I thought you other paddlers out there might be interested in our hell-ish experience on Go! Airlines this past weekend. Copied below is a letter I just sent to their customer service department and then forwarded to the local papers. I intend to follow up with a group letter coordinated with other affected canoe clubs. I got the names and contact info of about 11 other paddling-related travelers who were waiting it out with us. Several Lanikai coaches, as well as other paddlers, were in the same situation we were. The rest of the people on our original flight were either on a coordinated one-day tour that was canceled or found their own flights to Hilo or Kona on other airlines.
We planned on getting into Hilo about mid-day with plenty of time to relax and enjoy our vacation rental as we got ready for the races the following day. Instead, we finally laid down in our vacation rental at about 4am and slept fitfully until about 8am, when we drove back into town for our race.
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Flight reliability
Date: Wed, 05 Aug 2009 14:49:42 -1000
To whom it may concern:
My husband and I were scheduled to fly on Go! flight 1036 from Honolulu to Hilo on Friday July 31st. Our flight was first delayed and then canceled and we were put on standby for the rest of the day. We finally got on a plane at 12:30am, a full thirteen hours after our scheduled departure. In addition to general anxiety and annoyance at the fact that it should never take 15 hrs to travel from Honolulu to Hilo (a 40 min flight), this tremendous delay resulted in the following:
- Our perishable items that we placed in our cooler with blue ice and then paid you $10 to check on were all ruined.
- We paid for car rental and accommodations that we barely got to use.
- Most importantly, we did not get any rest the night before our State Championship canoe races.
Since this has proved that we cannot expect Go! to get us where we are going in a reliable manner, at the very minimum, I would like to get a full refund on our future booking for the weekend of Sept 4th. We intend to never fly with you again and plan to make sure that everyone in the paddling community is aware of the hell that we went through so that they won't either. The ironic thing is that up until now we had been happy return customers and have often stood up for Go! in conversations with our associates. We have been Go! miles members since you first started operations here.
Outrigger canoe racing is the official state sport of Hawaii and many of us were flying over for the State Championship races. Knowing travel would be hectic on this weekend, we made our reservations several months in advance. The least you could have done was make similar plans ahead of time knowing that flights would be fully booked for these few days.
It was nearly impossible to get any information or updates about the ongoing situation. All of the flights were delayed and everyone was upset. Yet some of us were stuck there for an extremely long time (13+ hrs) and a few never got out at all. Meanwhile we watched our team-mates arrive, wait for their delayed flights, and then leave. While we waited, and waited, and waited. We were made to feel that somehow it was our fault that we were on the single flight that got canceled, while passengers from other flights were given standby status above us.
There were a number of things that Go! employees could have done to make our awful experience at least somewhat bearable, including:
- Get every available manager or other employee onto the floor to help answer questions and disseminate information.
- Use the P/A system to give updates on when flights maybe expected to go out (flights were only announced once they were being boarded, so no one had any idea when they might be able to leave).
- Have some level of communication with other airlines in order to be able to assist us in getting on alternative flights.
- Provide water and snacks to the people in the holding area.
- Had at least a modicum of empathy for those of us suffering through the situation.
Sincerely,
Rachel Orange
Submitted by rachel on Wed, 08/05/2009 - 4:32pm
Nice letter Rachel-
Good luck, though I suspect that go! really cares only about 1 thing, money...
You're not the first people to be affected by their unscrupulous business and operational practices. They've ruined honeymoons, caused people to miss events, and (oh yeah!) had pilots fall asleep at the controls and miss Hilo all together...scary.
Not to mention how they analyzed the local airline industry(illegally looking at statements and reports under false pretense) all the while looking to make money, not to serve the community.
Mokulele and Hawaiian must love it when go! fails to go...
#1 Wed, 08/05/2009 - 4:50pm
FYI, I just got an email back from customer care. They didn't answer my question about a refund for my Kona travel, which I fear may have similar delays due to heavy travel that weekend. They have offered us $50 vouchers to be used for future travel. hmmm... but I don't want to fly with them anymore! What to do...
#2 Wed, 08/05/2009 - 5:03pm
rachel, maybe try actionline?
#3 Wed, 08/05/2009 - 5:55pm
Rachel, You might want to forward all this to Dayton Morinaga at the Honolulu Advertiser. He's a reporter/friend of the paddleing community. Mahalo, Ken Bailey
#4 Wed, 08/05/2009 - 7:53pm
The crappy thing about go! is that they have all their planes in use, all scheduled back to back. That's their plan to make profits, super efficient, have all assets in use all the time with little staffing. The problem with that is if one plane has problems that screws everything up because they have no back up. It pushes everything back and totally screws people over.
