maokh

This was my first gold lunch. The food was amazing (the space needle's executive chef was on the job making us a wonderful halibut lunch), the view was even more amazing...and to top it all off, it was a beautiful day in Seattle this afternoon.

Here are some notes, and unless i missed a few threads, there are some surprises in here.

* New possible mileage plan partners

Iceland Air -- In the works, award travel, and i would guess mileage earning opportunities. The benefits of the iceland connection (and 10 minute EU immigration in reykjavik) sound intriguing compared to other options.

Kenmore Air -- no deal yet, but a way to redeem AS miles for travel. They are looking to set the mileage redemption quite low (5k one way?!) which drew much excitement in the crowd. For those who don't know, kenmore air operates float planes out of seattle's lake union, etc. and flys to fun watery locations in the northwest and canada. They also offer scenic flight tours.

* Upgrade system upgrades

Travel Agency upgrade waiting list -- a fix is coming soon

Upgrade screens a possibility, like delta/NWA

Delta upgrades will come in good time, no real date. Indicated that it is a bit PITA, and i bet it is!

Sabre logic all done, needs implementation so we dont have to click on "complementary upgrade" or whatever other circus tricks needed to get on a waitlist

* Inflight Entertainment

Row44 not going as fast as everyone hoped. The goal was to finish rollout by end of 2009, and well, we all know what happened. Regulatory issues was cited as the biggest hurdle. Some issues with the antenna vendor as well. Alaska's stance is that aircell is probably only good for low bandwidth applications, and row44 really shines in high bandwidth needs. They see it as a long term solution, and row44 as almost stop gap. Studies show that the leisure use of inflight wifi is greater than the business use, so they want to offer the fastest solution. However, AS was rather shocked by how quickly inflight internet has been adopted (and deployed) throughout the industry. Its no longer a differentiator but a bar that the industry has set.

This all being said, AS is not ruling out aircell. Due diligence to this technology will be given.

* Ewallet is going to be complete nov 18

* Mobile app will launch on nov 18, and a blackberry and iphone app will soon follow. the url was indicated as flyasqx.com, which seems to be nothing new, but maybe it will get better?

* snack basket has been banished, menus may/have expanded, healthy options (including healthy options for coach) will be offered.

* obscure benefit for golds indicated: Golds are able to gate check a variety of things, such as rolley bags, etc. if it doesnt fit above. I dont really understand why a non status or an mvp couldnt just do the same thing..but never tried i guess.

* Fun events in the board rooms is going to be expanded. They are going to try to do things on Thursdays such as wine tastings, etc. Starting nov 19. This goes for LAX, SEA and ANC.

* Move to terminal 6 in LAX mentioned, construction of new BR and easy access to customs indicated

* Talk of the n gates, making a new board room, and funny comments about they do not want to seek agreements to use the "dungeon" as some have called it (the united lounge or whatever in N?)

* There was something mentioned about american lounges in some cities, maybe it was ORD, but i didnt take good notes on this. (probably should have)

* Board room membership price will go up from 275 to 350. Golds will now receive a discount of 295. If you want the nice price, buy now before Dec 31. Maybe even get the 3 year while you are at it.

* MVP "Platinum" brought up again. Almost ready....few tweaks needed...no idea if they will do a soft or big launch just yet, still in decision. It was promised that they won't go "OH, congrats! You flew the magic number of miles/segments/$$$ to get MVPP. Sorry everyone else." But just set a bar so we all know what to strive for.

* Baggage promise mileage credit program extended another 6 months...ironically, the only people asking for the credits are the people who didnt really have to pay to begin with

* Alaska is not really able to handle first class priority baggage like other airlines, mainly because bags are hand loaded. A possibility though

* Some new routes mentioned that we already know about

* AS is posing themselves in a way to where, when the economy picks up, expansion will become exciting again

forgive me of any errors, or things i have left out, thats all i got for now.

Duckouttahere

[QUOTE=maokh;12814789]* Ewallet is going to be complete nov 18

* Mobile app will launch on nov 18, and a blackberry and iphone app will soon follow. the url was indicated as flyasqx.com, which seems to be nothing new, but maybe it will get better?[QUOTE]

Thanks for the info. I can't wait for ewallet to be complete. Since I just got an IPhone, I'm looking forward to an app.

I'm still undecided on renewing the boardroom membership. I haven't used it much this year.

United757

Thanks for taking those notes...nice sitting by ya!

beckoa

maokh thanks for the notes- sounds like a NOE venue

Hmm... what is this and the AAdmirals Club now in ORD? Is AS keeping L2B and is the DL SC there going to become an AAdmirals Club we can access?

beckoa

And no notes from you?

hgdf

I wonder if this means that as of Nov 18 I can take my previously canceled ticket number and deposit the funds into my ewallet...

That woulda be nice.

beckoa

Not sure... I'd imagine it would be good for tickets 'canceled' from that point onward...

