2017 Pualani Discounts
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Apr 2011
Programs: HA Pualani Platinum, FPC Premier, HHonors Gold, BA Bronze
Posts: 85
2017 Pualani Discounts
Anyone else notice the decrease in the Pualani coupons this year? $200 off for First class domestic is now $150. $1000 off International Business is now $750...And for Gold members, they don't even get a domestic F coupon, only an Interisland F coupon.
I guess they need to make cut-backs to pay for the $1M/plane retrofitting of the new lie-flats...
I guess they need to make cut-backs to pay for the $1M/plane retrofitting of the new lie-flats...
#2
Join Date: Feb 2014
Programs: AS MVPG, HA Plat 75k, CA Phoenix Gold
Posts: 134
I don't understand why Hawaiian treats their FFP in such a loveless fashion. It has been demonstrated academically that FFPs are key to be more competitive, especially for airlines with strong dominance in one or two airports such as Hawaiian. (For example, see https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/49a...fde42744e4.pdf )
#4
Join Date: Feb 2014
Programs: AS MVPG, HA Plat 75k, CA Phoenix Gold
Posts: 134
Got my Platinum renewal letter, card, and tags last week. Interestingly, the cover letter categorized me as "Gold" (incorrect), while the tags were for Platinum (correct). This is strange, since I assume that the process of sending out these cover letters must be automated
#5
Join Date: Jun 2016
Posts: 7
#6
Join Date: May 2012
Location: HNL
Programs: AS MVPG, HA Plat
Posts: 1,268
I got the gold letter, correctly, but no card or luggage tags this year. No problem, I'm not using the stack I already have, but a little surprising.
On the general issue of HA's indifference to its elites, I think there are a few reasons. First, the loyalty they seem to care about is from tourists flying them on regular trips to Hawaii and spending money on their credit card, not locals. Second, they know that a lot of locals will go for the local option regardless, so they don't need to provide any incentive beyond the name on the plane. And third, their management team seems to be a mix of very good and very mediocre, and I the loyalty program doesn't appear to get much attention from the good ones.
On the general issue of HA's indifference to its elites, I think there are a few reasons. First, the loyalty they seem to care about is from tourists flying them on regular trips to Hawaii and spending money on their credit card, not locals. Second, they know that a lot of locals will go for the local option regardless, so they don't need to provide any incentive beyond the name on the plane. And third, their management team seems to be a mix of very good and very mediocre, and I the loyalty program doesn't appear to get much attention from the good ones.
#7
Join Date: Feb 2014
Programs: AS MVPG, HA Plat 75k, CA Phoenix Gold
Posts: 134
I got the gold letter, correctly, but no card or luggage tags this year. No problem, I'm not using the stack I already have, but a little surprising.
On the general issue of HA's indifference to its elites, I think there are a few reasons. First, the loyalty they seem to care about is from tourists flying them on regular trips to Hawaii and spending money on their credit card, not locals. Second, they know that a lot of locals will go for the local option regardless, so they don't need to provide any incentive beyond the name on the plane. And third, their management team seems to be a mix of very good and very mediocre, and I the loyalty program doesn't appear to get much attention from the good ones.
On the general issue of HA's indifference to its elites, I think there are a few reasons. First, the loyalty they seem to care about is from tourists flying them on regular trips to Hawaii and spending money on their credit card, not locals. Second, they know that a lot of locals will go for the local option regardless, so they don't need to provide any incentive beyond the name on the plane. And third, their management team seems to be a mix of very good and very mediocre, and I the loyalty program doesn't appear to get much attention from the good ones.
Then, I happened to sit next to one of HA's top executives In December and couldn't help but ask whether they as a group might be aware about how many of us elites feel. (I also told about my contrasting experiences with Alaska's FFP and other carriers like Etihad, Hainan, ANA, etc. After all, I am not certain of how many HA employees actually get to experience and fly the competition offerings regularly.) The answer was revealing. "I think that the management we have in charge of customer loyalty and some other areas are kind of really risk averse. US west coast airlines like Alaska and Southwest have a different management culture than us. Their attitude is, if it is not hurting anyone, then why not try something new ?" Hmmm.... so maybe behind the mediocre management in some areas there is a sense that the organization does not back you up if you are in charge of an area and try to change something and it does not immediately pay off? And so it is better to play it safe and just tweak instead of innovate and invent? I used to be a wannabe change agent in a culture with a similarly risk averse organization before and, oh boy, as a young and idealistic engineer it was one of the worst experiences of my career! Maybe in that case things can only improve if the "very good" make it their goal to swing HA's culture somehow.
