I'm typing this from the AK Air Board Room at Sea-Tac. We were on a Horizon Flight from Spokane this morning (2393 at 9:30) which was canceled due to a mechanical. Despite my Gold status, the first flight they could get us on was the 1:00 on AS which meant we would miss our connection to ANC and subsequently FAI. We stood-by for the 10:30 Horizon and got on just so we could hang out in Seattle instead of Spokane. Turns out our original connection to ANC was 3 hours delayed so we easily could have made that flight but they had already rebooked us on a later flight. Our original flight had, get this, over 50 people on the standby list. There are 4 other flights to ANC between 1:00 and 4:00 including one they added just to pick up all of the people that have been stranded for one reason or another. Of course, there is no availability on any of them. And, our direct SEA-FAI flight (129) is now showing 1.5 hours late.
So, here we sit in SEA-TAC for what will amount to at least 8 hours. I'm a seasoned traveler and very tolerant, but sometimes things like this are just so ridiculous that you have to rant a little. Maybe things like this will teach AS operations a thing or two about the dangers of running lean and mean on the SEA-Alaska routes.
A belated welcome to Flyertalk and I regret your inconvenience.....but pray tell: what lesson would you have Alaska Airlines learn? They are well aware of the perils and consequences of running a "lean and mean" operation but the industry is in a crisis and mechanicals and weather situations happen.
Heck, I came back to Seattle three hours late last night and never got to sleep before having to go to work. There was bad weather in Juneau (my origin point) and Seattle all day Sunday. Taking an earlier flight was out of the question - it got canceled due to weather.
What would you have the airline do?
About this time last winter, I flew home to Juneau from Seattle on AS 69, which stops en route in KTN. When we got to Ketchikan, the conditions in Juneau had gone below minimums, and the KTN-JNU segment was promptly canceled. Whereupon those of us continuing on to JNU had to get off the plane, gather our luggage, take the ferry across the channel, and find our own lodging on our own dime. I chose the Best Western and they proudly quoted me a "distressed traveler" rate of approx. $110 a night. I remember telling the desk clerk they should change the name to a "distressed wallet" rate.
Your situation arose from a mechanical issue and mine from a weather issue. Both were pretty much unpredictable. You assert that the airline should learn a lesson from this, and I think that is a bit misplaced. The lesson is for us, the travelers. There's not a lot of redundancy built into airline schedules and/or equipment. Reimbursements and/or help with unforeseen expenses is not what it used to be. Moral of the story: let the buyer beware. Esp. in the winter flying in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest - hope for the best but plan for the worst.
I
__________________ I am never snarky, either - but after Jan. 3, 2010, anything goes!!!
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I'd be most angry that they gave up my confirmed seat on the flight that I would have made.
You do know that as a Gold, you get priority standby over all non-Golds on any standby lost, right? I hope you're standing by on every flight you can rather than just sitting at Starbucks or Ivar's...
Hope you do make it to FAI soon... and as a BR member- check out the SEA PC too- they make a great spicy bloody merry! (And be glad you got that membership) Last time I was stuck in SEA for 6 hours I was trying to get back to PUW... and didn't (nor was eligible - under 21)
It is weird that AS removed you from your previous flight SEA-ANC though... did they do this w/o informing you, or did you go what with the agent was saying...
I'd be most angry that they gave up my confirmed seat on the flight that I would have made.
You do know that as a Gold, you get priority standby over all non-Golds on any standby lost, right? I hope you're standing by on every flight you can rather than just sitting at Starbucks or Ivar's...
Very true point... be sure to flaunt your goldness in this situation... as it may help you leave earlier... as an MVPG you get Top Priority standby!
If someone declines this fact, talk to someone else... as its a right you earned!
Quote:
Originally Posted by alaskaair.com
Standby and Waitlist for full flights on Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air MVP-Priority MVPG-Top Priority
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Quote:
Originally Posted by amorsell
I'm a seasoned traveler and very tolerant, but sometimes things like this are just so ridiculous that you have to rant a little. Maybe things like this will teach AS operations a thing or two about the dangers of running lean and mean on the SEA-Alaska routes.
