MDtR-Chicago

I guess that was basically my point. AS was promoting itself as a choice for business travelers from SFO but then cut/didn't serve routes those business travelers would want... so, yes, given that... other airlines would be a better choice. And if you're flying UA or WN for those routes, why not just fly them everywhere? It's not like AS has very many unique routes you can't reach non-stop via WN or UA from SFO.

chrisl137

Because as an MVP on AS you get treated better than a 1K on UA most of the time? And AS is a better experience than WN for flights over an hour, at least as MVP or higher. At MVPG they even match the no change fees of WN.

I fly all three of those airlines out of the LA area. WN for short hops in the southwest (bay area, LAS, PHX, TUS, ABQ). AS for bay area, PNW, and transcons. UA for international, mid-con (where AS really fails), and some transcons (where AS doesn't go or if there's a major schedule or cost difference).

For flights under an hour it doesn't matter that much who operates the plane, but over an hour and AS is by far a better experience than either of the other two. Reserved seating - I don't think I've ever not been able to reserve an exit row window or aisle at booking. No boarding lineup. Good upgrade probability, even at MVP. Decent food. No change fees at MVPG. They don't have lie flats, but I'm not flying redeyes anyway (and WN doesn't even have F seats). A lot of people claim they aren't price competitive, and I've seen some goofy pricing show up on ticket searches, but whenever I actually go to buy, they turn out to be competitive with WN and UA.

The place AS really falls down for me is getting to the middle of the country. Part of that is my primary destination there is DTW - not much nonstop unless you take DL or NK, and my experiences with DL have generally matched the worst of NWA. To get there on AS it's via SEA, (which seems like weird routing, but UA will often route me via IAD or EWR), and significantly more expensive than anybody else.

LoungeLizardHugo

Decided to try Alaska Airlines for the first time ever as they had a direct flight to a location I'd normally need a connection to get to. I've flown SouthWest for years, I earned a Companion Pass that my wife flies free on until 2019.

Booked a flight on Alaska seven weeks ago so as to lock in seat assignment and Premium Class. Arrive at departure airport way early, get a text advising equipment change, Premium Class no longer available. Check with gate agent twice to ensure my pre-printed boarding pass was still good -"yes!". Begin boarding, our boarding passes would not scan. Pull us aside and after some futzing around, re-assign seats but told "you and wife can no longer sit together!". ...?? Seriously? That was a main reason I did advance booking, because she is a very nervous flyer! ok, board plane.

Q-400, aisle is about 18" wide. I could give a crap about political correctness here: Flight attendant was a very large woman with a huge posterior. So far we've lost premium seats, not able to sit together, and for the duration of this flight, two hours, my shoulder is slammed constantly! We get on the ground, make our connection, day is over with.

Return flight yesterday: Q-400 again on both legs of itinerary. We are at departure airport hours early, board, and proceed to sit and sit and sit. We finally take-off, very late, make it to connecting airport with just barely enough time to catch connection...and...even though we are super late the gate is occupied by another airplane and we sit on the taxiway for 15-20 minutes! So the connection we planned 7 weeks ago is shot, I scramble to call Alaska because I can't make the necessary reschedule online, and a rep gets us last two seats on the next flight which is 2.5 hour delay, AND we were separated seating AGAIN! Unreal. Finally make it home late at night.

In the past five years of flying Southwest we have never, not one time, had a trip anywhere close to this f'ed up. To add insult to injury, and I previously posted about this, Alaska turned me down for a personal credit card (I wanted the miles) for one reason- I had previously applied this past 12 months for several other credit cards, otherwise I have high FICO, no debt, and high income.

Everything I've experienced associated with Alaska Airlines in the past three months has been a very negative experience, shockingly bad. I had hoped from reading some comments here about Alaska it might be a good fall-back carrier we could use, but now I want to do avoid them!

So there is another data point for those that care. Based on my miserable first experiences, I would suggest anyone look for an alternative to Alaska Airlines if their routing allows it. Best of luck to all.

Cheers.

UpgradeMe

Do you really believe that it was Alaska Airlines that rejected your credit card application? This part of your rant makes me doubt much of the remainder of your post.

wolfpacktrojan

So you're suggesting that nobody should fly with AS because of an equipment swap, not being able to sit next to your wife for a couple of hours, being bumped into while occupying an aisle seat, experiencing a delay, missing a connection, and because you were denied a credit card by Bank of America. May I suggest that you should probably avoid flying with any airline?

Red L

I never judge an airline on my first trip with them. Isolated things can (and often do) happen that don't reflect the norm. Yes, AS has its issues, but IME, they happen much, much less often (and are usually resolved in a better way) than on other carriers.

Finkface

Sounds like you had already made up your mind never to fly AS again even before you got anywhere near the airport. All because they (and we all know it is AS handing out the cc’s, right?) gave you a business credit card but wouldn’t give you a personal one. I’m sure they will miss your one Q400-flight business and shame you couldn’t get all those cc miles for a big partner J redemption.

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/30192917-post1148.html

Often1

Good luck with WN when you want to use RR to get you to Europe or Asia on an award redemption.

eponymous_coward

You've had two flights with Alaska and a rejected credit card application by BofA, I've had over two thousand Alaska flights (and considerably more Southwest flights than you've had Alaska flights, probably fifty or more over my life, so it's not like I don't know how it works over there).

I will take your advice under due consideration given the circumstances. Thanks for sharing your experience.

notquiteaff

Well, "Southwest" would have denied your card application as well if you had opened five other cards in the 24 months. (as others pointed out, the airline doesn't approve credit cards)

Also, I am confused. You start out the post stating that you booked AS because they had a "direct flight" (vs connection on WN), but then you miss your connection. Did AS change your aircraft type and turn your direct (non-stop?) flight into a two-segment connection?

Finally, Alaska operates nearly 1000 flights per day. I am fairly certain - based on logic and personal experience - that not every flight has the problems you describe. But if you think WN is perfect every day on every flight, you know what to do...

boss315

spongenotbob

DG206

Maybe you should just drive from now on. Air travel doesn't sound like it is for you

KnownasEric

I switched after half a decade with AA. I made EXP every year, and every year I braved the connections game out of SEA to get to where I wanted to go - I even occasionally flew AS since they were stronger partners back then.

• Then they introduced the revenue FF plan - which was okay, I could cover that with business travel.
• Then they had constant delays due to the US/AA merger - not to mention UA planes were completely awful (no pitch, no power, no IFE...it was not fun)
• Then they took away 4 SWU's and made us earn another 50K miles to get them back.
• Then they took away almost all saver space and added a third tier, meaning some domestic itineraries in coach would cost 200K+ miles on certain days.

Since my main goal was to get premium, international space, I switched to Alaska. The network is peanuts compared to AA, sure. But the service is good, SEA gives me plenty of options as a home hub and their partner network has crazy redemption value.

It all depends on what you're looking to get out of it!!

zebes

Piling on here, but apply your ONE observation to the hundreds of thousands of others. You were one passenger on one flight. In the calendar year 2017, Alaska had 170,167 total flights, but only 16.42 percent were late. You can look at the numbers yourself! Here are a couple resources for you: https://transtats.bts.gov/ONTIME/
https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/by_the_numbers/

Or you can make your same argument in a different context to realize how silly you are:
"In Game 3 of the 2018 NBA Finals, Steph Curry missed 13 of 16 field goals, including 9 of 10 from three-point range. Based on this miserable experience, I would suggest the Golden State Warriors look for an alternative to Steph Curry if their resources allow it. Best of luck to all."