OK, Missy, here is the deal:

I always push the magic AS button on my phone to get through to AS--like I said, it is the only number I have. When I first called about Hunki's standby ticket, I got a very nasty agent who refused to talk to me. She said, "Your Gold Status has expired," and immediately clicked me over to the regular line, which electronically advised that the wait would be in excess of 30 minutes. This agent made me think, "Wow, am I ever glad I don't fly AS too much anymore."

Since a half an hour wait obviously wouldn't work, I hung up and called back. That is when I got the lovely agent who rebooked Hunki on the flight that was scheduled to depart in an hour. That agent was such a sweetheart that he made me rethink our decision to dump AS, especially since we now have ramped up our West Coast travel, and AS really does have superior routing up and down the West Coast out of Seattle. This year it would have worked out fine for us to achieve both UA 1k and AS MVPGold status had I been so inclined from the beginning of the year. I am trying to decide what to do next year.

Oh BTW, the reason that they put Hunki in first was because his original ticket was in first. No mystery there.

There was a time when AS was a totally amazing airline with 100% fabulous employees. AS is a kind of unpredictable airline these days. About half of the employees are lovely and accommodating, while the other half seem angry and unhappy with their lot in life.

I know that there have been cutbacks on AS that negatively impact AS employees, and that is really sad. There have, however, been cutbacks on all of the airlines and AS is the only airline where the employees seem to take out their personal unhappiness with these changes on their customers. That seems like a very counter-productive strategy.

Please note that the Board Room staff are still always as charming as ever so I am thinking that we might renew our Board Room membership even if we don't go back to being Gold next year.

We'll see how it all shakes down. All else being equal, I really prefer giving my money to a local airline.