Hawaiian Airlines has been in a bad place ever since the world slammed shut and travel evaporated back in March 2020. Despite travel coming roaring back, they still remained in the red, though numerous incidents haven’t helped. Another two this past month alone leads me to believe that Hawaiian is having bad luck.
Let’s be clear, much of Hawaiian’s financial issues are of their own doing. Yes, Hawaiian has higher operating costs than most airlines thanks to their primary hub being in Honolulu, but there are numerous other reasons for their poor financial performance. Sure, Hawaiian claims that a lot of it has to do with lack of demand from Japan, but that’s actually a fairly small part of their network. Regardless, Hawaiian is having bad luck, which isn’t helping their performance.
Why do I say Hawaiian is having bad luck? Well, aside from challenges brought on by COVID, they’ve had to deal with numerous other issues. The largest of these is the numerous Pratt & Whitney geared turbofan recalls, which had huge impacts on availability of its A321neo fleet and triggered numerous cancelations. Then, the tragic Maui fires caused another massive drop in demand. But, now, just as things seemed to be looking up, Hawaiian suffered yet more incidents out of their control.
Hawaiian is Having Bad Luck
Remember how I was talking about the Pratt & Whitney issue? Well, we recently learned that the engines of the last two aircraft are undergoing inspection right now and should be finished soon. Hawaiian also recently finished installing Starlink antennas across the entire A321neo fleet. However, on May 2, a jet bridge at San Francisco International airport collapsed, heavily damaging door L1 on N216HA after it completed HA42 from Kahului.
Named Mamane, this nearly six-year-old Airbus A321neo hasn’t left San Francisco since then. Luckily, no one was injured in the incident, as the flight was fully disembarked when the collapse occurred. Further, it seems like only one flight, HA41 back to Kahului on the following day, was canceled. Still. This incident means that Hawaiian now has three A321neos out of commission.
Trouble in Sin City
But, guess what? That’s not all that happened in the span of a week. No. Further exemplifying that Hawaiian is having bad luck is what happened on Wednesday, May 8, a Hawaiian Airlines A330 was also knocked out of commission when it too suffered damage at an outstation. This time, the aircraft in question – N382HA Iwakeli’i – was struck by a baggage belt loader causing an undisclosed amount of damage. That caused the flight’s departure time to be pushed from 6:30 pm to 8:45 pm before finally being canceled at 10 pm when the crew timed out. Unfortunately, their return flight is now scheduled for Saturday, May 11, at 1:55 am.
Now, while the A321neo incident in SF clearly isn’t Hawaiian’s fault, I’m not sure if we can say the same for the Vegas incident, as I’m unsure if they employ their won ramp agents there. I wanna say they do, which would make the incident their fault. But, either way, these kind of things happen, and they’re seldom something you can control. What you can control, though, is how you respond to an incident.
Even though Hawaiian is having bad luck, and kind of often does, they’re not so great about handling irregular ops. In this case, passengers reached out to Hawaii News Now to complain about just how Hawaiian is handling this incident. This, of course, is a case of pointing fingers back and forth, but Hawaiian claims they provided $20 meal vouchers and hotel rooms through Saturday. However, passengers noted that at least some of them are being forced out of their rooms Friday morning.
To their credit, Hawaiian notes and apologizes that some passengers have had to share rooms. They note that this was due to room availability, though I question that claim, as a quick search on hotels.com shows LOTS of inventory all across the price spectrum. So, is it really due to a shortage? Or is it a shortage at the hotel Hawaiian has a contract with? Or did they simply not bother to try all that hard?
Passengers also note that they were informed by the airline that “if we were to go with another airline or they were to rebook us another way that we would be waiving any right to compensation.” That’s a crappy policy, but according to Hawaiian’s contract of carriage, they don’t need to do both, anyway. In fact, if this incident were caused by their own employee, then they wouldn’t have to do anything for you at all.
Protect Yourself
Hawaiian notes that stranded customers can file requests for reimbursements for all meals, hotel, and ground transportation expenses incurred as a result of their cancellation – at least in the case of the Las Vegas incident. But even then, Hawaiian notes it’ll take up to four weeks to issue reimbursements, which a while. And that’s if they approve your request to begin with. So, why chance it?
This exact circumstance is why you should protect yourself. How, you ask? Well, the best way is to have credit cards that offer robust trip delay and cancelation insurances like the Chase Sapphire Reserve or Sapphire Preferred, and to use said card to book your airline tickets. Then, you could easily take things into your own hand, booking a hotel of your choice, and having your credit card company’s insurer crediting you.
Alternatively, if you have a pile of points sitting around, you could easily dig into them to quickly book a hotel, provided you’re in a city that has a hotel affiliated with the hotel program of your choice. Points and miles could also get you a flight on another carrier without costing you anything out of your own pocket. Yes, it costs you something, but if you really need to get to your destination and don’t want to spend cash or deal with the offending airline, it’s a viable option.
Hawaiian is Having Bad Luck, Final Thoughts
There’s no doubt in my mind that Hawaiian is having bad luck, and I feel for them. But as is so often the case, the airline isn’t taking all that great care of its passengers, and you should never expect them to. This is why it’s so important to 1) know your rights, and 2) protect yourself. Yes, the Biden Administration’s DOT created new rules to help with some of this, but it isn’t going to save you when thing really go wrong. That why you still need to have a credit card with great coverages, or purchase some whenever you travel.
That said, again, Hawaiian is having bad luck. And for everyone’s sake, I hope it stops.