My reservation had a nice flight this morning. SFO-SAN 3310 at 8:14a. I woke up at 3:00a full of hope that this was an easy day. Five days earlier we had been upgraded to First on this flight and the connecting SAN-ORD 1478 to arrive at dinner time. The day before I had checked us in, and the government opened up from the shutdown. Bright skies ahead I was tempted to say, but was reminded of some rain on the way to the airport.
Before leaving I checked the Alaska app and didn’t see my reservation. I figured it was a system hiccup and called to make sure, but the person in reservations also could not see any reservation for today. The confirmation number pointed to travel on February 3, she said and saw no trace of a change made on October 24. It was at this point I saw a need to speak with a supervisor.
With 32 years at Alaska she knew what to do. It took some time to systematically dissect the history of the reservation, but she found that apparently an inexperienced person at reservations had not charged me for the difference in fare when I called in October for the change of travel from February to November.
At no point later was I reminded of the need to pay the fare difference to fully complete the date change. I could even check in online yesterday. It wasn’t until last night that Alaska system because of the unpaid fare difference decided to revert my reservation from November to February. A notification this morning did not specify the reason for reverting to the earlier date.
We got lucky though because we could be put on SFO-SAN 3490 and still catch the connecting SAN-ORD 1478. I paid the amount due, and all was wrapped up nicely. We left home and drove to the airport in the rain. Unexpectedly massive rain in southern Marin and in the city we discovered. We then noticed that because of the weather SFO-SAN 3490 was delayed, so we changed the connecting flight to SAN-ORD 1493 at the check-in counter at SFO.
In the late morning though SFO-SAN 3490 was cancelled, and we were given the option of SJC-PDX 2035 and PDX-ORD 376, miraculously still in First. Because the weather was beyond the control of the airline we had to pay for the Lyft from SFO to SJC ourselves. From this point on no more surprises, and we are now on the red-eye ro Chicago,
Our original flights for today took off as scheduled on time.
Date: November 13, 2025
Route: SJC-PDX
Flight number: 2035
Status: 100K
Fare class: O
Companion: Gold
Aircraft: ERJ-175 Horizon Air
Upgrade cleared: T-6
Date of ticket purchase: 03/13/2025
Distance: 569 miles
Date: November 13, 2025
Route: PDX-ORD
Flight number: 376
Status: 100K
Fare class: O
Companion: Gold
Aircraft: 737-900
Upgrade cleared: T-11
Date of ticket purchase: 03/13/2025
Distance: 1739 miles
U Score: 32/51 63%