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Aloha Airlines Informative - This Company Can't be Trusted - Flight to Hawaii
Flight to Hawaii
OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA -- In June 2007, I decided to go to Hawaii on vacation with my family. I searched Hotwire, which I had used before to get tickets at a good price, and found 4 reasonably-priced tickets on Aloha Airlines, which were for flights that left from Oakland, stopped at Kona-Kailua, where I planned to stay, and then continued on to Honolulu. The return flight started in Honolulu, stopped at Kona-Kailua, and proceeded on to Oakland. Since I'd heard that airlines sometimes objected to passengers using only a portion of the flight they'd booked, I took the trouble to call Aloha Airlines and ask if there was any problem with my avoiding Honolulu and just using the Oakland/Kona and Kona/Oakland portion of the itinerary. I was assured by the person answering the phone at Aloha that this wouldn't be a problem at all, so I proceeded to book the flights.
Trusting in what I'd been told by the Aloha representative, I was shocked to be told by gate agent Mae Fihiki, upon checking in with our baggage, that to do what I had been told was "no problem" would now cost us an extra $125 per ticket in "change fees", which I was forced to pay on the spot with my credit card.
To me, this seemed like a major problem, but since I'd made no alternate arrangements (like purchasing much less expensive Honolulu-Kona tickets from Go Airlines) and since our flight was about to leave, I had no alternative but to pay up. (Needless to say, the unanticipated extra $500 put a major dent in our carefully-planned vacation budget, forcing us to economize on our activities on the Island).
Looking online, I found two numbers for Aloha's "customer service" department, but was disappointed when nobody answered (although the call was well within the airline's stated business hours) , and the machine wouldn't even take a message. But with persistence, after numerous attempts, I finally reached Aloha representative "Terri Ann" (who wouldn't give her last name) . I found her attitude to be far from the "aloha spirit" that advertising had led me to expect. She seemed to have no interest in the fact that I had been misled by her company's employee, and concentrated on browbeating me, asking rhetorically why anyone would book a ticket written for an ultimate destination that they didn't intend to visit. When I explained that this was a Hotwire ticket, and that I didn't see any tickets offered there that were just Oakland-to-Kona and back, she said that I could have bought a ticket from Aloha like that. Yes, I replied, but that would have cost a lot more money. At this point she pounced, as if she had scored some sort of victory in our debate, and accused me of trying to "manipulate" their system. When I asked what was wrong with trying to save a little money, she began abusing me further, and it became evident that she had little interest in preserving Aloha's reputation as far as I was concerned. (So much for the "customer first" policy Aloha brags about on their site.)
Possibly these last-minute "change fees" make an important contribution to the airline's bottom line, offsetting the income that they lose by selling off tickets to discounters, and what happened to me was all according to plan. Otherwise, it's hard to account for this airline's behavior in this instance. Really, I'm hard pressed to think of any transaction outside of the airline industry in which one is charged more for consuming less of a company's products or services. If a restaurant charged you extra for not finishing your meal, or a car rental company imposed extra fees for not driving a specified number of miles each day, you would think it absurd, but this is exactly what the airline is doing in this case. Presumably, they could have sold the seats for the unused portion of my flights and made more money - actually, since airlines routinely "overbook" their flights, it's likely that they will be doing this anyway, making money coming and going, as it were. But absurd or not, the fact that I was told by a company representative that my proposed itinerary was acceptable would negate any "change fee" imposed by a company that wished to retain a reputation for fairness to its customers.
Since I'm sure my call was recorded "in order to better serve you", I wonder why, if my account of it was in doubt, the "customer service" agent didn't offer to retrieve the tape, instead of berating me for attempting to save a few bucks. Evidently, this is a company that is purely focused on short-term profit, that cares little about its customers or what they think of it. I'm sorry I didn't know this before dealing with them, or I would have flown on a competing airline and saved a lot of money as well as considerable aggravation.
