They’re at it again, y’all.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. If there’s a new policy that an airline can make sound good for passengers, they’ll make a HUGE stink about it. Press releases, emails, you name it. They sing it from the rooftops.
If it’s something they can’t spin to sound good for passengers, something they just want to quietly implement and hope no one notices, they’ll simply make the policy change and hope for the best. And that’s what happened with Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines late last week.
Except it didn’t slip by unnoticed.
Effective Thursday, May 15, both airlines rolled out a new no-show policy. According to both Hawaiian and Alaska, travelers who miss their flight without canceling in advance will now forfeit the entire value of their ticket.
You may be thinking, “But they had a no-show policy already, didn’t they?”
Yes. Yes, they did.
Alaska’s policy was to the effect of (H/T: FlyerTalk, September, 2017):
If you think you’ll miss your flight, let us know before your flight departs in order to receive the value of your ticket as credit to use on a future flight in your My Wallet (subject to change fees).
How do you cancel your ticket? Choose from one of three options:
Change or cancel your reservation here at alaskaair.com
Call our reservations team 1-800-252-7522. (Dial 711 for relay services)
Notify an agent at one of our airport ticket counters. If you don’t cancel your ticket before your flight departs, we’ll apply our updated no-show policy to your reservation.
This means:
Like we do today, we’ll cancel your flight reservation and all continuing and return flights.
The money and/or Mileage Plan™ miles spent on non-refundable fares will not be available as credit towards a future flight.
While we adjust to the updated policy, we are happy to allow an exception through the end of 2017 in case you forget to tell us in advance.
We’ll continue to waive change and cancellation fees for MVP® Gold and MVP® Gold 75K members. However, changes and cancellations must be made before your flight’s departure time to be eligible for credit toward a future flight (unless you purchased a refundable fare).
So what’s the difference?
Both Alaska and Hawaiian have the new no-show policy on their respective websites.
Before, the airlines would waive change and cancellation fees for their most elite customers. Now there are no exceptions, even for them. Here’s the new wording from Hawaiian:
Are there any exemptions for corporate clients or HawaiianMiles/Mileage Plan Elite Members?
No – we strongly encourage the HawaiianMiles members and corporate clients to proactively change their reservations as soon as their plans change, before the flight departure. However, corporate travelers may be eligible to receive a travel credit based on the specific fare rules associated with their ticket.
Why the change?
Well, I’m sure they want to align Hawaiian’s and Alaska’s policies, since they’re merging.
But beyond that…because any way they can eke out a few more pennies from us, they will?
Some on Flyertalk were suggesting that it could be an issue on inter-island flights in Hawaii. And if you had the status to somehow get your miles/money back, you wouldn’t care if you just no-showed. Or if you were on “island time” and were just late, they would typically just put you on a later flight. Now you just might care.
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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