Looking foreword to see its capabilities

thegeneral

Sounds very good. I'm glad they're actively working towards this.

I flew an AirTran flight as it was a direct and it had wifi. The flight sucked, but the wifi worked quite well actually. I was getting well over 100KBPS and the upload was close to that as well. The latter was more than I expected. The latency was rather high, but it worked quite well. It's basically faster than the DSL that some people have. It's terestrial only which is a bummer. Having wifi to HNL would be amazing.

The snack basket was alright for short flights. What else can they possibly replace it with? For N gates, any talk of having more AS gates in A, B, C gates? Having to go to N or S is not great.

MVP Platinum? It already exists. You get a 50k bonus in miles for reaching it. They just don't call it MVPP.

The Priority Baggage is a load of BS. I've had priority baggage on US Air, United, Continental, Delta and Air Canada. My bag didn't ever come out first. I never really saw a benefit in it. Much bigger fish to fry for AS.

doog

Was there any mention of how far along in the process they are? I'm thinking about flying to Europe next summer and would love the option of flying through Iceland.

beckoa

I think its just 'talks' now...

I wouldn't be surprised if it was like FJ last year...

Duckouttahere

I think the priority baggage would work well with those cities served by QX where many Golds leave their roller bags at the alacart. There is nothing more frustrating than being in row 1 and being the first off the a/c and the last person getting their bag (ie at OAK). I know other airports the ala cart arrives with everyones bag at the same time but at OAK, everyone deplanes via a jet bridge and the bags are handed up a flight of stairs and it really is frustrating waiting for your bag.

maokh

It was ORD and another city ... should have taken better notes, because i am a BR member AND i fly through these cities

I was quite shocked to hear american. Oh, in other news, American and AS should have some sort of elite benefits hammered out in an undetermined time in the future. But we already figured as much. There is a lot more to this story than i am indicating, from some conversations i had. But im sure you could only guess that this one isnt easy.

Thats the whole idea as i understood it.

I agree -- i was fortunate enough to fly delta last weekend to ATL and PIT on gogo enabled flights. I have no idea what the motivation behind a row44 rollout vs. aircell, but AS is trying to spin it in a weird light. They seem to imply that aircell is EXTREMELY slow. That simply is not the case. I did a meg down and a half meg up. Thats about the quality of my DSL line. The latency is extremely low, and very usable for audio/video conferencing -- even though they try their best to block it. I think its extremely bad form, but with net neutrality around the corner, should be fixed soon

The fact of the matter is that aircell is not practical for alaska airlines.

OH -- in flight power .. forgot...

yes, maybe, not the entire plane for certain. but maybe first class once row44 is widely deployed. Maybe

Light snack plates, as i have been seeing. I think its the whole point of the matter that I can drop $1200 on a short flight for a whole lotta nothing.

No talk of any other gates than N.

The program will be a whole lot more interesting than some lousy 50k bonus. However, they promise to be careful not to step on the toes of golds.

It was explained that priority bagging is possible on other airlines because they pack baggage into containers. Much easier to organize under the plane. I agree, i think priority baggage is BS. If i was a baggage handler, those would be the first id throw into the baggage shredder, which im sure every airport secretly has.

In terms of the Iceland Air deal, maybe further along than kenmore. I could be mistaken, but I thought AS was doing some codeshare arrangement (or will be soon).

I can't believe nobody has brought up kenmore. I thought it was pretty exciting.

CDKing

Maybe they should call it MVP Premium just to be a little different.

11/01/2009 SPECIAL SERVICES
50K MVP GOLD PREMIUM BONUS

Poopdeck90210

I had a great time at this event! THANK YOU Rick and Rhonda! I took some pictures which I have posted to my public photo album "I LOVE Alaska Airlines" on Facebook (see the link in my e-mail signature).

Regarding the items discussed, I think the Kenmore annoumcenent is very cool! I would love to be able to fly up to the San Juans for scuba diving at 5,000 miles a segment!

Working in IT myself, my thoughts on the importance and criticality of Wi-Fi on AS flights differs a bit from the good MVP's at the luncheon who fly trans-continental weekly. I rather enjoy being "unplugged" during my weekly flights home to Minnesota. And I also tend to agree about the importance of Power on flights. I think the Alaska strategy (and timing) for Wi-Fi and Power are spot on. Nice work!

I did try the new link for electronic, paperless BP's out of Seattle for my flight home to MSP this morning. Let's see how it goes with TSA when I am going thru security. It's a pretty easy to use beta site. I'm excited to see this get rolled out to other Alaska destinations in 2010!

Thanks again Rick & Rhonda for an awesome luncheon. I basked in the afterglow of this awesome event for the rest of my work day (and am still doing so). Awesome! :-D

-A

beckoa

Excited to hear about potential power and more destinations for electronic boarding passes ^

Did anyone else hear what was happening with the lounge situation exactly?