Does Alaska Overbook Flights?
May 18, 2018, 7:59 pm
#76
Join Date: Jul 2017
Location: In transit
Posts: 159
AS rolled out the red carpet IMO
I got the oversold email yesterday offering 350 on my SEA to ANC.
I of course clicked yes yes yes!!!
Today, ended up getting 600, a first class flight tomorrow morning and a night at the Marriott. I felt AS really rolled out the carpet on this flight. 3 volunteers got the package. Hawaii just got a lot closer
I of course clicked yes yes yes!!!
Today, ended up getting 600, a first class flight tomorrow morning and a night at the Marriott. I felt AS really rolled out the carpet on this flight. 3 volunteers got the package. Hawaii just got a lot closer
May 18, 2018, 10:27 pm
#77
Moderator: Alaska Mileage Plan
Join Date: Feb 2005
Posts: 12,320
May 20, 2018, 8:15 pm
#81
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend, Moderator, Information Desk, Ambassador, Alaska Airlines
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: FAI
Programs: AS MVP Gold100K, AS 1MM, Maika`i Card, AGR, HH Gold, Hertz PC, Marriott Titanium LTG, CO, 7H, BA, 8E
Posts: 42,953
Nov 1, 2018, 9:16 pm
#82
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: Bay Area, CA
Programs: UA Plat 2MM; AS MVP Gold 75K
Posts: 35,068
Quite the disorganized VDB situation at LIH this past Sunday. I was on LIH-SEA-OAK in F (used GGU's to upgrade). They sent a 739 which was too heavy to carry us to SEA. They really didn't know what they were going to do. They solicited for VDBs at the gate, and we approached. She offered LIH-SJC in Exit Row and compensation. I asked how much, and she didn't know. She said max was $750, but it's a function of how late we get in. I said well, we get in earlier, but to the wrong airport, and in the wrong cabin, so $750 and we'll do it (presuming I'd get the GGU's back from CS later). She took our names, but wasn't empowered to offer that compensation, so she said she'd check.
Another guy was having a similar conversation about comp -- he was willing to play ball, but she wasn't saying how much, which was making things difficult. In dozens of VDBs and tens of thousands in VDB compensation, I'd never seen them not willing to even name a price.
Boarding came, and I saw her at boarding and she said we may divert to HNL to refuel, they weren't sure, but if they needed us they'd let us know. Fine, that works. Sat down in F, door about to close, she came on board and got us, said no problem on the $750 and SJC. They needed about a dozen. They were going direct to SEA with a lighter load.
We were first to rebook (thank goodness), that took forever...reissuing didn't work right, we got a paper ticket. When it was all done, I asked for some lunch vouchers since we were waiting, and again, they were not empowered to do that. They had to call for permission (seriously?). Of course they issued that (as an aside, the plate lunch place in LIH airport isn't half bad). They also pulled the bags, which delayed that flight. They weren't able to reroute them in time, so we didn't get them until the next day. The SEA flight took a ~90 minute delay because of bag offloading, and left just a minute or two before our LIH-SJC nonstop. We would have had 22 minutes to connect in SEA had we stayed with it, C to N, so it would have been dicey.
I have to say after they didn't get the bags on the SJC flight, they did a nice job rerouting the bags. They sent them on a redeye LIH-SEA-OAK, which was literally the fastest AS route possible (rather than waiting for the next day's LIH-SJC) and delivered them. Courier showed up just under 24 hours from when we landed at SJC.
Another observation was that AS RM was f-ing clueless about the whole situation. The plane came in from SAN, departing some 7 hours before our flight, so they should have known there's a potential issue. No email, no prompting at the kiosk, and the flight was still selling seats (Y7 all the way down to R7). I usually watch these things but saw it was wide open in inventory, so I didn't even inquire about potential oversale. It's theoretically possible that redeye customers were SDC'ing onto the flight for $50 (or $0 if statused) based on this, or they were selling low bucket tickets for ~$175 which is the low bucket rate in the market. So while AS RM is sitting there trying to hold back 7+ upgrade seats in leisure markets until the 2 hour mark to annoy Elites, they're also not zeroing out buckets on known overweight flights, potentially selling tickets and exacerbating a problematic situation at the same time.
The certs were cool and were just gift card like codes, which we were able to dump into our respective wallets. Super easy.
Another guy was having a similar conversation about comp -- he was willing to play ball, but she wasn't saying how much, which was making things difficult. In dozens of VDBs and tens of thousands in VDB compensation, I'd never seen them not willing to even name a price.
Boarding came, and I saw her at boarding and she said we may divert to HNL to refuel, they weren't sure, but if they needed us they'd let us know. Fine, that works. Sat down in F, door about to close, she came on board and got us, said no problem on the $750 and SJC. They needed about a dozen. They were going direct to SEA with a lighter load.
