Hawaiian Airlines - Why I Only Book One-Ways

I fly Hawaiian Airlines frequently.  I choose Hawaiian primarily because of the people, more than anything else - they are truly some of the nicest people, welcoming with aloha (and many are my former co-workers).  

One of the biggest challenges with the 2023 system "upgrade" was that for a long while, we did not have the ability to change flights online.  I'd have to call each time I want to change my flight, which is often.   

And during one of the calls when trying to change my flight - I learned something new (others may have known this, but I didn't).

If you are trying to just change one way on a round-trip flight, the entire trip will be re-priced, not just the segment you are trying to change.  So even if the new one-way flight you want to change to is the same price as the original flight, if the other segment has increased in price for the same exact flight, you'll have to pay for the increase.

Confused?  I sure was.  

For instance (prices are not what I actually paid, but just noted for simplicity's sake) - Flight A1 HNL-ITO was $70 and Flight B1 ITO-HNL was $70 when booked.  I wanted to change Flight B1 ITO-HNL to a different time - Flight B2, and when I checked the price online, it was the same price ($70) as the original flight I booked.  

However, when I called to change the flight, I was told that there was a change fee of $80!  I advised the agent that I checked the flight and saw that the price was the same as the original flight, and she said "The HNL-ITO Flight A1 had changed in price (to $150), and we have to re-price the entire trip."

Looking back, I always wondered why I was charged price increases even though when I priced the flight segments they were the same, and I thought it was because of dynamic pricing for that segment.  

In any case, the agent suggested that I take the flight to ITO, and then as soon as I land, change the ITO-HNL flight because the HNL-ITO portion will not need to be re-priced anymore.  

So that's what I did, while crossing my fingers that the ITO-HNL portion did not go up in price (thankfully it did not). 

Ever since, I've been booking one-ways.  I don't know about AS' system (I haven't flown them yet!) so not sure how they reprice tickets.  

Hopefully this knowledge will save you some $.  I shared the information with a friend and she had no idea about this repricing process either!  

Now . . . if only HA would offer credit online for when there is a price decrease like other airlines do!