Has Alaska Airlines taken over the reservation call center?
Reason for my question is that today I experienced a glitch in processing my 24-hour Gold upgrade options for Main Cabin Select and First Class.
Similar glitches have happened in the past (the system offers the standard, higher cost upgrade pricing at the 24-hour window, rather than the free Main Cabin Select and lower cost First Class pricing that Gold members receive).
Calling into the call center, I encountered people that had zero understanding of the program, a subtly more hostile, less customer-centered focus, and conflicting explanations as to what was happening & how to solve it: first person immediately punted me to a supervisor-- where I held for 10 minutes without anyone picking up, second told me my upgrade was being processed manually and would show up in a couple of minutes (not true, never happened), third call was a pick up after extended hold with no one on the line (but I could hear general call center chatter). I kept thinking I would get someone who understood the program, and might treat me with a general level of courtesy, but that never happened-- so weird & different from my prior interactions.
Unfortunately, my final call was with a surly gentleman who said he could see that I had "bid" on the upgrade, but that my bid had been rejected. He further explained that Golds, Silvers, and people without any status whatsoever could bid and that he implied that I was attempting to pull some sort of scam. It's rare that I need to call and interact with a human at Virgin, but they have always in the past been really nice people... today, it was like I had entered some hellish alternate universe.
I'm really not liking my introduction to Alaska Airlines so far, if that's what I encountered. Or was I just unlucky today?
Last edited by HKG_Flyer1; Apr 27, 2017 at 8:21 am