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Kokua Line June Watanabe |
Reader gets
misinformation
on air faresQuestion: My dear cousin passed away in Honolulu, and her funeral was going to be on Molokai the weekend of Oct. 11. I tried hard to get there, but all the airlines were full. But Island Air said I could try to get to Molokai on standby Saturday and come back. To do that, I needed to book a return flight to even be considered for standby. I would have been No. 10 on the standby list going over. The girl told me my chances were very, very slim getting on because they had a Molokai-Oahu canoe race and all seats were booked. But if I took the chance, I would have to pay $193.50 for a standby seat going over, plus a return flight of $193.50. Something is very wrong. I would have to pay for a return flight even when I could not even get there. Can you please look into this?
Answer: There seems to have been a lot of miscommunication, because Island Air says it doesn't offer standby seats, doesn't require passengers to book round trip and doesn't have a $193.50 fare.
Since you didn't have anything in writing and couldn't remember whom you spoke with, we weren't able to follow up to find out what went wrong.
According to Island Air spokesman Stu Glauberman, flights that weekend were sold out in advance because of the big canoe race.
"Apart from that, we regret that your reader seems to have gotten some misinformation about Island Air fares," he said.
Glauberman said the lowest one-way fare that Island Air offers is $80.50, "if available." The airline also offers a seven-day advance purchase of $84.50 and a three-day advance purchase fare of $93.50.
"All of these fares are restricted, meaning they are based on seat availability and may not be offered on all flights," Glauberman said.
From Oct. 10 the cheapest unrestricted one-way fare on Island Air is $98.50, and the highest one-way fare is $127.50, Glauberman said.
Even if a passenger were to fly from Honolulu to Kahului on Aloha Airlines, then catch Island Air to Molokai, that would come to $148 one way, he said.
Q: There is a telephone pole between my property and the street on Alewa Drive. They put in a new post, but they never took out the old post. It has been there for more than four years. The old post is about to fall down because of termites. They had a rope tied at the top of the old post to the new post to keep it from falling. Can you do something about it?
A: As soon as we notified Verizon Hawaii about your concerns, it acted quickly to remove the pole -- the next day, in fact.
"In researching why it was not removed before this, we saw there was a work order issued for its removal, but also a note to consolidate this removal with the removal of other poles in the Alewa area," said Verizon spokeswoman Ann Nishida.
Consolidation made "perfect sense," she said, because a special truck was needed for the job. Somehow, however, although the other poles were removed, the one fronting your house was forgotten.
Nishida apologized for any inconvenience this caused.
"If customers have concerns about leaning utility poles, they should call Verizon's repair line at 611," she said.
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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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