baliktad

I've been to a few UA RCC's that already have notices up for Priority Pass members that as of October 1, Priority Pass Select members will no longer be admitted. It's clear that the new UA/CO doesn't want lounge access to be a benefit of any credit card but their own. I don't think PP has a say in that decision.

Given that the restriction only applies to PP Select cards (the ones that come free via financial institutions), I wouldn't expect PP to add other lounges to make up for this gap come October. In most cases, I'm not sure they could even if they wanted to.

golfingboy

Agree with you here... I am glad they decided to keep Chelsea [the catering company that CO owns and caters food for CO], so I am hopeful that they will implement CO's FC food... However, UA's snack basket blows CO's, UA's redeye meals are nice and probably the best standard UA meal, and their PS flight meal is good... I was told that UA intl business class meal is similar to what we see on PS flights Pathetic, and it is no wonder why the US airlines are struggling with premium cabin sales on trans-oceanic flights. Even with a decent hard product.

Just out of curiosity, how is the PC/RCC lounges better than the Boardroom? Yes, they have more locations, but looking at the offerings.... Also, if you are a Star Gold you can access international star alliance carrier lounges for free if you can get there without having to leave the sterile area when flying domestically on CO/UA The Lufthansa Senator lounge in IAD, ATL, and DTW is a good example.

edgewood49

The AS Boardrooms are dark and tired. If you go into a CO/UA it's bright much more "modern" and cheery. greater selections of seating/TV's, and of course on international showers.

AS does have great staff, especially the PDX operation which in my humble opinion the best in system.

I also agree with you regarding the "sterile" area, but for me it's not that much of an issue.

Eastbay1K

A small sampling you've had? I know the SEA RCC has all that natural lighting coming from the ample skylights and the big picture windows, and the SEA PC has all that modern decor and state of the art buffet station, with space enough to go bowling, but that may be the exception. I've found the opposite. SEA/PDX/ANC have relatively new rooms with big windows and nice staff, and SFO is just a cozy, friendly little hole

edgewood49

PDX is an older room and is tired, I go through there on average once a week. SEA is larger, open windows yes. ANC is a very nice modern room I agree, and finally they changed their room hours to better reflect the flight schedules.

SFO is a friendly little hole ! But in that case the smaller room is all that is warranted there.

At the end of the day I am and have been a loyal AS flyer. Since moving here from the east coast I have flown just a few thousand of 500K miles , which works out to be 71.285 thousand a year. Not bad.

What I am saying is that there seems to be upgrades needed to attract and retain flyers. are you happy with the new Digi player?

The main gripe I have is with the "partners" that AS is suppose to have, while I understand their wanting to stay out of alliances per se, speaking for me alone my travel needs stretch beyond the NW.

jackal

This touches my one pet peeve (beyond not carrying complimentary Maker's, like most DL SCs do ):

AS staff are friendly but impotent. One of the major benefits of joining a lounge is to have access to competent ticket agents (ideally with a shorter wait time, too) to help in the case of IRROPS. Most other lounges are staffed by agents who can process rebookings and issue vouchers. AS makes you leave the BR and stand in long lines to get problems taken care of.

And in some airports (ANC comes to mind), AS makes you not only leave the BR to take care of these issues but also leave security, as the customer service desks behind security are rarely staffed! Talk about adding insult to injury.

Beyond that (and the lack of free Maker's), though, I appreciate most other things about the Board Room, soup being near the top of that list.

mikelat

Just remember that CO places fare paid as a high factor in the upgrade selection process. Booking far out may not be that much of an advantage on CO if it means you're booking the cheaper fares. You could easily be dropped down the upgrade list by those booking after you at higher fares.

