plum4457

On sea->tpa today. Was 1st on the upgrade list (of about 7) with two seats available 25 minutes before departure. They started boarding elites so I went to agent to check on the upgrade and was told the "controlling" agent was busy and to just board and they would come get me if there were seats available. Well, boarding ended, closed the door and I could see two open seats in first. I asked a passing FA and was told "I think it's full". We take off and I've basically resigned myself to "whatever, at least I am in an exit with the middle seat open". 45 minutes in the same FA comes by and says "there is 2 seats open up front, we're trying to figure it out". A bit later the first FA comes back and says "we can move you, but there is no room for your bag so you'll have to leave that back here". I told them thanks but no thanks.

This is the first time I have ever seen them totally skip the upgrades. The original FA said the agents were flaky and they have made me comfortable where I am at. It is frustrating though because I spend extra to get the right fares to make sure I am near the top of the list. Anyway, just a rant and a word to the wise- If you think you're going to get an upgrade, don't board!

ctporter

I have learned to look and watch the number of FC that have checked in. Then, at when check in is supposed to close I ask about the upgrade.(I ask is check in closed? they will typically ask why, am I on the list? and then process my upgrade) But I have also learned that when they say go ahead and board I might lose the upgrade seat because they have given the to the next folks down on the list (they forgot to upgrade me when i was first on the list), so yes I agree, do not board early, wait it out unless you need overhead space and are ok with sitting in the back.

formeraa

I suggest emailing or calling AS Customer Service with the specific details of your flight. If you noticed the agent's name, I would include it. They will speak with the agent(s) who handled your flight and "remind" them to process upgrades before the flight departs. Unless they had some sort of problem before departure, they should always process the upgrades.

PDXFlyBoy

Yes, contact Customer Care and log onto AlaskaListens.com and write it up there as well!

PDXPremier

Let me make sure I understand this...once you boarded, they eventually offered you a seat in First class, but you declined because you couldn't sit with your carry-on?? Uh, I just flew that flight a few days ago and it's definitely a LONG flight that I enjoyed being in First class for....they could have put my carrying on above the last row and I would have still sat in First. Yeah, I agree, the agent should have cleared the upgrades before boarding so definitely contact Customer Care, but I still find it odd that you didn't move to First simply based on your carry-on. I have a mother-in-law that doesn't like using the bathroom inflight because she thinks someone will mess with her stuff so I guess there are more folks out their that are more attached to their carry-on than I am

plum4457

Yeah, I had an exit with an empty middle seat so I was fine on space. If there was someone in the seat next to me I would've dealt with the bag being in the back and moved up. After a long flight I didn't want to fight upstream to deal with getting my bag either.

I sent a note to Customer Care and will see what they say.

beckoa

Wirelessly posted (beckoa's BB: Mozilla/5.0 (BlackBerry; U; BlackBerry 9810; en-US) AppleWebKit/534.11+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/7.1.0.694 Mobile Safari/534.11+)

Glad you sent the note quickly as some of that data (that can help) is purged eventually.

PIONEER

I had a similar problem with an ANC GA not understanding upgrades. Flaky is s good word.

HiFlyerAS

Happened to me in MEX...I was really mad as FC went out with empty seats. I gave them an earful!

plum4457

How long does it usually take for a reply from AS on Customer Care emails. I haven't gotten a confirmation or anything. Just curious.

dave1013

The bolded sentence is troublesome to me. Every Customer Care email I have written to AS is acknowledged with a canned auto-reply, which includes how long they can take to review the matter, develop and send the response. Something doesn't seem quite right to me regarding your experience.

plum4457

I submitted it here:

http://survey.alaskalistens.com/#/survey1

It's funny, I get the feeling some people on here think I am lying or something. Do people really have the time to make these stories up and post them to forums? I was honestly just trying to pass an experience on that others could avoid.

Anyway, thanks for all the replies. I'll submit it again as I just searched my mail and never got a confirmation.

beckoa

Wirelessly posted (beckoa's BB: Mozilla/5.0 (BlackBerry; U; BlackBerry 9810; en-US) AppleWebKit/534.11+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/7.1.0.694 Mobile Safari/534.11+)

Alaskalistens doesn't send out confirmations. They go somewhere but don't always get a response. I'd recommend contacting customer care in this case. Its a different webform, and generates a case #.

plum4457

Thanks, got the right form submitted now.

dave1013

I did not think you were lying. When I said that something didn't seem quite right regarding your experience, my intended meaning (which I seem to have botched) was that something was not quite right with Alaska's acknowledgment systems. Not with the info you were sharing on this board.

I'm sorry for the confusion.