Edgerfly

Interestingly enough, I just got an email from Alaska that was a survey about booking international awards on their international partners. I thought that was really funny, and I don't know if this thread has anything to do with it, or if it's related at all but hopefully they're doing something.

eponymous_coward

But by all means, call up your state AG and ask about suing for bait and switch, I guess. (Not that it matters, FF programs are under the federal DOT, and good luck with that bait and switch lawsuit.)

Note:

http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.c...irates-awards/

Note also that someone else in that thread recently redeemed J.

Lucky's pretty good at monitoring "Ask Lucky" and so on. So keep on asking him and work all the angles you can, I suppose. Have you tried asking how this is proceeding in the ask missydarlin thread?

KosherKimchee

Exactly. If it's down and they are legitimately working on it take the unbookable awards off the website and properly notify logged in members on the "Use Miles" page and those in the process of making mileage purchases.

eponymous_coward

It's not all that clear. Some awards are working (see above). Some are not.

Edgerfly

Hence why they need to fix the problem. They don't advertise that some awards are bookable, and some have space but you'll get an error message.

eponymous_coward

Who is "they"? It also isn't clear that "they" is "Alaska Airlines". If it's "Emirates Airline", then yelling at Alaska may help release stress and convey to them that they need to push EK for a resolution, but it's not entirely up to Alaska to fix it.

Edgerfly

trying to pin this problem on Emirates is preposterous. Yes "they" as in Alaska.

Alaska promotes their international partners, and how global they are, and how you can redeem awards on all of their partners. How wonderful.

This is not the case since when trying to book certain awards on Emirates ON ALASKA'S website, and subsequently when calling into the call center for help, you get an error message even though we know the award space is there.

eponymous_coward

Why? What's your expertise in understanding airline booking systems, other than being a frustrated customer who can't book the flights they want, and who is impatient at the pace the problem is being fixed?

But hey, you want to rant as opposed to asking the Alaska rep here what's going on, despite evidence that some EK awards are being booked but yours aren't, more power to you.

Edgerfly

It's not only me whose having a problem. Scroll up and see the numerous people who are reporting problems. The ones reporting the problems heavily outweigh the one or two individuals who've reported success. I've been 75K with AS for 15 years. I love the airline. I love the staff. I love that they are honest, on-time, transparent, and really care about their customers. I love they are probably the last airline standing that don't treat us like just another number. I always give them the benefit of the doubt.

But to have a problem as wide spread as this for 8 weeks after bringing it to AS's attention, and for that entire timeframe with no results or headway is not okay. Not to mention the only little feedback we've gotten from AS, which by the way has been unofficial, is basically "we're working on it," that's not okay.

AS should either A) have had it fixed by now, or B) let people know what is going on, inform people who are buying miles, and accumulating miles that they are having a widespread problem with EK awards in premium cabins. This would be the right thing to do. Why do you think it's ok to continue selling miles to people, many of whom are buying with the intent to purchase EK awards, but are not able to, is ok?

To have a problem like this for this long of a period of time, and not really engage anyone, update us, and continue selling miles, and acting as if all is well is bad business, and downright unethical. I'm not even buying miles with the intention of redeeming them on EK, but many are, and do you see why that is a problem?

I am not an AS hater by any means. I'm an AS cheerleader. But they need to address and update loyal customers on what is going on with this prolific widespread error, what they're doing about it, and when it should be fixed. That would be the correct customer service thing to do. Period.

eponymous_coward

If this is a problem that EK has to fix, you think that AS should make a commitment for another company? And what exactly is AS going to be able to do if EK tells them to pound sand when AS says "our customers on FlyerTalk who like to buy miles to fly EK are enraged, so fix it by (insert date here)"?

You are assuming this is a problem AS has complete control over (contradicting a public statement otherwise, I might add).

Or are you suggesting AS should shut down EK awards like they shut down AM awards? That is one way to "fix" the problem that is 100% in AS control- block EK from displaying. Would that satisfy you? It certainly removes any illusion that you can purchase miles for showers at 35,000 feet. Again, be careful what you ask for.

Edgerfly

All I'm asking for is transparency, and for Alaska to let us know what they're doing to fix the problem. That's not too much to ask for.

eponymous_coward

So if they say "it's a problem EK has to resolve on their end and we don't know when it will be resolved by them", that's transparent?

PS:

Edgerfly

Yes that would be an example of transparency by letting your customers know what's going on, very good. You're catching on to what constitutes good customer service.

CurbedEnthusiasm

I just got the survey and shared my overall dissatisfaction with the partner award search process. I encourage others to do the same.

Edgerfly

+1👍🏼

This issue pales in comparison to their website where the only real way to book award flights is find your own flights using multiple different airline award availability tools. If you're someone who is not well versed in this award game and have a bunch of AS Miles you're SOL.