Going back to the invention of manned flight, the industry as a whole has never made dollar one. Doe

On our recent trip to the Sandwich Islands, we used Hawaiian Airlines. The in-flight service and entertainment were first-rate, but we had some real problems with the corporate machinery of this airline that are worthy of internet notice.
First, Hawaiian Airlines employed a blatant bait-and-switch jaguar rental miami rental fort lauderdale car pickup in getting our business to begin with. Long in advance, we signed up and paid for direct flights in both directions between Portland and Maui. But many weeks after our booking and payment -- after all the other airlines' seats on direct flights were gone -- Hawaiian broke the news to us that we were changing planes in Honolulu on the way home. We didn't like that -- hours of R&R time taken away from us without compensation -- but what could we do?
Strike 2 came when we started getting odd, pestering e-mails in the dead of night cheerily reminding us that we could check our reservation any time on line. We figured there was no need -- we had a confirmation number, assigned seats, and an itinerary -- but when we finally gave in to the e-mail messages and checked, we found to our disappointment that Hawaiian had reassigned our family to new seats on one of the flights, and they were no longer all together. When we called to straighten this out, we were jerked around for a long time. It took harsh words and a lot of transfers of our call to get us four seats together.
Some of the people who answer the phone at Hawaiian are not easy to deal with. They give off a seriously passive-aggressive vibe. When you try to get a straight answer from them, suddenly they are seized by the aloha spirit, so much so that useful information is not forthcoming.
When we checked in for the flight home, Hawaiian had a faulty printer that would not produce the baggage claim checks for the person behind the counter to stick onto our suitcases. The attendant, for whom English did not appear to be the native language, spent five minutes staring at the machine in confusion. Then she started typing away for an eternity on a keyboard, refusing to speak to us or make any eye contact with us, even for a second. After 10 minutes of standing there, we got luggage tags, but no explanation jaguar rental miami rental fort lauderdale car pickup of any kind, much less an apology. We boarded the plane thinking that it would be a miracle if we saw our bags when we landed in Portland. (They did make it, though.)
The final insult was that on the long flight home, from Honolulu, two of us had been given seats that did not recline. This was an adjunct to the bait-and-switch maneuver that brought us to Honolulu in the first place. Of course, we weren't told about the nonreclining seats at all -- we discovered them as we sat down in them.
Oh well. They got us there and back, and as we say, the service and entertainment was great. But if we're lucky enough to head out to Polynesia again sometime, we'll definitely be seeing what the other airlines have to offer.
I'm starting to drive any trip that's a ten hour drive or close. I'd rather pound a nail in my eye than submit to most of those DMV style dictators. And as I age, it's getting much harder to keep my opinions on my side of my teeth.
US AIR did the same thing to us from Tampa Florida to Vancouver BC recently. One must be nearly nasty to avoid this predicament. The squeaky wheel/obnoxious passenger gets what they paid for most of the time. If you are submissive you get bubkas!
About seven years ago when we first flew to L.A. with our then one-year old son we had flown Alaska, as we had numerous times before. Alaska used to promote itself as the airline with personal service, and you weren't jaguar rental miami rental fort lauderdale car pickup forced to talking to computers left and right. Yeah, not so much.
We had booked through jaguar rental miami rental fort lauderdale car pickup a travel agency and were for some reason issued paper tickets. OK. So we get to the airport, and our youngest son was booked as a lap infant but that if a seat was available we could have it. We go to the ticket jaguar rental miami rental fort lauderdale car pickup agent and are summarily pointed to the self check-in machine and assured we could do it. And of course, no we couldn't.
It wanted a reservation number; we didn't have one because we had paper tickets. After several minutes the ticket agent finally located our reservation, found the number embeddded deep in some other number on our ticket (like we were supposed to know!), circled it, and sent us back to the self check-in machine. A few minutes poking at the machine and we still couldn't jaguar rental miami rental fort lauderdale car pickup do it. We summoned jaguar rental miami rental fort lauderdale car pickup the ticket agent. Now she's grumpy, comes over and starts to show us how to do it on the machine - only to realize, it can't be done. So she grabs our tickets, heads back to her computer and does it.
On our return trip leaving Santa Ana, we tried to explain the situation to the ticket agent there but we ran into a nearly identical situation - we had to go through the SAME process as she didn't want to help either! But over at TSA, there four four agents standing around (as the evening rush hour had just ended and there was no line), and they were actually taking our items, getting them on the belt, and helping us get everything resituated - and did it with a smile and without being asked for the help!!!
