Originally Posted by davidsfo

I've flown HA to the islands in F for the last 10 years. I've been generally pleased with the product. The FAs on HA are top-notch. I've also primarily flown Alaska in the Northwest for the last several years since ditching UA. Very happy with the product and staff. Food is better on AS than HA, but no mai tais. HA lounges are lousy. AS lounges are very good. Sure wish you could still get in with just an F ticket.

I think that AS will bring HA to a better call center and ground staff. Thankfully, we'll be done with the Philippines call center. AS phone CS is excellent, I like that they say "Alaska Airlines this is Mike in Phoenix). AS will add some professionalism to the ground staff. I just flew HA from SFO to OGG via HNL on Thanksgiving Day. The service onboard was excellent.. However, there was a mechanical delay of 2 hours in SFO and the ground crew was awful as was the connection info in HNL for people who missed their flights.. No timely announcements; misinformation when asked about the delay. AS will up the game on this type of stuff since they carry biz travelers who expect better.