What Will Alaska Airlines Be Serving in First Class on Your Flight? (2018)
#1066
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: East Ester, Alaska
Programs: Alaska Million Miler, United Million Miler, Wyndham Rewards Diamond, Choice Hotels Diamond
Posts: 12,148
Are you referring to the ex-Virgin America crews or Alaska as a whole? I think we'd all agree that the problem is limited to a small percentage of employees. Mainly, I'm referring to flight attendants as from my experience Alaska's ground staff have been uniformly excellent.
#1067
Join Date: Aug 2000
Location: Seattle, WA
Programs: Alaska 100K - MM, defender of shoes on the carpeted bulkhead 4ever, AA LT PLT, Hyatt Glob, HH Dia
Posts: 7,446
Are you referring to the ex-Virgin America crews or Alaska as a whole? I think we'd all agree that the problem is limited to a small percentage of employees. Mainly, I'm referring to flight attendants as from my experience Alaska's ground staff have been uniformly excellent.
#1068
Join Date: May 2006
Location: TUS/PDX
Programs: WN CP/A-List, AS MVPG75K
Posts: 5,798
Are you referring to the ex-Virgin America crews or Alaska as a whole? I think we'd all agree that the problem is limited to a small percentage of employees. Mainly, I'm referring to flight attendants as from my experience Alaska's ground staff have been uniformly excellent.
#1069
Join Date: May 2016
Location: Seattle
Posts: 85
For what it's worth, all front line, customer facing employees are slated to go through "reprogramming" (my friend's word, not mine), that will address service standards, customer service expectations etc. No clue if those service standards indicate they should serve meals in courses on long flights, but it seems in my very limited experience recently that crews are a little friendlier and more attentive than before.
#1070
Join Date: Jan 2014
Programs: AS, QF, SK
Posts: 127
Man, their F offering was always a little weak, but they've really cut what was left of it off at the knees.
SEA>DEN: Turkey sandwich w/ gouda and basil. Way too much basil, had to peel it off. Nothing else, just the sandwich. Not even a damn condiment. No secondary service either
DEN>SEA: Roast beef sandwich. Decent, but again, just a sandwich with no condiments. I see they've reduced the nut bowl to about a 1"x1" bowl, and got rid of all those "super expensive" cashews, only filling it with almonds and 1 walnut chunk. Since the only nuts I ate out of the "old" trays were the cashews and peanuts...well, that's the end of that, I suppose.
Combine this with the slap in the face known as the "Saver" fares (which are just stripped down tickets that cost the same amount as the old tickets, thus being a de facto price hike as they try to emulate UA), and I just don't see any purpose here aside from that one DEN route, and even that only because the other options are so much worse thanks to the UA/Frontier stranglehold on the airport.
SEA>DEN: Turkey sandwich w/ gouda and basil. Way too much basil, had to peel it off. Nothing else, just the sandwich. Not even a damn condiment. No secondary service either
DEN>SEA: Roast beef sandwich. Decent, but again, just a sandwich with no condiments. I see they've reduced the nut bowl to about a 1"x1" bowl, and got rid of all those "super expensive" cashews, only filling it with almonds and 1 walnut chunk. Since the only nuts I ate out of the "old" trays were the cashews and peanuts...well, that's the end of that, I suppose.
Combine this with the slap in the face known as the "Saver" fares (which are just stripped down tickets that cost the same amount as the old tickets, thus being a de facto price hike as they try to emulate UA), and I just don't see any purpose here aside from that one DEN route, and even that only because the other options are so much worse thanks to the UA/Frontier stranglehold on the airport.
#1071
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: PHX & AGP
Programs: AA Lifetime PLT, Bonvoy Lifetime Titanium, Hilton Gold
Posts: 11,453
[QUOTE=tusphotog;30497653
For what it's worth, all front line, customer facing employees are slated to go through "reprogramming" (my friend's word, not mine), that will address service standards, customer service expectations etc. No clue if those service standards indicate they should serve meals in courses on long flights, but it seems in my very limited experience recently that crews are a little friendlier and more attentive than before.[/QUOTE]
IF the airlines really cared about how customers are treated they would take steps to ensure the new "reprogramming" sticks and employee's adhere to the new standards, but we know that doesn't happen.
For what it's worth, all front line, customer facing employees are slated to go through "reprogramming" (my friend's word, not mine), that will address service standards, customer service expectations etc. No clue if those service standards indicate they should serve meals in courses on long flights, but it seems in my very limited experience recently that crews are a little friendlier and more attentive than before.[/QUOTE]
IF the airlines really cared about how customers are treated they would take steps to ensure the new "reprogramming" sticks and employee's adhere to the new standards, but we know that doesn't happen.