Since then we've flown JetBlue (as we will again this fall). Nothing but pleasant experience. Each time we approach the check-in counter the ticket agent actually spots us and addresses us by name (and we aren't even frequent fliers!), and invites us to the counter where she takes care of the check-in. And each time we've been told to pre-board with our children...and at the gate, the gate agent even came over and invited us to pre-board as well. On board there's in-flight TV (Alaska doesn't have that) and we get a free checked bag (Alaska doesn't do that anymore), and the fare is much cheaper.
The only drawback is that Long Beach Airport is a very cramped airport to fly out of. (Flying into LGB is a breeze because it's a straight walk from plane to the baggage claim and to the rental cars, about a one minute walk.)
This is yet another reason we need high speed rail. It would not have helped to get you from Hawaii to home, but it would offer a real choice jaguar rental miami rental fort lauderdale car pickup for most extended distance travel. jaguar rental miami rental fort lauderdale car pickup Competition in modalities promotes freedom of travel, efficient jaguar rental miami rental fort lauderdale car pickup utilization and customer service. For those who wish to pay less to take six hours from downtown Portland to downtown San Franciso they could choose high speed rail. And those who wish to pay more, get insulted by airline flunkies, groped by the TSA, pay to park at the airport, pay to get a shuttle from SFO to downtown all in about the same total travel time could choose to fly.
For those who wish to pay less to take six hours from downtown Portland to downtown San Franciso they could choose high speed rail. And those who wish to pay more, get insulted by airline flunkies, groped by the TSA, pay to park at the airport, pay to get a shuttle from SFO to downtown jaguar rental miami rental fort lauderdale car pickup all in about the same total travel time could choose to fly.
I agree that we (esp in the west) need high speed rail in this country, but you are kidding jaguar rental miami rental fort lauderdale car pickup yourself if you think you'll just lift the Japan Rail shinkansen network over here lock, stock, and barrel. What you'll jaguar rental miami rental fort lauderdale car pickup get is the high-speed rail equivalent jaguar rental miami rental fort lauderdale car pickup of the airline industry, complete with bumbling security, corporate waste, etc. etc. etc.
No Fly Zone, even within the City of Honolulu, the State of Hawaii is experiencing tremendous problems planning and funding their short, low-speed light-rail system. Yet another rail boondoggle in the making.
Sorry, but the numbers just don't pencil out. It's a big, spread-out country. Flying just makes more sense given the existing technology and available funds. If you can find a better way, build it and collect your reward.
As you pointed out, it's true that Hawaiian Airlines doesn't serve many city-pairs that can be linked with rail. =-) Many airlines have started service to the Islands, lost money, and gave up. It's still a tough, low-margin business.
Going back to the invention of manned flight, the industry as a whole has never made dollar one. Does that mean they aren't oligarchs? No, but this is all to illustrate that it's not as easy as it sounds. More innovation is needed. Best of luck with your ideas.
Ah, the old seat-switcheroo! Love that! Continental did that to us on a flight to FL - non-reclining seats right up against the restrooms and above the engines - surround-sound and scent-o-rama! They tried to pull it again on the return trip, but things got a bit heated and they yielded.
High-speed rail, though...what a joke! As DD above noted, bankrupt California's planning to "invest" some $70 billion of money they don't have to build it - but they have a magic way to pay for it: unicorns, as it happens, fart pixie dust, and that's what Governor jaguar rental miami rental fort lauderdale car pickup Moonbeam's going to peddle to pay the tab. Well, sort of: Actually, the plan - if you want to call it that - is to win the lottery, or more accurately, to use money from a pollution jaguar rental miami rental fort lauderdale car pickup auction established by the state's landmark jaguar rental miami rental fort lauderdale car pickup global warming law . However you think of it, it amounts to the same thing. The most likely outcome is that revenues will continue to fall as companies continue to flee the state for less onerous venues.
Gee guys, how sad. I booked a flight to Honolulu , six months ago, and several other friends of mine booked jaguar rental miami rental fort lauderdale car pickup to Kona on Hawaiian Airlines. We knew that NO airline flew direct from PDX to Kona. All inter island fights go thru Honolulu. A easy trip to your computer, to check your status is not unreasonable, maybe for some, print out your boarding pass 24 hours before departure.
Smile, get groped, bend over, get groped again, TSA has a job to do. I like holding out my arms like a felon going from cell block to cell Block. But, I purchased First Class, no knees in nose for me.
Took Alaska to Honolulu to transfer to Go! inter island. That was the single most painful airline experience I've had so far. To get to the inter island terminal, we had to leave security, jaguar rental miami rental fort lauderdale car pickup thanks to the inept workers at the Alaska counter. Our br