Hawaiian Airlines Ridiculous Flight Change fees...cheapest airline ever! Honolulu, Hawaii

I  noticed  two things:

1.)  in  2008  and 2009  there was just one single report per year from customers who were not happy with this airline.  In 2010  this  number  suddenly  jumped up  to 7.

2.)  this  is  what  I just  found  about the  salary of  their CEO:

Yes, Hawaiian Airlines change fees are ridiculous...thanks for noticing!

If their change fees have dropped from $200 to $150, that's good. I'd like to think that might be prompted in some small part by my vigorous protests. If all consumers were like flyinrider, nothing would ever change.

Incidentally, Karen, I fail to see where I said I expected to pay $187 for my changed ticket. I just thought a $200 change fee was inappropriate in this circumstance. Let me also point out once again that this was not some "supersaver" fare, but the standard rate offered on Hawaiian's website at that time. Furthermore, I was trying to change my return flight, which was well over 2 weeks in the future. Hardly last minute.

Finally, I understand all to well WHY airlines do what they do: they want to maximize profit and minimize risk. I just don't AGREE that it is an acceptable practice to apply prohibitive change fees. This should not be allowed by consumers. If you adopt the mentality that this sort of thing is "standard practice" it will continue to be standard practice. Hawaiian is not unique, they just stand out as one of the greediest and least respectful of their customers.

I am indeed an airline employee by the way, although I'm not particularly proud of it.

$200 is pretty high for a change fee. The web site says it's supposed to be $150. And after looking around I discovered that Hawaiian Airlines charges $100 to refund a supposedly "fully refundable" fare (unless travel is just within the Hawaiian Islands) which is totally ridiculous.

That said, I have a hard time believing that the OP is an airline employee. Change fees are a fact of life, and it makes little sense that he would think he could get a $187 fare on two weeks' notice ... or that change fees have any relation to the price of the underlying ticket. If anything, the cheaper the ticket, the higher the change fee.

Dear Flynrider:

Like many uninformed members of the flying public, you are not aware that it is not always easy or convenient for airline employees to non-rev. In this age of crowded flights, it is often necessary to buy a ticket.

As you obviously don't understand sarcasm, I'll simply point out that I took your original point about WHY airlines do what they do. I just don't AGREE with what they do! Apparently you do, though, as you are very quick to leap to their defense.

Please continue to enjoy being taken advantage of...

"I'm only an airline employee, so naturally I have no idea..."

   Really?  Then you should very well know why there are restrictions on these types of tickets.   The reason that the penalty is greater than the ticket price is that you simply lose the ticket price if you don't use it on the flight it was sold for.   That's what "non refundable" means.   No refunds. No changes.  I recommend you ask someone higher up in your airline how that works. 

  BTW, if you really are an airline employee, why aren't you non-rev?

To the sheep who posted rebuttals:

It's great that you are happy to pay a change fee that is greater than the price of your original ticket.

And thank you for explaining to me how airlines work. I'm only an airline employee, so naturally I have no idea...

It's consumers like you that allow companies to get away with practices like these. If you had the gumption to stand up for reasonable "standard practices" instead of accepting them, I guarantee you they would go away. You probably feel that inflated charges for going over cellphone monthly minute limits are also "standard practice" and therefore a fair pricing model. It's not, and cellphone companies are beginning to change their tune on this one. No thanks to sheep like you.

  Doesn't matter what airline (except maybe Southwest).   If you buy the bargain basement, non-refundable ticket, you should expect to be in for a nasty surprise if you want to change it.   That's why non-refundable tickets are so cheap.  The airline can expect to have x dollars of income on that flight on that day.   If they allowed you to easily change them, that would defeat the whole purpose.

  When you buy a non-refundable ticket, you'd better be sure you want to fly on that exact date and time, or else get a more expensive ticket that allows you to make changes for a small fee.

Hawaiian Airlines is night and day better than anyone else in coach. They serve meals, have interesting short videos on Hawaii, and constantly serve soft drinks and water. Service is great. Leg room is also acceptible. Did you check the fare on the day that you planned to return? It it was the same then the $200 was a ripoff but it could have cost more and you would combine the new fare with the change fee which was probably $100. Most airlines other than Southwest charge this for a flight change.

The economic situation and fewer travellers has encouraged the airlines to charge for all sorts of things. For domestic travel in the 48 I always use Southwest which doesn't charge for bags or changes.