A tourist family was able to quickly leave fire-hit Maui because they had high-status membership with United Airlines
Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images
- A tourist was able to get his family out of Maui on the same day the fires started, NBC reported.
- Joshua Wang was a United Airlines MileagePlus member and able to get priority, the report said.
- Other tourists were not as lucky as many were left stranded at the Maui airport, other reports said.
A tourist family was able to leave the Maui devastation behind quickly because they had high-status membership with United Airlines, according to an NBC report published on Wednesday.
Joshua Wang was visiting from New Jersey with his children, in-laws, and 3-year-old nephew last week when fires blazed through the western part of the island.
The blazes reduced homes to ashes and had killed more than 100 people at the time of writing.
The family said they went on an excursion to the eastern part of the island on the day the fires started, and couldn't get back to their hotel after the fires blocked the roads. They said they had to sleep in their two cars.
Wang told NBC that after seeing how bad the fires were he got his nephew, sister-in-law, mother-in-law, and two kids on a flight home.
He was able to do this, he said, because he had preferential status in United's MileagePlus program.
Wang stayed behind to try to retrieve their personal belonging from their hotel, which had not been burned down, NBC reported.
United Airlines confirmed to NBC News that MileagePlus members are given priority on standby flights. A spokesperson did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
But other tourists visiting the island during the disaster were not given a chance to leave as quickly.
In the hours and days after the wildfires, some flights departing Maui were delayed or canceled, leaving hundreds of passengers sleeping at the airport, USA Today and The Times of London reported.
Some airlines, including United, eventually said they were sending empty planes to the airport so that they could send passengers back home, Time magazine reported.
The reports came amid rising tensions between tourists and locals on the island.
Over the weekend, a local woman complained to the BBC that tourists were swimming and snorkeling in the same waters that people died in just days before. She said "that says a lot about where their heart and mind is through all of this and where our heart and mind is."
Brittany Pounder, an employee at the Maui Four Seasons — the luxury resort where the first season of "The White Lotus" was filmed — told the BBC that some guests had also complained about excursions being canceled in the aftermath of the fire.
One guest had even asked about making his dinner reservation at Lahaina Grill, a fine-dining restaurant located in the heart of the historic downtown, both of which were razed to the ground, Pounder added.
Some have urged tourists not to come to Maui and cancel their planned trips, including Jason Momoa, a native Hawaiian and actor.