#1072
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: East Ester, Alaska
Programs: Alaska Million Miler, United Million Miler, Wyndham Rewards Diamond, Choice Hotels Diamond
Posts: 12,148
Date of Flight: December 02, 2018
Flight Number and Route flown: AS 443 DEN-SEA
Time of Departure: 6:25pm
Length of flight: 2 hours, 30 minutes
Class of service: First
Meal served: Dinner
Meal Description: Turkey Sandwich. I remember when we used to get a nice hot pasta and chicken dish on these evening departures between Denver and Seattle and vice versa. I also remember those cheesy pressed turkey sandwiches from about ten years ago, so this one was certainly an upgrade from those. It was a decently sized sandwich with a good amount of meat and cheese (I supplied the Grey Poupon) but still, it seems more like a luncheon entree to me...
Last edited by Seat 2A; Dec 6, 2018 at 11:23 am
#1073
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: SEA
Programs: DL Plat, AS MVPG, Bonvoy Plat/LT Gold, HH Diamond
Posts: 1,263
#1074
Join Date: Jul 2018
Location: sometimes, strangely, I find myself at home
Programs: I need to do better in managing my affiliations. Oops, I overshot the runway for status next year.
Posts: 651
Dec 5.
length of flight 4.5 hours
Class of service: F
evening departure.
pre-departure beverage. bottle of water. nothing else.
1/2 sandwich of turkey with pesto . Served with a bowl of bean/lentil soup. Soup was hot and was nicely spiced. I liked it. (totally opposite when compared to the minestrone in the lounge which was awful) .
length of flight 4.5 hours
Class of service: F
evening departure.
pre-departure beverage. bottle of water. nothing else.
1/2 sandwich of turkey with pesto . Served with a bowl of bean/lentil soup. Soup was hot and was nicely spiced. I liked it. (totally opposite when compared to the minestrone in the lounge which was awful) .
#1075
Join Date: Jan 2017
Location: Denver
Programs: AS, AA, UA, Hilton, Marriott, Caesars DE
Posts: 2,070
#1076
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: PHX & AGP
Programs: AA Lifetime PLT, Bonvoy Lifetime Titanium, Hilton Gold
Posts: 11,453
Dec 5.
length of flight 4.5 hours
Class of service: F
evening departure.
pre-departure beverage. bottle of water. nothing else.
1/2 sandwich of turkey with pesto . Served with a bowl of bean/lentil soup. Soup was hot and was nicely spiced. I liked it. (totally opposite when compared to the minestrone in the lounge which was awful) .
length of flight 4.5 hours
Class of service: F
evening departure.
pre-departure beverage. bottle of water. nothing else.
1/2 sandwich of turkey with pesto . Served with a bowl of bean/lentil soup. Soup was hot and was nicely spiced. I liked it. (totally opposite when compared to the minestrone in the lounge which was awful) .
#1077
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: SEA
Programs: DL Plat, AS MVPG, Bonvoy Plat/LT Gold, HH Diamond
Posts: 1,263
#1078
Join Date: Aug 2018
Location: PDX
Programs: AS MVP Gold 100K
Posts: 2,329
I was offered, what I believe are 2 new dishes, for pre-order on an upcoming SEA-STL dinner flight. Roasted chicken with Clementines (not a novel idea but haven't heard the clementine twist) or Vegetarian Bibimbap.
#1080
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Anchorage, AK
Programs: Lifetime AS 1MM & MVPG, AS MVPG100K, AA, DL, HH-G
Posts: 8,259
Date of Flight: December 06, 2018
Flight Number and Route flown: AS 62 ANC-SIT
Time of Departure: 7:50 AM
Length of flight: 1 hours, 30 minutes
Class of service: First
Meal served: Snack basket
Meal Description: I asked if this was the normal service on the flight and she said she had never seen it before. Perhaps mis-catered.
Young female flight attendant was awesome! And I usually dread "young" in the F cabin.
Flight Number and Route flown: AS 62 ANC-SIT
Time of Departure: 7:50 AM
Length of flight: 1 hours, 30 minutes
Class of service: First
Meal served: Snack basket
Meal Description: I asked if this was the normal service on the flight and she said she had never seen it before. Perhaps mis-catered.
Young female flight attendant was awesome! And I usually dread "young" in the F cabin.
Last edited by BOB W; Dec 7, 2018 at 1:34 am