HA cancels flight, no notification, refuses to refund fare difference
 

HA canceled both outbound legs of our July 16 flight OGG->PPT First Class flight:

HA 265 OGG to HNL
HA 481 HNL to PPT

because the OGG->HNL leg only was canceled. No notification was given of the cancelation, and I only found out about it last week because I happened to call on another matter. The lady I spoke with said their policy is to cancel all legs of a flight when one leg of a "connecting" flight is canceled. No apologies for the mess HA created. For some reason they didn't try to put us on another HA OGG->HNL flight as part of the cancellation, of which there are many?

Since my outbound itinerary was canceled (the return legs PPT->OGG were untouched?), there were no more first-class seats so we had to rebook economy

HA 235 OGG to HNL
HA 481 HNL to PPT

The lady said that because the tickets were non-refundable, they couldn't credit me with the fare difference. My only option was to email customer service and request a credit. With great effort (10 attempts over 2 days to get an email off without 403 or other error messages), customer service replied. This reply ignored the fact that HA had canceled my flight and not attempted to rebook it and simply said:

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We apologize for any inconvenience our schedule change has caused.

Kindly be advised that as stated in the agreement between Hawaiian Airlines and its passengers (Contract of Carriage), schedules are subject to change without notice. Nonetheless, please be assured that whenever flight disruptions occur, we will provide our best efforts in re-accommodating and assisting our affected passengers.

You may refer to [link to Contract of Carriage].
Furthermore, kindly note that requests due to a flight disruption must be put in writing for further consideration.

After all the flights on the reservation are taken, you may send your letter including copies of the following
•Tickets
•Boarding pass stubs
•Expense receipts (if any)

Documentation must be sent via mail or facsimile to:

Hawaiian Airlines
Consumer Affairs Office
P.O. Box 30008
Honolulu, HI 96820
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If you read the Contract of Carriage it says

Rule 24: Refunds
INVOLUNTARY REFUNDS. We will refund you as follows when
Rule 21 applies: Flight Delays, Changes, Cancellations, and Aircraft Changes, (ii) you surrender the unused portion of your Ticket to us, and (iii) the reason for you not traveling is through no fault of your own.
Involuntary Refund Ticket Partially Used. If a portion of your Ticket has been used, you are entitled to a refund of an amount equal to the difference between (i) the fare and charges applicable to the original issued Ticket and (ii) the fare and charges applicable to the used portion of the Ticket.

OTHER REFUNDS
Change in Paid-For Class of Service. If you paid for a first-class seat and were downgraded, we will refund you the difference between the fare you paid and the applicable economy fare if there is a fare difference.

so it seems we should be due a refund on the unused First Class outbound fare.

We're new to flying HA and are in a state of disbelief on how HA has handled this.

Any suggestions on how to proceed?

Can't see how you aren't entitled to a refund of the fare difference. Have you tried writing in yet? If that doesn't work, there's always the option of a DOT complaint.

This. I know of others who have had refund and fare difference issues with HA. I have advised them of the same and in most cases they have received satisfaction after filing a DOT complaint. Apparently, the airlines don't like getting dinged by the DOT.

Here's a link to file one online: https://www.transportation.gov/airco...umer-complaint

I replied to the letter in my email, basically stating my case again-we'll see what happens. I'll call again as well. After my flight, I'll write to HA again as the customer service email suggested. I still can't imagine they wouldn't fund the fare difference.

The last options are the DOT strategy and also, I wonder if it would work to try to dispute the charge on my credit card, although this would be long after the 60-day window the credit card companies like.

Clearly, it was a schedule change on HA's part. They should have re-booked you free of charge. Next time, I would ask for a supervisor before paying anything. The agent was beyond clueless. Shame on HA for having such poor customer service! Honestly, I love HA's inflight service, but stories like this make me choose AA, DL, or US.

I had written customer service a follow up letter after the HA email denying me compensation (shown in my post). This response was better-they said they were sorry for the problem and were crediting me the difference between the 1st class service I paid for and the economy into which I was booked. So, I least I recovered financially. Flying these days seems more of a challenge than before.

Even though, after they canceled my flight, and Hawaiian said they couldn't rebook me in first class because it was full, yesterday I received an email from HA alerting travelers that first class upgrades for the HNL->PPT were available and that I could "bid" for them. Of course, I'm not doing that, as it might compromise the refund I'm due. But it is very irritating to see that HA could have given us back the first-class seats they took from us.

Just an update. Hawaiian did give me a credit, but only for 1/2 of what they admitted they owe me. I've sent them several more emails, explaining and providing proof that all the credit to our credit card wasn't provided (and it was a significant sum). They claim I was fully reimbursed, to talk to my bank and ignored further emails from me. So likely I'll have to continue this fight via Dept Transportation and the Hawaiian credit card I used to book the fare.