So in your opinion you'd rather have AS add capacity that won't fill up and have spare aircraft sitting around not making money. But then you'd probably rant about the resulting higher fares. Just can't have it both ways.
OK, I know it's soooooo OT, but I couldn't resist...
Quote:
Originally Posted by jackal
You do know that as a Gold, you get priority standby over all non-Golds on any standby lost, right?
Sometimes it feels like "stand-by lost", doesn't it!
Quote:
Originally Posted by beckoa
Hope you do make it to FAI soon... and as a BR member- check out the SEA PC too- they make a great spicy bloody merry!
The first 2 are a Bloody Marys. After that, it's Bloody Merrys!
At least you didnt get stuck for about 28 hours in Seattle like some family of ours did a few weeks ago while traveling on award tickets. They were headed from DCA to FAI ... and the DCA plane left late... whoops.
Programs: AS MVP, UA, AA, AGR, NPS passport, Costco Exec, leftover fake SPG Gold from old AMEX Plat
Posts: 3,799
Quote:
Originally Posted by COpltASgldPHX
Sometimes it feels like "stand-by lost", doesn't it!
Even more OT than your OT-ness, but... I firmly blame the iPhone's auto-correct!
It usually works, but sometimes it just decides to speak its mind, and it usually does spit something rather appropriate (like what it did this time) out.
So in your opinion you'd rather have AS add capacity that won't fill up and have spare aircraft sitting around not making money. But then you'd probably rant about the resulting higher fares. Just can't have it both ways.
OK, I know it's soooooo OT, but I couldn't resist...
Um, yes, that's exactly what they should do instead of having passengers sitting around for hours or days waiting for the next flight with room. This winter has been particularly indicative of this with all of the cancellations and delays and then people just being screwed until the airline can fit them on a flight. And, for the record, I would not rant about the higher fares - this is business travel and the cost is directly passed through to my clients.
I don't know the origin of all of the problems yesterday, but the weather was fine everywhere AFAIK. It seems that much of it was carry over from the prior day or two where there were cancellations going into Anchorage, Juneau and Fairbanks. Added capacity could have helped this greatly.
My Gold status didn't help much yesterday other than getting an earlier flight from Spokane to Seattle. It's much better to be stuck in SEA than GEG. In Seattle, we were told that there were 50 to 70 standby passengers for EVERY flight to Anchorage that day and to not even try standing-by for an earlier flight since we had confirmed seats on the evening SEA-FAI flight.
I don't know if you are a resident of Alaska, frequent visitor or first time visitor. But here's some advice about the great state. You will have to realize that more often than not, especially in winter, things are not going to run on schedule. There will be bad weather. And there is nothing anyone can do about it. Things get delayed. Why, just last week I was stuck in my house the entire week because of weather. Did I complain? No. What's the point. Won't change anything. Just have to learn to take it all in stride.
If you are a seasoned traveler then you would also know that one delay/cancellation at ANC, FAI or JNU usually ripples out to a lot of other intra-Alaska flights. Especially between JNU and SEA.
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All the other names were taken too....
I don't know if you are a resident of Alaska, frequent visitor or first time visitor. But here's some advice about the great state. You will have to realize that more often than not, especially in winter, things are not going to run on schedule. There will be bad weather. And there is nothing anyone can do about it. Things get delayed. Why, just last week I was stuck in my house the entire week because of weather. Did I complain? No. What's the point. Won't change anything. Just have to learn to take it all in stride.
If you are a seasoned traveler then you would also know that one delay/cancellation at ANC, FAI or JNU usually ripples out to a lot of other intra-Alaska flights. Especially between JNU and SEA.
