vzwdataguy

Well Golds and 75Ks,

The gripe session continues... We used to have the best airline in the business as our preferred method of transportation, and we were and still are its best customers.

I've been a Gold for five years and a 75k for two and for years I've tried to make my schedule work with a Gold Lunch. Unfortunately I fly too much and often have not been home or able to attend a remote Gold Lunch due to my work schedule mid week (I really wanted to do the afternoon event at the winery near Seattle a few years ago!!!).

But now, just like most other benefits, we oh so treasured in our precious relationship with Alaska, we have also lost the Gold Lunch. Now, this event is "closed" and invite only. See this link: http://www.alaskaair.com/content/mil...-schedule.aspx

Who screwed it up? Who embarassed Rick? Was it you, Golfingboy? Bekoa? Or another one of the hellions on this site?

Regardless, I now fear that I will never make it to a Gold Lunch. I'm not in the "Club of Yes Men" who will take every devaluation, every loss of benefit, in stride. Yes, I even complained about the loss of warm dinner rolls. Now, even if there happens to be a Gold Lunch that could work for my travel schedule, it will be an invite only event, a velvet rope where I don't know the doorman and where my past bar tabs running several feet long are long forgotten...

South of Expected.

MickeyB

And what is up with the typo? Two small paragraphs and they didn't even proofread?

"Due to the popularity of these lunches over the past few years, and our dgoal (SIC) for increased participation"

I haven't been able to participate because I have never BEEN invited (75K this year and last, and Gold who earned the 50K bonus for the previous 5 years before that at least...)

missydarlin

Well that was quick... I updated that page about 4 hours ago.

Rest assured, there were no screw ups or embarrassments at the root of the change. Except possibly that we fostered a system that was generally not sustainable considering the popularity of the lunches.

While we do occasionally have bouts of people "just showing up" (not FTers to my knowledge), basically, people who have attended Gold lunches enjoy them, and usually want to go again. So they see the schedule (which has in the past been posted up to a year in advance) and email in asking to be included, and they get put into the file for that lunch.

But, then what happens is that when we are ready to send the "real" invites, the event is already quite full.

If you do the math... we lunch (or breakfast) with about 1500 or so Golds/75K's a year. Divide that by the number of Golds/75K's, and you're looking at about one lunch every couple decades to get everyone through.

missydarlin

you must be hallucinating

jackal

I'm OK with this change. I kinda don't care about AS all that much anymore.

And they kinda don't care about us all that much anymore, either, since most of the suggestions or issues that were aired during the Q&As at the last Gold events were pretty much brushed off and not fixed; instead, we got kicked out of the Board Room, lost our MVP Gold upgrade certificates, still suffer from a significantly lower quantity of food compared to most competitors on many flights, and many other relatively minor but cumulatively overwhelmingly negative changes such as crappy seats, lack of a PDB, the AS15, lack of cookies, crappy SDC rules (calendar day and no more co-terminal changes), more expensive companion fare, poor post-travel customer service response times and compensation levels, cultural fear of confrontation on the part of AS staff leading to preboarding absurdium and people using the elite ticketing lines who aren't elite, non-industry-standard for when electronics should be turned off during boarding, lack of pillows and blankets, outsourced Gold Desk reservations agents with a noticeably lower level of professionalism, and significantly reduced availability in saver award space due to three-tier award structure, among others. Oh yeah, and much of this was done in the name of "cutting costs"--in the face of record profits.

I'll miss the fancy food from the Captain Cook's kitchen, though.

slopeboy40

Cool! We're getting close to my turn then ^

ANC

the problem I see is that hopefully invites are sent out quite far enough in advance that people can plan ahead for the events. Quite frankly when I had requested to attend in the past you didnt hear back from them until just 2 or 3 days before as to whether you were invited to attend and by that time usually had already assumed wasnt invited and made other arrangements and plans

OverThereTooMuch

When will you be stepping down as a moderator for this forum?

98103

^

seaflyguy

As an ALK shareholder, I'm quite happy with what they've been doing. Looking in from the outside, it seems that they've taken the approach of treating most interactions as transactions and maximizing their value. So far, this is working great for them, and I have every reason to believe it will continue to do so. But as an elite, more and more I feel like just another transaction to them. AS feels less and less like an elite-friendly airline to me all the time.

