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| JAL B777-200 @ HNL |
In some cases, airlines are worse than organized crime. If you don't break the rules, the good fellas usually leave you alone.
Talking heads on TV have been saying that this incident wouldn't affect United too much. That's because customers don't have a choice. In Japan, customers have even fewer choices. Like the Americans, there is nothing the flying public can do about nasty treatments airlines dish out.
The general public has a choice to do business with organized crime. We don't have a choice when only one airline flies to a particular destination.
On 2017/01/01, I booked a JAL flight leaving Haneda for Honolulu on 2017/04/06, returning to Haneda 6 days later. It was a restricted, advance purchase business ticket; dates can't be changed, and once I'd paid for it, there is a JPY20,000 penalty for cancellation.
On 2017/01/19, a JAL press release said they would discontinue the Haneda/Honolulu route from 2017/04/01. I read this on an aviation related website. (http://www.aviationwire.jp/)
On the same day (2017/01/19) my reservation was still active and JAL's website made no mention of the news item.
A few days later, I could no longer access my reservation via the web. It said my reservation was "調整中" (under maintenance,) and that JAL would contact me.
On 2017/01/24, 1625JST, JAL emailed me a short message telling me what I already know from that aviation news site. The only new information was the new flight numbers of the replacement flight flying out from Narita. It included a toll-free number one could call in regards to this change. The toll-free number was operational from 0800 till 1900.
A few hours later, at 1819JST, JAL sent me another email, this time a correction of the previous email. Looks like they were in a rush and had the new flight numbers (leaving from Narita) wrong. It took then 5 days since the news release to reach out to their customers. And the first email was wrong!
The email made no mention of what would happen to my restricted ticket. Could I cancel it? Could I my restricted ticket could re-routed, cancelled, refunded. I would just wait for them to contact me I suppose.
Unfortunately, JAL made no efforts on contacting me in subsequent days. The website still said my reservation was "under maintenance" and that they would contact me.
On 2017/02/07, 1130JST, JAL sent me another email, repeating the same information, giving me the same toll-free number. This time around, I saw that at the end of the email, I was requested to click on a link to let them know that I have received the email. I clicked it.
A few more days went by and still nothing from JAL. I called the toll free number. Was put on hold for around 10 minutes. First the good news, they would refund the total amount if I choose to cancel.
Then, the bad news:
A few more days went by and still nothing from JAL. I called the toll free number. Was put on hold for around 10 minutes. First the good news, they would refund the total amount if I choose to cancel.
Then, the bad news:
- They need up to 3 months to refund me the money I'd paid. JAL blamed it on the credit company which they have no control over. When I countered that I'd used a JAL-branded card, that made no difference; up to 3 months. They took my money fast enough. But a refund would take 3 months.
- They had done absolutely nothing in moving my bookings to their replacement flight from Narita. By the time I called, only undesirable seats (e.g. middle) were available.
- The replacement flight on the day I was supposed to fly will be on an old B777-200, one with 15-year-old seats, and not the Sky Suite III that I was originally on.
"Take it of leave it" was the take-away I got from the operator.
They basically don't care.
Why would they allow me book and pay for my tickets on 18 days before they announced to the world that the Haneda/Honolulu flights would be discontinued? It's impossible that they didn't know they would replace the HND «» HNL route with HND «» JFK 18 days earlier. Yet, they took my money first.
They didn't reach out to me. I had to contact them, and though I'd literally begged for a faster refund, it would take them "up to three months" to refund it.
Fortunately, there are other airlines flying between Haneda and Honolulu. Unfortunately, there are some domestic destinations that JAL is my only choice. And JAL offers the cheapest fare between HND «» HKG.
JAL knows that I don't have a choice. That's why they can afford to treat me like that.
Fortunately, there are other airlines flying between Haneda and Honolulu. Unfortunately, there are some domestic destinations that JAL is my only choice. And JAL offers the cheapest fare between HND «» HKG.
JAL knows that I don't have a choice. That's why they can afford to treat me like that.
