Autumnal Message

[wildway]

I found the whole thing comical. But it's my fault, too. I'm with BillScann on the sane family travel approach.

Originally Posted by BillScann

I recently completed travel with my family from ANC-BOS and noticed that boarding stared absurdly (40 mins) early for all of the flights.

As a sane traveler, the last thing I'm going to do is to pack two small children onto a six hour flight 40 minutes early. Instead, I encourage them to run around and expend as much energy as possible before boarding.

We therefore invariably board last, go straight to our seats and are ready to go after +/- 45 seconds.

Every flight we took had doors closed and plane parked 10ft from the gate (an 'ontime' departure) where we sat, and sat, and sat. Based on this recent experience, any attempt at blaming the customer for delays is just nonsense.

[CDKing]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.0; en-us; Droid Build/ESD20) AppleWebKit/530.17 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/530.17)

I hope they don't try to ask people in F to get to the gate earlier. For the first time I left the BR after boarding time started. I thought I would get to use the blue carpet but when I arrived the plane was already boarded. The GA said there was time left before the flight was closed. I hope they don't decide to give away upgrades during this time between when the boarding line is done and when the cut off time comes

[jackal]

Originally Posted by Seat 7D

If Alaska truly wants to fix this alleged problem, here's a few ideas:
1. Grade individual gate agents based on following policy. Do they stop people boarding at the wrong time? Do they prevent people from taking on too many carryons?

UA GAs are bonused on company-wide departure OTP. Are AS GAs? This could help.

Originally Posted by CDKing

The GA said there was time left before the flight was closed. I hope they don't decide to give away upgrades during this time between when the boarding line is done and when the cut off time comes

I like BA's approach.

First, they scan your ticket when you enter the First lounge. Their system knows you're in the lounge, which does two things: allows them to see where you are (and know you're properly checked in and will definitely be boarding your flight--so they don't give away your seat or anything) and it notifies them to make a page announcing the boarding of your flight (they don't announce flights for which there are no passengers in the lounge).

Second, they announce boarding in the lounge quite late relative to the actual boarding process. The effect is that by the time you've used the restroom, gathered your belongings, and hiked down to the gate, boarding is basically finished, there is no line at the podium or down the jetway, and you jump right on board, right to your seat, and a few minutes later, the door is closed and you're on your way. Oh, and they still find time to bring you mixed nuts and a pre-departure champagne.

In other words, they understand that people want to maximize their time in the lounge and minimize their time on the aircraft (especially important when it's a 13-hour flight!).

Granted, oneworld First lounges are substantially nicer than AS BRs, but their method is to reward their top customers and work with them to maximize the enjoyment of their experience rather than expect their top customers to inconvenience themselves for the company's benefit.

[beckoa]

Originally Posted by jackal

UA GAs are bonused on company-wide departure OTP. Are AS GAs? This could help.

AS has various bonuses for most employees for being in the top tier of 'relevant competitors' for being ontime (which AS has been #1 for quite a few lately) among other bonuses they have ($50 or so every 3 months)

Originally Posted by jackal

I like BA's approach.

First, they scan your ticket when you enter the First lounge. Their system knows you're in the lounge, which does two things: allows them to see where you are (and know you're properly checked in and will definitely be boarding your flight--so they don't give away your seat or anything) and it notifies them to make a page announcing the boarding of your flight (they don't announce flights for which there are no passengers in the lounge).

Second, they announce boarding in the lounge quite late relative to the actual boarding process. The effect is that by the time you've used the restroom, gathered your belongings, and hiked down to the gate, boarding is basically finished, there is no line at the podium or down the jetway, and you jump right on board, right to your seat, and a few minutes later, the door is closed and you're on your way. Oh, and they still find time to bring you mixed nuts and a pre-departure champagne.

In other words, they understand that people want to maximize their time in the lounge and minimize their time on the aircraft (especially important when it's a 13-hour flight!).

Granted, oneworld First lounges are substantially nicer than AS BRs, but their method is to reward their top customers and work with them to maximize the enjoyment of their experience rather than expect their top customers to inconvenience themselves for the company's benefit.

Nice idea... but not sure how it would work with AS...

[jackal]

Originally Posted by beckoa

AS has various bonuses for most employees for being in the top tier of 'relevant competitors' for being ontime (which AS has been #1 for quite a few lately) among other bonuses they have ($50 or so every 3 months)

$50 every 3 months?! No wonder they're not motivated.

Under an incentive plan that began in January, employees of the UAL Corp. unit would receive $100 if the airline finishes first among its peers, as measured by the department. If United places second in on-time performance, the workers would get $65.

Through the first three months of 2009, United noted, workers had a first in January, a second-place finish in February and another first in March, for a total of $265 in bonus payments.

http://archives.chicagotribune.com/2...ed-bonus-apr10

[beckoa]

Originally Posted by jackal

$50 every 3 months?! No wonder they're not motivated.



http://archives.chicagotribune.com/2...ed-bonus-apr10

Well I don't know exactly what is offered by AS... but they have more then one benchmark (On time, customer satisfaction survey and maybe something else) that adds up... especially since AS has been doing well in these fields

[ANC]

Originally Posted by jackal

$50 every 3 months?! No wonder they're not motivated.

well... its better than nothing. Sure I admit I get performance bonuses but maybe Im a rare exception in that I do my best to be motivated whether Im looking at a bonus or not. Maybe Im a rare exception but I look at it as just doing my job

$50...get to fly space available non rev anywhere AS flies for free....free on some other airlines too

[rybob1]

Originally Posted by ANC

well... its better than nothing. Sure I admit I get performance bonuses but maybe Im a rare exception in that I do my best to be motivated whether Im looking at a bonus or not. Maybe Im a rare exception but I look at it as just doing my job

$50...get to fly space available non rev anywhere AS flies for free....free on some other airlines too

They actually get up to $100 per month in bonus. $50 for OTP (based on DOT data) and $50 for Customer service (based on AS initiated online surveys). It still may not seem like much, but it does add up pretty quick, and all they have to do is their jobs well .

[beckoa]

Originally Posted by rybob1

They actually get up to $100 per month in bonus. $50 for OTP (based on DOT data) and $50 for Customer service (based on AS initiated online surveys). It still may not seem like much, but it does add up pretty quick, and all they have to do is their jobs well .

I wasn't certain the amount or frequency... I think it gets distributed quarterly though...

[rybob1]

Originally Posted by beckoa

I wasn't certain the amount or frequency... I think it gets distributed quarterly though...

Yes, that is correct, it is quarterly payout.