I guess its the price to pay for cheap flights. I was delayed 6 hours once, nothing like 13 though. Personally I'll still use go! cause they are cheap and quick at the airport. I'll take my chances.
Maybe a complaint to better business bureau?
#5 Wed, 08/05/2009 - 7:58pm
sorry to hear about your failure to launch rachel. i've actually flown go! once and have luckily never experienced anything like your situation. the one thing go! does have going for it is the incredibly cheap beers in flight. go! charges $2.50 a beer while Hawaiian beers run $6.50. Only problem is you have to actually make it onto the plane to get to the go! beer.
these are the stories my wife loves to hear since she works for Hawaiian.
#6 Wed, 08/05/2009 - 9:01pm
Go was bad news from the beginning. We need people to step up when these companies come in from the start and make a stand.
Support local or live with what you get.
We should all be flying Hawaiian.
#7 Wed, 08/05/2009 - 11:50pm
"We should all be flying Hawaiian."
I guess you dont read Pacific Paddler. Hawaiian Airlines straight out stated that they "do not want to reach out to the paddling community", in regards to sponsorship etc.
I think its great that they sponsor the merry monarch, but I find it ironic in their commercial they state "..we are all in a canoe.."
My money goes to Mokulele whenever possible. Pacific Wings is another good company, hopefully they will step up.
PS: Sorry for your experience Rachel, at least everyone is home safe.
#8 Thu, 08/06/2009 - 12:55am
KGB: I forwarded my letter to the editorial dept of HonAd already, but good idea to send it to Dayton.
jc9_0: The cheap beer is one of the reasons we have enjoyed flying with Go! up until now. Unfortunately I don't think that is a good enough reason to continue to risk it. Especially since the $100 we spent at the bar waiting for our flight could buy a lot of beers on another airline. At least there is a bar at the Go! waiting area now!
joe: Pacific Wings left us stranded once too... bumped us from our scheduled flight to Kamuela (they overbooked); we flew to Maui so that we could fly out the next morning, which would be the earliest they could get us there; then we were stranded in Kahului with all the hotels booked and not even a courtesy ride into town. Luckily one of the Island Air employees gave us a ride to a restaurant where a friend of my sister's was working. If we didn't have a friend of a friend to put us up, we would have had to sleep in the airport.
I guess all the airlines f*&k us over at some point. It is up to us to stand together and let them know that it is unacceptable. Unfortunately it is looking like we are stuck with Go! for our flight to Kona for the Queen Lili‘uokalani race; hopefully we won't have a similar story to tell over beers after that race.
#9 Thu, 08/06/2009 - 8:53am
You should get a guitar and write a song about it!! This guy got the airlines attention. Sorry to hear about your troubles.
#10 Thu, 08/06/2009 - 12:44pm
wow well put together video with a humorous bend.
I never fly Go airlines but it seems that others who have share the same sentiment:
http://tinyurl.com/npnq84
Despite the Go! drama you all went thru, the team did quite well at states!
Congratulations to you and your teammates on an impressive showing! Hope things Go! better for Kona
#11 Thu, 08/06/2009 - 2:56pm
i really dont wanna add my 2 cents in but.....Go airlines....my girlfriend is still waiting for her luggage from sunday night......i cant believe you had me drive to hilo twice in one night...once to drop off my 16 girls crew to check them in to the hotel, then to drive back to pick up my 14 boys crew because you gave hope of them being flown to hilo which they flew to kona instead.
did anyone get money vouchers for the delay. we damanded that they gave our boys money to eat. which they only gave 15 dollars for 10+ hours...
well good job G0 airlines for not opening your offices on monday....
#12 Thu, 08/06/2009 - 9:34pm
Thats friggin awesome they didn't open offices on Monday.
BTW: I call go! airlines the ghetto airlines. Cause their fuckin ghetto in every way possible.
#13 Fri, 08/07/2009 - 10:35am
Mokulele worked out great both ways for our club. I would recommend trying them.
#14 Fri, 08/07/2009 - 10:53am
While we were at the airport last Friday, someone mentioned that a few Mokulele flights were canceled too. Can anyone confirm or deny that? If they did cancel flights, it would be interesting to know any differences in how their customers were treated.
shurl0ck: We got the $15 food vouchers too, which were very easy to spend. In fact, we managed to spend much more than that on beer which isn't allowed to be used with the vouchers.
