Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan - Really irked today...

General .....ing. :(

SEA-SMF this afternoon... SEA garage - full today. Very long wait through security even w/ the MVP Gold line.

All the reader boards show gate N7 - even up until departure. Several of us nearly missed the flight because we were chasing the plane around the airport.

Gate agent @ N7 is snippy with us when we express our displeasure with the inaccurate reader boards that sent us off on a wild goose chase looking for our flight. He sniffed that "they made announcements" and that the inaccurate boards "were the fault of the port"

I had a couple of work related issues that kept me on the phone so I didn't have the luxury of being able to fully focus on the freakin' announcements.

None of us really gave a sh#t about whose fault it was - we would have really appreciated accurate information that would have prevented a lot of anxiety and aggravation.

Is there a technical reason that the boards can't display accurate information?

Luckily we made our flight (and they didn't give away my 1st class seat. :)

<rant off>

jeff

You shouldn't have been subjected to a snippy gate agent. That is on AS. However, AS doesn't control the departure/arrival boards and they don't control the TSA. All the same, I'm sorry you had a rough day. Hopefully the sailing will be a little smoother next time! ^

Your FT friend,
-eastwest

^^^ Thanks. Just needed to vent.

Certainly the TSA is beyond your control. I 'spoze it's all about spring break right now.

It is quite unfortunate that the reader boards are the responsibility of the port.

Is there a reason that AS in prevented from updating/accessing the boards with updated information?

Gracias!

j

No idea why AS can't update the reader boards... all I do know (from the FA side) is that the port has control of them... perhaps it's because they have information from all airlines on the board being controlled from some central port location? I know they get updates (delays, cancellations, etc) posted but maybe there's a time frame involved?

Honestly tho, whatever the reason, it's unsatisfactory from the passenger perspective that the port is so slow in updating this important information.

However, AS doesn't control the departure/arrival boards and they don't control the TSA.

Not true - the information in the FIDS (flight information displays) comes directly from an Alaska Airlines feed into the Port system; updates are the responsibility of the airline so complaining to Alaska is the appropriate outlet.

Having said that, I feel for airport passengers given the run-around because of last-minute airline gate changes.

Not true - the information in the FIDS (flight information displays) comes directly from an Alaska Airlines feed into the Port system; updates are the responsibility of the airline so complaining to Alaska is the appropriate outlet.


This is exactly correct. AS IT systems feed directly into the Port of Seattle system. AS is NOT properly updating the gate information fed into the FIDS system. I have had this happen several times. Sometimes the gate agent is confused as well. Doesn't AS have a SOC (systems operations control) department who monitors all of this at SEA? Why aren't they doing their jobs correctly? AS should have CORRECT information at their primary hub.

I will run this up the flagpole and see what I can find out. Again I only can speak from the FA side, never having been a CSA.

I'm in agreement with you on this one... we must make sure that the information provided via the FIDS screens is as up to date as it can possibly be.

If this could result in a change - that would be awesome!

Alaska F/A - if you'd like to PM me your contact info I'm sure I have a Gold "Thank You" certificate or two around. :)

And for the record - things on the the return flight went well (although a priority line in Sacramento would be nice too - remind me not to try and fly during spring break!)

I feel for airport passengers given the run-around because of last-minute airline gate changes. It's especially bad on AS because they sprawl over three concourses. Many times a gate number obtained at OLCI is wrong by the time you get to the airport, and it might even change a second time while you're at the airport.

Maybe they should just adopt the system in place at many European airports and not announce a gate number at all until 30 or 40 minutes prior to departure... then flash "GO TO GATE" against the flight number!

It's especially bad on AS because they sprawl over three concourses.
And up to FIVE concourses if you include their QX flights!! :eek:

Maybe AS is just having a bad IT hair day. I haven't been able to access the web site all day.

ETA: just tried the Spanish site and it works perfectly. Weird.

I am not in SEA, but in the bay area.

I know at my local airport the FID monitors are indeed run by the port. The port states they update off of the Alaska system. (don't ask me what system)

I know almost on a daily basis they have one of our flights listed to go out of a certain gate, and we have to call every single morning to have them change it. This particular flight has been at this gate 6 or so months, but it is never right on the reader board.

If you ask the port, they blame Alaska. If you ask Alaska IT, they blame the port. To me....it's a communication issue somewhere. Maybe a program glitch??? Who knows.

Regardless, I am sure at some point a customer walked up to the gate agent and questioned him about the flight. At that point he should have called the port and ask them to change the board. But at no point, should he have be rude about it. It's part of that agents job.

He also may have made announcements, which that is up to the customer to hear. I know a lot of people tune things out...heck I admit I do it all the time both while at work and while traveling. But there is only so much an agent can do to advise the customers, who were directed incorrectly to the wrong gate, to their correct gate.

But as I said, he shouldn't have been rude about the situation. I find that very common in agents regardless of what airline. It's sad to see.

Sorry you ran into this problem.

After my bad experiences, I tend to walk by the AS customer service counter in D. I haven't been there recently, but a few months ago they still had AS monitors rather than P.O.S. (pun intended) monitors.

The P.O.S. FIDS system feeds out of AS' computer system. The key is somebody in AS IT should understand WHERE the feed comes from and WHAT to do when somebody points out that it is wrong. The FIDS systems don't make up the gates -- they get a feed directly from AS's computers. So, somebody at AS needs to take ownership of the problem.

