Site Enhancements

Hawaiian Airlines just took the wraps off its revamped Web site, a tool that company officials believe represents great benefits for travel agents.

The $1.1 million site boasts two firsts in the world of airline Internet innovations. It offers a state-of-the-art vacation-planning tool for customizing an entire itinerary to Hawaii or to mainland gateway cities served by Hawaiian with hotel, rental car and activity information appearing alongside maps and in-depth travel reviews. Another first in the industry comes with HawaiianAirlines.com’s new dollar-mile toggle, which shows a flight’s cost in dollars or miles in a single booking path.

“Our easy-to-navigate Web site provides a good resource for detailed information on everything travel agents need to know about Hawaiian and how we can help them serve their clients,” said Hawaiian Airlines spokesman Keoni Wagner. “The enhanced site also offers a travel agent program from which agents can book Web fares and potentially earn HawaiianMiles benefits. They can access special travel agent offers during certain times of the year, and they’ll receive our latest news.”

Additional travel agent-friendly tools will be added to the site in the coming months, including a single-screen view of the lowest fares or mileage awards over a three-month period. The Web site will soon allow agents and their clients to purchase roundtrip airfare by combining dollars and mileage awards; book hotel and car awards online using mileage awards; buy upgrades online; make reservation changes online; and peruse customer content and ratings.

For frequent flyers, the Web site automatically applies special discounts, and it displays the member’s current mileage balance on every page.

Hawaiian retained the most popular tools of its previous Web site, like a single-screen view of flights and fares over a seven-day booking period; a personalized ticketing feature for fast and easy repeat bookings; and a three-tiered award structure that gives frequent flyers flexibility in using their miles.

While the new Web site improves upon its predecessor’s functionality and technology, it continues to take its visual inspiration from the company’s home base.

“Hawaii is who we are,” said Hawaiian Airlines president Mark Dunkerley. “Our customers expect a unique Hawaii travel experience when they board our aircraft, and we wanted a Web site that delivers on that brand as well as our service does.”