A Colorado television station is telling the story of another management lapse at the state Department of Transportation and Hawaiian Airlines.
According to KUSA-TV, a Colorado couple celebrating their 50th anniversary were threatened with arrest and locked out of the Lihue Airport at midnight on Monday after their Hawaiian flight home was delayed for hours and eventually cancelled.
With Lihue hotels full, their baggage already checked, and taxi service shut down for the night, they were pushed outside into the rain and abandoned, until a firefighter directed them to a Red Cross shelter.
All the beds in the shelter were full so they both slept under a blanket on the concrete floor, soaking wet.
“They felt bad about putting us on the floor. I mean, you’d feel bad about putting an old lady on the floor,” Georgia Young said.
The couple is in their 70s.
A spokesman for Hawaiian said:
“Our people showed empathy for our customers and did what they could. From the airline’s standpoint we did everything we could, including communicating with civil defense.”
I’m not feeling the Aloha Spirit here.
Imagine your mother and father in that situation. Did Hawaiian and DOT really do everything they could? I think not.
Hawaiian and DOT appear to deserve all the bad press they get on this one.
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That just shows the world that the “Aloha Spirit” that the Hawaii Tourism Authority tries to promote is just another public relations smoke screen.
“Empathy” is just a haole’s way of telling people that the spin doctor they hired at Hawaiian Airlines just goes to the PR playbook of excuses and evasions to put lipstick on the pig and hope someone notices.
In the old days and under old management, there would have been someone with a real sense of aloha who would have taken this couple home to make sure these old folks were cared for. That is what we were once about. Auwe!
The old folks slept on the floor because the shelter was full? Were there no young folks with any manners or sense of decency? I am ashamed.
I’m tempted to make a comment, but somebody’s sensibilities may get offended, so I won’t – disregard this comment, etc……
Why are we hearing about this via a TV Station in Colorado?
It’s just another illustration of how lame our local news media has become.
A Low HA!
What do you mean my comment is too short?
The really insulting part was when the TSA strip searched them on their way out the following day.
By contrast, just think what doing the right thing would have done! Can you imagine if some Hawaiian employee took that couple home put them for the night and didn’t say a word about it — which, of course would be the Island way — that couple would be singing Hawaii’s proaises — and Hawaiian’s, too. Of course, that’s not the reason to do the right thing, but just imagine, again, by way of contrast!
What a way to end the celebration of a 50th anniversary! Shame on Hawaiian Air and the DOT.
This is how they handled stranded passengers on another island with worse weather but apparently warmer hearts.
“In Gander, the sudden influx of 6,600 passengers and crew on 38 jets nearly doubled the population.
“Residents here and in nearby Gambo, Lewisporte and other towns welcomed strangers into their homes. Prescriptions were filled without charge, and schools and church halls became shelters.” 9-11-2001
But … but that can’t be! Only the people of Hawaii have “aloha” (common courtesy). Everyone else is a barbarian, dontcha know. Those mainland haoles, they eat their young.
Of course the couple was also charged extra baggage fees for overnight storage.
The tourists should have at the very least been informed about the Visitor Aloha Society. I believe there is a chapter on Kauai.
http://www.visitoralohasocietyofhawaii.org/
What’s not fully apparet from the report is that Monday was the very height of the historic storm and flood
The Honolulu Star Advertiser has finally noticed, and MSNBC in its travel section has more details. Hawaiian Airlines, the Hawaii Tourism Authority, and Lieutenant-Governor Brian Shatz are working to contact about 20 affected passengers to apologize. One would think so.
Appalling reflection on TSA, Hawaiian Airlines, and Hawaii Tourism Authority. Why weren’t there guidelines in place to handle airline passengers cancelations?
They did everything they could? Really?
Service-oriented companies and organizations need to stop and think, “If this were me, what would I want done?”
Would that mean spending the night on a concrete floor? Or would it possibly mean going the extra mile and inviting them into one’s own home as Ohiaforest suggested?