Posted on: Friday, March 12, 2004
Rise in pets' airfare stuns some travelers
By Debbie Sokei
Advertiser Staff Writer
When Larry Stuefloten learned it would cost him $250 for a one-way ticket to bring his pet bird home from California on Hawaiian Airlines in January, it did more than ruffle his feathers.
Seven months earlier, the carrier had charged Stuefloten $80 to take Willie, a female blue-crown conure, along with him in the passenger cabin.
The 213 percent fee hike was done quietly, he said.
"It's ridiculous," said Stuefloten, a Hawaiian Airlines customer for 15 years. He took his business elsewhere and returned to Hawai'i on ATA, paying $75 for Willie's trip.
Hawaiian Airlines raised the flat rate for transporting pets in April, one month after the airline filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Hawaiian also increased its fuel surcharge last year.
Airline spokesman Keoni Wagner said the rate and surcharge increases were necessary to better meet Hawaiian's operational costs, but he declined to say what expenses were covered and how the prices were set.
Wagner said it would have been impossible to inform all pet owners about the fee increase. Instead, passengers are told about any changes when they make their reservations and inform the airline that they are bringing a pet, he said.
He could not say immediately how many pets fly with their owners annually on Hawaiian.
Aloha charges between $35 to $100, depending on the size of the pet, but the airline doesn't take any pets on its international and trans-Pacific flights, said Stu Glauberman, airline spokesman.
United and American Airlines each charge $80 one-way to transport a pet in the cabin. Delta Air Lines charges $75.
Hawaiian wasn't the only carrier to raise its fares and fees in the past two years. After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks crippled the travel industry, national and regional carriers tried to recoup losses by raising fees while at the same time slashing services.
Hawaiian has lowered some fares, such as a walk-up fare to the Mainland that now costs about half what it did a year ago, Wagner said.
Last May, Maui resident Kristi Ueoka encountered a similar problem with Hawaiian Airlines in transporting her pet. She was surprised when the carrier raised the interisland pet fee to $35 from $20 without letting customers know about the change.
"They should have the social responsibility to tell people," Ueoka said.
A Hawaiian spokesman said at the time that the company would conduct a complete investigation. Ueoka said she later got a letter from Hawaiian explaining that it reserved the right to change its fares at anytime. She also received a $75 credit from Hawaiian after she complained, but she said she didn't use it.
Ueoka and her dog Misty, a silky terrier, now travel on Aloha Airlines.
Stuefloten said he would have paid Hawaiian the $250 ticket for Willie, who fits under the passenger seat without anyone noticing her, if there wasn't another way to bring her home.
"It was really frustrating. It was like being held up by an entity with a gun and a mask," said Stuefloten, a retired police officer.