We were first to rebook (thank goodness), that took forever...reissuing didn't work right, we got a paper ticket. When it was all done, I asked for some lunch vouchers since we were waiting, and again, they were not empowered to do that. They had to call for permission (seriously?). Of course they issued that (as an aside, the plate lunch place in LIH airport isn't half bad). They also pulled the bags, which delayed that flight. They weren't able to reroute them in time, so we didn't get them until the next day. The SEA flight took a ~90 minute delay because of bag offloading, and left just a minute or two before our LIH-SJC nonstop. We would have had 22 minutes to connect in SEA had we stayed with it, C to N, so it would have been dicey.
I have to say after they didn't get the bags on the SJC flight, they did a nice job rerouting the bags. They sent them on a redeye LIH-SEA-OAK, which was literally the fastest AS route possible (rather than waiting for the next day's LIH-SJC) and delivered them. Courier showed up just under 24 hours from when we landed at SJC.
Another observation was that AS RM was f-ing clueless about the whole situation. The plane came in from SAN, departing some 7 hours before our flight, so they should have known there's a potential issue. No email, no prompting at the kiosk, and the flight was still selling seats (Y7 all the way down to R7). I usually watch these things but saw it was wide open in inventory, so I didn't even inquire about potential oversale. It's theoretically possible that redeye customers were SDC'ing onto the flight for $50 (or $0 if statused) based on this, or they were selling low bucket tickets for ~$175 which is the low bucket rate in the market. So while AS RM is sitting there trying to hold back 7+ upgrade seats in leisure markets until the 2 hour mark to annoy Elites, they're also not zeroing out buckets on known overweight flights, potentially selling tickets and exacerbating a problematic situation at the same time.
The certs were cool and were just gift card like codes, which we were able to dump into our respective wallets. Super easy.
Nov 1, 2018, 10:44 pm
#83
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: PDX
Programs: AS 75K, BW Plat, Marriott Gold, IHG Plat, Hilton Gold
Posts: 10,725
Quite the disorganized VDB situation at LIH this past Sunday. I was on LIH-SEA-OAK in F (used GGU's to upgrade). They sent a 739 which was too heavy to carry us to SEA. They really didn't know what they were going to do. They solicited for VDBs at the gate, and we approached. She offered LIH-SJC in Exit Row and compensation. I asked how much, and she didn't know. She said max was $750, but it's a function of how late we get in. I said well, we get in earlier, but to the wrong airport, and in the wrong cabin, so $750 and we'll do it (presuming I'd get the GGU's back from CS later). She took our names, but wasn't empowered to offer that compensation, so she said she'd check.
Another guy was having a similar conversation about comp -- he was willing to play ball, but she wasn't saying how much, which was making things difficult. In dozens of VDBs and tens of thousands in VDB compensation, I'd never seen them not willing to even name a price.
Boarding came, and I saw her at boarding and she said we may divert to HNL to refuel, they weren't sure, but if they needed us they'd let us know. Fine, that works. Sat down in F, door about to close, she came on board and got us, said no problem on the $750 and SJC. They needed about a dozen. They were going direct to SEA with a lighter load.
We were first to rebook (thank goodness), that took forever...reissuing didn't work right, we got a paper ticket. When it was all done, I asked for some lunch vouchers since we were waiting, and again, they were not empowered to do that. They had to call for permission (seriously?). Of course they issued that (as an aside, the plate lunch place in LIH airport isn't half bad). They also pulled the bags, which delayed that flight. They weren't able to reroute them in time, so we didn't get them until the next day. The SEA flight took a ~90 minute delay because of bag offloading, and left just a minute or two before our LIH-SJC nonstop. We would have had 22 minutes to connect in SEA had we stayed with it, C to N, so it would have been dicey.
I have to say after they didn't get the bags on the SJC flight, they did a nice job rerouting the bags. They sent them on a redeye LIH-SEA-OAK, which was literally the fastest AS route possible (rather than waiting for the next day's LIH-SJC) and delivered them. Courier showed up just under 24 hours from when we landed at SJC.
Another observation was that AS RM was f-ing clueless about the whole situation. The plane came in from SAN, departing some 7 hours before our flight, so they should have known there's a potential issue. No email, no prompting at the kiosk, and the flight was still selling seats (Y7 all the way down to R7). I usually watch these things but saw it was wide open in inventory, so I didn't even inquire about potential oversale. It's theoretically possible that redeye customers were SDC'ing onto the flight for $50 (or $0 if statused) based on this, or they were selling low bucket tickets for ~$175 which is the low bucket rate in the market. So while AS RM is sitting there trying to hold back 7+ upgrade seats in leisure markets until the 2 hour mark to annoy Elites, they're also not zeroing out buckets on known overweight flights, potentially selling tickets and exacerbating a problematic situation at the same time.