Last edited by Alex909; Feb 19, 2017 at 10:30 am
#8
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: Hawai'i Nei
Programs: Au: UA, Marriott, Hilton; GE
Posts: 7,141
Then, I happened to sit next to one of HA's top executives In December and couldn't help but ask whether they as a group might be aware about how many of us elites feel. (I also told about my contrasting experiences with Alaska's FFP and other carriers like Etihad, Hainan, ANA, etc. After all, I am not certain of how many HA employees actually get to experience and fly the competition offerings regularly.) The answer was revealing. "I think that the management we have in charge of customer loyalty and some other areas are kind of really risk averse. US west coast airlines like Alaska and Southwest have a different management culture than us. Their attitude is, if it is not hurting anyone, then why not try something new ?" Hmmm.... so maybe behind the mediocre management in some areas there is a sense that the organization does not back you up if you are in charge of an area and try to change something and it does not immediately pay off? And so it is better to play it safe and just tweak instead of innovate and invent? I used to be a wannabe change agent in a culture with a similarly risk averse organization before and, oh boy, as a young and idealistic engineer it was one of the worst experiences of my career! Maybe in that case things can only improve if the "very good" make it their goal to swing HA's culture somehow.
A big factor that may have held down HA's entrepreneurship was the pilot's contract not being settled. There was a big unknown there.
There were some oddities to the expansion created by a "we don't need to do more" culture: Case in point being no lie-flats in F. They have finally woken up to the fact that customers want lie-flats, and they are now having to spend a lot of cash to retrofit previously purchased equipment. However, they still insist on 2-2-2, while a lot of their competition is going 1-2-1. (so, on the domestic side they are better than UA's new 2-4-2 product, but worse than AA and DL).
Their FF program finally made me switch my travel almost exclusively to UA. On UA, I get confirmed "economy comfort" seats at purchase, free F if available, an inventory of saver awards, and the ability to use accumulated miles to actually purchase award seats to basically everywhere in the world with little hassle.
Capitalism and choice is great.
#9
Join Date: Jun 2015
Location: BOS
Programs: AA EXP
Posts: 479
Once HA finishes refitting their cabins, the competition is going to have to seriously up their game if they want to have anything comparable to the west coast. HA is going to have full lie flats, everyone else is going to have crappy domestic recliner seats on narrowbodies. This will continue to be true even after HA starts flying narrowbodies to the west coast (which will presumably have recliner seats) since they are going to keep doing A330s to the flagship markets.
Last edited by Kumulani; Feb 19, 2017 at 8:00 pm
#10
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Phoenix, AZ
Programs: HH Gold, AA Gold
Posts: 10,458
I love flying HA from the mainland to Hawaii. The planes are better than AA's 757s and the service is excellent. However, I fly to Hawaii once a year -- occasionally twice in a year. I just can't justify collecting HA miles at this point, since I can't credit them to any of my carriers of choice (AA or AS). The last straw was upping the minimum miles needed to transfer to Hilton Honors. That left me with no viable option to actually use HA miles in a timely fashion.
#11
#12
Join Date: Jun 2015
Location: BOS
Programs: AA EXP
Posts: 479
Ah yes I forgot about the DL 767 that continues to NGO. Didn't realize that about the UA 777s though. That's great news, always good to have more lie-flat options available.
#13
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: HNL
Programs: UA HA AS
Posts: 102
This is only the case for flights past the west coast. And even then things are pretty inconsistent. I haven't flown to DFW with AA in a while, so not sure what product they're sending out here now. But before, there was no guarantee of getting the 1-2-1 full lie flat 767. Plenty of times they sent the 2-2-2 semi lie flat one. And there were frequently last minute swaps as well.
Once HA finishes refitting their cabins, the competition is going to have to seriously up their game if they want to have anything comparable to the west coast. HA is going to have full lie flats, everyone else is going to have crappy domestic recliner seats on narrowbodies. This will continue to be true even after HA starts flying narrowbodies to the west coast (which will presumably have recliner seats) since they are going to keep doing A330s to the flagship markets.
Once HA finishes refitting their cabins, the competition is going to have to seriously up their game if they want to have anything comparable to the west coast. HA is going to have full lie flats, everyone else is going to have crappy domestic recliner seats on narrowbodies. This will continue to be true even after HA starts flying narrowbodies to the west coast (which will presumably have recliner seats) since they are going to keep doing A330s to the flagship markets.
I could see them leave the 330 for JFK LAX and LAS and I could totally see the neo's do 3x PDX with one to Maui for example.
#14
Join Date: Jun 2015
Location: BOS
Programs: AA EXP
Posts: 479
The point is that we know they will continue to at least some west coast markets. The key is cargo, the narrowbodies just won't be able to replace the A330s here. LAX, SFO, and SEA at the very least will probably keep their 330s. The narrowbodies will mainly be for replacing the 767 and doing more nonstops to neighbor islands. Though I wouldn't be surprised if they replaced the 330 for PDX and SAN.
#15
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: Hawai'i Nei
Programs: Au: UA, Marriott, Hilton; GE
Posts: 7,141
The point is that we know they will continue to at least some west coast markets. The key is cargo, the narrowbodies just won't be able to replace the A330s here. LAX, SFO, and SEA at the very least will probably keep their 330s. The narrowbodies will mainly be for replacing the 767 and doing more nonstops to neighbor islands. Though I wouldn't be surprised if they replaced the 330 for PDX and SAN.