Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan - AWOL AS email

czpdx mentioned this in a thread, and I can only assume I'm not the only one not getting the weekly AS-email...not that I ever read it right away. I didn't get last week's in my in-box, and as of yet, I've not received this week's. I checked my email preferences which still indicates I asked for AS emails.

Is anyone else not getting stuff?

czpdx mentioned this in a thread, and I can only assume I'm not the only one not getting the weekly AS-email...not that I ever read it right away. I didn't get last week's in my in-box, and as of yet, I've not received this week's. I checked my email preferences which still indicates I asked for AS emails.

Is anyone else not getting stuff?

Mine showed up at 8:31 AM today... so I got mine...

I'm surprised that AS continues to send out email blasts that aren't location aware. Sending me an email offering $95 fares to Mexico when it can't be done from my home base serves only to remind me why we need more competition flying in and out of Anchorage.

98103 ... PM me the email address you usually receive newsletters to and I'll have them check the list.

I have never got an HTML ticket receipt or the monthly statement like I have signed up for. I called customer care and they said I should have got Octobers but no dice...

Oh well, I guess I can live without it. I didn't get the birthday coupon either.

What's the birthday coupon? I've NEVER gotten one of those! :(

What's the birthday coupon? I've NEVER gotten one of those! :(

10% code that you SHOULD get thats sent at the start of the month of your birthday. Started in July or August that I remember...


BTW right now you (98103) have the opposite number of posts as I do right now. :) 467 VS 764

haha

I'm surprised that AS continues to send out email blasts that aren't location aware. Sending me an email offering $95 fares to Mexico when it can't be done from my home base serves only to remind me why we need more competition flying in and out of Anchorage.
I agree. Ignorance has been my bliss for awhile. (I quit paying attention to the newsletters once I realized they never had anything of interest or value to me. ;))

I have never got an HTML ticket receipt or the monthly statement like I have signed up for. I called customer care and they said I should have got Octobers but no dice...

Oh well, I guess I can live without it. I didn't get the birthday coupon either.

I've also found the monthly statements to be mostly useless, too. They are super-delayed and don't contain activity for a substantial period (a week, maybe two?) before they actually come out (in other words, if miles for a flight post a week before the statement comes out, it won't show on the statement). Basically, I already know what I've got well before the statement comes out, so it doesn't help at all.

You're not missing much... ;)

czpdx mentioned this in a thread, and I can only assume I'm not the only one not getting the weekly AS-email...not that I ever read it right away. I didn't get last week's in my in-box, and as of yet, I've not received this week's. I checked my email preferences which still indicates I asked for AS emails.

Is anyone else not getting stuff?perhaps I receive yours? I get 2 or 3 of each mailing that goes out :confused: to the same email address :confused:

I'm surprised that AS continues to send out email blasts that aren't location aware. Sending me an email offering $95 fares to Mexico when it can't be done from my home base serves only to remind me why we need more competition flying in and out of Anchorage.Yeah at least when I get emails from CO or UA they at least tell you that there arent any deals for your location this month...click to see other deals

Yeah at least when I get emails from CO or UA they at least tell you that there arent any deals for your location this month...click to see other deals

When's the last time CO has had a deal from ANC :rolleyes:

UA... not like they can have a deal anyway... :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

Did find it odd to not have loaction specific targeting on it... I think for a while AS was doing it, but its a little generic these days...

Perhaps one of us can bring this up during our interview with AS about alaskaair.com... @:-)

When's the last time CO has had a deal from ANC :rolleyes:

wow come to think if it...its been a long time. They didnt even match AS on the PFD sale

Perhaps one of us can bring this up during our interview with AS about alaskaair.com... @:-)Yeah I am thinking of things to bring up for that. Its hard to think of web enhancements to talk to them about since I think the web site is 10x better than most competitor websites but thus far I have 2 main questions and one suggestion.

Why do flights take so long to post to accounts(sometimes a week or 2) when other airlines ie. DL can post their flights to their members accounts within a day?