I notice when booking this route HNL<->PPT that there is always 1 pair of seats center, last row in business class that is always blocked. Are these crew rest seats? Or does HA put something aside for bid-up? That would make no sense of course since the idea of bid-up is to sell whatever leftover seats at a discount

Sorry you're going through this. It's really hard to understand why HA leadership doesn't understand that being a high-quality carrier includes being trustworthy. HA does a lot of things right, particularly the front-line people on the planes and in the airports (the latter a bit more mixed), but this kind of thing is why almost all of my travel outside the state is on other carriers. I just don't trust HA to have my back or make things right when things go sideways.

I had a refund issue with HA, where they canceled a flight and refused to refund my REFUNDABLE F fare! Any agent I spoke to kept telling me, "It's our policy to offer a credit, not a refund," no matter how many times I pointed out it was a REFUNDABLE fare. Fortunately I had printouts of the purchased tickets, showing it was refundable. It took a DOT complaint and a dispute with the credit card company, but ultimately got my money back that way.

I now use Southwest whenever possible for inter island flights. I hope their inter island service stays. Hawaiian is very nice in the air, but when you have to get refunds, they're awful.

So, this exact same thing happened to my husband in June on an LAX > KOA > HND flight — except he didn't learn his KOA > HND flight was cancelled/not in service until LANDING IN KONA. At LAX, they charged him for his bags (which he thought was strange, but he didn't question; had I been there, this would have been the red flag, but he's not a frequent flyer) and they did not mention the cancelled Haneda leg. They did tell him he needed to claim and re-check his bag in Kona.

Upon landing in Kona, he gets his bags, goes to check them for the Haneda flight, only to be told they haven't flown this route in two years. They they asked if he used a travel agent; we booked directly through the Hawaiian website. Husband asked what they would be able to do so he wasn't stranded, and the two gate agents working literally told him to book a new flight. They didn't offer to help him at all. He asked to speak to someone else and the woman at the desk just walked away and left him there.

At this point, it's morning for me in Japan. Husband's Japanese phone cannot make US phone calls, even over wifi, so he Facetimes me and asks me to call Hawaiian. Sit on hold for two hours (very expensive phone call at this point!) until I get someone. By this point, there aren't any Hawaii to Japan flights left for the day. I explain what happened, and the agent tells me to book a new ticket. I refuse. Ask for a supervisor. Put on hold again. Supervisor comes on and agrees to book him on the next flight to HNL and then on a JAL flight to HND the following day. I ask if they're going to provide him accommodation. They say no. I ask if they will refund the checked bag fees, and they say I need to request a refund after he completes his flights. By this time, it's about 6pm in Hawaii, so I just agree so he can get to HNL.

I then try to book him a hotel. Problem is, it's so late that no website will let me book a same-day hotel — not even the hotel brands' websites. So, another expensive phone call to Marriott later and I have a bare-bones room for him at a very expensive last-minute rate of roughly $450.

Submitted first complaint the day husband arrived back in Japan. Went unanswered for three weeks until it was MARKED AS RESOLVED by HA and I received an email saying "Thank you for allowing us to assist you." Fed up, I call HA (another 2+ hr expensive phone call) and am told to re-submit my complaint. (Holy crap.) FINALLY received a reply yesterday: They agreed to refund the baggage fee and gave him a $500 credit (which we will never use because I fly UA/ANA exclusively and husband learned his lesson getting "cheapest flight" vs "easiest flight"). No hotel fee refund. No taxi refund. All entirely their fault.

A final note. After more back and forth we finally got the complete refund for the change in fair associated with going from First Class to Economy.

Bottom line is that if you work at it, likely you'll be properly reimbursed, but a great time and hassle expense.

You shouldn't be surprised at anything anti-consumer that Hawaiian Airlines does to the passengers. With much (most?) of their passengers visiting tourists from the Mainland and overseas, they are emboldened to do the most anti-consumer things I've ever seen from an American airline. I'm a Hawaiian resident on the Big Island, and I breathed a sigh of relief when Southwest set up shop here.

I've had late-in-the-day flights from HNL cancelled with no warning and no accommodation arranged. I was in the terminal at HNL one Saturday evening when some "directive" came from management to cancel the last flight of the day (maybe only 1/2 full, but many elderly and others like me who traveled over for the day to see medical specialists). The gate agents sprinted away from the check-in counter before the cancelation went live on the status monitor!

Anyone who knows HNL airport knows the choices of shuttle-close accommodation is very very poor. I did manage to snag a room, and was ultimately reimbursed for it (after a DOT complaint) but was told they would only direct deposit a reimbursement to a Hawaiian bank account. If you were an American from the Mainland you would have been SOL.