Originally Posted by
champignon
To me, time is money. I could see putting up with all of this if I saw it as a game and had more patience than I do. For the record, Alaska Airlines is a great company to fly with (although the soft product can be very lacking) and of course, North American hard product is what it IS). Since I know that AS will always be fair and always bend over backwards to accommodate a customer, I'd be more inclined to try accumulating tier points with them, then doing contorted itineraries with either AA or BA.
Yes, I agree that Alaska has a great customer service and indeed better than AA, BA, IB, AY in that sense but AS doesn't have that much deals or their deals mostly have a routing specification which is limited to non-stop flights which isn't the best way to gain Tier Points. Yes, paying $69 for LAX-SJC/SFO on AS First might be the easier and most convenient solution with less possible hassle, although the money/TP rate might not be that good on AS flights.
For the time/money part, most people should have some free time such as currently I am hanging around at FlyerTalk and watching a football ( soccer ) game on TV on a Sunday evening and calling an airline would cost me nothing as at the same time I am not doing any activity that will make me earn money. Same thing goes when I'm in a metro or a bus, instead of looking at the ceiling or at other people, I just do these small things as calling the airline, looking for alternative schedules at that time.