Id like to see F as an available option for partner/codeshare fares without having to use the multi city option to pick F/Business

How about more partner options from a flight search. For example ANC-MKE or ANC-PHL. Why does AA come up all the darn time!? Why not other options as well? NW shows up if you search for an F fare but not for a Y fare. Why? When you search this on a DL/NW site it shows plenty of options that utilize AS aircraft. Why isnt AS showing these same options in return?

wow come to think if it...its been a long time. They didnt even match AS on the PFD sale

Last time I remember seeing a 'el cheapo' ANC-SEA was April 27-29, 2007 (Had a friend fly up for about $200)... that and a mistake fare to MIA in 2007 too...

(Not to drift off too far...)

Why do flights take so long to post to accounts(sometimes a week or 2) when other airlines ie. DL can post their flights to their members accounts within a day?

This isn't so much of a website problem as a built-in limitation of the back-end system AS uses to power their reservations/ticketing system. It's based on 1960s-era mainframe technology which has limited peak processing power but is pretty efficient for batch processing, so the data is batched and run (weekly, I'd assume). (Actually, now, it's slightly different--if you remember the issues we had (was it this spring?) when the AS Mileage Plan back-end system was upgraded, that was caused because Mileage Plan was moving to a next-generation processing system. The actual ticketing and flight data is still handled by the legacy mainframe SABRE system, though, and so they still only batch out the flight data on a limited schedule and dump it into the Mileage Plan system, which then processes it.)

DL posts quickly because they are (well, were, before the NW merger ;)) fully set up on a next-generation system (modern databases running on commodity server hardware rather than expensive legacy mainframes) that operates in real-time and so can handle peak loads much better.

Perhaps AS could up their batch processing frequency a bit, though it may actually not be possible (old mainframes are pretty finicky). But I don't think the website guys really have much control over this--it's a fundamental IT issue. (That's not to say it's something that would be nice to fix, and perhaps you might mention it to the web guys, who can pass the request on to the right department, but honestly, I don't know that there's a huge incentive for them to do it since it's not going to generate any additional revenue.)

DL posts quickly because they are (well, were, before the NW merger ;)) fully set up on a next-generation system (modern databases running on commodity server hardware rather than expensive legacy mainframes) that operates in real-time and so can handle peak loads much better.

I think they still are on this even with NW included. I had 2 segments this past friday from SEA-MSP MSP-MKE on NW metal and credited to NW/DL using the old NW number and somehow it posted to my DL skymiles account within a day so their integration obviously hasnt slowed it down at all. While it may not generate AS any revenue it would be smart for them at some point to update this system. :confused:

I think they still are on this even with NW included. I had 2 segments this past friday from SEA-MSP MSP-MKE on NW metal and credited to NW/DL using the old NW number and somehow it posted to my DL skymiles account within a day so their integration obviously hasnt slowed it down at all. While it may not generate AS any revenue it would be smart for them at some point to update this system. :confused:

DL was even faster... apparently miles would post almost immediately after pax had their boarding passes scanned (so they would before departure :cool:)

However, DL's SM system was not as robust as NW's WP system... but the integration required a batch process nightly vs. instantaneously... :D

So yes, AS has some room for improvement ;)

DL was even faster... apparently miles would post almost immediately after pax had their boarding passes scanned (so they would before departure :cool:)

However, DL's SM system was not as robust as NW's WP system... but the integration required a batch process nightly vs. instantaneously... :D

So yes, AS has some room for improvement ;)

Actually, I think they posted after the flight was closed out (not as they were boarding), and since that technically happens when the door closes, no one on the aircraft should have been able to check their SkyMiles balances because all electronic devices should have been turned off. ;)

Still, NW does batch nightly, which means that it should take no more than 24 hours for activity to post to the [new] SkyMiles system (run on the former WP servers--so, really, SkyMiles is The Program Formerly Known As WorldPerks ;)). It would be nice, indeed, if AS did this, but as I said, if it would require a cost to upgrade to allow it, I don't know that it would really do anything to enhance revenue, so I doubt it will end up happening.

Now, it would be awesome if the status updates, on the other hand, were processed in real-time. There shouldn't be a reason the new AS Mileage Plan system couldn't do this (given that it's built on a modern platform), and I'm sure AS GMs-becoming-elites would appreciate the speedier recognition of their status (which might enhance loyalty). AA, I believe, posts peoples' status instantly as their qualifying miles post.