departure was a cluster — I don't know when Ops did the tail swap, but it was probably well after the replacement jet had left GEG (scheduled 530pm, actual 740pm)

in the expectation that AS59 would be using N14 (where the original inbound from OMA parked), I walked into the North Satellite lounge ~810pm; the desk agent informed me that it was now departing from C18 ... got to that gate ~828, saw no jet, agent said it was probably 15 min out, and departure time would probably be ~940 ... of course the app still showed everything on time until ~845 when it switched to showing 947



we started boarding ~905 and actually blocked out at 939; about 40 min after takeoff the captain got on the PA to announce that an instrument heater had failed ... not an issue for cruise, but it’s required for flight in icing conditions which were expected during descent ... as a result, we would be diverting to BOI, where Ops would get us on another jet

as we were taxiing in shortly after 1230am, I was surprised to see another 739 at an adjacent gate ... but about 10 min after all the pax were inside the terminal, one of the agents announced that AS was actually ferrying the replacement jet in — with an ETA of ~0245

as soon as I switched my phone out of Airplane mode I got a “Let’s make this right” text from AS and a similar email from “Alaska Alert” — both promising a discount off a future flight ... okay, I’m out $61 for a Basic Economy ticket on AA (PHL-DCA-RDU), plus $38 to select a Main Cabin Extra seat on the first flight (yeah, the AA app actually let me do that, which was a good thing because I’d been automatically assigned 25F and needed to avoid having to gate-check my bag), and my Amtrak ticket to DC will be at least another $99, so I **REALLY** don’t think a $25 code is gonna cut it ...

people are very calm about the whole thing, though I’m sure that the fact that it’s the middle of the night helps