Hawaiian Airlines Is The Latest US Carrier To Eliminate Change Fees

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One of life’s rules has always been that when an airline pushes through a change that’s negative for customers all of its competitors rush to follow suit. Rarely have airlines rushed to copy a change that’s positive for customers, and yet here we have the fifth US airline in a week announcing that it is eliminating most change fees for is customers. This has been a good week for flyers.

What Hawaiian Airlines Announced

Hawaiian Airlines has announced that it has eliminated changes fees for most customers across its network. This includes customers flying within the Hawaiian Islands, customers flying between Hawaii and the US mainland, and customers flying on the airline’s international routes.

The elimination of change fees applies to flyers booking Main Cabin, Extra Comfort, or First/Premium Cabin Class seats as well as customers making award bookings with their HawaainMiles. Customers purchasing the airline’s Basic Economy fares (Main Cabin Basic) will continue to have to pay change fees although these too are being waived for bookings made through 31 December 2020.

Hawaiian hasn’t said if it will be following American Airlines and United Airlines in also eliminating same-day standby fees.

Thoughts

On the whole, this is clearly good news for flyers, and the fact that Hawaiian Airlines has said that change fees will be waived on its international routes (as limited as they are) as well as on its domestic network is a nice added bonus for the airline’s customers. Change fees have long been the bane of frequent flyers so to now have the option to change flights (booked in most fare classes) without incurring a fee penalty is one that a lot of people will be very happy to have.

Note: Don’t forget that although change fees are being waived, any change in fare will have to be paid by the customer.

Amongst all this good news, however, there’s also a sting in the tail that Hawaiian hasn’t been very open about in its latest announcement: The voucher for future travel that Hawaiian Airlines issues when a customer wishes to cancel a flight (and rebook for a later date) has to be used in one single transaction and can only be used to offset the cost of a single ticket.

For a customer using a voucher to book a flight that’s more expensive than the value of the voucher this isn’t an issue, but a customer using a voucher to book a flight that costs less than the value of the voucher will not be given any change. The customer forfeits any remaining value left on the voucher. Here’s the relevant wording from Hawaiian’s terms and conditions:

1. 1. The full face value of this Travel Credit must be redeemed in one transaction for one ticket (i.e., one ticket number) for services of equal or higher value.
   2. If the Travel Credit is redeemed for a ticket of lesser value that the Travel Credit, the balance will be surrendered/forfeited by the passenger.

This “use (it in one transaction) or lose it” policy isn’t particularly customer-friendly…so be warned.

Bottom Line

With immediate effect, Hawaiian Airlines has eliminated change fees across its entire network for all bookings except for Basic Economy bookings. The airline has also confirmed that change fees are being waived for Basic Economy bookings made through the end of the year.