UA partner Island Air in Bankruptcy/ceasing ops 10 Nov 2017 - Impact on UA Customers?
 

Edit: For context, I posted this Wednesday, before Island Air shut down. Title has been modified to announce subsequent shut down today, Nov. 10.

Island Air, on whom UA provides a lot of connections in/out of HNL to Maui and Kauai, has entered into bankruptcy.

Several aircraft have been repossessed.
Reduction in flight shedule.
Significant furloughs.

Although I want a healthy Island Air as competition to HA inter-island, there gets to be a point where avoiding the carrier is unavoidable. In the last couple of weeks, I’ve encountered non-insignificant schedule changes and inordinately-long phone wait times (28 minutes today to try to move to an earlier flight tonight). Luckily, HA has the schedule to accommodate any Island passengers left in the lurch should the need arise, but the hassle will still exist.

I’m just posting this as a caution to United flyers who have, or are comptemplating having, Island connections. Caveat emptor.

Edit (Thursday Nov 9): Calling Island on another matter this morning - over an hour and quarter wait time - and still waiting. This looks like business as usual. Bad sign. I am not booking Island as part of a United reservation again until bankruptcy resolved (if it is).

Edit (Friday Nov 10): Well, that was faster than expected (ceasing operations). Managed to get a hold of a counter agent (Brian) in Honolulu yesterday who personally tracked down a lost iPhone and sent it back to Maui. I'll miss Island and it's people.

Nice aircraft. Friendly, albeit quirky service. A sweet, full-sized golden retriever somehow squeezed under my seat on my last flight and nobody seemed to mind (try that on UA). Totally agree about having connection competition to HA (HA is great, but I also miss Aloha). In the past, I've tended to book HA inter-island connections on mainland flights, even at premium prices, because of uncertain Island Air connection backups (HA usually has something available if a connection goes haywire). I'm a little disturbed that UA didn't see this coming when booking connections over the past months, as there was early warning in the financial press.

I would pay extra to have a golden retriever under my seat.

See existing thread here: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/hawa...16-2017-a.html

Or, we can argue the Q400 is going to be a plane people resist simply because it is a prop plane. Despite lower prices - children and senior deals - Island Air still couldn't make money despite, what is it now - 8 years of record tourism. I read an article, that the Maui - HNL is so busy, the only destinations from Chicago that carry more people are Chicago to SF, LA, and NYC.

What will be interesting, is if the SWA planes can efficiently make those short hops that seem perfect for the 717. One of things that plagued Aloha was the 737 (at the time) couldn't make quick turnarounds - they had cool down periods.

I think people want to fly jets interisland. I just don't see a major carrier flying interisland in a prop plane.

See what happens without that 747 feed!!

Greetings All

Please use this thread to discuss the impact Island Air's BK has for those traveling on UA. General discussion of Island Air's BK may be found here: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/hawa...16-2017-a.html

Safe Travels,

J.Edward
UA forum co-mod

Glad I picked the HA flights instead of Island Air on our OGG-HNL-DEN itin after Thanksgiving!

It is odd that UA codeshares with both of them. Searching for flights shows you two options within a couple minutes of each other. I think that, for OGG-HNL, this would minimize the impact to UA.

I have IA award booked in January, KOA to HNL. I HATE paying to change it. Best advice? I’m inclined to watch (carefully) and wait as there are lots of alternative flights on HA right now. Should some of this shake out soon?

This from Island Air this evening:

Thank you for your support.

We are no longer accepting new reservations at Island Air and will cease operations at end of day on November 10, 2017.

For inquiries on refunds, please contact your credit card company.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

For any questions or concerns, please call 1 (800) 652-6541.

Ceasing ops November 10.

Crap had a flight in Jan!

This is sad. I commented in another similar thread (I think around the time time declared BK) that I preferred them to HA. They were our choice 3-4 times between HNL-OGG. We'll miss 'em!

Is UA rebooking people on HA at this point?

Not in my case
 

I had a mileage flight KOA - HNL - ORD. I called this morning. They didn't have any mileage tickets to get me from KOA to ORD so they just canceled the KOA - HNL Island Air leg and left me to buy my own Hawaiian Air ticket to pick up my HNL - ORD flight.