ijkh

This past weekend I had planned a getaway to see friends affected by the fires in Santa Rosa, California (STS-PDX) . My nonstop departure from PDX has been changed a while back from a reasonable mid morning flight to a crack of dawn 6:36 AM. That may be handy for business commuters but it is not doable due to the weather in the area. There is a chronic issue with fog in the area. It burns off usually by about 11 AM. That means this flight is frequently dealing with difficult landings. The station is being diverted or delayed frequently. Why make us get a 6:30 AM departure when it doesn't work? Grrr.

Second issue. On March 9th departure we actually diverted to San Jose for refuel after 3 aborted landing attempts in fog. During two of the attempts I myself could see the tower. The pilot's opinion was that it didn't make flight minimums. Fine better safe than sorry. Divert is done. Passengers are told in SJC very clearly by overhead announcement before deplaning and in the terminal itself not to leave the boarding area. We were told the flight will take off immediately after refueling the prop plane.

Are you still with me?
My real rant is that one IDIOT passenger who left the boarding area. This idiot went outside the TSA secured area with neither his boarding pass nor ID. He then held a full plane load of people in their seats for one hour and 20 minutes. Alaska took this time to locate this selfish IDIOT. We all sat waiting for him for over an hour. REALLY? That left us arriving STS around noon. That meant us sitting over 5 hours sitting in a Bombardier Dash 8 seat. Naturally no compensation. They just smiled without even a scold to the IDIOT. Alaska you disappointed me. Off load his luggage of the IDIOT. Let him take the bus. Don't be so nice, you did your due diligence. Extra Biscoff is not really doing it for me. Grr.

jsguyrus

So exactly what is Alaska supposed to do here? A 6;30am departure is not bad at all (the YKM-SEA flight that I always start with departs at 0500), it also appears going forward the flight departs at 0930. I am pretty sure I will take the pilots word for it if he feels it is unsafe to land. As far as the idiot passenger who can't follow simple directions, I guess they could have taken off and left him stranded but I think they would have to sorted through his luggage and removed it as well before they could depart. Clearly, Alaska is doing everything they can to get you there, I don't know why you think you should be compensated for things out of their control.

notquiteaff

Why did they deplane the passengers in SJC?

ijkh

Not sure perhaps because we had been on the plane for nearly 4 hours?



jsguyrus I don't think the majority of travelers to STS want to be there by 8:45 AM. This is a vacation destination.

sullim4

That'd be my question. Seems kind of crazy to deplane for refueling, and that's certainly within AS's control.

ijkh

It certainly would have saved time to keep people on a plane for 20 minute refueling vs chasing them down for over an hour.

jsguyrus

My guess it it was both a refuel and wait for the weather to clear stop.

ucdtim17

Also odd to fly an extra 20 min or so RT past OAK to SJC. QX was not flying Q400s to OAK at the time but they were in the recent past and are now; seems unlikely there would have been some operational reason the aircraft couldn't be serviced at OAK.

tonei

(Deleted)

rustykettel

ashill

Do they have to? Pretty sure for domestic they can just take off with the passenger's bags. I had a SEA-YLW flight delayed for about 30 minutes last month to find the bag of a no-show (grr), but they explicitly said that they had to find the bag because it was international.

notquiteaff

That's my understanding as well (even though it makes little sense to me).

pushmyredbutton

There is no need to offload the passenger's bag on domestic flights. Happens all the time when bags go on separate flights as their owners.

IMO Alaska should have just left without him.

ijkh

Nice.
A followup email today from Alaska Customer Service. I was invited to participate in a survey regarding this flight. They got an earful. Hopefully they will look carefully at the STS flight times. It must get old dealing with fog in the morning for more than just my flight. Confirming my original premise though, Alaska you are just too nice. They did send a 50 dollar gift voucher. Is there no end to the AS kindness? That is why I will be flying with Alaska. Not to mention Alaska flies where I need to go in Mexico and California too.

PDXPremier

I've never flown into STS, but other than being close to San Francisco attractions, what exactly is the "tourist attraction" there?