I just flew SEA-EWR the other day. Had I flown on AS as an MVPG, my chances of being upgraded would have been close to zero. But I flew on UA as a 1K, and so of course I was upgraded, as I am on virtually every UA midcon and transcon. For the life of me I can't imagine why I would fly that route (or any other transcon) on AS and be relegated to Y. AS would rather price those F seats to sell and therefore maximize the value of the transaction. Good for them, and good for the non-elites who can upgrade to F at a non-astronomical cost, but that's why I only fly AS on West Coast routes anymore (or to Hawai'i using an AS Visa companion certificate).

missydarlin

You mean like providing a better mobile product?

Or getting an android app?

Or being able to view your schedule changes online?

Or work on closing the upgrade loopholes?

Or getting you upgrades and free bags on Delta?

Or free bags on AA?

Or expanding the Board Room hours?

And a minor correction, the Gold Desk agents have not been "outsourced". It's more like in-sourced ... a larger pool of employees from all call centers take Gold calls now, rather than it just being limited agents in our PHX call center.

ukchris

While there is always opportunity for improvement in any situation I struggle to understand at times some of the comparisons made in these threads. I have been Chairmans preferred on US Air for the last six years, MVP Gold on AS for the last two and now MVPG 75K. While my comparison is primarilly to US I'd say the AS experience is way, way better than anything I have experienced on other carriers.

The staff first of all, on US they are just plain nasty in most cases and make you feel like you should be grateful to fly with them. On AS I have yet to fly with a crew with whom I didn't feel special whether in coach or F. I know most of the crews on the routes I fly and they know me by name and are always very pleasant.

The food service on AS is superior to anything I have ever had on US, I'd go so far as to say that the food in coach on AS is superior to what I've had in F on US Air.

Promptness... US Air always seem to board at the last minute, never push back on time an invariable miss their take off slot. On my AS flights I'd say 19 times out of 20 we push back on time and therefore enjoy a shorter taxi/takeoff time. In all but one adverse weather situation my flights have arrived at the gate on time or early.

In flight entertainment? None at all on US... I like the digiPlayer and usually the selection of shows, when flying 12+ hours per week you run out of movies pretty quickly but I don't think it's reasonable to expect them to update that fast.

What would I change? When flying in coach as a Gold I'd like the option for a free mean instead of a free drink... simply because I don't tend to drink when flying and the cost is the same.

The only downside to AS (for me) is that I live on the East coast, as such when my regular commute (to PDX) ends I'll need status somewhere else so I'll be juggling a little to maintain status elsewhere but if it was purely down to the flight experience I'd fly AS every time.

Just my $0.02 based on 185,000 miles flown in the last twelve months.

vzwdataguy

Chris,

I think what you are trying to say is that when you compare the best of the worst with the worst of the worst, the best of the worst is better, no? Hahaha... Yes, Alaska is still a good airline.

They still treat us slightly better than the other airlines, as long as you have status. Also, because the staff is mostly PNW but entirely West Coast based, you benefit from the hospitality and warmth that people our region of the US afford guests, and that may be refreshing to people from more cut-throat areas of the world. I actually think that if the culture of the employees of Alaska Airlines largely reflects the culture of the PNW, the culture of US Airways largely reflects that of "Philly". I needn't explain further...

But to stay on topic, those who have flown Alaska for a long time know how we used to literally rave to friends, family and coworkers how much we "love Alaska Airlines" because the benefits of status were just clearly so plentiful and generous you really did feel like an MVP when you flew with them. Over the last four years or so, one by one, these benefits have been taken away. And while Alaska's profits have soared our love for Alaska has soured as we feel our loyalty is rewarded less and less...

I tell people Alaska is still the best airline for FFers flying North-South on the West Coast. But if you don't travel that much, and can handle corny jokes and chino shorts on flight attendants who really shouldn't be wearing them, then Southwest is a probably better bet.

missydarlin

I'm obviously biased in this regard, but having flown a lot of airlines (including AS) without status, I'd say they treat those without status better as well.

eponymous_coward

At the risk of having this all get deleted because of FT rules about discussing moderation...

I'm not aware that being a "fanboy/fangirl" for an airline has anything to do with being a good FT moderator. So I don't see the point of thinking someone has to be one. Jackal doesn't think AS is all that into him any more, and thinks the feeling is mutual. Nothing wrong with that. The brick doesn't love you, so don't love it back.

I have to say that some of the devaluations jackal mentioned played a big role in me going "naaaah" when I thought about spending time at the end of 2011 pushing for MVPG (and I probably could have done it- instead I went out of the country and spent my money elsewhere). But I'm not going to argue with an airline that's spent 20+ years being successful in a tough market for airlines, and think that they owe me anything more than what I paid for. I'm just going to do what's best for me and not take it personally when our interests start diverging.