#15 Fri, 08/07/2009 - 11:30am
Since we ball busting on all the airlines, did any clubs out there fly with Aloha Island Air?? They go to Hilo as well. How was your experience?? Now, we got all the airlines covered.
JawsOut.
#16 Fri, 08/07/2009 - 11:46am
Too bad the super ferry wasn't around...
#17 Fri, 08/07/2009 - 1:37pm
same thoughts here - with the demise of Aloha and SuperFerry, expect Go! to stay for a while and if they end up not staying, for what ever reason, plane prices will get even more crazy. They are almost a necessary evil to keeping the prices at a reasonable level.
Before they were ordered to stop operations, Superferry had planned to bring a second boat to the big island, but as it stands now, theres very few options to getting to the outer islands.
I wonder if theres a way to charter a flight if you got enough people, but I guess that would be hella expensive anyway.
#18 Fri, 08/07/2009 - 1:53pm
Little bit late about weighing in on "Travel Hell" but after visiting Hawaiian's website to book a one way to Molokai on Oct. 9 I was a bit huhu when I saw they were charging $131. Mokulele is chaging under $60. Proud to be Hawaiian- bull shit. They moved all their phone ops to the Philipines and with Aloha's demise and even before raised their prices as fast as they could. Try and get an interisland mileage flight- good luck. No primetimes- all really early or really late and now its 7500 miles versus 5000.
Go! is a total joke. My daughter has been stranded two weeks in a row in Lihue due to equipment failure. The desk shut down and nobody would answer the phone. Finally a plane showed up at 10:30 when it should have been a 6:pm flight. So many people got left in Honolulu on the way to Hilo. Enough said about GO !!!!. It should be renamed Don't GO !
Mokulele really seems to want to carve a niche in this market. We should all support them. Without them Hawaiian would ruin our ability to afford to get to other islands. The Super Ferry is gone and GO! should leave.
#19 Tue, 08/11/2009 - 9:15am
I flew Mokulele at 5am for States...no problems. At that hour nothing had hit the fan yet. My husband does the sailing canoe circuit so I have to book many flights for that season as well as the long distance season for both of us. Mokulele has been by far the best priced airline AND (knock on wood) no problems with getting us there. The fact that they are advertising on OceanPaddlerTV AND Pacific Paddler magazine is enough that paddlers should TRY to support this airline. I might add...the employees are super nice too. Go Mokulele! Booooooo to Go!
#20 Wed, 08/12/2009 - 4:28pm
Go! Sux!
I don't even waste my time anymore. Even if they are cheaper. It's not worth it.
#21 Sun, 08/16/2009 - 7:39pm
Just did the sailing canoe race from Oahu to Kauai, we got in with moments to get to the airport and missed Mokulele's last flight out at 7pm - the guy at the desk put us on the next flight out 10:20 am without charging us a change fee or fair difference.
I know this thread has been bashing GO! and praising Mokulele and it's all for good reason. I will always fly Mokulele!
#22 Sun, 08/16/2009 - 8:54pm
You should check out United Breaks Guitars : Song 2. Big production number, very humourous.
#23 Tue, 08/18/2009 - 11:29am
My husband had the same experience with Mokulele as Toa Moana for the sailing canoe race from O'ahu to Kaua'i. After racing 9 1/2 hours to Kaua'i...he was stuck in a frustrating line at the TSA check point. Mokulele waited for him, welcomed him with a smile saying, "We were waiting for you James" and closed the door behind him.
Fly Mokulele...they are for our community.
#24 Tue, 08/18/2009 - 1:47pm
Thank you for the share. I understand that what had happened on your Mokulele flight was not good. The quickest solution for not being satisfied with the services it brought you is for you to have an agreement with the company and for them to refund your expenses on your delayed or canceled tour. tour of grand canyon
#25 Thu, 09/03/2009 - 9:13am
I cannot resist adding to this. On our way back to Honolulu from Hilo, an announcement on our Mokulele flight told us beer was "on the house" for all the victorious OCC Masters paddlers. Tom Arnott and I sitting near the back, full of demon Patron where elated until the cabin attendent told us that they ran out. None the less, Mokulele rock's.
#26 Thu, 09/03/2009 - 7:39pm
Congratulations KGB and no worries, for I get one 12 pack Bud Light on ice for wash out the Patron, since Mokulele ran out.
#27 Thu, 09/03/2009 - 8:33pm