[joy105]

THINGS I HATE About Alaska Airlines:

$100 Change fees

Baggage fees

Limited award seats

Award levels (I miss saver and peak!)

Round trip only Partner Awards

Mean customer service agents

Lazy flight attendants

Power trippers (because I can attitudes)

No competition within Alaska

CHANGES I LIKE: Award calendar & one way awards

THINGS I DON'T MIND: Fees for food

THINGS I MISS: Full service

WHAT I'D LIKE TO SEE IN THE FUTURE:

More seats for award travel, and back to Saver and Peak

Open up seats within 24 hours for award travelers (why not - we'd love you for it)

Reasonable change fees ($50 was bad, but palatable)

Allow standby travel for earlier flights on award tickets (we really don't like the 4 hour layover when you have seats on an earlier flight)

Be more flexible and friendly

Don't follow other airline strategies, do what's right for your customers, like you used to.

[Gromit801]

And yet, Alaska Airlines has won the JD Powers Award for customer service two years straight.

Joy, get over your ranting.

[mars6423]

joy, with the competition with alaska, not to many airlines will want to fly to alaska since there isnt a high enough demand, it is more suitable for 1 or 2 airlines to fly out of there, and airlines are cutting routes now (US Air is cutting 1000jobs and stopping some routes in early 2010)

and with travel within alaska competition wouldnt work, there isnt a market there for other carriers

there are gonna be bag fees with the majority of US airlines these days, its just something that people are going to deal with (hopefully when they are healthy as a business they will stop those fees)

other than southwest and maybe a few other airlines change fees are expensive, a deterant from things being changed.....$100 is lower than many other airlines who charge $150 so its expensive and annoying but at least its less than others

when i flew from van-seatle-newark a few years ago from a ski trip i was scheduled to fly with continental (the horizon flight from van-seatle prop plane had a tire explode on take off so we turned around and landed-for some reason they wouldnt let us off the plane due to fire safety yet no fire trucks arrived for 2 hours....so they flew us to seatle and rebooked us on alaskan) the flight attendants were not lazy and were actually very nice and brought around drinks and a meal

but if your flight is only an hour long you cannot expect much due to the accent and deccent, and the amount of time it takes to serve people

it would be positive for everyone if every airline would allow standby passangers to board the earlier flight once every ticketed passenger was in their seats, and than go in order who arrived first for standby etc

[PHXFlyer]

Originally Posted by joy105

THINGS I HATE About Alaska Airlines:

$100 Change fees - Most are $150

Baggage fees - Not unique to Alaska. Actually Alaska doesn't charge for bags on itineraries within the state of Alaska

Limited award seats - Limited for the lower redemption levels - you can always part with more miles and get any seat on any flight

Award levels (I miss saver and peak!) - Instead of two now there are three

Round trip only Partner Awards - Only Alaska, American and Southwest have one-way awards and only for their own members. How can you expect to get a one-way award on a partner that doesn't even offer one-way awards to it's own members?

Mean customer service agents - You have yet to give any examples of this.

Lazy flight attendants - Because they don't do a full beverage and snack service on a flight that is under 50 minutes from wheels-up to landing? I'd like to see you serve a plane load of people in that amount of time!

Power trippers (because I can attitudes) - Again, examples?

No competition within Alaska - Maybe not in Fairbanks, but in Anchorage there's Continental, Delta, US Airways and Frontier had seasonal service.

CHANGES I LIKE: Award calendar & one way awards

THINGS I DON'T MIND: Fees for food

THINGS I MISS: Full service - What exactly do you mean? They have complimentary meal service in first class, buy-on-board in coach, free non-alcoholic beverages (except for Red Bull). How much more full service do you want? Also you say how wonderful Southwest is and how you can't wait for them to come to Alaska. Southwest is not a full-service airline.

WHAT I'D LIKE TO SEE IN THE FUTURE:

More seats for award travel, and back to Saver and Peak

Open up seats within 24 hours for award travelers (why not - we'd love you for it)

Reasonable change fees ($50 was bad, but palatable)

Allow standby travel for earlier flights on award tickets (we really don't like the 4 hour layover when you have seats on an earlier flight)

Be more flexible and friendly

Don't follow other airline strategies, do what's right for your customers, like you used to.

Boy I'd love to fly "Joy Airlines." No bag fees, full meal or snack service even on flights under an hour, book any seat as an award for the fewest amount of miles even on partners, and no change fees. Trouble is with a business model like that the tickets would be prohibitively expensive or the airline would go out of business fast!

[joy105]

Hey, Mr. Thomas Jefferson, who do you work for? Alaska Airlines? Sounds like their type of attitude to everything.

[Jetliner]

Joy - I don't work for Alaska (nor were they the airline that I did work for - in fact they have never flown to the airport I worked at).

It's interesting that even though PHX just shot almost your entire list full of holes, you still act like you were right.

What I also don't get is people who have a complaint, but want to still rant and rant with tons of other things. You have one thing go wrong, and you want to turn it into a bash every little point deal.

[Gromit801]

I just found out that Alaska Air DOES NOT charge any baggage for luggage up to 50 pounds for flights within the state of Alaska. You know, that place where each resident gets $500 a year tax free from oil revenues?

And SWA will never fly to Alaska. They don't have the correct aircraft, and aren't going to be equipping their aircraft for overwater and cross international flying. SWA is also very cash poor right now, and will be introducing a bunch of discount fares soon. The only reason an airline does that is when they need money right now. Their fuel hedge has run out, and competition is getting stronger.

[PHXFlyer]

Originally Posted by Gromit801

I just found out that Alaska Air DOES NOT charge any baggage for luggage up to 50 pounds for flights within the state of Alaska. You know, that place where each resident gets $500 a year tax free from oil revenues?

Much more than that! This years' PFD payment was $1305. Last year it was $2069 plus an additional $1200 "resource rebate" whatever that is.

[Gromit801]

I guess I should stay updated on the benefits of living in AK. I have a long time friend in Fairbanks, I'll be hitting her up for a loan soon! lol.

[Jetliner]

Originally Posted by Gromit801

And SWA will never fly to Alaska. They don't have the correct aircraft, and aren't going to be equipping their aircraft for overwater

Actually they are already over water equipped. They did this for the Florida-Texas flights.

[PHXFlyer]

Originally Posted by Gromit801

And SWA will never fly to Alaska. They don't have the correct aircraft, and aren't going to be equipping their aircraft for overwater and cross international flying.

I missed this until Jetliner pointed it out. Alaska airlines only recently started equipping a sub-fleet of 737-800s for over the water operations so they could get their ETOPS certification to fly to/from Hawaii. Any airline can fly to/from Alaska without being ETOPS rated.

As for Southwest, none of their aircraft are ETOPS rated (actually the only aircraft they fly that could be is the 737-700) however this doesn't prevent them from flying over the Gulf of Mexico. They just have to remain within a certain distance of the closest diversion airport.

[Gromit801]

It's not just water equipped, but there are navigational and electronic aids necessary for international flight. They'd be flying through Canadian airspace, or a lengthy over water flight. Anyway you cut it, SWA is not prepared, nor would it be profitable for the cash strapped company to do so.