The P.O.S. FIDS system feeds out of AS' computer system. The key is somebody in AS IT should understand WHERE the feed comes from and WHAT to do when somebody points out that it is wrong. The FIDS systems don't make up the gates -- they get a feed directly from AS's computers. So, somebody at AS needs to take ownership of the problem.I suspect there's an Alaska piece, and there's a Port Of Seattle piece. Any chance the problem could have been with the Port Of Seattle gateway that receives data from the airlines?

Not true - the information in the FIDS (flight information displays) comes directly from an Alaska Airlines feed into the Port system; updates are the responsibility of the airline so complaining to Alaska is the appropriate outlet.

Having said that, I feel for airport passengers given the run-around because of last-minute airline gate changes.

Actually you are incorrect. The issue is not Alaska's FIDS. It reads correctly the far majority of the time. The Port system reads off of Alaska's FID's however it doesn't always update properly or catch changes.

The Port chose to consolodate all of the FID's information from the airlines. Alaska should certainly complain about issue with the Port more, and I am sure they would appreciate your assistance as well.

OK, in a nutshell this is what I found out about the FIDS updating (part of the following is me but the majority is the reply I got to my specific question about the process by which the FIDS screens are updated).

The SEA FIDS is a common use system (all airlines use it) and owned by the Port of Seattle (this is something we already have discussed here on FT).

Common use systems all have their own peculiarities and since they need to work with different companies informations, sometimes the data feeds aren't always accepted or interpreted correctly. The bulk of the bugs have been worked out of this, but there are times when scenarios happen that are unexpected and the tech side has to do their troubleshooting and debugging to do what they can to eliminate errors.

There are also times when personnel who manage the flight info updates are either waiting for the updated information or get simply behind in keeping things updated. Sometimes the shear volume of changes is overwhelming, especially during extreme weather or other high volumes of operational delays. This can drive errors or untimely updates. While obviously not optimal, this really is just a matter of the data being input by a person.

Something that Alaska is doing to reduce and correct these errors has the expressed singular goal of having one source of data feed all flight information systems, thus streamlining the input process and reducing redundant sources. Obviously this project will do a lot to improve (and has already to some extent) what you see on our FIDS and other flight information across our system. To me this will go a LONG way to improving our information being published. One single source for all flight status information portals would make it easier to ensure that correct info gets out as quickly as possible.

One other obvious thing to reduce gate swaps is simply improving our Operational Reliability. It goes without saying that the fewer delays and cancellations that are being dealt with the fewer times that delays and gate swaps would have to be done.

Hope this answers your questions. While it doesn't mitigate what happened on that day, I hope it at least explains part of the issue and that AS *is* taking steps to correct this problem as we speak.

I've had exactly this issue before with AS. I understand (as has been explained in replies to your OP) that the boards at SEA are controlled by the Port. What I don't get is why/how it is so difficult for AS to update their website. I always go the site to check on status (e.g., on time, delayed, gate, etc.), see that it is on time, proceed to the airport, and find out--voila!--the plane is late. Because of where I office, I typically check the site about 75 minutes before the flight is scheduled to t/o. (Nice to be that close to SFO and SEA!) What I don't get is: a) if the flight shows on time 40% of the time (AS flight reservation pages) and b) is routinely delayed as has been my experience, why is it so difficult to provide accurate info? Between this, the merry-go-round gates as you experienced, and the frequently wrong CSR gate info (e.g., standing at the gate and hearing "we should begin boarding in five minutes" incessantly for 60 to as long as 120 minutes--true stories), it makes it awfully difficult to remind oneself that AS can and often is a good operation.

Actually you are incorrect.

No, actually not. Read Alaska F/A's response on April 9th - a very good summary of the how the system actually works. Having followed the development of the system from the inside I'll be the first to admit there are still bugs but a majority of the Alaska flight information problems come from Alaska Airlines (updating delays as detailed in the post), not the Port. Good to see that the airline is working on the problem too.

Having a centralized flight information display system for the airport is a customer service for passengers (do you remember the days where the only place you could find gate information for some airlines was the ticket counter?).

Now I only wish something could be done about those hard to read monitors (the projection ones:td: )

Thank you, Alaska F/A, for checking on this. I am constantly amazed at what a great group of employees that AS has.

Quite honestly, I don't like the POS FIDS system for one reason. They don't allow you to see arrival information after you pass through security. Therefore, you can't match arriving and departing flights and generally pass time looking at arrival times (since we're all there TWO hours in advance ;) ).

The bad news is that AS's customer service desk monitors have now been replaced by the POS system. So, you really can't spot the inaccuracies anymore. We will have to rely on AS to figure out how to "get it right".

Thank you, Alaska F/A, for checking on this. I am constantly amazed at what a great group of employees that AS has.



Agreed. Alaska F/A has been working towards getting the sign issue addressed and I am thankful that he is going the extra mile! ^

Aw shucks, just tryin to help... lol... :)

It does benefit everyone (passengers and employees alike) when the FIDS screens are displaying correct information. Previously, I too have gone off the the N terminal only to find out that the flight I was working is going out of D-11 (and the screen was still showing the incorrect gate) so I personally understand what a headache it can be.

FWIW, sea_jeff's original post was the driving force behind my running the question up the flagpole at AS ... and (for the first time for me I might add) my question and the answer received was posted :) for employees to read on alaskasworld. What I posted here was a slightly modified version to add some personal thoughts.

In any event, I am hopeful that the steps AS is taking regarding this issue would continue to improve the situation by minimizing incorrect information being put out via the FIDS screens and getting any changes made as quickly and efficiently as possible.