On Thursday evening we decided to book a vacation to Hawaii using Hawaiian Air's online website... air, hotel and car.

We went through the five pages, entering all information as requested, including credit card info on the last page. The total came to just over $3500 for two people.

After hitting the final button, their system processed our request, and came back with an error, saying:

"We were unable to make this reservation due to the following error(s):

A record locator was not returned on request to hold. Reservation not held.

Please click here to try again.

We apologize but due to technical difficulties we are unable to complete your booking. Please try again. If the problem persists, call (808) 738-3898 or toll free 1-866-444-4352 for assistance."

We followed the instructions and went through the reservation process again. And again we got the exact same error. Neither time were we sent a confirmation email, as their website said we'd receive. We decided to wait until Hawaiian Air's help desk was open the next day (Friday). We called and were told to try it again. We did. This time their reservation system told us that the charge on our credit card was declined.

We then called our credit card company, and were shocked to find THREE charges for $3500+, which had used up the entire remaining line of credit on this card. Not only were both of the first two charges put through, even the third charge (which their online system claimed was declined) WENT THROUGH.

AmEx told us we'd have to call Hawaiian Air to get the duplicate charges removed, which we will do later this morning.

This is just an FYI for anyone who's considering using Hawaiian Air's online reservation system. Simply put, it's a disaster. Caveat emptor!!

This happened to me once with a California company called Montrose Travel. I booked online and got an error message. Just to be sure, I called them and they could find no booking, nothing in my name, nothing on my dates etc. Agent re-booked me over the phone for the same fare.

A week later my TICKETS arrived. Both bookings had gone through. I called Montrose Travel about the mix-up and they cancelled the first ticket through the airline, but I had to pay a $150.00 cancellation fee. I even had the name of the phone agent that had assisted me with the booking, she "didn't remember" my ordeal so I was stuck. Fought it with my Ccard company to no avail, and Montrose Travel would not budge.

Montrose Travel has lost once-a-month travel booking with me for the past 3 years so it was a bad move on their part.

tracys2cents, I would have been tempted to take the travel agency to small claims to get them to pay the $150, just out of principle. Their website most likely has a log of all transactions people make (I know mine does). If you typed in everything but the system crashed on the last page, all the info would be in a log file that would show you made an online reservation. The error message would probably be in there, too.

I hope you moved to a different credit card company as well! I would never stay with a cc company that would not stand behind me on a matter that so obviously was not my fault. Why would you make two plane reservations in your name on the same day on purpose?

Andrew

The only safe thing to do if you get an error message when buying something online is to assume that the transaction went through and that it was an error that the error message was displayed.

One thing that would help would be to get online access to your credit card. After making/attempting a purchase you could check your cc.

The other day, I paid a fee at united.com (for double EQMs) and immediately went to mbnanetaccess to check on the charge. The temporary authorization was there ("UAL Mileage Plus Promo") and it was for the correct amount. I didn't assume that the transaction was correct just because there was no error message.

Andrew:

"I hope you moved to a different credit card company as well! I would never stay with a cc company that would not stand behind me on a matter that so obviously was not my fault."

Banks typically rule in favor of their _credit card_ customers -- but this is not true for debit cards. Not yet, anyway.

I just booked through Hawaiian Air website and had no problems whatsoever.

In fact, I got a cheaper rate than going through the travel service I called. I found it to be easy to use.

I think all sites/companies/services have problems on occasion.

To generalize and say that a particular company is a disaster based on one experience is unfair IMO.

The "disaster" charge was levied against the website and not the airline. The website/software failed and produced a result that you might consider a disaster if the $10,500 was posted to your cc account.

The buyer beware is good advice.

No difference in my boodk.

It was a disasterous experience to be sure. But based on that experience, is it fair to call the site a disaster? I had no problems with it.

My point is all business, heck, even individuals have problems. I'm just not as quick to label them based on one experience.

I purchased tickets on HA's website just a couple of weeks ago - easy as pie!

To travelinandgolfin
A bit self-righteous are we? If I had an experience like fdecarlo, I think I would have been tempted to 'vent' as well - I really don't care if a company has 1,000 success stories, if I'd been treated this way, I wouldn't have been pacified with your rationalization.

I tend to view folks who call people self righteous....well self righteous.

I book about 20 trips a year on Hawaiian's web site -we live in Hawaii and fly thier non-stops to Portland and San Diego a LOT. I've never had any problems.

Have had computer problems with priceline, expedia, United, and Soutwest. To me, the biggest issue is how often problems occur and how the company handles the errors.

Bottom line is that you can have problems with computers sites or with live reservations agents. I always confirm computer bookings with a live call, and checking your credit card on line is not a bad sugestion either.

Just an update.. According to Online Travel Services, who does the online reservations for Hawaiian Air (as well as other vendors), this is an intermittent problem between their system and Hawaiian Air's. HA's ticketing system occasionally refuses to book an available reservation request, yet a credit card authorization is required to make the request in the first place. So the bottom line is, charges may be made to a credit card without a reservation actually being secured. The kicker is, their system directs users to simply try their request again, without any notification that a charge has already been made.

So as it turns out, we never had reservations for this trip, in spite of our card being charged $10,500. Today, all three charges were reversed and we did our booking directly with a human being at Online Travel Service. They were very helpful, and even managed to beat the original price by $70!

So all's well that ends well.

Glad your problem was solved equitably.

One last comment:
When a mistake on an on-line booking occurs. Call the website tech support number/or air line immediately.

I have had troubles with on-line bookings before also, thanks for you input.

Glad it worked out and that" your Horror Story" was nowhere near as bad as the "Nightmare" at Tavern on the Green (posted a few years ago)!

Glad it all ended okay, despite the horrible frustration.

Main thing though...you got tickets to Hawaii! Nothing like some time in Paradise to relax away your troubles!

fdecarlo: So glad that everything worked out for you. If it were me, I would have been sick to my stomach until it got straightened out!

Just to make you feel better, I recently had a problem with an airfare purchase that was done on the phone. I stupidly thought it would be safer than online. HA. When I received my email confirmation for my nonrefundable purchase, it was for the wrong date. I know I was very clear, but perhaps the agent misunderstood? That's clearly one advantage of online versus phone. You can see what you're inputting, and you can print out a copy as proof. Here it was my word against theirs. However, all ended up well, as in your case, because I reached a sympathetic supervisor.

By the way, to mrwunrfl: when I check my credit cards online, I find that they're usually one or two days behind. How are you able to view the authorization so quickly?

As I mentioned before, it was a temp authorization that appeared immediately. The charge wasn't fully authorized (or whatever) until a day or two later.