Often1

Nothing to call or HUCA about.

If the flight is scheduled, you will not get a refund. If the flight is cancelled by UA (or substantially changed), you are entitled by law to have UA initiate a refund within 7 days of the request. There is absolutely no reason to deal with this until and unless the flight is cancelled or it is the day of travel and the flight remains scheduled. In the latter case, your option is to fly or take the credit.

jsloan

Just because the flight isn't for sale doesn't mean that it's been removed from the schedule. There are many reasons that a flight can be unavailable; that's just one of them.

bikenski

I really expected the Hawaii flights to drop from the schedule over the weekend, now that United has DOT approval to not operate the routes. As of this morning, the timetable shows non-stop DEN-OGG/LIH/KOA and *TWICE DAILY* DEN-HNL flights resuming as of June 4th. Obviously none of those flights will actually operate for quite some time.

Because Hawaii is a leisure destination that tends to be booked far in advance, my hunch is that there is a significant amount of cash and miles already held by United for summer flights, and they're going to delay doling out the refunds as long as possible.

HNLbasedFlyer

Just because UA (and all the airlines) can suspend most routes to Hawaii until Sept 30 doesn't mean they take them off of the schedule and doesn't fly them. If Hawaii opens up (probably after California and Vegas) AND demand exists, UA and others will fly. No point in taking flights off of a schedule where stay at home and quarantine expires May 31. If the State extends quarantine - expect UA to match the quarantine date.

Weatherboy

UA has been putting a Flight 224 in the schedule the last few weeks with an unusual inter-island routing: it's SFO-LIH-KOA-SFO and it pops up every few days in the schedule. They keep cancelling it about 24-72 hours prior, I know they have no intention of flying to Kauai or Hawaii islands anytime soon, so why include a flight that to the best of my knowledge, they never flew before?

HNLbasedFlyer

Hawaii 14 day quarantine being extended to June 30

https://www.staradvertiser.com/2020/...rough-june-30/

Certainly we will be extending the 14-day mandatory quarantine for all travel into the state till the end of June, but there are other businesses and activities that we are looking at that are medium risk activities that we’ll look at reopening,”

denver19

Ya, I saw this. Working in Hawaii has its challenges, and a propensity for no planning by state and local govt is one. I was hoping the big hotels could help Gov Ige with a clue, but apparently not. TAT, GE at zero. There is no economy in Hi to reopen until the 14 day quarantine goes away. UAL may as well go to on flight a week to HNL until the quarantine is over. And the announcement of the end of quarantine will come in some garbled announcement that will need to be explained a day later.

moocowalex

I'm based in Hilo. An agent I spoke to who was helping me rebook/cancel/reroute a few trips told me that right now flights are scheduled to resume out of Hilo and the other non-HNL stations beginning on July 6. He also told me to take that with a grain of salt.

On a side note, if anyone has been putting off calling to rebook because of wait times, my call was answered on the first ring and the customer service was excellent (and very apologetic, which was appreciated even if it wasn't his fault).

IAH-OIL-TRASH

United has abandoned Maui for the time being and UA doesn't offer options, even via HNL. When I go by the airport, I see Delta, Alaska, Hawaiian, and Southwest. One of my most common city-pairs is OGG-LAS (~10x year). Last trip was HA and DL. June is HA all the way.

Haven't flown UA since March. Hawaiian has pretty good (and free) hot sandwiches in coach between Hawaii and West Coast. Delta's 175 commuter is pretty comfortable and the snacks and water in a baggie for a 1 hour flight wouldn't make it past Kirby.

AirbusFan2B

Is UA more focused on profitability than its competitors? Could UA fill a daily 737 between LAX or SFO and HNL? I don’t have inside data but am speculating that Hawaii flights are among the least profitable. Might only break even if you can fill ~90%? I see UA flying a bunch of 319s and 737-700s between major business destinations in the lower 48, and those aren’t full as UA is trying to get $500-1500 r/t in some cases, and AA/DL are not pricing that way.

HNLbasedFlyer

I see a UA flight from OGG-HNL-SFO-LAS pretty much everyday of the schedule I checked in the remainder of May and June. They are expensive, as they've consolidated all the reservations onto the single flight - they will remain expensive until people cancel those reservations.

I see no departures Sunday/Monday/Tuesday from OGG on Alaska. There is an occasional Delta OGG-LAX red-eye (the only flight that goes to the mainland that I can tell). Southwest just doing interisland on Maui.

The population of Maui is less than 150,000 - I don't see flights restored until the upcoming quarantine lifted.

We can agree to disagree on the quality of the food on HA - having to pay for Extra Comfort - and arguably, the worst FFP out there......

cmculp

Gov Ige extended the inbound quarantine today to June 30. As long as it remains, demand will be trivial. Supply will necessarily match.

Weatherboy

It's not just OGG. I know many GS stranded on KOA. It's questionable whether UA has any service beyond HNL this fall. And definitely nothing before.

EWR764

LAX-HNL is coming back on a daily 737-800 in June and UA has its code on some HA flights, but at poor timing to connect to the only SFO flight at the moment.

Sidebar, but my travel schedule for the summer is starting to creep back, and I'm looking at it as a great opportunity to diversify my status portfolio given the limited schedules and reduced elite thresholds.

Often1

"Stranded" is hyperbole. There is plenty of service to meet the need and UA, just like every other carrier which took CARES Act funding is obligated to serve all routes which it served pre-Covid without a DOT waiver. DOT, at the request of the Hawai'i governor has granted a number of waivers in order to keep traffic down to truly essential flying needs.

Whether UA provides the best way for you back to the Mainland is a matter of choice. But, there certainly is service, although it may involve inconveniences.

Yes, tickets may well be very expensive. Unlike ordinary situations, the way to lure people back to travel is not to cut fares. Rather, there needs to be a need at the destination -- whether business or leisure -- and the passenger needs to feel safe.