Vacationers Say ‘Aloha’ to Hawaii Plans

The Hawaiian vacation plans of thousands of consumers--most of them Californians--have been disrupted or canceled because of the grounding of a Miami-based charter airline.

SunTrips Inc. of San Jose said Friday that it has been forced to cancel all of its trips to Hawaii beginning Oct. 1 because the vacation packager has not been able to find an airline to replace its regular carrier, Rich International Airways, which was grounded Sept. 2 by the Federal Aviation Administration.

Consumers who had booked trips with the vacation packager through Sept. 30 have the option of receiving a refund or traveling with a different airline, SunTrips spokeswoman Debbie Allen said.

“I hope [consumers] give us another chance” once SunTrips finds a new carrier, perhaps after Jan. 1, Allen said. “It was out of our control. We are very sorry.”

SunTrips has negotiated with United and Hawaiian airlines to carry the passengers that Rich International originally had contracted to fly. Initially, SunTrips was going to charge $60 extra per person to switch travelers to United or Hawaiian. But after an outcry by travelers and travel agents, SunTrips negotiated further with the two airlines and got the charge waived.

Any applications for refunds or changes in travel plans should be made through travel agents, Allen said.

The FAA grounded Rich International because of problems with maintenance, equipment and personnel training. It was not known when the charter airline would resume flying its 16 L-1011s and five DC-8s. Executives of Rich International could not be reached for comment Friday.

SunTrips relied on Rich International for travel out of Los Angeles International and San Francisco airports. Allen estimated that about 10,000 consumers, most of them from California, have been affected.

SunTrips sends about 100,000 people to Hawaii and Mexico a year, Allen said. The company’s trips to Mexico, which make up about 35% of SunTrips’ business, remain strong sellers, she said.

The cost of reimbursing travelers is high--a typical air-hotel-car vacation package runs about $500 per person--but SunTrips is not in financial jeopardy, Allen said.

“SunTrips is not going out of business,” she said. “We’re financially sound. If we were going out of business, we would not be refunding people’s money.”

A spokesman for the American Society of Travel Agents said consumers have little to complain about in this case.

“It’s easy to become frustrated, but it appears that they are doing everything they can to make the consumer whole,” said Steve Loucks, spokesman for the Washington-based trade group.

Times staff writers Jane Engle and Christopher Reynolds contributed to this report.