But, I do agree that Gold has most of the privileges that I'd be looking for. It's too bad it looks like I won't fly enough this year to maintain even MVP status on AS From 150+K to barely 100k in just a year.

mikelat

Maybe I'm just odd, but I've been pretty happy with AA's overseas food offerings (and even most domestic options too). Check out tom991's photos at http://tom911.smugmug.com/Airlines-I...44127700_rqQp7

jackal

Those meals (and their sizes, especially given the stage lengths--most are midcons!) put AS to shame!

edgewood49

I think as I read these excellent posts is that AS needs to take a step back and look at these issues that I am sure at least one of us has brought to their attention. And totally agree on the ticketing issue, big let down that one has to go to the counter for help and we are charged a pretty good fee for membership so you would think that we could have ticket service.

Let's all hope that someone at Alaska is reading this.

I am currently at 50K for the year and backing off my current reservations moving them to CO/UA as I have another 50 to 75 more to fly.

golfingboy

I flew SJU-DFW-LAX on AA in F, and I had the omelet for SJU-DFW that is similar to the one in the link you provided. However, that flight was over 5 hours, so I wished they had a snack basket or something towards the end of the flight. Other than that, AA F meal offering on domestic flights are VERY good and I would give AA a slight edge over CO.

This is what I had for DFW-LAX on AA, the other option was shrimp salad that I wished I ordered... The sandwich was delicious, but the grilled shrimp salad omg...



For international flights AA has gotten a good beating from some people here about the quality of the food... UA has the same problem... Hopefully, UA's poor catering issues will go away soon once everything switches over to Chelsea.

Yeah, no doubt there... I was disappointed both times on PDX-ANC-PDX... For PDX-ANC on the 6:55pm flight they served the penne pasta which was good, but no where near enough... The FA gave me a fruit and cheese platter from Y and I ate the whole thing... I am nowhere near being a big guy here [152 lbs], which says something about AS's offerings... If I had the pasta on LAX-SEA I would be satisfied, but not on a flight that is almost 600 miles longer and qualifies as a midcon...

edgewood49

I generally and Always to Hawaii buy a fruit platter to supplement FC meal, and now really tired of pasta order the burger from back! I have always said I would be happy to buy a Good meal.

PDX/ANC is horrible. Note: I am going on my next trip CO out of SEA to ANC will report back.

Eastbay1K

That's been an issue since forever. As you will notice, other airlines contract out the rest of the lounge. AS employees staff the entire lounge. However, they are not of the union type that can perform ticketing type issues. They can issue BPs, but not much more. AS needs to have a dedicated person or two in the BR that can perform such matters (as I don't see the labor issue otherwise being resolved). I just don't see them fixing the situation, despite sometimes having to go out to the gate or customer service counter a few times during the course of irregular ops.

Cessna64

So Jackal said...

"Well, everyone's verdict is different.

The other two benefits--the 50,000-mile bonus and the soft benefit of having everyone at AS worship the ground you walk on and cater to your every want and need--are the only ones that give me pause before giving up AS for the remainder of my travel."

Well as for me...since becoming 75K, Alaska seemingly has been spitting on the ground I walk on, not worshiping it. I generally consider myself a pretty mellow, non-elitist kind of guy. But, it's getting kind of tiresome...

- Not once has anyone at Alaska acknowledged my 75G status

- I got trashed by Alaska for having two separate same-route reservations separated by 12 hours (which had never happened in the hundreds of times I'd done it before)

- First-class meal choices still go by row rather than by status (why do they have meal choices anyway? It just irritates about a third of the passengers).

- I responded on June 20 to a Gold lunch invitation which I received on June 20 -- only to be told that it was full and I was on the waitlist.

- I've had many more failures than successes on upgrade requests.

And it goes on and on. I'm seriously considering returning to UA/CO where I'm lifetime Premier-Exec and lifetime Red Carpet member.

Sorry for the rant. I've been getting increasingly irritated and this seems like a good place to vent.

edgewood49

Cessna, you echo my past comments. It seems AS has ramped up but have "forgotten" it's true business flyers, and I know I am in the top 3% but and finding "diminishing" returns on my "investment".

And yes I have commented several to Alaska that Horizon would call us first, and thank us, Alaska BA would do whatever. As you know on CO ( I am Plat) we get treated pretty good even with United now !

And like you am seriously considering.