Monday, April 4, 2011

Trips: No Go for Go! Airlines

Kauai is an amazing place so let me get this post out of the way.  The other bad thing that happened is my iPhone died.  But that doesn't need any more elaboration.  Not yet anyway.

Go! (or Mokulele) Airlines is the last name this airline company should have.

I'm surprised there isn't more graffiti on the Go! signs.  Things I'd rather call this airline: No Go!, Go Already!, Go(tcha)!, Are We Going Anytime Soon?, Go F**k Yourself! Airlines, Go! Please?, For the love of Go(d)!, or Go(d)! No!  

We had a 9 AM flight on Friday morning, going from Honolulu, Oahu to Lihue, Kauai. Sarah and I got up nice and early, caught a cheap shuttle from Lisa's place to the airport, and arrived at the inter-island part of the airport.  Here's what follows:

08:45 AM: We notice our flight status says "Boarding" though we aren't
08:55 AM: Not a single plane within view from Gates 71-80
09:00 AM: Go! announces a 15 minute delay
09:30 AM: Go! announces a 45 minute delay
09:31 AM: Increasing unrest in the terminal
10:15 AM: Go! announces flight is cancelled
10:16 AM: We notice all Go! flights are delayed or canceled for the day

The rest of the morning is a blur.  Two guys who were on our flight assessed the situation and came up with the conclusion "Fuck this!"  I researched alternative airlines while Sarah talked with an Island Air member at the desk, who basically implied that Go! has this reputation. Go! said they would announce passengers by name to reassign flights.  Yet we never heard them call names.  An angry line formed.  Yet when Sarah walked up to ask about retrieving bags since we were entertaining booking another flight, they basically told her, Oh by the way, we already reassigned your flight, here are your tickets since you're here!  WTF? 

The general seating process seemed consistent with the lack of organization.  

Thankfully we caught our flight and got to Lihue around noon.  The flight was short and rattly. 

Katie was going to catch a flight around 8 PM that Friday.  Turns out she booked Go! too.  Not surprisingly, she had a similar experience.  It sounded like she had a more angry respective mob; she was one of the rare persons keeping a cool head.  Long story short, a flight that should have got her to Lihue at 9 PM arrived near midnight. 

Between all of us, we never seemed to get any updates, most updates were solicited.  No one seemed to acknowledge the obvious conclusions: the planes are broken and they need to be fixed!  Just be honest with us!  What boggles my mind is that with two planes down and hundreds of angry passengers, they left the masses uninformed and still continued to sell tickets!  It wasn't until early this morning that Go!, for the first time, acknowledged to Sarah that they were handling this badly.  Sarah decided to stick with her return Go! flight (she'll be in Honolulu a bit longer; I didn't want to chance missing my Atlanta flight).

I'm currently at Gate 24 in Honolulu.  I'm waiting for my 4:30 PM flight back to Atlanta.  I was supposed to fly Go! coming back this afternoon.  I lost my faith in Go!  I accepted my losses.  I booked a one-way ticket with Hawaiian airlines, departing on Monday at 11 AM.  In fact, I did this Friday night.  How did that flight go this morning you ask?  Check in went smooth and in fact was helped by a very, very pleasant member of Hawaiian Airlines at Lihue airport.  When I got to my gate, everyone appeared calm and relaxed.  The plane pulled up to the gate.  The passengers that deplaned looked calm and happy (not stressed or relieved like our flight into Lihue).  I boarded on time.  We left ahead of schedule.  We landed ahead of schedule.

Unfortunately, just before I boarded my plane, Go! announced a delay to Sarah's flight.  Sadly, this isn't surprising. 

Lesson's learned.  No Go for Go! Airlines.  Correct it all or shut it down before any disasters occur.  Please avoid this airline unless you are eager for an unsettling and disappointing inter-island flight experience in Hawaii. 

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