osotoc

I've enjoy my Alaska flights, and I've been a UA 1K off an on over the past 10 years. I've recently enjoyed a few Delta flights (thanks for my AMEX Platinum and the ability to use the lounges).
As the DFW-ACT route is only serviced by AA, I flown it quite a bit. Ups and downs are the name of the game when it comes to loyalty treatment and expectations.

It's a little trite to say you need to roll with the punches, but you just have to.

Of course, people do like to complain as well. haha.

northwesterner

BUR-SEA route keeps me on AS; otherwise, as Los Angeles based, I'd look to Delta for a better domestic network.

tatterdema

Price, flight schedule, destinations are why I fly AS. I fly pretty much exclusively SEA to other west coast cities, Mexico, and Hawaii. They are far from perfect, but no other airline comes close for convenience for me. After I retire and begin to travel outside this area, I will start looking at other airlines. I used to use WN quite often, but they gutted their SEA service to where I do not find them at all useful anymore. Sitting on a bundle of points, I guess I will have to use them taking an inconvenient trip to Hawaii or Mexico eventually. Used them once to Puerto Rico, never again. It was painful.

pushmyredbutton

AS is losing their value to me, but in general I fly AS because:

- Decent mileage earning and burning
- Easy upgrades for MVPG75K
- Phone agents who are empowered to fix issues
- No change fees, which I consider 'free cancellation' to my AS wallet

However, being based out of SFO, the route structure doesn't work for me when compared to UA. I'll fly AS over UA when I can, but I'm finding it increasingly difficult to justify flying sub-optimal schedules just to get a bigger seat and more miles.

I also find some of their policies to be very unfriendly towards their top flyers. I don't like the 30 min boarding cutoff, front-to-back meal orders, lack of lounges, and a rigid SDC process.

sdsearch

Welcome to FlyerTalk, archimed.

Perhaps you're too new to FlyerTalk to realize that Alaska just went through a merger, and a lot of the current complaints come from people who liked Virgin America (which Alaska bought and then integrated). Virgin America may have "spoiled" some people (since it was an airline that did things that it couldn't quite afford to keep up doing forever), and so for those people Alaska may be a "step down"

But meanwhile, for many of us who never flew Virgin America,complaints about Alaska because it's not like Virgin America s just a lot of "noise". Still, that "noise" can fill up this forum in ways that this forum didn't see before that merger.

Oh, except of course there was also "noise" when Alaska stopped having doing cross-elite perks with DL first and then also AA. (It was because of the cross-elite perks with AA that I began flying AS. I haven't yet figured out if I'll fly AS less, now that I can't use my AA lifetime Plat status on it, or not. I don't fly for work ,so it's not realistic for me to get elite status with AS.)

WillTravel4Food

I moved over to AS MP on a status match two years ago, when I moved to Seattle. I left AA for AS, where the grass really is greener. AA had become a scorched, late summer, drought stricken, pathetic little patch of an urban front lawn that had been painted green. You get the picture. Since then I've flown 140K miles on AS, and 2K on AA.

My list of likes:
Redeemable mileage (RDM) accrual rates
Unlimited upgrades (even though they are extremely rare on my frequent SEA-DCA-SEA trips).
Non-stops to my regular (BOS, DCA, BNA, BZN, OKC) and infrequent (RDU, TPA, LAX, SFO) destinations.
GGUs
Lounge Passes
Attainable top tier status levels (flew 80K last year and 60K so far this year)

My dislikes:
Poor IT that causes you to lose upgrade and waitlist positions.
AS + one partner on awards
Delay/failure adding redemption options to Europe (AY where are you?)

ucdtim17

I'm ending my flying commute this week and will squeak by at MVPG by the end of the year. So I'll have GGUs I'll try to use next year, but for most shorter flights, it's hard to justify going to SFO when there are plentiful WN options at OAK. MVPG gets AS up to par with WN for everyone - no bag fees, no change fees. The better seating options (for short flights at least) are canceled out by the increased hassle/time of getting to SFO plus the increased risk of delays. Also with Amex I have lounge access at OAK but nothing in T2 at SFO. After losing status next year, if we're going to SFO, might as well take the best deal. For now though, I'll try and get what I can out of the status.

wolfpacktrojan

I just started flying frequently for work last year, and being based in SAN, Alaska makes the most sense for me since they serve a majority of my frequent destinations non-stop (EWR, BOS, SFO, SJC, SEA, HNL). I'm definitely not as seasoned of a flyer as most in this forum, but even as a lowly MVP, Alaska has treated me well. I've experienced plenty of first class upgrades this calendar year alone and even received a surprising companion first class upgrade in June flying MCO-LAX. I'm on track to make MVPG next month and really couldn't be happier with my AS experience. The large number of miles I am earning doesn't hurt either, and I hope to redeem a good chunk of them next year on a month long trip to Southeast Asia.

nort

My opinion is based on the few times (around 10?) that I've flown them in the past few years, so take this with a grain of salt. Alaska is pretty good compared to US3 if you live in the western US. Now with Virgin America acquisition, it should be better. The reason I don't fly much with them is the elite benefits while flying internationally. I like my OWS (soon OWE) benefits like business/first lounges, and the occasional op-up to J on paid PE tickets.

sltlyamusd

It's not just good luck. Alaska has consistently ranked #1 or 2 in the industry for on-time performance for the past nine years. Even though increased congestion in SEA and much more exposure to delay prone airports (SFO and JFK) post-VX merger has caused more ATC delays, Alaska is still doing pretty well compared to other carriers. A quick check of flightstats.com shows that Alaska ranked #1 among major North American carriers for on-time performance for both June and July this year. In fact, they have ranked #1 for 6 out of 7 months so far this year. https://www.flightstats.com/v2/month...ports/airlines

Every time I think AS is getting worse, I just have to fly AA or UA to see that AS is actually still better! Not to mention that UA had a huge operational meltdown during its post-merger integration, which hasn't happened to AS.

EmailKid

Yup, having officially joined MP only a couple of months ago (I know, I know, but credited to AA to keep miles from expiring), most of my flights are courtesy of UA who rebooked me on AS because they were not going to get me to my destination

Post merger UA was REALLY bad - for four years in a row I could count on UA to screw up and cancel / very seriously delay a flight to where I would lose a full vacation day They are better for the last year or so, but I still have very bad memories, though from the UA board I have surmised that I got hit a lot worse than most.

pinniped

I started flying them for the MCI-SEA nonstop. This was back when the AA partnership existed, so I just used my AA# and didn't know much about AS.

Then I needed to start flying more to SAN and PDX. They ended up a logical choice, often a lot cheaper than Southwest. Even though the AA partnership was ending, I was also flying some EK so actually joining AS made sense. Prior to reaching MVP, I found the midcon fare differences between Y and F to be pretty reasonable, so I flew mostly in paid F. (Often around $100 difference in fare.)

I've been reasonably happy, even though this airline seems to have a lot of operational problems. They've quickly come back with vouchers/credit when there have been issues.

ucdtim17

lol now Alaska taking yet another step to make their value proposition vis-a-vis Southwest a little bit worse https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/alas...oing-away.html

WebTraveler

Yep, the taking away of the guaranteed flight credit - on top of all the other changes - pretty much makes Alaska no different than any other carrier, and wow, why the hell spend your dollars with this airline going forward? Each month a nickel and dime on something else being changed. Wow.

Calculon

For me, the reason to stay with them is the same as it's always been: They provide the most frequent service between the cities I travel to most, and have done so for decades. Therefore most of my airfare dollars will staying with Alaska. Many around the PNW will be in a similar situation.