rjque

Why are flight attendants still advertising that these are good for F class fares? Happened on my most recent flight to PDX (7/25).

baliktad

From earlier in the thread:

HikerT

Well, today is August 6 and my guess is they are still working on getting the word out to the FAs hawking the applications.

AKLifetimeFlyer

I was on AS 183 (ANC - FAI) and AS 192 (FAI - ANC) and there was no mention of the BOA Visa. I guess they don't advertise it on flights this short?

beckoa

They hardly have time for an abbreviated beverage run on that route

Plus I'd say most of those flights pax are locals who have the card already

slopeboy40

AS 81 yesterday, SEA-ANC, no sales pitch there either. Side note, that 737-900 seemed awfully wore out.

bigbirdwithsilverwings

According to the Department of Transportation, fares have risen across the board roughly 25% since January 1, 2010. However, the airline industry had to roll back last weekend's fare increase, something like the 5th this year-United led the charge and retreat as it and American and Delta which all matched and then retreated perceived that leisure fares have hit the tipping point, and at these fares, people will not fly.

Oddly, I received an email this morning from Alaska excitedly telling me about "PAID UPGRADE CHANGES" which says "we are making it easier for you to upgrade to First Class, paid upgrades, starting as low as $50 may be available for customers beginning at 24 hours before departure...."

Good bye to Alaska VISA and its F companion certificate which generated a full fare first class fare to Alaska and BofA and forget about MVPs getting more free upgrades. Alaska is selling them before MVPs can upgrade-for less than it would have otherwise received from the F companion certificate. Very poor business decision!

BXIAN

That paid upgrade thing would appear to be the new party line. I had a call with Alaska this morning regarding an upcoming reservation and expressed my disappointment about the new restriction on the companion ticket. The agent told me that they had been getting a lot of calls on this issue, but that Alaska had concluded that the change would only impact about 2 % of their passengers. She also mentioned the paid upgrade possibility.
I also received a call from Bank of America asking how I was enjoying the new Visa card. I let them know about my disappointment with the recent changes and told her that I was considering cancellation of the card. I also said that I was not alone-I mentioned this thread and she asked me to spell "Flyertalk"

dave1013

Indeed, it falls right in line with the innumerable caravan of revenue-enhancing changes we've seen over the past year and a half.

But looking at it another way, perhaps the paid upgrade push is part of how the T-24 line-jumping free-for-all got resolved!

Here's another revenue-enhancer idea: AS and B of A could team up to sell "I am the 2%" t-shirts!! Guaranteed to boost their bottom line!

ChugiakAk

That paid upgrade email this morning made me laugh in light of the companion fee fiasco. Timing not very good; makes you wonder where these decisions are coming from.

By the way, I'd buy one of those 2% t-shirts. Funny idea

Seems Alaska is spending a lot of time in the media spotlight again (see story on flight 539 on another thread). The public relations folks must really be working overtime.

UpIntheError

So I checked my discount codes today and saw my new companion code appear, with an expiration of 7-30-2013. I tried to book first class tickets using the companion code and it looked like it would let me. I guess I just squeaked under the deadline on this one? If so I won't cancel my Visa after all.

czpdx

How is this the case? MVPs get upgraded at 48 hours, so they should still be upgraded before the 24-hour check-in or gate sales.

bigbirdwithsilverwings

oops; I misspoke. Thanks for catching my error.

Seattlenerd

I suppose that assumes seats are released into U for upgrades at the 48-hour point, which often is not the case. Not sure if it would be even more of a free-for-all if U space opens up within 24 hours and gate sales could trump Mileage Plan upgrades.

Also, I received notice today that AS is changing its upgrade display on AlaskaAirlines.com:
http://www.alaskaair.com/content/abo...-features.aspx

But now we're horribly off topic about the BofA VISA credit card benefit changes. And none of this improves BofA customer service, either.

seaflyguy

I get that most companies engage in doublespeak, but I used to feel like it just wasn't the AS way -- that AS was a company that would talk straight to me, bad or good. But this kind of "we're making it easier for you" stuff could come straight out of Minitrue.