spin88

I was booked on AS320 SEA-SFO last night. Its the 5:45 pm departure. At about 3 pm I go to check if the flight is OT, and the app says "Cancelled" and an alternative reservation on the 7:45 pm departure (AS318). Then I get some weird text from Alaska at 3:39 pm saying "Flight 320 will now be flying into Oakland. Shuttle provided" The link provided just goes to a page that says "we sometimes divert into OAK or SJC, with a link to that airport page.

So I call Alaska and am told that due to "low cloud cover" they need to fly into Oakland, not SFO. The agent is like this is something normal. As someone with 20 years of experience with "flow control" into SFO it is NOT. Airlines simply run everything late and you then either hang at the airport, or you try to get onto the earlier (now delayed flight). The option of flying to OAK, then hanging around for a hour as everyone gets off the plane, gets luggage, and then spending over an hour on a bus (more like hour 30 min on a Friday evening) is not an "option" it is a horrible idea.

So since my flight is now effectively cancelled, I end up in a bad seat on the 7:45 plane, which ends up leaving Seattle at 9:45 pm. So Alaska takes away my flight to SFO and makes me four hours (not two) late, and I loose my E+ seat, and my #1 position on the upgrade list.

I am royally steamed if there is some type of policy to do this, and it will be the last time I risk flying Alaska into SFO. Everyone I talked to at Alaska has been programed to say that they HAD to do this, like it was required, and seemed to not understand flow control. Is this policy? Something new? I did not find anything with a seach...

Eastbay1K

I've heard of AS doing this from time to time for years.

ucdtim17

It is very normal for Alaska at SFO

spin88

I wonder if they have looked at the impact this has on high value business travelers (e.g. my ticket was $289 one way)? I had to go to Elite check in (since my reservation was messed up and I could not check in on the app, and calling did not fix it) and the agent said she understood and I was "the third upset person off that flight she had dealt with already"

The impact of this is that I will no longer book Alaska on SEA-SFO which for me is always in the afternoon, so impacted by this. GRRRR...

As Alaska management tries to compete for SFO based travelers, IMHO they will find that this "OAK + a bus in traffic" is better than a delay, does not cut if for a lot of business travelers.

sltlyamusd

Alaska has been doing this on occasion for 10-15 years.

ucdtim17

If you literally have to be at SFO (or nearby in San Mateo county), OAK will be significantly less convenient, but that is probably a pretty small minority of any given flight. For people heading to SF proper or the East Bay, OAK will be similarly or more convenient. If you're heading for Palo Alto or a similar location south on the peninsula and your plane is diverted to OAK, just call and get switched to an SJC flight. The time this happened to me (SFO-to-SJC diversion), I just got switched to an OAK flight I preferred anyways.

There's certainly a lot of room for improvement in how they handle this IT-wise for customers. It happens frequently enough that people should never receive 'Your flight is canceled' notifications and then have to call in to find out it's actually operating to a different airport.

Aliquot

I am confused about what you are angry about. Your experience seems like a good example of why diverting to Oakland is a good idea .Taking the diverted flight would have gotten you to your destination earlier than any other option.

If the next flight was delayed two hours for the same reason, there is no way your original flight would have gotten you in earlier if it delayed instead of diverted. If it had canceled there would just have been more people comparing for seats on the other flights, non of which would have gotten anyone in any earlier.

pushmyredbutton

If flights in general were not diverted to OAK, one could standby for the previous flight which is delayed to SFO, getting in roughly around the same time. I do this all the time on UA SEA-SFO when the weather is bad.

sltlyamusd

Unfortunately, AS is very gate constrained at SFO now that the vast majority of flights arrive/depart T2. I have had to wait on the tarmac for a gate several times, and those were on good weather days! If everything is getting backed up 2 hours in the evening, it is going to seriously screw up gate assignments and lead to compunding delays, so diverting a few flights to Oak will certainly relieve strain on the operation.

sfozrhfco

If getting back to SFO is your top priority then I would not choose AS as they are the only airline at SFO that regularly and randomly shifts flights to SJC/OAK. If there is any chance that operations at SFO will not be 100% on time all day and you are flying along the West Coast, there is a chance that AS will move the flight and show the original flight as being cancelled. So, I think you answered your own question--that you are better off on another carrier.

channa

Spot on. The SFO issue is unique to AS. No other carrier has "planned divsersions." An occasional emergency or something came up diversion, sure, but nothing like what AS is doing.

DCP2016

No no no, this is not normal at all, and don't let any fanboy or AS employee tell you otherwise. That is just due to their poor operation they are running at SFO.

This is probably a good lesson for the future as to choose a REAL airline to fly you from SEA to SFO like United or Delta.

MeanwhileBackAtFAI

There were a lot of issues at SFO yesterday evening. Maybe weather related, not sure. It was very foggy coming in at around 00:30 this morning. My UA DEN-SFO flight was about 40 mins late due to late incoming aircraft from SFO.

spin88

Well if AS had not "diverted my flight" I would have arrived at SFO with a rolling delay of two hours (typical for flow control). I would have hung in the lounge or tried for the earlier flight (if it was delayed). Result is I would have arrived either OT (with a worse seat) or 2 hours late, but spending that delay in a lounge, and then had almost certainly an upgraded seat. This is what has happened when I fly DL or UA. The "best" on AS I guess would have been arriving OT in Oakland. Standing around for 50 minutes for a bus, then being on that bus for over an hour (most likely on a Friday an hour and a half) and then arriving at SFO, where my car was....

As it was I just got messed over big time since it was "my" flight that got pulled.

+1. I am very used to this drill, which is why this was such a surprise. I've flown AS through the years (my MP number goes back to the start of the program) and recently flown VX a lot, so really surprised by this.

That is unfortunately my take away. However, I would like AS to succeed, but from my "business" perspective (as in being someone who travels a lot on business, and pays high fares) this is NOT going to fly as AS tries to retain VX fliers ex-SFO.

STS-134

It absolutely does not take 1.5-2 hours to get from OAK to SFO unless there's a truck that jack knifed on the Bay Bridge. And in that case, you take the San Mateo Bridge. Being at OAK on time is better than being 2 hours late into SFO. Get out of the terminal, take an Uber/Lyft to SFO, and send the bill to AS.