Trusting in what I'd been told by the Aloha representative, I was shocked to be told by gate agent Mae Fihiki, upon checking in with our baggage, that to do what I had been told was "no problem" would now cost us an extra $125 per ticket in "change fees", which I was forced to pay on the spot with my credit card.
To me, this seemed like a major problem, but since I'd made no alternate arrangements (like purchasing much less expensive Honolulu-Kona tickets from Go Airlines) and since our flight was about to leave, I had no alternative but to pay up. (Needless to say, the unanticipated extra $500 put a major dent in our carefully-planned vacation budget, forcing us to economize on our activities on the Island).
Looking online, I found two numbers for Aloha's "customer service" department, but was disappointed when nobody answered (although the call was well within the airline's stated business hours) , and the machine wouldn't even take a message. But with persistence, after numerous attempts, I finally reached Aloha representative "Terri Ann" (who wouldn't give her last name) . I found her attitude to be far from the "aloha spirit" that advertising had led me to expect. She seemed to have no interest in the fact that I had been misled by her company's employee, and concentrated on browbeating me, asking rhetorically why anyone would book a ticket written for an ultimate destination that they didn't intend to visit. When I explained that this was a Hotwire ticket, and that I didn't see any tickets offered there that were just Oakland-to-Kona and back, she said that I could have bought a ticket from Aloha like that. Yes, I replied, but that would have cost a lot more money. At this point she pounced, as if she had scored some sort of victory in our debate, and accused me of trying to "manipulate" their system. When I asked what was wrong with trying to save a little money, she began abusing me further, and it became evident that she had little interest in preserving Aloha's reputation as far as I was concerned. (So much for the "customer first" policy Aloha brags about on their site.)
Possibly these last-minute "change fees" make an important contribution to the airline's bottom line, offsetting the income that they lose by selling off tickets to discounters, and what happened to me was all according to plan. Otherwise, it's hard to account for this airline's behavior in this instance. Really, I'm hard pressed to think of any transaction outside of the airline industry in which one is charged more for consuming less of a company's products or services. If a restaurant charged you extra for not finishing your meal, or a car rental company imposed extra fees for not driving a specified number of miles each day, you would think it absurd, but this is exactly what the airline is doing in this case. Presumably, they could have sold the seats for the unused portion of my flights and made more money - actually, since airlines routinely "overbook" their flights, it's likely that they will be doing this anyway, making money coming and going, as it were. But absurd or not, the fact that I was told by a company representative that my proposed itinerary was acceptable would negate any "change fee" imposed by a company that wished to retain a reputation for fairness to its customers.
Since I'm sure my call was recorded "in order to better serve you", I wonder why, if my account of it was in doubt, the "customer service" agent didn't offer to retrieve the tape, instead of berating me for attempting to save a few bucks. Evidently, this is a company that is purely focused on short-term profit, that cares little about its customers or what they think of it. I'm sorry I didn't know this before dealing with them, or I would have flown on a competing airline and saved a lot of money as well as considerable aggravation.
Comments:
Posted by trumania on 2007-08-01:
Companies that record phone conversations are record them randomly and there is no way to retrieve a specific phone conversation. I know this from experience.
And just to inform you of the really bad positions airlines are into right now, typically with the raise in cost of gas and other expenses airlines pay for they typically make less then $25.00 per passenger. They are not making any profit at all.
I understand you called a rep to check if it was okay, but even then you probably should have cancelled the 2nd half anyway. Typically if you miss the first flight they will cancel you for all the remaining connections. It's asking for trouble really.
And just to inform you of the really bad positions airlines are into right now, typically with the raise in cost of gas and other expenses airlines pay for they typically make less then $25.00 per passenger. They are not making any profit at all.
I understand you called a rep to check if it was okay, but even then you probably should have cancelled the 2nd half anyway. Typically if you miss the first flight they will cancel you for all the remaining connections. It's asking for trouble really.
Posted by KenPopcorn on 2007-08-01:
Were you not going to check any bags for a vacation in Hawaii?
