[flyhi152]

I tried to deal with Hawaiian Airlines' "Customer Advocate" (speak Robyn Lopez) and without ever addressing the real issue she closed the case. HA had advertised something on their website for what the system was not set up at that point of time. they made me transfer 49,000 AMEX points into my "Hawaiian Miles" account and later, when I saw that I could not use them as they were describing it on their website it was "we are not going to reverse the transaction, because the transaction was final - you agreed to it."

What about if you see something advertise for a certain price, you go to the store, hand the money over to the clerk and then he tells you "sorry, the item is not available and you won't get your money back, only store credit which is going to expire in 10 months.... " ???? It would be exactly the same because these Amex points were worth $ 490,- --- I could have ordered gift cards or some other merchandise instead.

Here is what I wrote to the CEO and President, Mr. Mark B. Dunkerley (via Certified Mail, he did not care to respond or to have someone respond to my letter...):

CERTIFIED MAIL

Mr. Mark B. Dunkerley,
President and CEO
Hawaiian Airlines, Corporate Office
PO Box 30008
Honolulu, HI 96820




Ref.: Mishandling of my complaint dated 8/15/2010 by Mrs. Robyn Lopez

Dear Mr. Dunkerley,
I just went over your company policy (“Code of Business Ethics and Conduct”) and found that these are obviously just empty phrases. According to 2.2.1. “Business Conduct”, “The Company’s directors, officers and employees shall conduct themselves in a fair, ethical, legal and honest manner (…)”.
I don’t see that Mrs. Lopez made any attempt to resolve my complaint despite several options that I suggested, including
a) Reversal of my AMEX conversion into Hawaiian Miles
b) Retroactive application of 60,000 miles to one leg of my reservation OLOMXL and refunding 50% of the price that I paid for the ticket
c) allowing me to use my miles to upgrade flight HA36 on Nov., 15.
Obviously Mrs. Lopez believes that she achieved a resolution by talking to the IT Department to make the “Combined Dollar/Miles” option also available for international flights. I explained to her that I am no longer interested in using Hawaiian Airlines for my flights to the Philippines and that the option of purchasing additional tickets in the future is no option for me.
None of Mrs. Lopez’ emails that I received in response to my letters dated 8/15 and 10/07/2010 addressed my point that your website made the offer of “Combined Dollar/Miles” bookings without mentioning that this would not be possible on international flights. I asked your CS several times to find a way to do it manually and even talked to a supervisor when I tried to pay for one leg of my booking BHSCHL. The answer was “it is not possible on international flights, you have to pay either both ways in Dollars or both ways in Miles.” When I booked BHSCHL the entire trip would have cost me 120,000 miles (60 000 for the outbound and 60,000 for the return trip). I had only about 95,000 miles in my account and since the system always switched both trips either to miles or to dollars, I was not able to apply the miles that I had purchased with my AMEX points.
On 10/07/2010 I wrote a second letter to your Consumer Affairs Office (I will attach copies of both letters as well as Mrs. Lopez’ emails), reminding them that I was still waiting for a response to the issue of the non-disclosure of the limitation of the “Combined Dollar/Miles” option to domestic flights. Until today I have not received anything in the mail from your company and I feel that evasive emails are not the proper “substantive” way to respond to a formal complaint that a customer mails to you:
Your Contract of Carriage - Rule 96 D defines the way how the Customer Advocate should respond to a written consumer complaint:
“Responsiveness - Hawaiian Airlines is dedicated to keeping passengers informed, to responding to issues raised by its customers and to resolving those issues expediently. The carrier will acknowledge each customer’s concerns and respond substantively to complaints within thirty (30) days. As required by the Department of Transportation, Hawaiian Airlines will acknowledge receipt of all complaints within 30 days. As stated in Hawaiian Airlines’ Customer First Commitment, carrier will send a substantive response within 30 days.”
None of this happened: No acknowledgment of the receipt of my complaint that I submitted on 8/15/2010, not even after my reminder of 10/07/2010.
The emails that I received from Mrs. Lopez were not substantive at all and when I told her that the “Combined Dollar/Miles” issue did not have anything to do with “Availability” since I would have been able to pay for both ways paying miles, she responded on 10/28/10 that she closed the case and that the issue had been resolved in a fair manner. My alternative suggestions of reversing the AMEX points conversion was denied with the argument “any points conversions are final”. Obviously your company does not care about the fact that I only transferred my points because I believed that I would be able to consequently use them for your “Combined Dollar/Miles” offer. Any time I call to upgrade Flight 36 on Nov.15 I get the answer, “Sorry, upgrades are only available if you pay in Dollars, you can’t use your miles”