dlaue

No word from crew about our situation. Burning fuel to make a landing?

dlaue

Just announced a computer problem will force a return to Oakland or SJC for a new aircraft.

oneworld_wanderer

Just curious what compensation would it be for this lengthy and devastating delay.

jjbiv

A devastating five hour delay?

I would guess Southwest will send the affected customers a voucher and provide a meal in Oakland if anything is open there at 8 PM.

dlaue

We all lined up for a $100/person voucher and had to line up a second time in Oakland to be issued a new boarding pass for our "OAK - HNL" flight. Fortunately, the new passes duplicated to boarding numbers from our original passes, so my wife and I could sit in row 15, the LUV seats.

We arrived HNL ~ 1 am local time. Strangely, there was another very delayed flight from SJC which arrived into HNL just minutes before us.

The only really stressful time was waiting in the cab line at HNL. Our car service "cloesd" at 11pm and told us to catch a cab. We were ~ 5th in the cab line and waited 45 minues for our cab, which we shared with 3 others, to arrive. When we departed in the cab, the cab line was about 20 groups long and growing -- those passengers without a clearance bracelet were likely still in line to get manuall cleared by local authorities.

Moral to the story: always get your Hawaii Safe Travels bracelet and keep smiling, 'cuz travel can be an adventure in itself.

N830MH

Please! Next time you orders a Lyft or Ubers. You don't have take taxicabs anymore. It's very expensive. Just orders a Lyft instead.

boycruz

in the bay area lyft and uber are no longer inexpensive

dlaue

We use Lyft frequently. At 1am in Honolulu, a Lyft or Uber request was met with "no drivers available."

m907

Taxis are more competitive than Uber/Lyft these days, if you can even get the latter.

writerguyfl

Not everyone is keen to support companies that only exist because they violated local laws and falsely claimed to be tech companies.

I'll never say never, but if my choice is to wait an hour for a cab or take a ride in a stranger's private vehicle, I'm waiting for the taxi.

rsteinmetz70112

The reason Uber and Lyft became popular is that taxis in many cities are so bad.

The taxi business is highly regulated including limiting the number of taxis and setting inflexible rates so the only way to make money is to reduce cost. This means skimping on maintenance, driving older cheaper cars. Why taxi's haven't generally adopted a dispatch model similar to User and Lyft is beyond me, perhaps they have in some locations.

expert7700

In very limited cases they have, but I don't want to install a new app in every single city or country. Then make and verify an account just to schedule a ride that may not arrive from a company without a dynamic fleet.

​​​​​​Given OP's ocean tour and a further 3hr delay on the ground in OAK (standby crew? new equipment), the $100 voucher mentioned is an insult. I'd be surprised if everyone onboard doesn't get a proactive communication email refunding their airfare or with a real voucher amount.

//Of course since Colleen and Herb are no longer in charge maybe they were lucky to get $100.
​

dlaue

The delay was waiting for an ETOPS800 to arrive from San Diego. Crew, including the flight deck crew, remained the same. Overheard two flight attendents complaining about their long day and asking what would happen in Hawaii, since they were scheduled to fly the next morning. I was suprised that the crew had not timed out.

This is the second in-air mechanical diversion in my long life of flying. The last was in ~1972 on a Western Airlines flight out of LAX which, upon climb out, had one engine indicating no oil pressure. We dumped fuel and landed back at LAX. The mechanic replaced the oil pressure gage, and we departed for MSP (if I remember correctly) . One Southwest FA on our flight told me this was his first in-air mechanical diversion.

I did not hear anybody complaining about the $100 voucher. But, the passengers were mostly families with limited expectations.

Herb would have refunded the airfare AND sent a bottle of whisky to each adult passenger.

garykung

Then don't choose WN.

danielonn

$100;is not so bad but a meal voucher hopefully was given too!