Originally Posted by
Yellowjj
Flying DAL-SFO-FLL on VX, and Virgin/Alaska completely chopped SFO-FLL. The route went from 3 nonstops down to 1; even LAX-FLL got chopped.
Anyway I was alerted by email to call Alaska and found out I could no longer legally connect to my FLL flight. This was when I also found out I was put in coach on the SFO-FLL flight the next day because there was no availability in First despite a empty cabin. I took it to mean, no saver level availability.
I first requested a reroute via LAX and was told it was available. The agent then came back and said the 'desk' said it was not available. When she tried to change my flights, I also lost the confirmed FC seat on DAL-SFO; so I ended up in coach throughout as she could not get it back. I told her it didn't make sense because now I was essentially throwing away miles for a Y class ticket. She agreed; I asked her to cancel the ticket and promptly bought a AA FC ticket from DFW for a little over $300. Virgin wanted $1000. Slightly inconvenient over using DAL, but you take what you can get sometimes.
I don't understand how they seem unable to even force inventory on their own flights. On Delta they would have switched me to any other flight with FC seats available. On Alaska the flights are wide open and it seems the agent's aren't empowered to do anything if your on a saver award. I said it before on the thread where the guy was complaining about being swindled into buying miles, only for Alaska to increase redemption. They have removed a lot of saver availability 2 weeks ago. Whether it's due to the amount of miles they sold, I don't know.
AFAIK, VX is still being operated completely separately and by the same management team that was running VX prior to the merger (though I'm sure Alaska Air Group, the parent company and legal owner of Virgin America, has input into large decisions), so blaming "Alaska" for canceling the route and blaming "Alaska" for being unable to open up space on "their" flights is not quite accurate. Between the separate management and the fact that the back-end systems are not yet integrated, to Alaska agents, dealing with VX is still more or less like dealing with any other partner--just like AS agents can't force AA or CX or QF or whoever to open up space, AS can't do the same with VX.
I'd almost actually suggest that your post be moved to the VX forum as your real beef is with VX, not AS, but it probably is on-topic here as you were (it sounds like, anyway) using AS miles.
Things will get better and easier for AS agents to handle VX stuff once management is integrated into the AS organization and the systems are integrated. For now, it's probably best to just mentally treat VX as a partner of AS's and know that booking VX comes with similar restrictions as booking any other partner.