philemer

Here is the response to my complaint on 1/5 that PDB were not offered on SEA-LAX flt:

Dear philemer,

Thank you for contacting Alaska Airlines.

I am sorry we let down or disappointed you with not having a pre-departure beverage other than bottled water. Our pre-departure limited offering in First Class (bottled water) is a result of our focus on our industry leading "on-time" performance. There are a number of things that must fit together operationally -- when the flight attendants arrive at the aircraft, when the aircraft is ready to board, when catering is completed, etc. We've found that even offering a pre-poured glass of water (or cup of coffee on morning flights) can cause pauses in the boarding flow. There is the concern that expanding our pre-departure beverage service could slow the process and ultimately impact our operational performance. We know we are at a competitive disadvantage in this area and have the discussion often, but at this point there are no plans in the works to change the service.We value your patronage to Alaska.

Sincerely,

Lisa H.
Customer Care Representative

If the above is true looks like we're beating our heads against the wall. This is contradictory to other reports up stream.

NoLaGent

You have got to be kidding me. Please reply back to her that she's ignoring official policy (much like many FAs) and ask for confirmation of the current policy from her Supervisor or preferably, Inflight Management. This is absurd and I wouldn't accept it, as it's wrong.

pcoll

philemer

Done. Let's see if it takes another 9 days to get a response.

philemer

I've seen the phrase "official policy" used for the PDB issue but I've never seen a link to an official AS doc. that says it's so. Can someone provide a link to this doc? It would make communicating with Customer Care easier.

VegasGambler

FWIW I never got a reply (despite clicking the box to request one) when I wrote in after my Dec 31 flight.

At this point, it's been 2 weeks... I'm not really expecting one.

jrl767

I might be mistaken, but I seriously doubt that anyone with access to any AS internal policy document(s) would keep their job for very long after making said document(s) available on FT

philemer

Understood, of course. So the only way we know about an official policy change is if AS makes an official announcement. And I haven't seen one regarding PDB. Has anyone else or is this thread only wishful thinking?

NoLaGent

Alaska's spokesperson, Ann Johnson, was quoted in numerous publications about the new policy, which took effect on November 1st. The policy (as far as I know) was never directly published by Alaska Airlines on any of their official channels. You can read her comments in this article from USA Today:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/trave...ss/1060625002/

You can also review the response I received from Customer Care in mid-November about this particular subject in post #86 of this thread confirming the policy.

Chugach

philemer

Thanks for the link to the USA article. And I did read post 86. Obviously no one is listening to Ann Johnson. Way too much inconsistency. The response I got today proves that everyone is NOT on the same page. I'm done worrying about it.

ctporter

Last night on a Horizon E75 flight SFO SEA we were offered a mimosa or OJ with our water bottles at the seat.

jrl767

VegasGambler

So, 2 and a half weeks after my message, I did get a response.

Standard stuff about getting a choice between OJ and coffee in the morning, and OJ and sparkling wine in the afternoon or evening, regardless of flight length (the FA had told me that they don't do PDB on "such short flights" -- LAX-SFO). They said that they have shared my concerns with the inflight leadership so they know.

Honestly, no one seems to care. Providing a good F product does not seem to be a priority for AS. The "leadership" may or may not be being informed, but the message is not getting through to the actual FAs. This is easy to fix; AS chooses not to fix it.

Flying paid F to OGG next month... on UA. Lie-flats in both directions. P fare, similar price to AS P. I'll status match before the flight. That round trip, plus one more, will complete my match and I'll be UA Gold for the year.

The only real downside is that I'll earn about 10k UA miles instead of 13k AS miles (AS miles are still a lot more valuable). But I think that the difference in quality of product more than makes up for it. I'm not saying that I won't fly AS any more (I will) but on routes where a true premium product is available on another airline, I'll be going with the other airline. I'll still requalify for MVP Gold, though mostly through partner travel (over 15k partner EQM already this year)

StephanP37