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I'm curious if there are any American Airline fliers here. For over twenty years I've used American for flights between here and the mainland and UK taking advantage of their codeshare agreement with Hawaiian to fly between Hilo and Honolulu. Now, it seems come August 22nd, you can no longer book flights
to Hilo with American.
I don't think it's the codeshare agreement being dropped because you can still book flights out of Hilo after 21st August but there seem to be no options to return to Hilo.
Just did an experiment on the AA website trying to book one way flights from LA to Kahului and Lihue as well as Hilo and they all show the same problem after August 21st. On the other hand, flying from those airports to LA still use Hawaiian flights as a codeshare, so it's a little bizarre.
I realize there are other options but have many reasons to stick with AA and can't find anything on the web about this problem. I will be contacting AA and asking about this, but was wondering if anyone knew anything about it.
Thanks.
Tom
http://apacificview.blogspot.com/
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I am able to find flights back using google.com/flights using AA which then links to the AA website. The dates I used were ITO/LAX on 08/24 and return LAX/ITO on 08/28. There fares were quite high though. There is something odd -- the outbound ITO/HNL flight on HA is codeshared with AA but the return flight on HA is not.
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I wonder if this has something to do with the AA/USAirways merger - they go court again on Aug 15 to finalize AA bankruptcy.
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Cat and rprr - I was also wondering if it had something to do with the merger, but still don't understand why the codeshare flights are available from the Hawaii cities but not to them and why the 22nd August is such a significant date. I was thinking maybe Hawaiian changed their schedules on that date but I don't think they are. I've emailed American but have had no answer yet. Will let you know what the reply says if I get one.
[brainless typo corrected]
Tom
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Well, I didn't expect this, but good on American. For those interested I got a reply and there does seem to be a problem, perhaps a software bug. They have been updating their website so perhaps something to do with that. The relevant part of the email I got says this:
Thank you for your message to AA.com and for taking the time to inform us of this problem.
After further review and testing online, I do understand what you mean by the HA Codeshare flights not appearing on any dates from LAX-HNL-ITO but they do appear on the return flights.
I have reported this issue and have included screenshots to our programmers for further research and correction. We appreciate your patience while we continue to technically fine-tune the website.
They also gave me another option for booking codeshare flights after August 22nd if the problem isn't fixed quickly, which I really appreciated.
Tom
http://apacificview.blogspot.com/
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Tom, thank you for updating this thread. I usually fly to the mainland on American a couple of times a year and I also was surprised to see that the codeshares from ITO to HNL and back weren't included in the American itinerary. As of today, it doesn't appear that the website has been updated. I emailed AA but haven't received an answer yet.
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Yeah, the problem still hasn't been fixed. I'm sure they must be losing a little money with this because people booking via travel sites (e.g., expedia etc) won't be given the option for AA flights after 21st August. Just curious - when contacting AA via their website they give an option as to whether you want a reply or not. It's easy to miss, but wondered if that's the reason you haven't had a reply. I'll add that in the past I emailed them about some exceptional service I witnessed on an AA LAX-HNL flight, ticked the box asking for a reply (I wanted to know if my feedback got sent to the flight attendant who gave such great service) and never got a reply.
AA seem to be a bit hit and miss sometimes. I once got a whole bunch of air miles from them because I was on a flight from HNL to ORD (Chicago) which had an expedited arrival in ORD due to a passenger having a serious medical condition. When we were at the gate the captain asked everyone to remain in their seats to allow the sick passenger to be treated and removed, which everyone did. The email I got from them suggested I was part of the team that treated the sick passenger. I wasn't. I never found out if that air miles award was given to every passenger on the flight or just who they thought helped the passenger during the flight. They have also messed me up several times with last-minute schedule changes!
Tom
http://apacificview.blogspot.com/
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Tom, AA did email me later on yesterday. The woman assured me that she had reported the problem before, I guess when you contacted them, and that she would bring it up again. She also gave me a number to call if the website wasn't fixed soon.
I stopped flying AA a couple of years ago after sitting on the runway for 3 hours at LAX waiting for some mechanical issue to be fixed. They finally took us off the plane and let us sit at the airport for another 2 hours. I missed my connecting flight to Hilo that night and at first they didn't want to put me up a hotel overnight because, according to the airline, I hadn't missed an AA flight. We finally got that straightened out, but I switched to United after that.
Then the direct Hilo to LAX flight got more expensive over the summer, so I'm back to AA. Plus they recently offered me platinum status (I think that's what it's called) if I just make one more mainland trip with them. I'd normally need another 20,000+ miles this year to get to platinum, so it seems like a decent deal. We'll see.
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The problem with codeshare flights between AA and Hawaiian seems to have been fixed. It took a while but think it's all working again. Pahoachick - would be good if you could confirm - I only tested the flights I'm interested in (and they are very expensive).
