For years, Alaska's had the aweful method of handling downgrades when a plane would go from 4 rows to 3 rows in First Class; many of us in Southeast Alaska would get hosed by this regularly when we had the 737-400s in the fleet (only 3 rows of First). The 800s/900s have 4 rows of F, and sometimes you end up in row 4 by default; if the flight would get downgaged to a -400 or -700, anyone in Row 4 would just get tossed into whatevers open in Economy with mostly a "sorry" and *possibly* some compensation; your status and ticket type didn't matter at all. This burned a lot of people over the years. No rhym or reason - upgraded to First or paid First, you were booted out of First if you had originally booked row 4, and the new plane only had 3 rows (we saw this alot on Hawai'i).

So many FTers know better and avoid row 4 at all costs. And we've done this for years.

Color me surprised on today's RSW-SEA, I noticed the plane was downgraded from a -900 to -800, and was thanking god I was booked in 3C. Upgraded on Sunday, picked my seat, and there were 7 other seats open when I grabbed mine. row 1, 2, and 3 all had seats open in it. I got an alert the flight was delayed, and saw the updated time, and everything else was still intact. About 2 hours ago, before I was starting to pack, I refreshed the app to see if the time had changed - and noticed my seat was zapped. Tried to check-in, no seats open, and sure enough, saw that #1 dude on the waitlist got my seat.

Called MVP Desk & customer care: I was bumped because I was the LAST BOOKED who got upgraded. Despite there being LOWER STATUS holders who upgraded AFTER ME, still in First Class. No compensation, just a sorry. No to moving me to another flight. Nada. "You were given the upgrade on a complimentary basis, Alaska owes you nothing."

This is the same thing I was told for YEARS living in Juneau from getting bumped, both on full fare revenue FIRST class tickets and upgrades, regardless of comp or GGU. I used to commute from Juneau to Kona,& Ft Lauderdale and mostly bought tickets because non-reving is not really an option (and get left behind); so I've had my fair share of -900s turning into -800s at last minute.

No more.

After a call with customer care, sure enough, they are now removing whoever booked last that was an upgrade, REGARDLESS OF STATUS, from First when there is a downgrade. This is flat out wrong. I wasn't on a super cheapo fare either. I understand LAST BOOKED, but they should have pulled lower-status folks first.

Since this call, I've cancelled all future flights on Alaska and my Lounge+ membership (renewed yesterday). Our loyalty means nothing to this airline, and what used to make them different from the others is no more. I even cancelled today's flight, and will be flying on Delta - albeit in Comfort Plus. I had a lot of flights on Alaska to maintain Gold status, and now, I'm not even going to be an MVP next year, because frankly, it doesn't matter. The MVPs on todays flight who got in row 1 & 2 (which were mostly open when I picked 3) all got lucky. I got hosed for the last time by Alaska. I'm done giving them business if I don't have to.... and will be here even less. No miles to soften the blow, no $200 credit for the downgrade. I would have been happy to have them move me out of Ft Lauderdale. Nope, zilch. *and yes, I even called back to verify that the new downgrade was in fact based on LAST BOOKED, regardless of status, and was told a firm YES (and super apologetic agents).