Posted by Dedicated Reader on 2007-08-01:
You wrote, "Really, I'm hard pressed to think of any transaction outside of the airline industry in which one is charged more for consuming less of a company's products or services."
This is very common in the hospitality industry. Just try checking into a hotel during a major sporting event and, instead of staying the mandatory three nights, you check out after one. You'll still be charged for the two nights you didn't use.
This is very common in the hospitality industry. Just try checking into a hotel during a major sporting event and, instead of staying the mandatory three nights, you check out after one. You'll still be charged for the two nights you didn't use.
Posted by Abused Customer on 2007-08-02:
Oh I see KenPopcorn is an expert on international affairs now!
awerby - I can sympathise with you. I have experienced similar situations as you on my last trip to Hawaii. They don't cotton to outsiders there.
awerby - I can sympathise with you. I have experienced similar situations as you on my last trip to Hawaii. They don't cotton to outsiders there.
Posted by airemp on 2007-08-02:
As an airline employee in customer service I have to hear about this type of stuff all the time. Every company has to train their employees. However, the little writing at the bottom of your ticket should have the restrictions including "there are fees for changing nonrefundable tickets" and technically not taking your entire flight is a change. Manipulating fares to include flights like this where you intentionally do not take a portion of it is specifically stated to be restricted in most airline policies available to you.
Trumania is correct that phone calls are only recorded randomly and for quality purposes only.
Abused Customer wrote "Oh I see Kenpopcorn is an expert on international affairs now!" - last I checked Hawaii was 1 of the 50 states... and Ken is right that bags would be checked all the way through and airlines do not stop baggage routing for purposes like this.
Trumania is correct that phone calls are only recorded randomly and for quality purposes only.
Abused Customer wrote "Oh I see Kenpopcorn is an expert on international affairs now!" - last I checked Hawaii was 1 of the 50 states... and Ken is right that bags would be checked all the way through and airlines do not stop baggage routing for purposes like this.
Posted by awerby on 2007-08-02:
Wow, I wasn't expecting all this feedback! While I'm not sure this affects my feelings about Aloha very much, I really appreciate everybody trying to be helpful here.
Let's see if I can respond to some of the points people have brought up.
With the cost of computer storage space so cheap, I don't see why companies can't record all their calls; certainly it would help them, in case of problems, to be able to review what they'd told a specific customer. I suspect the random approach is taken by some companies, but I don't know why we should assume that it's universal.
As to the overall profitability of the airline industry, I've heard that some companies are having some problems. But as a consumer, I don't see it as my personal responsibility to shore up their bottom line by choosing more expensive flights over cheaper ones, or to ignore their shoddy treatment of me personally. If a company chooses to sell their product for a loss or minimal profit, should buyers really be blamed for purchasing from them, as opposed to their higher-priced competitors? As I noted in my original review, it seems that this airline is making up for this by extorting extra fees whenever possible.
Yes, I did need to check bags. That's why this came up; I wanted to make sure they ended up in the right place. Otherwise, I might never have realized that there was any kind of problem. I don't see how it's any harder for them to unload my baggage one place or another, since plenty of other passengers were also getting off at Kona. It's just a matter of writing a different code on the tag.
I'm not sure the hospitality industry analogy is entirely apropos. If I make a reservation for three nights, the hotel will generally charge my card for three nights on the spot; they are then precluded from renting my room to someone else for that time. (I don't think the hospitality industry engages in "overbooking" either.) In no case would I be charged for more than the three nights, even if I checked out early for some reason. And if I asked for and was granted an exception to the mandatory minimum stay requirement, I wouldn't expect to see the extra nights appear on my statement.
Thanks for the sympathy, abused, but in general I've found the Hawaiian people pretty friendly, with the notable exception of Terri Ann at Aloha's "customer support".
