TRAVEL NEWS, TIPS & ADVICE | CONSUMER CONFIDENTIAL
Hawaiian Airlines hits turbulence, flies right
Maybe Hawaiian Airlines isn't as heartless as it appeared.
"We dropped the ball on this," said Keoni Wagner, a spokesman for the carrier. "It's a blunder that we regret."
He was referring to the subject of my Wednesday column, which told how Monrovia resident Jane Wilkens was forced to cancel a trip to Hawaii with her mom, who unexpectedly died in September. Hawaiian Airlines dinged Wilkens for $225 in "processing fees" before it refunded her first-class tickets.
I pointed out how this practice, which an airline representative called "fair and reasonable," differed from that of Delta Air Lines, which fully refunded Wilkens' money for a separate trip. For its part, American Express reimbursed Wilkens for Hawaiian's $225 fee as a goodwill gesture to a bereaved customer.
The column sparked a deluge of outraged e-mails both to me and the airline.
Typical of the responses was that of Jim Wilton, who wrote to say that he and his family fly each spring to Oahu aboard Hawaiian Airlines.
"Not this year," he said. "If nothing else, the loss of my $2,000 will hopefully make up for the $225 they felt compelled to withhold from this poor lady."
After the column appeared, Hawaiian TV stations and newspapers quickly picked up the story. Not long after that, Hawaiian's Wagner was on the phone to admit that they'd screwed up.
"We will be apologizing to [Wilkens] for dropping the ball," he said.
Wagner insisted that Hawaiian does indeed refund tickets to passengers who experience the death of a loved one, although it's possible not all staff members were aware of the policy. "There's a lot of internal discussion going on about this," he said.
Wagner added that Hawaiian will refund the $225 fee to Wilkens and will work with AmEx so that the credit card company also gets its money back.
I spoke later with Wilkens, who said she'd received an apology from the carrier.
"They said it won't happen again," she said.
Consumer Confidential runs Wednesdays and Sundays. Send your tips or feedback to david.lazarus@latimes.com
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