HNLbasedFlyer

"Hawaiian Airlines president and CEO Mark Dunkerley will retire on March 1, and will be succeeded by Peter Ingram, the airline’s executive vice president and chief commercial officer, the company announced this morning."

http://www.staradvertiser.com/2017/1...-airlines-ceo/

So.....Having worked with both, It will be interesting to see if Peter Ingram is up to the task (I have my doubts) - Peter has been groomed for the CEO position for years - but him and Dunkerley are so different from each other - really night and day. And for those wondering if the company will get more frequent flier friendly - doubt it, as Chief Commercial Officer, Ingram oversaw Marketing/Loyalty programs.

N830MH

Wow! I didn't know that! Surely he will be missed. Why they are always too expensive ticket from PHX-HNL? I don't like it at all. We want to get a real cheaper price with the reasonable fare. He didn't orders more new aircraft. They should have to orders more than 6 A330-800neo or if they can orders A330-900neo. They needs more specific new routes.

Alex909

Dunkerly's vision, leadership, and execution skills will be missed, both by investors and customers. He was the face of the company for so many years and, frankly, it is hard to imagine HAL without him. Especially now, when the competitive situation is so much in flux. And with so many new employees coming on board. I always secretly admired his international expansion strategy and calm swift execution, especially in crisis situations (like in 2008). I wish Peter Ingram all the best. Have listened to him on many investor calls and look forward to him making Hawaiian even better.

Regarding becoming more frequent flyer friendly: With all the new capacity from other carriers coming into the market, now might be a good time to at least consider an experiment?

747FC

The trick HA must navigate is creating a FF program that rewards longhaul travel (5 hour or more) but does not give freebies to the tons of OPM-travelers whose employers have them island hop on a daily/weekly basis.

Alex909

Exactly. I've always wondered why benefits of the current program was so heavily slanted towards the OPM group. I certainly see them dominate the front cabin on almost all my KOA/ITO/OGG/HNL segments.

WrightHI

My guess is that the opportunity is just the opposite: using the FF program to get more of those regular interisland business flyers to use HA for the longer hauls. HA gets a lot of local infrequent travelers just by being local, and HA elite status has to be low on the list of drivers for incremental revenue from the tourists, but getting more of those interisland Golds and Plats to move some mainland/Asia travel from UA to HA could add up. And everybody else is so devalued that it wouldn't take much. Just matching UA or AA E+ rules would go a long way.

Alex909

I second you on tourists not being a very good target, because infrequent.

The interisland plat types I most typically encounter don't seem to travel long haul, with the exception of some going to the ninth island. I am thinking of, say, construction workers, nurses, small business owners, government employees, etc.

There is a group of people with an ongoing interest in Hawaii who travel back-and-forth but live elswhere, say in the SF Bay Area, Southern Cal or even Tokyo/Osaka. They are often maintaining property in Hawaii. They are always thinking about relocating here, but just can't do it yet for a variety of reasons. Maybe they have a great job at home that they just can't give up, yet. Or, sick parents who need care. That is one segment that it could be highly profitable to target, because they usually have significant disposable income. For a variety of reasons they are most likely flying UA, as you point out. Or, soon, they will be flying Southwest. (West Coast types have this irrational love for Southwest that never made sense to me.)

Another profitable target group could be the reverse: People already tied down in Hawaii with families and property, but who are starting businesses somewhere else, manufacture something in China, lecture somewhere, court investors somewhere etc. etc. People who love living here, but keep traveling due to a lack of opportunity or infrastructure here. Or, people who have to commute for medical reasons because they developed some condition that our outer island medical system can't treat effectively. I keep running into these types all the time on my long haul segments. This type of person is using Hawaiian today and is likely to feel devalued indeed. (Having to stand by for E+ seats until T-1h, for example.)

Just my 2 cents. Anybody here have an opinion/know other potential groups of people?

WrightHI

All good points, although I see a lot of professional and business types flying interisland regularly, not just the folks in the trades. And I agree strongly that fixing the E+ access is the biggest thing they need to do to make the elite program a meaningful consideration for longer hauls.

747FC

We used to be Plat flyers on HA, and we were able to redeem FF miles for saver F to SYD (X 2) and HND (X2). Then they took away the free F upgrade cert for Mainlamd travel, and appeared to remove saver awards from their longhaul inventory, and economy comfort sears at time of booking. That did it for us.

Kumulani

Huh? I just used an upgrade certificate earlier today so it's news to me they got rid of them. And considering all the devaluation going on with HA's competitors, I haven't found their saver availability to be bad. In fact HA's saver availability to the mainland now beats the pants off of the other FFP I use frequently, AA. I agree about Extra Comfort though. That, along with HA's limited partner network and difficulty earning/redeeming miles with their partners are the main things keeping me from flying them more long-haul.

747FC

Maybe things have changed. When I was last a Plat, they had stopped guaranteed upgrade to F at time of booking. You find saver F to Asia/Pacific? I stopped looking since I could never find my last few years of having sufficient miles.

Meanwhile, I’ve used UA miles to fly saver Global F roundtrip between HNL and LHR twice in the last three years, and once to FRA in that time period.

Kumulani

I was talking about mainland coach awards. I know premium cabin and Asia awards are tough. I'm just throwing in a data point that for at least one type of award, HA is significantly better than at least some competitors.
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I agree that Europe is a weak point for HA and that's one of the main things keeping me from flying them more.

As for the upgrade certificates, you didn't mention you were talking about the time of booking. No, they definitely don't have that anymore. They keep cutting the upgrade interval down, now it's 72 hours before departure.

747FC

Not to beat a dead horse, but four years ago, when I could not find HA saver "F" (actually J) HNL-HND, I was able to find saver Global F on UA to NRT. Fewer miles redeemed for a much better seat and cabin.

Try finding a saver J award on HA's FFP from HNL-BKK. I just found it easily on UA's program, using a Star Alliance partner.

It is sad, really. It would be great if HA had a FFP that was competitive, at least to Asia and the South Pacific.

Alex909

So Delta feels competitively compelled to bring back complimentary upgrades, including lie flat:

https://www.flyertalk.com/articles/d...-upgrades.html

How long will it take until Hawaiian realizes that they have to do the same? Or, lower their pricing on many mainland routes where they are no more competitive with United recently?

HNLbasedFlyer

Except that has nothing to do with Hawaii - applies to the Delta transcontinental flights.