Let's see here: I grew up in Anchorage (age 6 to 18) went to college out-of-state, came back after grad school and lived and worked there for 10 more years. I flew to remote locations all over the state in mostly small planes and helicopters and have worked and lived in the field in all weather conditions. I moved to Spokane about 6 years ago. So, yes, I think I pass your Cheechako test. I am in Fairbanks right now where it's -47 degrees and I'm not whining about it - that's just the way it is. Anyway, don't give me that crap about needing to be tough and suck it up when it comes to an airlines inefficiency. They need to learn from their mistakes and make adjustments. Having to deal with weather and cancellations is a semi-predictable (in that you can predict that it WILL happen several times a year) occurrence that can be better handled during those times. THAT's where operations can learn a lesson or two about how to improve things.
The upshot of all this is (in my opinion) there is no feasible solution that would satisfy the OP. S/he says the airline should "learn from their mistakes and make adjustments". Upon considering this, another poster asked the clarifying question about "hav(ing) AS add capacity that won't fill up and have spare aircraft sitting around not making money", the OP replied "that is exactly what they should do."
I really do not believe that will ever happen.
That said, I do believe that if AS could do as the OP wished and not go broke and infuriate a whole boatload of other passengers in the process of doing it, then they would do it. But they don't have the excess capacity and cannot make impromptu schedule changes to remedy problems caused by weather and/or mechanical problems without magnifying the impacts tenfold.
AS Ops personnel don't get out of bed in the morning fantasizing about how they can creatively strand people in Seattle for the whole day instead of transporting them to Fairbanks. Mother Nature and Mr. Murphy take care of that for them. Their job is to manage irrops situations in the most expedient, efficient manner possible. Most of the time they do exactly that. We can debate about the de-icing situation of last month and should the airline have planned better....who knows? I imagine someone will be held accountable for that crisis, and we will probably never hear about it. However, AS top management cared about the outfall, as I noted in another thread that Mr. Ayer "ran to the fire" and was out there on the floor at Sea-Tac the Monday before Xmas, doing what he could to minimize the time that people had to stand waiting in line.
I'm sorry your plans got disrupted. I mean that sincerely. As aforementioned, mine have too, as well as those of many other posters on this board. None of us like it, and I would venture to guess that some of us have conjured up the same thoughts you have expressed here. I would bet that the airline knows full well that each disrupted travel itinerary generates very unhappy people. AS has been in business for over 75 years. That they have survived this long despite regularly having paid customers get upset about messed-up travel plans speaks for itself.
This is basically a resource allocation issue in an imperfect world of limited resources.
__________________ I am never snarky, either - but after Jan. 3, 2010, anything goes!!!
Programs: AS MVP, UA, AA, AGR, NPS passport, Costco Exec, leftover fake SPG Gold from old AMEX Plat
Posts: 3,799
Quote:
Originally Posted by amorsell
And, for the record, I would not rant about the higher fares - this is business travel and the cost is directly passed through to my clients.
You might be able to do this, but this is not the case for a majority of AS's (and every other domestic airline's) customers, who, to some level or another, are price-sensitive.
No airline can afford to have a "rainy day" reserve of unused airliners sitting around to use when "it" hits the fan. Nor can an airline afford to have extra airliners for a few peak travel periods each year and then let them sit unused the balance of the year.
What you saw is typical L48 to/from AK holiday travel volume. It'll all be over with in a few days when things return to "normal."
__________________ Although I work for AS, my participation in FT is strictly unofficial and my views are mine alone.
I am never snarky, either - but after Jan. 3, 2010, anything goes!!! 
) Last time I was stuck in SEA for 6 hours I was trying to get back to PUW... and didn't (nor was eligible - under 21)
I am in Fairbanks right now where it's -47 degrees and I'm not whining about it - that's just the way it is. Anyway, don't give me that crap about needing to be tough and suck it up when it comes to an airlines inefficiency. They need to learn from their mistakes and make adjustments. Having to deal with weather and cancellations is a semi-predictable (in that you can predict that it WILL happen several times a year) occurrence that can be better handled during those times. THAT's where operations can learn a lesson or two about how to improve things.
Although I work for AS, my participation in FT is strictly unofficial and my views are mine alone.
