Originally Posted by ILuvParis

Several months ago I paid for an upgrade to "Extra Comfort" for flights to and from LAX for flights that are occurring over the next two weeks.

Recently, I noticed that my seat was no longer in "Extra Comfort," but regular economy. I saw the little dialogue box on the web page, so I began a dialogue. (BTW, exact same thing happened to my partner - different outbound flights, returning together).

They apologized for my inconvenience and then told me they would put me back in "Extra Comfort" for the return and process a refund for the outbound as there were no available seats in "Extra Comfort."

I said that wasn't sufficient. Why wasn't the last person who had paid for "Extra Comfort," downgraded to regular economy? After all, had I not been improperly downgraded, that person could not have been upgraded. Absent that, it seems I should be awarded some bonus miles for the mistake. I was told that they could not offer any compensation whatsoever, but linked me to a complaint form.

I filled out the complaint form, explaining the problem and was advised that the terms of carriage made it clear that there would be no compensation for a "change in schedule."

How frustrating. I know better than to expect anything reasonable from Hawaiian, but when they don't care enough to actually read the complaint (or bother to understand it), it's pretty annoying. Further, since this happened to two of us on different itineraries and flights, I assume it's some sort of scam to sell Extra Comfort, screw people over, and then hope people don't request a refund.

Originally Posted by 747FC

Well, lets see. The possibility exists that someone in HA has intentionally designed a system to screw the little guy. Alternatively, have you investigated an alternative hypothesis that the seat chart for your flight has changed, and your original seats are no longer available? Or, maybe there was an IT bug and that there was no intention by HA to screw you? Your choice as to which alternative you believe.

I agree with you in this respect: HA should have offered you compensation for their failure to perform to a standard that a reasonable customer would expect: Order a product/service? Either deliver it as promised, or provide goodwill compensation as a service recovery effort.

Originally Posted by ILuvParis

The "alternative hypothesis" is unlikely because the same thing happened to someone else with a different ticket (one to OGG, the other to HNL). When he called Hawaiian to ask why, he was put back in his original seats, as was I on the return trip. On the outbound, there were no seats available in Extra Comfort, so I was offered a refund. (I guess I'm lucky that they didn't decide to keep that too.)

So, I received another response yesterday, after I told them it was obvious no one had read my original complaint:

Originally Posted by Kumulani

A while ago a guy came up from the back of the plane and started arguing with someone in an Extra Comfort seat near me. He claimed that he paid for the seat, but his boarding pass had him in the back of the plane. Since Mr. Already Seated had a boarding pass for that seat and Mr. Back Of The Plane didn't, Mr. Already Seated of course responded that it wasn't his problem and that he needed to take it up with HA. Eventually it was apparent that Mr. Back Of The Plane just couldn't control his temper, so was kicked off the plane. At the time pretty much everyone who overhead the exchange thought that Mr. Back Of The Plane was full of it, but from hearing your experience, maybe HA has indeed been having IT problems. Perhaps it has something to do with the rollout of the new A330 seatmap?

However, I don't see why they would owe you anything other than a refund. At the end of the day you paid for them to fly you across the Pacific in a standard coach seat, and they did, so there isn't really anything else to it.