Kokua Line
Kokua Line
Long airport delays annoy
customer of Vegas charterQuestion: In recent months, delays at the Las Vegas Charter Terminal have been unbearable. Tours via Hawaiian Airlines/Vacations Hawaii have been delayed from six to 12 hours. Airline officials sing the same tune: "unforeseen delays," "no other flights available." Morning flight delays are then given to the afternoon flight, causing more frustrations. Airline officials try to offer some consolation by providing food vouchers or airline snacks. Try being delayed for that many hours and have available as food outlets Burger King and Cinnabon. Who is to blame? What is really going on? Why can't they give us honest answers? And, when delays are expected to occur, why can't passengers be left at hotels to wait, instead of sitting it out at the airport?
Answer: Hawaiian Air spokesman Keoni Wagner said the airline's policy "is to keep passengers informed on a timely basis about anything affecting their flight schedule."
If this has not happened, he says he wants to hear about it "so that we can determine why and take corrective action." Call him at 838-6778.
"Without the customers, we are not in business, so we take them very seriously and are very, very sorry for any inconvenience that may have been caused," said Rob Stillwell, vice president of corporate communications for Boyd Gaming, which owns Vacations Hawaii.
However, he explained that on the one lengthy delay he was aware of, Vacations Hawaii did not realize it was going to be as long as it turned out to be. "Otherwise, we would have kept (passengers) at the (hotel) and fed them and that sort of thing. We have a long and proud track record of taking care of our customers in the event of unforeseen delays."
He noted, for example, that following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, when airline service was disrupted all over the country, guests were allowed to stay two or three extra nights with free room and board.
In this case, Vacations Hawaii was told initially that there would be a one- to two-hour delay, so passengers were kept at the hotel for one extra hour, Stillwell said. But once at the airport, it turned into a "rolling delay" of uncertain duration.
At that point it was out of the company's hands, Stillwell said. Had the company been told that the delay would end up being five or six hours, "we would have gladly taken (passengers) back to the hotel and help alleviate the problem and help kill time," he said.
But with a "rolling delay," it is the airline's responsibility to accommodate passengers, he said.
Hawaiian had one delay "of just less than 12 hours on April 12," Wagner said. There were two other delays in March of about eight hours each.
"Other than these, there is no trend of delays either to or from Las Vegas in either charter or scheduled service," he said.
Typically, delays of an hour or more are due to "mechanical discrepancies, and we don't rush the resolution of these," he said. Asked if enhanced security procedures played any role, Wagner said they do "sometimes" but generally do not cause protracted delays.
"There have been a few occasions when the retrieval of checked bags belonging to a passenger who did not board the plane caused delays, but these would typically be in the 20- to 30-minute range on mainland flights," he said.
Asked what the policy is regarding putting passengers up in hotels, Wagner said circumstances would dictate any decision, "but generally speaking, our charter agreement does not provide for hotel accommodations for delays."
However, in the case of scheduled service, the company policy is to provide for hotel accommodations if a flight will be or is delayed more than four hours and extends into the "overnight" period of 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. and if there is no other means to transport passengers to their destination, Wagner said.
Got a question or complaint?
Call 529-4773, fax 529-4750, or write to Kokua Line,
Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., No. 7-210,
Honolulu 96813. As many as possible will be answered.
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