kainalu

+1 safe travels. I do hope they don't strand you out in ICN...

mww99

Looks like we had a win. About to go to gate to Board - J class ICN-HNL on KE metal. Will fill you in on all the details when we're in HNL.

heramato

Glad to hear that ^

Cambria

Congrats on getting to fly.

Thought I was going to get to fly my early September one-way reservation, but finally got a call about a week ago. Ignored it at first, but then saw my reservation was changed to coach. Called in to hear the usual options. Debated fighting it, but decided to take a free round trip ticket to SYD for the same dates. I'm HNL based, so it works out. I love J as much as the next person, but for me a free round trip ticket to Australia beats the original deal when I figure in the cost of the positioning flight. The coach experience will be rough, but hopefully if I keep thinking about what I paid it will help me get through it.

Of note, if you accept the free round trip ticket, you still have to pay the taxes and fees. Came to $88 and change for me.

ephemeral_wanderer

Way to go! ^^

mww99

Back again guys. Sorry for the delay - KE flight was 1hr late into HNL - air traffic - apparently - but the flight was fantastic. We had a bit of trouble at ICN - went to KA desk to check in at 6.00am on arrival, only to be told there was a problem with the reservation and to return to the desk at 7.30 am when someone would be able to help us. KA were great - gave us access to the business club while we waited. So we made sure to use all of the facilities - shower, drinks etc before we had to go back to the desk - just in case! As it turned out, the KA agent was fantastic - not sure what she had to do but it involved one hellava lot of key strokes on the keyboard and we finally had boarding passes, not only to HNL but onward to OGG and SEA. Woohoo! As we only have carry on - (20 flights in 2 weeks just begs for a bag to go astray) we are set. Currently sitting in HA premier club at HNL awaiting flight to OGG. For those of you repositioning to ICN (although it sounds as though we may have got away with it due to the early flight), if you're transiting, the KA desk is on level 4 above Gate 25 (right near the Business and First Club). I am doing a blog for this trip - you can see it at http://markwyatt.posterous.com and I will be posting a more comprehensive trip report here when time permits. Good luck to everyone .

foreigner

I paid for ticket using my AMEX platinum charge card.

On HA's website, my itinerary now shows ICN-HNL vv in coach, with HNL-LAS vv in first. There are two ticket numbers and both appear to be for same itinerary.

travellertales

I was never too bothered about flying from ICN, but couldn't resist joining in the excitement and bought a one way ICN - HNL - LAX for next March.

After some very amenable discussion with HA, I have exchanged my ICN-LAX ticket for a LAX-HNL return in first class on Haiwaiian flights. I am very happy with this as I now won't need a positioning flight to ICN, and I have never visited Haiwaii.^

Thanks to bobbybrown for the original post.

philosophy_king

So any news, bad news, good news? Everyone compromised? Or the letter sent off is too good? No more law suit? How about the complaint to the dot?

mtacchi

Can anyone give me a email address that works. Calling them from HKG is badly timed and a pain. I'm going try and get 'door #4' as they appear open to fair requests.

soccerpapi

aloha

Paella747

That's with getting the amount you originally paid refunded, correct?

soccerpapi

Yes.

joker545

I'm still fighting this one out..

The two o/w tix I booked from ICN-LAS for my gf and I (travel date Sept 11/12) have been moved to coach. No refund offered with this downgrade.

My original e-mail to the "Customer Advocate" saying that none of the original 3 options would work (I made other travel plans around these tix so the dates/routes were set) was returned by Mark Arimoto, HA's Assistant General Counsel basically saying I had no legal right to expect to travel on an "invalid ticket." So much for the customer advocate..

Of course, my requests to Mr. Arimoto as to why the ticket was "invalid" were ignored. I did offer to HA and Mr. Arimoto multiple times that I am willing to be somewhat flexible (e.g., fly in Y if I received a refund and/or travel vouchers), but they told me to "reconsider the three options, or their 4th "generous" offer to fly in Y (remember, the economy fare was $50-100 LESS per ticket for the same flights while this deal was still active!). I replied as such, and noted if I had wanted to fly Y I would have paid for the cheaper ticket. Their response "I should "receive some satisfaction in knowing the economy fare is normally twice the price I paid."

I am shocked. Also e-mailed Hoyt Zia, HA's General Counsel, asking him to please let me know why my ticket was invalid. I also noted to him that contract law is very established, and I would appreciate to see the relevant statutes or cases they are basing this claim on. His response: "First, you continue to insist that we provide you with legal justification for our actions, and to be clear it’s simply not our policy to argue the law with customers. That is what the courts are for, and we instead have chosen to put our efforts into offering you alternatives to seeking legal redress.....to sum up, it’s our position that we are treating you fairly, honestly, and more generously than any other carrier has in this same situation. You will have seats on the KE flight in question; if you decline to accept them or the other alternatives we have offered, there is no more we will offer you."

On the HA website, it states:

Establishing and maintaining the trust and confidence of all stakeholders including employees, the Board of Directors, existing or potential stockholders, creditors, customers, suppliers, vendors, government agencies and the communities we serve is of paramount importance to the Company. The reputation of Hawaiian Airlines as a fair, reputable and honest organization can only be maintained if all of its employees, officers and directors adhere to high moral and ethical standards in conducting the Company’s business.

Seems laughable after this incident. While I had been holding out, I finally filed a claim with DOT. Anyone have other suggestions about what to do? Has filing the DOT claim helped anyone yet?

Keter

I've just got a paper letter people referred to here saying same things as e-mail. It took 20 days for it to get to Russia