Jackie's resurfaces as new firm
By Lynda Arakawa
Advertiser Staff Writer
The name Jackie's — a Honolulu travel agency forced to halt operations in April and issue refunds to about 3,000 customers — has been revived in a new business.
The new company, named Jackie's Vegas Tours, recently advertised room-and-meal packages starting at $18 per person per night, based on double occupancy, at Terrible's Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.
Walter "Jack" Kitagawa, CEO of the former Jackie's and consultant to the new company, has revived the well-known name even though his former company is under investigation by the state, and the charter airline he once used is suing him for alleged failure to pay for two months of services.
Kitagawa, working out of a temporary office with only two phones on Mokauea Street in Kalihi, said he may get back into selling airline tickets as well as hotel packages if an airline makes the right offer.
"We have several offers and several airlines that have talked to us and sent us some documentation and things, but we are just in a position of waiting to see the right schedule, the right pricing, and right offers that are being made," Kitagawa said.
Jackie's Vegas Tours is registered with the state under the name Double ZZ Inc. and was established in June by Herbert K.F. Zane, who Kitagawa said is a longtime friend and retired Hilo schoolteacher.
Kitagawa said Zane was also the board chairman of Jackie's Travel, Kitagawa's first charter company, which he started in 1985. Kitagawa and his wife sold that company to Boyd Gaming Corp. in 1997.
The Jackie's that closed earlier this year was registered as TM Travel Inc. It halted operations in late April after World Airways Inc., the carrier used by the company, refused to fly because of the dispute over payments. World Airways, which had been flying MD-11 jets three times a week for Jackie's, filed a lawsuit alleging Jackie's owed it $2.7 million for chartered services from March 4 through May 2.
TM Travel later countersued World Airways for allegedly breaking their agreement, and the two companies' legal disputes will be arbitrated, said Kitagawa's attorney, David Gierlach.
Kitagawa said "99.9 percent," or about 3,000, of his former customers have been refunded. In late April, customers waited for refunds in lines that snaked around the Varsity Building on University Avenue, where Jackie's was located.
Around that time, the state Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs launched an investigation into TM Travel. The probe is still pending, said state Complaints and Enforcement Officer Jo Ann Uchida.
She said the state has not received any complaints from customers about not receiving refunds.
"Even if the consumers got their money back, we still want to make sure that if there were licensing violations, that those are appropriately dealt with," Uchida said.
She said there are no issues pending regarding the new Jackie's.
The new Jackie's and the Jackie's that closed shop earlier this year were both registered under names other than Kitagawa's.
Kitagawa was convicted in 1991 of forging Hawaiian Airlines boarding passes, fined $10,000 and given a five-year suspended sentence.
The conviction did not prevent Kitagawa from establishing new businesses, because the new businesses were not registered in his name, said a Commerce and Consumer Affairs spokesman.
Kitagawa declined to comment last week on the conviction, but Gierlach said: "I think it's old news and it's got nothing to do with his decency and honor as a businessman which has been borne out for over 20 years in this area."
Michael H. Tanaka, president of TM Travel, was convicted in 2001 of lying to FBI agents investigating charges relating to the swapping of Hawaiian Airlines coupons while he was a chief agent for the carrier.
Gierlach said Tanaka is not involved in the new Jackie's Vegas Tours. Kitagawa said Zane offered Tanaka a general manager position with the company, but Tanaka declined in a letter Friday.
Gierlach said Kitagawa decided to start selling hotel packages again "at the request of some of the casinos who have extra hotel rooms and they know Jackie's reputation in town."
Kitagawa said the company books about 400 rooms a month. "A lot of people have called us to ask us when we're going to resurface, but we're really not actively trying to pursue this ... ," he said. "For me I'd much rather stay retired.
"But the people keep on calling and I have thousands of friends calling to say they enjoyed our service previously so much."
Reach Lynda Arakawa at larakawa@honoluluadvertiser.com or at 535-2470.
