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Automatic Upgrades Still Broken

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Old Mar 3, 2015, 1:47 pm
  #31  
 
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Originally Posted by Portland1k
Yep, saw this early this morning on 222 to SFO from PDX. 27 people on the waitlist for first. At a few minutes before boarding, the gate agent asks if anyone would like to purchase an upgrade as there were 2 open slots. I walked up to the agent and politely asked if any of the 27 people on the waitlist, including 75k's and Gold's (my situation) had been upgraded to those seats and her reply was "when they open up paid upgrades at 30 minutes before boarding, anyone can purchase an upgrade." I asked her how long this had been going on and she said for as long as she could remember.

Flying to SFO wasn't a big deal to get upgraded on so I dropped the conversation but I could see a lot of people asking the same question once I left. Needless to say this doesn't sit well with top flyers and as such, I'm one to vote for changing this or at least taking it out of control of the gate agent so it automatically processes up to that 30 minute window.

That's incorrect, upgrades are processed before they start selling. This should be happening, you should tell Alaska so your gate agent can be retrained.

Also, if that had happened to me I probably would have dialed the gold desk while standing in front of the agent to get my upgrade.
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Old Mar 3, 2015, 3:34 pm
  #32  
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I think they were upgraded already.

I'd forward AS the agent for some additional training.
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Old Mar 4, 2015, 10:12 am
  #33  
 
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Still busted...

Checked my upcoming flight, U space showing at Alaska Air.com, but no automatic upgrade. <sigh>

This makes 2 flights in a row...
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Old Mar 4, 2015, 10:23 am
  #34  
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Originally Posted by drc1912
Hi All,

Sorry if this is covered in another thread, but wanted to share my experience here.


I have read some rumbles of auto-upgrades at t-120/t-24 out not working properly, and until recently had not experienced it myself. I fly SEA->OAK and back most weeks, and am almost always upgraded as a 75k. The past two weeks upgrades hadn't been clearing until I checked Expert Flyer to confirm upgrades were available, then call into Customer Service to have them upgrade me manually once they confirm I am at top of list.

These were all reservations booked months ago, with no changes to itinerary, when I was already MVPG75k. The customer service team was just as confused about this as I was, and when they email me with a write up of why it was happening I will share with the thread.


Just wanted to keep everyone here updated.

Best,
Dan
Are you booking through a corporate travel site by any chance? That's been an issue for years.
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Old Mar 4, 2015, 11:16 am
  #35  
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Originally Posted by PDXPremier
And it probably won't be the last

Paging Missy on this one....any updates? Seems to happening all the time now.
Sorry for the late reply. It took me a couple of days to track this down, and I've also been out of the office.

There is an issue on the GDS (Sabre) side causing the processor to stop at some point. I don't have any more detail than that, and that they know about it and are working on it.
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Old Mar 4, 2015, 11:49 am
  #36  
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Originally Posted by missydarlin
Originally Posted by PDXPremier
And it probably won't be the last

Paging Missy on this one....any updates? Seems to happening all the time now.
Sorry for the late reply. It took me a couple of days to track this down, and I've also been out of the office.

There is an issue on the GDS (Sabre) side causing the processor to stop at some point. I don't have any more detail than that, and that they know about it and are working on it.
Thanks for the update!
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Old Mar 4, 2015, 1:00 pm
  #37  
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Originally Posted by missydarlin
Sorry for the late reply. It took me a couple of days to track this down, and I've also been out of the office.

There is an issue on the GDS (Sabre) side causing the processor to stop at some point. I don't have any more detail than that, and that they know about it and are working on it.
Thanks...good to hear...hopefully it will be fixed soon.
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Old Mar 4, 2015, 1:42 pm
  #38  
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Originally Posted by missydarlin
Sorry for the late reply. It took me a couple of days to track this down, and I've also been out of the office.

