Originally Posted by
dayone
"Mileage Plan elite members traveling on both Alaska Airlines and Virgin America now receive two free checked bags for themselves and for up to 6 additional guests booked on the same reservation."
Coming in September:
- Complimentary access to preferred Main Cabin seating.
- Eligibility for Main Cabin Select upgrades.
- An advance purchase window to buy First Class upgrades.
And I'm in Airline IT (Alaska already knows who I am, so I don't care anymore about "hiding" annonymously). The fact its taking them almost 17 months after the announcement of the merger is horse ..... Even American got USAirway's lousy backend systems more functional than 17 months. Prior to the official close date, the Sabre back-end is one area they could discuss and plan. Unless Alaska is also using a super archaic version of Sabre (VX is already using a lower-end version), this shouldn't take that long. Sabre's Emergo products can even do better than this.
AS was focused on keeping VX people happy, but forgot to realize that the AS people would like to fly on VX now. I really really would. Trust me. But when AS/VX is $177 MCO/LAX, and so is AA - yet on AA I get access to the club (when it opens in MCO), 2 free bags now, *and* Main Cabin Extra - it adds up. My last experience on VX was OK - but I put down close to $35 in onboard spending (food, movies, etc) plus bag fees and another 25 minutes on hold trying to get a non-middle seat - an expense that would have been significantly less on my pocket on AS or AA.
sorry vx, didn't mean to take over the thread.