Well, Thanks to AQ's transpac svc from OGG to OAK yesterday, I'm motivated to register here and contribute.

I've been bonded to AQ since they started their transpac service to OAK 5+ years ago. I usually average 5 round trips per year and have attained Alii Silver.

Yesterday, I checked prior to leaving the hotel to see if the service was on time, and was told yes, it was. I checked in (Agriculture, counter, TSA) and was told the flight was on time. Went to the Alii club and there was told there was going to be a '30 minute delay' because the aircraft has been swapped (apparently the inbound from SNA was going to be changed to my flight rather than the inbound from Sacremento). Well, 30 minutes turned into 90 without any notice, but then to add insult to injury, the Alii Silver wasn't called for preboard.

Once on the flight, food has taken a turn for the worse (no big deal, I bring my own), headsets are now $5 (no big deal, I bring my own) and the flight crew had no idea why two aircraft would be swapped into a 90 minute unannounced delay if both 737-700's were working.

I've learned here that Aloha has given back any and all extra 737-700's and so now any mechanical delay disrupts the entire system.

My flight back in April from OAK-OGG was diverted to Burbank (they were still serving that station then) to pick up passangers because equipment was down. That was another 2 hour delay without even the benefit of a frequent flyer leg at 500 minimum miles (even though the flight was renumbered).

And in January, there was a 2 hour delay from HON to OAK because of mechanical problems.

I've used ATA and AA for individual flights so far this year (ticket prices just too high to use AQ), and found the service minimal, but on time.

The FA's on yesterday's flight were falling overthemselves, apologizing and remembering the 'old days' (last year), and morale is down to an all time low. These people really want to do a good job, but management isn't telling them anything except how much less they're going to earn.

I feel like I'm watching a train wreck happen to this company. I'm not so stupid as to think the 60's and 70's are coming back to air travel, and I'm not the kind of passanger who'll pound the counter and vow to never fly the carrier again, but by golly, for someone who is asking only for minimal contract of carriage and resonably on time performance, I'm not even getting that for my loyalty.

Does anyone here think that writing a letter to the executives will help? Or should I just vote with my pocketbook and find another carrier to take me to and from Hawaii (like HA)?

Thanks,

Let me tell you my tale of Sunday 8/15. At the last minute (on the 14th) I had to book a run to the mainland. Both direct UA flights to SFO were sold out, so I had to go via HNL - should be no big deal right?

I booked the 6:15 LIH - HNL on AQ. Did on line check in, checked flight status (all okay) and arrived at the airport at 5:15. Went through security and the flight board still said "On Time". I had doubts though as the 4:00 flight still hadn't departed by that time, and the 5:00 flight was now showing 6:30.

No big surprise, my flight moved back. First from 6:15 to 6:45, then to 6:55, and finally to 7:15. Reality was closer to 7:30.

Never once between 5:30 and 7:30 was there any explanation for the delays nor any apology. Upon arriving in HNL the pilot thanked us for our business and appologized for our - I kid you not a direct quote - "Short Delay".

I've made my decision am going to finish this year as a Silver and will definitely be jumping to HA next year - assuming they keep their Premier club so that I can buy first year bottom tier status.

Prior letters of complaint have resulted in apologies, but no changes to operating methods. How "sorry" are they if nothing is done to prevent recurrance?

Aloha,

Lihu'e 1k

Lihue,

I took the time to read the contract of carriage on the AQ website. In there you'll find that AQ promises to give announcements at 15 minute intervals if flights are delayed.

You didn't hear the announcement, I never heard an announcement. AQ appears to be neither talking nor listening.

I really don't want to go through the time and effort to be sending a letter when it's going to get the PR shuffle.

Maybe it's just time to vote with my pocketbook and feet.

Thanks for your experience.

Popoki, welcome to FlyerTalk! You have a very well reasoned approach to the situation, in my opinion. Like you, I would find it difficult to maintain loyalty to a company like this. It would seem that it is only a matter of time before it dies the death it appears it is destined for. For the sake of all the employees, I truly hope not, as I know some of them and it will be a substantial hardship for them, not to mention the impact (short term, anyway) to inter-island travel.

If I were in your situation, I think I would vote with my feet and walk. But, I'd write a write letter to the CEO and tell him why I was gone. I wouldn't have any illusion that it would make a difference, but you don't have a lot to lose. I've been a CEO and have received a letter like that about my company and I used it for powerful effect inside the organization to drive some much-needed change. You never know. . .

ilhue1k, had the same experence fron ito to hnl that day,2:35 to 4:10 or so, no explination,just that the flight was delayed at about 45 minutes after depature time.

I've been a long time lurker but my recent trip with Aloha made me want to register and tell the story of my latest trip on 8/10/05.

I've been flying with Aloha for over 20 years and have flown their Hawaii to Mainland routes before. So when I got an email about cheap fares from OAK to OGG I bought a pair of tickets since I had planned on traveling back to Maui (I live in San Jose now). Since the flight out of OAK leaves at 7am, we stayed at a local hotel overnight. When we arrived at the OAK airport at 5am, there was a long line waiting to check in, with no Aloha ticket agent in sight. About 20 minutes later, an Aloha agent finally came out and said that there was something wrong with the plane and there might be a delay of 12-24 hours (a stupid thing to tell travelers) but that she would know more at 5:45am. She comes back at 5:45am and says that they were able to book us seats on United but that they the flights were out of San Francisco and that we'd have to be shuttled over. So another half an hour or so and the Aloha agent is able to book us on a 12pm flight out of SFO. But the SFO flight goes to HNL and then we'd have to catch an interisland flight to Maui. That's the best they could do so of course we take it.

We're shuttled to SFO and check in there. We even got the "pat down and check all your carry ons service" at the security checkpoint. We finally lift off at 12:30pm. We have to buy our lunch on the plane since unlike Aloha, they don't provide meals. We land in HNL and have to jump on the Wiki Wiki Shuttle to get to the interisland terminal. We run to the gate and it was about to close so the gate agent just told us to get on the plane (without officially checking in). Of course when we finally get to Maui, we've beaten our luggage. The Aloha baggage service agents tell us to wait till the next plane comes in. It does and our bags aren't there. The baggage agents can't tell us where our bags are (so what are scan codes on the baggage stubs for?) so we just tell them to call us when they get there and we'll come pick them up (since we were staying close by). We finally get our luggage at 7:00pm.

So what should have taken us about 7-8 hours from check in to getting our luggage took about 17 hours. We received nothing nor were offered anything from Aloha for our troubles. No food vouchers, miles, anything. Being loyal long-time customers of Aloha, we were ticked off to say the least.

I have the customer relations address for Aloha. Is it worth writing a letter to them? Will I receive any type of compensation or will they say there's nothing they can do? Any advice is greatly appreciated!

Heard through coconut wireless that AQ may have troubles making their payroll on Sept 20th? I don't figure since they posted two months of operating profits. On the other hand, I heard HA won't post any profits since coming out of BK. Maybe they don't want to pay profit sharing now that the books are "semi" closed.

Heard that the reason HA didn't post a 2nd qtr profit is because they used a lot of the money to hedge 40% of their fuel at around $1.40 a gallon. Makes great sense to me since it will pay dividends in the long run especially if av gas hovers around $2.00 like it has.

That doesn't ring true from an accounting standpoint. I doubt very much that money put down as collateral to secure a hedge would be considered an expense. It is simply an encumbered asset that would affect working capital but not income. It could lead to an expense (or revenue source) later as the hedge gains or loses value.

I think that what will happen is that they will miss a payment to their pension plan. If they missed a payroll, they would not be able to operate, as employees would stop showing up for work.