aircraft mechanic

baggage handler

software engineer

support specialist

customer service representative

Hawaiian Airlines

Always wanted to work for Hawaiian Airlines as a Flight Attendant. Tried MANY times. Went through each interview phase and never got a acceptance letter. (I don’t know what they’re looking for? Many of the flight attendants treated Ramp Agents as if we were nothing. And many flight attendants aren’t as pleasant as they appear. Some became close friends. Majority were sweet and kind.. but there were some that don’t deserve to be one. Pilots were always nice.) So I figured I should get my foot in the door as a Ramp Agent. And I did. For a whole year. In the beginning it was hard and really strenuous on the body. But over time it got easier. And ramp agents became family. Everyone works hard and take pride in what they do. Show that you want to be there and be a person who loves to help others and everyone on ramp will respect you even the mean ones. The benefits were great! But the pay isn’t. In order for you to make money you’ll need to pull A LOT of overtime. At times this job can be stressful.. There’s only a couple of managers that care. There’s one manager that likes to police and intimidate. And there’s another manager that everyone adores and respect. If the pay was way higher than usual I totally would’ve stayed!! But with the cost of living I needed to find something else.. It’s the co workers that make the job fun and bearable. I’m glad I got to experience it. Total different perspective of all airport operations! Respect to Ramp Agents!! True hammahzzz of the airline industry!! Hopefully I can return to Hawaiian Airlines as a FA one day!!

Working at Hawaiian Airlines for 2 years was great with the employees you work with... but that does not equal what you receive from the company itself. You start with the bare minimum pay that barely keeps you living in the state of Hawaii. The flight benefits you get are barely used because of the incredibly terrible gain of vacation days and even being able to use them. The work can become very slow to very crazy in an instant. Super visors will push you around with their seniority and managers won't do anything as most don't have seniority at all. Make sure you double-check the environment and have a real good look at what you are getting into. The job CAN be enjoyable for the most part if you can live with everything else. I recommend part-time shifts just for the benefits and only full-time if you are already comfortable with the airlines!

Note: review is preCOVID-19 pandemic.

Hawaiian Airlines was usually a great place to work, but to some degree it depends on where you fell under the management structure. I was pretty fortunate in that my management team was receptive and open to ideas. 

Sometimes transparency could have been better from management down to individual employees as to what was happening. However, most of the time employees were kept informed as to what was happening.  Like anywhere, there were some bad apples sprinkled in and I was shocked that some employees were able to remained employed after repeated subpar performance. 

Technology stack was decent depending on your area. Sometimes legacy and old tech but airlines are beholden to legacy systems by regulations and lack of options.  Some teams ran the gamut regarding thinking and operating style . Again, I was on a cohesive, mostly agileish team.

Hawaiian has the easiest pilots to work with and a strong support system. The pilot union at Hawaiian is top notch and responsive.A typical day starts one hour prior to your scheduled departure. The reality is we get here at least ninety minutes prior to departure to accomplish our preflight planning duties and dispatch briefing. We head out to our gate and go through an agriculture checkpoint prior to walking to our gate. We get to the aircraft and set it up for departure once that is done we review the aircraft log and brief the flight attendants on the weather and MEL items in the cabin that impacts their service. The copilot returns from the walk around and we accomplish the before start checklist. Everything is pretty much standard stuff until we reach our cruise altitude. Once at altitude we do a PA with the standard safety items and get our beverage box. On in international flight one member of the cockpit starts their break while the other two settle back for cruise portion of the flight

I enjoyed my time at Hawaiian because of the workplace culture and desire to provide the best experience possible to our customers.  A typical day at work included an inflight briefing prior to departure, the boarding and greeting of the passengers, the  inflight service once airborne and then cabin preparations for landing and disembarking. It was wonderful to start someone's day with a smile and greeting.  I loved being aware of their personal needs and anticipating any assistance they might need.  Because most of our time and interaction was in the air, all problems needed to be solved ourselves.  It was a great education on resolving human conflict.  I encountered quite a few inflight medical emergencies so I learned a lot of layman medical procedures.  The company provided great support in that regard with the pilots, and a contracted medical service that could be reached at any time.  The company also provided excellent yearly training and ground support.

While HA is generally a great company, there are definite inequalities and favoritism between departments.  Ground staff (ramp, customer service, line service, cabin service, etc) are constantly given the short end of the stick regarding pay and other benefits, while In-flight and pilots are given the world.  This creates friction and resentment between departments. 
The company has expanded too fast and cannot keep up on the back end. Airport employees are over worked and constantly short staffed.  This highly affects morale and the level of service they are able to provide to travelers/fellow co-workers. 
The best part of the job are the medical and flight benefits, along with the relationships you're able to build with coworkers.  Your fellow employees become like family and really support each other.

I worked in Honolulu and North America. Honolulu was great as they were still very much into the old way of doing things. It was a great place to be part of a large company, but not so much the corporate sense of no fun in the work place. I loved working with Hawaiian and working in Hawaii. Every weekend was a vacation. North America has a long way to go before they get to a professional branch of the company. They are very segmented from Hawaii and almost seem to forget that even though they're far from the islands every aircraft and major decision comes out of Honolulu. The mechanics in Hawaii take a while to warm up to the new comer, but if you can keep up and prove your worth they are great and very helpful. The entire Honolulu maintenance experience was great. I miss it very much and have a few regrets leaving for the mainland.

All I can say about Hawaiian Airlines is that some upper management personnel seem to not care about their employees. Not everyone is like this, though. Many upper management people that I had met seemed to really care for their employees but some of them were cold and uncaring for people's situations. One employee missed training because he was not informed and they basically said "not my problem". They had said on many occasions (whether the CEO knows about this or not) that "they do not accommodate for ANYONE'S personal schedules". So in closing, they are a great company to work for if you have no outside life and can dedicate your entire existence to Hawaiian Airlines. If not, then they will waste their time and your time on months of interviews and training only to let you go.

Flight benefits were great but the low pay was not a liveable wage. Work hours were unpredictable and often extended well past the scheduled shift time making it difficult to maintain a second job (the job that provided an actual income and paid the bills.) Unless you have a partner to support you or a second job that allows you to work remotely and anytime, this job is not a sustainable way to make a living. Management turnover was frequent as were the staff. Depending on which airport you worked, parking and getting to the airport terminal could add an additional hour to your actual workday. When you factor this into your shift, the pay was even less. Comeraderie amongst your co-workers was hit or miss. Senior agents were often dismissive to new agents and unwilling to help. 

What is the best part of working at the company?
The flight benifits the company is a bunch of old timers stuck in their ways afraid of new people coming in to steal their jobs instead of being a leader or helping people they say we are a team that’s a lie it’s a bunch of individuals working near one another 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Going to work with people who are looking for ways to look better at your expense and will not help you grow within the company 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Toxic, catty, a bunch of clicks that look out for only them selfs or a select few 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Painful looking at the clock to when my shift is over

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Aircraft mechanic 27 salaries reported	$36.46 per hour
Baggage handler 74 salaries reported	$19.42 per hour
Software engineer 7 salaries reported	$104,007 per year
Support specialist 14 salaries reported	$20.57 per hour
Customer service representative 10 salaries reported	$22.36 per hour

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