.

There are two of us. I tried to rebook in first after we were downgraded but HA wanted almost $1200 to change seats. Also its my first time flying HA and I have read that the 767s arent anything to write home about. I believe they are set to start flying the A321neo on that route the following week.
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Old Oct 31, 2018, 2:19 pm
  #112  
 
Join Date: Jan 2013
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Originally Posted by ShinyO
Do I bother placing a bid? I would do the min bid if its not too onerous.
If you are thinking of placing the minimum bid, you are wasting your time. You have a supply/demand issue, and your bid would have to reflect that reality.
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Old Oct 31, 2018, 2:23 pm
  #113  
 
Join Date: Jul 2018
Posts: 187
I suppose if theres no supply then theres no point in bidding. But if there is really no supply, as their website shows, why would they offer bidding?
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Old Oct 31, 2018, 2:32 pm
  #114  
 
Join Date: Jan 2013
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Originally Posted by ShinyO
I suppose if theres no supply then theres no point in bidding. But if there is really no supply, as their website shows, why would they offer bidding?
For the same reason airlines overbook...
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Old Oct 31, 2018, 7:31 pm
  #115  
 
Join Date: Nov 2017
Location: ORD
Posts: 22
Originally Posted by ShinyO
I suppose if theres no supply then theres no point in bidding. But if there is really no supply, as their website shows, why would they offer bidding?
Seat maps are really not a great indication of actual supply. Many airlines, including Hawaiian, will block seats on the seat map for gate assignment only (even if they are still selling that seat). This gives gate agents some room to help solve last-minute problems like separated families, "I want a window seat", etc. In your case, looking at the GDS availability might be a better solution (via ExpertFlyer or some other source). Right now, your flight is showing as:

1HA 45 F1 J1 P0 C0 A0 D0 Y7*SJCOGG 5 700A 1030A 763 B 0 /E
W7 X7 Q7 V7 B7 S7 N7 M6
So there's likely one seat left in first, unless HA is overselling up front, which seems unlikely in a leisure market with a small-ish cabin, with at least seven (and probably more) left in back. So while you're unlikely to have two bids clear, as it would require someone else changing/cancelling, it never hurts to put in an offer if you're interested since you don't have to pay if you don't get it.
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Old Nov 1, 2018, 1:52 am
  #116  
 
Join Date: Jul 2018
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Thanks! I was hoping someone might have a better idea of actual availability (Id forgotten the name of the service - expertflyer). I did put in the minimum bid since theres no harm in it if I dont win it, though it seems unlikely with one seat left.
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Old Nov 1, 2018, 11:39 am
  #117  
 
Join Date: Jan 2013
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Originally Posted by CRJ200flyer
Seat maps are really not a great indication of actual supply. Many airlines, including Hawaiian, will block seats on the seat map for gate assignment only (even if they are still selling that seat). This gives gate agents some room to help solve last-minute problems like separated families, "I want a window seat", etc. In your case, looking at the GDS availability might be a better solution (via ExpertFlyer or some other source). Right now, your flight is showing as:



So there's likely one seat left in first, unless HA is overselling up front, which seems unlikely in a leisure market with a small-ish cabin, with at least seven (and probably more) left in back. So while you're unlikely to have two bids clear, as it would require someone else changing/cancelling, it never hurts to put in an offer if you're interested since you don't have to pay if you don't get it.
EF does show F1, but the seat map shows all filled. I do believe HA does oversell F, but I may be wrong.

Originally Posted by ShinyO
Thanks! I was hoping someone might have a better idea of actual availability (Id forgotten the name of the service - expertflyer). I did put in the minimum bid since theres no harm in it if I dont win it, though it seems unlikely with one seat left.
No harm at all.
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Old Nov 2, 2018, 12:56 am
  #118  
 
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Southern California
Posts: 128
LAX-HNL-LIH 11/02/18. Bid $300. Several days later was offered the "opportunity" to bid higher, but opted to stay at $300. I don't recall the minimum bid, sorry. I just got the email accepting my offer. I suspected I was going to get it because there were five first class seats open as of yesterday. This morning two were gone and I hadn't gotten an email with a response yet, so my guess was that they were waiting to see if anyone was going to increase their bid. Maybe not, but I'm happy at $300 a pop.

As a side note, yesterday was the first day a seat could be chosen. Up until then, their was an error code when attempting to view the seat map. HA customer service said the aircraft hadn't been determined, hence the wait. I thought that was unusual. I hoped it would be the A330, and it is. All the flights I've seen from LAX-HNL are the A330, and I was glad that remained the case.
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Old Nov 3, 2018, 3:57 pm
  #119  
 
Join Date: Nov 2015
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AKL-HNL, bid $700/ticket, 2 pax, did not get it. EF showed 6 open seats at time of bid
weibelt is offline  
Old Nov 22, 2018, 11:36 pm
  #120  
 
Join Date: Jul 2018
Posts: 187
SJC-OGG Nov 10 $245 per passenger, 2 pax. Unsuccessful (though as noted above there was only 1 first class seat available.)

I didnt think I missed much after seeing the F seats on the 767 out of SJC. Our lie-flat seats on the A330 to LAX for the return trip were pretty nice though. (Upgrades w/miles)
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