There is an issue on the GDS (Sabre) side causing the processor to stop at some point. I don't have any more detail than that, and that they know about it and are working on it.
^ great to have you look into this for us.
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Old Mar 4, 2015, 1:49 pm
  #39  
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Originally Posted by missydarlin
Sorry for the late reply. It took me a couple of days to track this down, and I've also been out of the office.

There is an issue on the GDS (Sabre) side causing the processor to stop at some point. I don't have any more detail than that, and that they know about it and are working on it.
That's wonderful. I've had this issue for years. Any chance that they can have the reservations go into the My Trips automatically? AS's infrastructure has been punishing business users for a long time. Also, any chance of some compensation for the business travelers who's corporate travel agency uses Sabre?
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Old Mar 5, 2015, 9:32 pm
  #40  
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Well, I heard back from Customer Care today and here is what they said:

"I appreciated receiving your email regarding our upgrade process. Our sincere apologies for not meeting or exceeding your expectations. Please know we are working at providing more customer transparency to the upgrade process to ensure you receive the benefits that you expect from us. Your comments are appreciated and have been shared with our management team."

So, based on Missy's comments above, they know about the problem, but the person who emailed me obviously missed the point of my email which was not about upgrade transparency....it was about the automatic upgrade processor not working...I tried to be as clear and specific as possible, but I guess they probably read so many emails that when they see the word "upgrade", they automatically think they know what it's about....oh well, I tried
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Old Mar 6, 2015, 12:09 am
  #41  
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Originally Posted by ou81two
any chance of some compensation for the business travelers who's corporate travel agency uses Sabre?
What are you asking for and why would comp be offered?
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Old Mar 6, 2015, 9:18 am
  #42  
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Originally Posted by PDXPremier
Well, I heard back from Customer Care today and here is what they said:

"I appreciated receiving your email regarding our upgrade process. Our sincere apologies for not meeting or exceeding your expectations. Please know we are working at providing more customer transparency to the upgrade process to ensure you receive the benefits that you expect from us. Your comments are appreciated and have been shared with our management team."

So, based on Missy's comments above, they know about the problem, but the person who emailed me obviously missed the point of my email which was not about upgrade transparency....it was about the automatic upgrade processor not working...I tried to be as clear and specific as possible, but I guess they probably read so many emails that when they see the word "upgrade", they automatically think they know what it's about....oh well, I tried
Therein lies part of the airline's problem. They no longer care about feedback. It's a big difference from 4-5 years ago. Do you really think any manager at AS is going to see your comments? It was likely a computer generated response. Try Twitter. It seems to be the only thing they give a **** about.

Once upon a time they had a lot of people like Missy who would figure out the problem and try to change it. Now I get the distinct feeling that their management team are just sitting around waiting for DL to give them a good enough offer.

What are you asking for and why would comp be offered?
Good question. Another set of companion upgrades might be fair. It's their screw up and it's been going on for about half of a decade. I can remember having this Sabre problem years ago. I'd be sitting in coach, be sent to use the front lav and see first class seats empty. No link on the upgrade.

You'd think that if AS had a clue they'd care about the kinds of people who's company will spend more money to book a direct. Apparently not.
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Old Mar 8, 2015, 12:09 pm
  #43  
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Here's the more frustrating part, especially for the 75k folks posting here. I called today and talked to a line support staff and her supervisor. They were both adamant that there were no issues with the Sabre booking system.
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Old Mar 8, 2015, 5:04 pm
  #44  
 
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Guys, don't you see, they're upgrading random partners and others to make them more excited to fly on Alaska.....
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Old Mar 8, 2015, 6:23 pm
  #45  
 
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Remember about a year ago when they told us we HAD to call in and reconfirm all our reservations? And all that did was set us back (way back) on the upgrade list because they "didn't have the mechanism to place everyone back where they were, it was at the time we reconfirmed".

And now this?

There HAS to be some integrity to the upgrade system or it is worthless.
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