And since I got my ticket online, I wasn't able to peruse all the fine print that adorns the traditional paper tickets that are rapidly fading into history. In any case, I would think (I did think) that the verbal assurance I got from the company's representative would supersede any of that - that's why I asked in the first place. If the company's employees are not properly trained, I hardly see how that is my fault. Maybe I'm old-fashioned in this respect, but I expect a company to stand behind what its representatives tell me, even if it loses a little money by doing so, and not hide behind some "little writing" that they never shared with me. And the idea that by not taking the plane to its ultimate destination (where I don't want to go) I'm "manipulating" the fares in some nefarious way seems pretty peculiar - it really seems that the airline was trying to manipulate me instead.
Let's see if I can respond to some of the points people have brought up.
With the cost of computer storage space so cheap, I don't see why companies can't record all their calls; certainly it would help them, in case of problems, to be able to review what they'd told a specific customer. I suspect the random approach is taken by some companies, but I don't know why we should assume that it's universal.
As to the overall profitability of the airline industry, I've heard that some companies are having some problems. But as a consumer, I don't see it as my personal responsibility to shore up their bottom line by choosing more expensive flights over cheaper ones, or to ignore their shoddy treatment of me personally. If a company chooses to sell their product for a loss or minimal profit, should buyers really be blamed for purchasing from them, as opposed to their higher-priced competitors? As I noted in my original review, it seems that this airline is making up for this by extorting extra fees whenever possible.
Yes, I did need to check bags. That's why this came up; I wanted to make sure they ended up in the right place. Otherwise, I might never have realized that there was any kind of problem. I don't see how it's any harder for them to unload my baggage one place or another, since plenty of other passengers were also getting off at Kona. It's just a matter of writing a different code on the tag.
I'm not sure the hospitality industry analogy is entirely apropos. If I make a reservation for three nights, the hotel will generally charge my card for three nights on the spot; they are then precluded from renting my room to someone else for that time. (I don't think the hospitality industry engages in "overbooking" either.) In no case would I be charged for more than the three nights, even if I checked out early for some reason. And if I asked for and was granted an exception to the mandatory minimum stay requirement, I wouldn't expect to see the extra nights appear on my statement.
Thanks for the sympathy, abused, but in general I've found the Hawaiian people pretty friendly, with the notable exception of Terri Ann at Aloha's "customer support".
And since I got my ticket online, I wasn't able to peruse all the fine print that adorns the traditional paper tickets that are rapidly fading into history. In any case, I would think (I did think) that the verbal assurance I got from the company's representative would supersede any of that - that's why I asked in the first place. If the company's employees are not properly trained, I hardly see how that is my fault. Maybe I'm old-fashioned in this respect, but I expect a company to stand behind what its representatives tell me, even if it loses a little money by doing so, and not hide behind some "little writing" that they never shared with me. And the idea that by not taking the plane to its ultimate destination (where I don't want to go) I'm "manipulating" the fares in some nefarious way seems pretty peculiar - it really seems that the airline was trying to manipulate me instead.
Posted by airemp on 2007-08-02:
this is where it gets a little difficult... the airline i work for WILL honor a misadvisement in an escalated circumstance if it has been documented that you were advised of this by an agent. The little writing is a contract that you agree to when you purchase the ticket but a documented misadvisement can sometimes override that with the right supervisor. We dont have to because the contract is what you agreed to. So best advice to you is to ask/request that they document everything they tell you and get their name and agent sine. You cant prove that they do it but it helps your case when asking us to bend the rules. Maintaining a calm but determined demeanor will help as well. We dont tend to help the screamers/yellers but and are more willing to help out someone with whom we can relate who treats us with respect :)
on a financial note airlines do not make much money on each individual passenger. for most major airlines, ie continental, united, delta, revenue is in the billions yet actual profits this year so far ranged from 2 to 300 million after all costs involved. this "should" matter to you as it affects all future pricing and the availability for you to go where you want to go.
on a financial note airlines do not make much money on each individual passenger. for most major airlines, ie continental, united, delta, revenue is in the billions yet actual profits this year so far ranged from 2 to 300 million after all costs involved. this "should" matter to you as it affects all future pricing and the availability for you to go where you want to go.
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