Mokuea

Disclaimer: Iʻm in healthcare so Iʻm probably irrationally careful right now about hygiene so my views are probably too critical.

Flew HA interisland for the first time since the COVID outbreak.

I read HAʻs website about "Keeping You Safe" before flying. To be honest, itʻs all for show. https://www.hawaiianairlines.com/KeepingYouSafe
Here are my observations:
1. They are blocking the middle E seats on the 717 which is really nice for social distancing.
2. The boarding process has changed, but the HNL station didnʻt execute it well so there was no definitely no social distancing in the jetway. The Hilo station did a much better job. Their whole process is still for show since they preboard first class (not sure if this includes Pualani pax) and pax needing special assistance so when I boarded for row 15 the front half of the plane was already full. I was in row 1 on one flight and purposely boarded last which was nice.
3. They are blocking seats 1A and B on the 717 so the FA doesnʻt have to sit too close to their co-worker on the jumpseat. Doesnʻt make sense since they spent the whole time talking to each other not social distancing in the galley.
4. The 717 was filthy. I wiped down just the armrests w/ healthcare-grade wipes and the wipes turned dark brown. Took 3 wipes to get it clean. Someone else flew on the A321neo and also said the plane was filthy. Seems like theyʻre just spraying the cabin and not actually wiping things down or vacuuming. So I recommend bringing a Clorox wipe to clean high touch areas yourself.
5. They hand out hand wipes upon boarding like the kind restaurants give you after eating ribs or crab legs, but no hand sanitizer readily available in the gate or baggage claim areas. So be sure to bring your own!
6. They still hand out juice and water for 20-40 min flights. In first, people grab snacks from a tray instead of it being handed to them. I wish they would discontinue this service because it just gives people an excuse to remove their mask.
7. On one flight they announced that we would be disembarking by rows so to remain seated until your row is called. Did not happen. Wasnʻt even announced on the outbound flight.
8. Not all employees are wearing masks and a lot just hang them around their chin.

I havenʻt flown since March so not sure if this applies to all airlines or just HA.
And donʻt get me started on TSA and the stateʻs tracking program. What a joke!
After my experience I realized that we are definitely not ready to re-open tourism to the world. But we canʻt just keep waiting for our Governor to grow a brain so we all just have to take it upon ourselves to be safe.
Iʻm seriously rethinking my travel plans to the mainland for September.

747FC

I’ve been critical of HA being late to the face mask game, but kudos to them for recent change of policies. They now prohibit masks with valves or sheer mask. Anyone wanting an exemption will need to be medically cleared at the airport :

https://www.hawaiianairlines.com/KeepingYouSafe

https://www.khon2.com/coronavirus/hawaiian-airlines-adopts-stricter-mask-policy/

azj

Hawaiian was not late to the mask game, but yes, good to see them evolving their plans, just like the others.

747FC

Aside from the fact that Hawaiian held FA training that was mask-optional, causing numerous infections? And, if I recall correctly, when other carriers were allowing FAs to wear masks on duty in February and possibly later, HA did not?

But, the latest development is very positive and HA should receive congrats for implementing this policy.

azj

HAL has always followed state, city and CDC guidelines, the FA cluster just proves that the rules are not foolproof. Your recollection was from January/February when nobody was wearing masks and their efficacy was questioned even by Dr. Fauci. The FA's were complaining that while JAL and Korean Air were wearing masks in the terminal, they were not allowed to wear them while doing their service. There was no US carrier with a mask policy at the early stages of the pandemic. When masks became a recommendation the industry fell in line. The point is, HAL was not and is not an outlier with these policies.

747FC

I can tell you that ANA flight attendants were wearing masks during flights and ground personnel were wearing in terminals (so not correct that nobody was wearing masks). HA FAs were not allowed to, per the FAs that told me that. So nice to see HA's current policy is in place. Just utterly inconceivable that there was mask-optional training just a few weeks ago, leading to a big outbreak.

azj

Mask wearing has always been apart of Japanese culture and policies with public facing companies, so it was natural they'd wear masks. I'm saying this was not the case for US carriers, including HAL. The FA's weren't complaining that UA and DL got to wear masks, it was their observation that foreign carriers were wearing masks, which was basically a normal practice anyhow. With incredible exception, the mask wearing amongst the people of Hawaii was few and far between, as it was in the rest of the nation in the early stages of all this. That is what I'm referring to. There were NO US carriers with a mask policy in the early stages.

Once again, the point is that HAL is not an outlier and has been following all the guidelines imposed and has evolved as the guidelines changed. I would imagine all the other companies with COVID cases in Hawaii were doing the same, including Southwest and Delta.

747FC

Can you speak to why HA FAs reportedly were not allowed to wear masks when they requested this as an option?

azj

The only thing that I can surmise is that it simply wasn't a policy. I'd also venture a guess that there was some thought to the "fear factor" of it all. As a society, we knew so little about COVID back then, it seems so obvious today what should have been done by all, not just HA. I do know, that these requests were made in Jan/Feb well before there were any official policies by government and other US carriers regarding masks. At the time, the virus was in its infancy with few or no cases in the USA. I'd imagine that was part of the driving factor, as it clearly was at other US carriers. But as the virus spread and the world learned more and more, things fell into place policy wise at all carriers. I'll make my point for the last time, HAL aligned with all recommended policies by the various government layers when they needed to, just like the other carriers. HAL unfortunately had a cluster, but it's not as if HAL was an outlier with that too. There were many other businesses in the state that had clusters, including other airlines. You just didn't read about all of them.