The certs were cool and were just gift card like codes, which we were able to dump into our respective wallets. Super easy.
Another guy was having a similar conversation about comp -- he was willing to play ball, but she wasn't saying how much, which was making things difficult. In dozens of VDBs and tens of thousands in VDB compensation, I'd never seen them not willing to even name a price.
Boarding came, and I saw her at boarding and she said we may divert to HNL to refuel, they weren't sure, but if they needed us they'd let us know. Fine, that works. Sat down in F, door about to close, she came on board and got us, said no problem on the $750 and SJC. They needed about a dozen. They were going direct to SEA with a lighter load.
We were first to rebook (thank goodness), that took forever...reissuing didn't work right, we got a paper ticket. When it was all done, I asked for some lunch vouchers since we were waiting, and again, they were not empowered to do that. They had to call for permission (seriously?). Of course they issued that (as an aside, the plate lunch place in LIH airport isn't half bad). They also pulled the bags, which delayed that flight. They weren't able to reroute them in time, so we didn't get them until the next day. The SEA flight took a ~90 minute delay because of bag offloading, and left just a minute or two before our LIH-SJC nonstop. We would have had 22 minutes to connect in SEA had we stayed with it, C to N, so it would have been dicey.
I have to say after they didn't get the bags on the SJC flight, they did a nice job rerouting the bags. They sent them on a redeye LIH-SEA-OAK, which was literally the fastest AS route possible (rather than waiting for the next day's LIH-SJC) and delivered them. Courier showed up just under 24 hours from when we landed at SJC.
Another observation was that AS RM was f-ing clueless about the whole situation. The plane came in from SAN, departing some 7 hours before our flight, so they should have known there's a potential issue. No email, no prompting at the kiosk, and the flight was still selling seats (Y7 all the way down to R7). I usually watch these things but saw it was wide open in inventory, so I didn't even inquire about potential oversale. It's theoretically possible that redeye customers were SDC'ing onto the flight for $50 (or $0 if statused) based on this, or they were selling low bucket tickets for ~$175 which is the low bucket rate in the market. So while AS RM is sitting there trying to hold back 7+ upgrade seats in leisure markets until the 2 hour mark to annoy Elites, they're also not zeroing out buckets on known overweight flights, potentially selling tickets and exacerbating a problematic situation at the same time.
The certs were cool and were just gift card like codes, which we were able to dump into our respective wallets. Super easy.
Nov 2, 2018, 9:03 am
#84
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: Bay Area, CA
Programs: UA Plat 2MM; AS MVP Gold 75K
Posts: 35,068
Nov 2, 2018, 10:24 am
#85
Join Date: Apr 2017
Programs: AS 100k, DL PM, New Sagaya
Posts: 1,292
Interesting to hear the LIH issue remains. Same thing happened to my family in March. We were on the redeye from LIH-SEA with a connection to PDX that next morning. They announced needing 20 VDB, I had my family of four in the back and was willing to entertain it. For us it was a win, rebooked on daytime direct LIH-PDX next day (that was triple the fare when I booked the trip) plus $400/pax and hotel. But same thing - the runway at LIH does not support that equipment fully loaded, surprised they can't figure that one out...
Nov 2, 2018, 10:35 am
#86
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: HOU
Programs: AA EXP, UA 1K
Posts: 285
I will defend RM though. I've never worked at an airline where RM is handling issues on the day of departure. I've always seen a separate team at the airline's operations center responsible for blocking seats / handling upgrade inventory / dealing with oversell situations on the day of departure.
Nov 2, 2018, 4:06 pm
#88
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: BOS/ORH
Programs: AS 75K
Posts: 18,323
Skywest I assume. AS going over $200 is rare. We waited over an hour to find 6 volunteers for BOS-SAN when winds were out of control. I laughed it was a joke offer.
Nov 2, 2018, 5:12 pm
#89
Join Date: Jul 2018
Location: SFO
Posts: 489
nope, it’s AS1100. I was shocked as well when I heard $650, maybe they offered it because it was on a holiday?
Nov 5, 2018, 10:24 am
#90
Join Date: Apr 2017
Programs: AS 100k, DL PM, New Sagaya
Posts: 1,292
Have a PDX-SEA E75 flight tomorrow morning and AS just emailed out an offer for $250 to move to a later flight. This same flight was already moved around a couple weeks ago to an earlier departure due to runway construction in SEA according to another email the airline sent out.