Hawaiian Airlines - Bid-Up to First Class
 

saw this today ...

https://www.hawaiianairlines.com/leg...and-conditions

some key points:
Offers are only eligible on flights, dates and destinations operated and selected by Hawaiian Airlines in its sole and absolute discretion.

Only one Offer may be submitted per eligible flight segment in a booking. An Offer may subsequently be cancelled or modified in accordance with these Terms and Conditions.

Offers can only be paid for by most credit and debit cards.

Passengers are only permitted to submit, modify or cancel an Offer up to 48 hours prior to scheduled departure, provided that such passenger’s Offer has not already been accepted by Hawaiian Airlines and provided such passenger’s credit or debit card has not been charged.

Offers can be assessed by Hawaiian Airlines at any time during the period after an Offer is submitted up until 48 hours prior to the scheduled departure date of the flight to which the Offer relates. All passengers who make an Offer will be notified no later than 26 hours prior to the scheduled departure date of the relevant flight of the outcome of their Offer via email to the email address provided by the passenger when the original Offer was submitted.

Received email to bid on upcoming OAK-HNL. Placed upgrade bid at $200/seat for 3 seats, both legs.

I just received an email to bid up. Upgrade bid starts at $190.

Looks like this could eliminate Pualani Platinum and Gold Members chances of upgrading with points or discounted fees as currently allowed, because there will never be any available seats if they sell them all. Being a platinum member, I'm not too excited about this program.

Luckily, I have already used my free first class upgrades for 2016.

My upgrade offer starts at $0 (no offer) up to $750, both legs OAK-HNL. My "offer strength" at $200 per person is "poor". $260 offer is fair, $390 is good, $525 is strong and $650 is excellent.

Curious why yours started at $190.

Anyone else think that bidding is an absurd program? They might as well put Plats and Golds in a stadium and turn them into gladiators.

"Resistance is futile"... I for one am not a fan of someone biding to get into F or even a beater seat that I could have as an elite. But that's how things are shaking out these days.

I take my airline and hotel status as perks and make then count whenever possible. Otherwise, I guess I join the races myself when it come to airline seats.

I opt in to purchase that seat I want at the time of booking and then look for the unexpected upgrade that may or may not happen.

Sorry for the confusion. Yes, it starts at zero (which as you stated is not an offer) and the lowest offer amount available to purchase from zero is $190.

As a customer, there may be a number of reasons why I don't like the bidding process. However, as far back as the 1950's, bidding has been academically proposed as the optimal way to fill airline cabins. The academic work is convincing, but the practical implementation has always been difficult.

But it is clear that elite benefits such as free upgrades and/or miles upgrades are slowly going away and/or diminishing in value as airlines strive to find ways to generate incremental revenue.

I put in the lowest bid for 4 seats to SFO in August. Cant hurt to try.

The real big loser are the non-revs who always seem to score the empty seats.

Data point. Offer not accepted.

My bid range on HNL-LAS in Sept is $290-850

My bid range on PHX-HNL in Dec is $170-800

Will probably not bother with either.

Just curious... are those of you who are bidding possibly aware of Alaska's frequent flyer program? If you fly at least 4 yearly round trips between Alaska's mainland cities and any of their Hawaii destinations, then Alaska will upgrade you into first class free of charge. The upgrade is painless and happens automatically when the departure date gets close (you are notified by email) and works only if they have availability in First on a given flight, of course, so book flights accordingly. It gets even better. If you fly 8 yearly round trips (MVP Gold), then even ticket change fees will be waved (but not fare difference) and the likelihood you will be upgraded to First for free is quite high (has been 80% for me in biweekly flights between HNL/OGG/KOA and SJC/OAK/SEA/SMF). Why bother bidding hundreds of dollars if the competition gives First away as a frequent flyer benefit? (Disclosure: I am not associated with Alaska, just a happy customer.)

I think this is another way of showing Hawaiian's elite fliers how unimportant they are to Hawaiian. It's bad enough that it's hard to use the platinum first class upgrade certificates, but now this. Well, looking at the bright side, at least first class will be filled with regular customers and not just non-revs.

Exactly.

Are the new first class lie flats behind this new bidding initiative? A lot of us aviation buffs love *the idea* of these new seats. What if, for many city pairs that Hawaiian flies today, these seats remain empty? Precious A330 space will go unused and the cool economy comfort "mini cabin" will be cut in half. What if the economy drops in 6 months or so? Who will bid then? (Please don't misunderstand -- I can see lie flat making sense on some routes, but only on very few red eye Hawaiian routes served by the current mix of customers that book Hawaiian.)

The bidding process is a way to try to get those precious lie flat seat paid for. As a (possibly unintended consequence) we frequent flyers are squeezed even further. (As if making us wait for Economy Comfort upgrades until 1 hour before departure wasn't insulting enough!) There seems to be no product manager or similar role inside Hawaiian that is able to analyze and understand the business benefits we regulars can offer Hawaiian as a group. To advocate for us in the face of "shiny object syndrome" driven initiatives such as lie flat seats. More and more of us live in Hawaii and make our living in California or in the Far East. Years ago we even negotiated our own program (ATA Flightbank), but then somehow we stopped organizing ourselves when the 2008 recession hit.

Meanwhile, Alaska's Frequent flyer program has another substantial benefit for us. Unlike on Hawaiian, with Alaska Air you accumulate mileage on several very attractive partner airlines such as Emirates. And you can book (and change free of charge !!!) reward tickets on these attractive airlines on Alaska's web site months ahead without ever needing to call an agent. Last year, I was able to send my wife all the way from Kona to Munich Germany in Emirates Business Class using points accumulated on just a dozen regular KOA/OGG - SJC/OAK/SMF/EWR trips. She is still talking about the Emirates A380 upper level bar as one of the best experiences of her life...

As you know HA can adjust the rules at any time to offer freebies to anybody it wants anytime it wants. It has chosen not to offer them in the same generous manner a la Alaska, United, etc. Why?

Because they feel they can eventually sell most/if not all 18 F seats (whether for full-fare, miles, or bidding/OLCI). And, earning money or getting miles off its books is a better thing for HA than handing out the seats free. In an era where airlines are cutting elite benefits such as free upgrades in order to increase revenue, I think HA has simply "cut-to-the-chase" whereas other airlines are gradually diminishing benefit values so not to p**s off their elite customers en masse...with the ultimate goal of monetizing all their premium seats.

Not saying I agree with what HA is doing, but given they have never been overly-generous with elite upgrades from the beginning, I don't see them reversing course to an Alaska or US3 type upgrade system ever...