AQ no longer allows free stand-by on interisland flights
 

Mr. Honu got his B/P at the machine today, then he went through security, and, at the gate, asked if there was any availability for the earlier flight. He was told that AQ no longer allows free stand-by: he should have got his B/P at the check-in counter and there asked to pay $15 to be confirmed on the earlier flight. He had only carryon luggage, but, once inside security, the agents were not able to accomodate him. Oh, and all this, evidently, in the name of "security" (right, for $15 at the check-in counter, it's possible to subvert a "security" procedure).

So be warned: if you're traveling with a free ticket, you can't stand-by at all (the $15 fee enables you to change flights only with a purchased ticket). Supposedly HA has a similar rule, but until recently, they have been enforcing it only at the check-in counter (i.e., once you/'re at the gate, they let you board an earlier flight if there is availability). This, BTW, was an OGG-HNL flight.

[This message has been edited by honu (edited 09-29-2003).]

Thanks so much for the information! I had no idea, and am traveling to Hawaii (and on interisland flights) next month.

Hmm... so does this mean that if an earlier flight has space available, they won't also allow you to jump on that flight as well?

(i.e. HNL-KOA 213 leaving at 12:30 is full and HNL-KOA 211 is boarding now at 11:30. They won't take calls for anyone wishing to leave on an earlier flight?)

So it seems, Slippahs. At least, that's what they did yesterday at OGG. Now, if the later flight is oversold, I'm guessing they might be willing to relent (it's in their best interest after all), but perhaps they got a "no exceptions" policy going. One thing is, at HNL you have a service counter inside security, so you might be able to pay the $15 to change.

I don't know how long this silly rule will last. The Stupid 6 tried it last year, and they all had to back down before it even started. With the high frequency of flights and the occasional irregular ops, it seems a no-brainer that it's a good thing to allow people to stand-by for earlier flight.

HA is charging too. I received my B/P and checked my luggage at OGG, then went to the upstairs gate. I noticed my scheduled OGG-HNL flight was being re-posted as 45 minutes late. I went to the upstairs gate agent desk to get on an earlier HA flight just boarding. She said there was room, but I would have to fork over 40 dollas for the change as she said "Now all changes were 40 dollas and no more free standbys". I said silly policies like these may be one of the reasons for HA being in Chapt 11.

She pondered a few minutes, smiled faintly and gave me a new B/P and said she also liked the older policies better. I thanked her and said good luck. BTW this flight was about 60% full.

MisterNice

Let's assume your plans change and you need to miss your free ticket flight. Are they still willing to accomodate you on the next available or do they have a catch here too? I'll be there in two weeks and it's entirely possible I'll have to change my flight.

Mr. Nice, was yours a purchased ticket, or was it an award?

It was a purchased RT ticket LAX-HNL-OGG bought on continental.com and the HA legs were CO/HA co-share (actually cheaper than buying them separately as I usually do). I u/g via CO ff miles but CO/HA would not put me in a HA F/C seat either for the 18-25 min trip.

MisterNice

I see. HA had been charging $15 for confirming on earlier flights, and now they want $40 (roughly 50% the cost of a new ticket). I think it's time to start a letter-writing campaign to the DOT to make sure these creeps can't continue their coordinated price and schedule fixing past Dec. 1st.

Last month after spending 4 days at Oahu, my spouse and I spend another 5 days at Kauai (Lihue). Our orginal flight on Hawain air was around noontime. We requested to go standby for a flight leaving around 10 a.m. they let us standby no charge, no problem. Returning from Lihue, we were booked on Aloha back to HNL. Our flight was scheduled at 6pm. We got to the airport early and noticed there was a 5:30 departure. We asked if we could standby on that flight so that we could get to HNL a little earlier. They told me it would cost me $15 change fee plus any fare difference. Of course, I refused to pay anymore for only a 30 min. difference. The aloha agent told me since I got a AAA discount when I book that this is a restricted fare so any voluntary changes will cost. Only its no wonder these airlines are in bad shape, they lose the sense of customer service and give passenger more grieve than its worth.

Any fee AQ can get away with on this is simply gravy. If you look at how they processed standbys (slips of photopied paper and a green crayon with a hand-written time), they had no idea who they had on the list, and you know they didn't offload people from later flights to release the inventory for sale. So, unless the later flight was oversold, there was really no benefit to AQ other than goodwill (which is apparently valued at $15).

I wonder if the Hawaii tourism board has any input on this. This may very well be many people's first interaction with someone on the islands, and definitely not a favorable impression.

It is and it is not. Many Hawaiians would often fly from one island to another for such things as medical treatments, shopping trips, visiting friends etc when the interisland coupons were 40 dollas o/w (about 1-2 years ago) and think nothing of it. Now the minimum cost is about 80 dollas o/w and a 18-22 minute air trip takes 150 minutes (ie 2 1/2 hr) airport-to-airport in-to-out. Thus the locals are definately cutting back on their trips. The Japanese visitors are down 20-25% and the 49 USA visitors are up 5-8%. More 48 USA flights are going directly to the outer islands too. I thing HA and AQ are shooting themselves in the foot (and in the knee too).

MisterNice

Well, on Sunday we flew OGG-HNL on HA, and we asked if there was stand-by availability on an earlier flight right at check-in (at the skycap). I had checked the loads, and our flight looked fuller than any of the previous ones, but not oversold. Anyway, they offered us boarding passes for the earlier flight right at check-in. So, if I may generalize from this, HA seems to be the way to go if you want to stand-by. Unfortunately, however, this episode may be an exception to the rule. In the last few months, I've been firmly refused stand-by at the HA check-in counter in HNL, only to be added to the list at the gate... go figure? The only certainty now is that AQ won't allow free stand-by at OGG.

I just had a week trip in Hawaii which included a number of inter-island flights on Hawaiian. We had no problems standing by for earlier flights, and in fact heard PA announcements from the gate-agents asking people in the lounge for the following flight if anyone wanted to take the flight currently boarding as there were open seats. I found Hawaiian to be very pleasant to fly, with good service and fresh, clean aircraft - much nicer than Aloha.

It seems so reasonable not to charge extra for the early birds. Their seat on the later flight might just be sold and it builds goodwill. Contrast that with the resentment the surcharge causes.