Chugach: Thanks for letting me know I'm not the only one who gets frustrated.

eastwest: I appreciate all your hard work and I want you to know that I do notice the difference in time it takes to get bags at ANC v. SEA. I also understand that the industry is going through some tough times. But it is named Alaska Airlines, so I thought they would at least be committed to serving the customers at the state's largest airport, many of whom are MVP/G. AS is always saying how important elite flyers are (BF is MVPG so I get to read all that correspondence too) but that's not coming across at ANC in my experience.

I haven't had any more problems with poor customer service from the CSRs than with any other service industry (GCI takes the prize there), I'm frustrated with the lack of service during peak times. I would be willing to fork over some extra $$$ if I knew that it would go toward making sure there were enough people on hand to provide good customer service. Most of the AS employees I've dealt with over the years are great (except the FA on my last flight who knocked the DigiPlayer onto my lap, grabbed it and yanked with the headphones still in my ears and then blamed me because I hadn't undone the cords the whole length), I just wish there were more of them at check-in!

jackal: You've hit the nail on the head with the McDonald's v. Taco Bell analogy. I do always seem to end up with my bean burritos quicker than my Quarter Pounders I would much rather wait in one long line knowing there were multiple CSRs at the other end (assuming they were). I'm not so sure the current setup is a better use of space since when I was trying to check in all of the Bag Check lines were backed into the FC/MVP lines so arriving people were trying to figure out which line they should be in and where exactly it ended.

BTW, the FC/MVP check-in stations are directly behind the FC/MVP kiosks but facing the other set of baggage check stations. These lines are for check-in and bag check that usually have one or two CSRs working (I think there are eight stations total, and the four that face the FC/MVP kiosks should be FC/MVP bag check but I can't remember seeing them open).

I don't really know how AS stacks up with other airlines because I've lived on the west coast my whole life and the vast majority of my travels have been with AS. Now that I'm living in Denver I'm sure we'll be flying mostly on UA and I haven't heard too many good things about their customer service. But just because AS is better than some doesn't mean they don't have any room to improve. Especially since they have a monopoly on flights in/out of AK and charge accordingly.