Flying for Fun

No luck needed! Great Airline, fabulous customer service and a FF program that has allowed me to fly around the world twice this year on J & F awards. I especially appreciated my YVR-HKG//HKG-DPS CX J award I booked with the 50K bonus miles I received in appreciation for my loyalty. Nothing is 100% but AS is pretty damn close. Sorry you are so bitter about the 0.01% and ALASKA denying you their credit card and those lucrative bonus points

How about stating your itinerary? Original & what you actually flew? Construction in SFO & SEA are playing havoc with schedules do to ATC holds & slot assignments. Throw in some weather and everything starts to unravel. I just flew SFO-SEA last week. 8:05 am departure. Held on the taxiway until 9:20 as SEA would not allow take-off prior so it could be slotted into arrivals. We even circled SEA because we arrived a few minutes early. How is that an AS issue? Without disclosing the details, painting the Airline with a single brush based on one experience isn't going to garner any sympathy. Perhaps the details aren't commensurate with the rant. Enjoy WN.

James

LoungeLizardHugo

Lol, the Alaska Apologists Forum...

You all keep enjoying that great Alaska Airlines value! As several posters suggested there are usually always alternatives, we all have to choose where spending our money feels the best.

Cheers ^

jinglish

Last year I flew Southwest for the first time in about a decade, one-way PIT-MDW-PDX, and it was miserable--after a 3.5-hour delay out of MDW thanks to a late inbound aircraft, I nabbed a window seat ahead of the exit rows with a mid-B boarding number only to wind up with a deodorantless C-grouper in the middle next to me. Your experience doesn't mean AS is awful any more than mine means that WN is.

nearlysober

Are you surprised that most people here are fans of Alaska? Here in the Alaska forum? You had one bad flight, that sucks - it happens. For the most part, flying is something we deal with, not something we do for fun... although I actually really like flying and my years and years of awesome Alaska experience is part of that... but hey, you did fly them once. So... I should stop?

Speaking of "I flew an airline once and I'm now an expert on it" - I flew Southwest recently from the Bay area to Vegas. It was super early, I was hung over and tired... I just wanted a coffee and some water. So I tried asking for that when the FA came by. She told me I could have one or the other, but not both, because the flight was too short "and it's just me here serving all these people".

If only Southwest could've afforded to hire two FAs to serve the cabin, or if she had just provided good customer service and poured some water in less time than it took to rant about how she doesn't have time to pour two drinks.

I chose the coffee.

Flying for Fun

Excuse me????? I am Flying for Fun! I thought I should introduce myself. lol Guilty as charged.

James

pinniped

Thanks, I have indeed been enjoying it. Been flying 'em for about 2 years now and have about enough miles for 2xR/T in CX J. ^

I've had a 2.5 hour delay on AS, but I've had them on WN, AA, and UA too.

I've been downgraded from Premium to regular-Y due to an equipment change on AS. *shrug* It happens...AS sent me a $25 downgrade coupon for use on another flight. That actually *hasn't* happened to me on Southwest, because they don't have a Premium option.

I fly WN where they have nonstops. I fly AS where they have nonstops. Both of them are substantially better than flying short-haul AA or UA barbie jets. AS has an eclectic mix of partners, but I kind of like that given that I have other FFPs I can use if I need a Oneworld or Star itinerary.

sltlyamusd

bobbysfca

Long Island Railroad to Jamaica Station! Zero, one or two stops from Penn Station. Very easy.

And it's REALLY short from the Airtrain to the gates, shorter than any other non-podunk airport I know of.
Contrast that with the potential distance at JFK T4, where if you get the farthest gate, you will need to walk over 20% of the distance to Rockaway Beach. (Seriously, look it up on GoogEarth.)

abcflyer

It's because of their great customer service - I fly internationally a lot and connect back home through LA, San Francisco or Vancouver, if the international flight comes in on time, I can just make the earlier connection back to Seattle by sprinting through customs (as a Gold 75K, no change fees), last week arrived at gate at 9:00 pm for a 9:15 pm departure and was accommodated. Getting home 3 hours earlier after 24 hours of travel - priceless!

MDtR-Chicago

Can't say I'm excited about it, but... I'm going to be short of requalifying for MVP Gold and, yet again, I can't book my latest business trip on Alaska. SFO-DEN, AS actually does have a published fare connecting at SEA, and it's 3x the United non-stop.

Yes, I know, hub to hub and all that... I could pay a 20% premium and my company would be fine with it. But 3x? Doubling the travel time?

In order to requalify, I would need to book an upcoming east coast trip with 5 hours of drive time, take a 7am flight on another transcon when I don't need to arrive until the evening, and then pull ahead another transcon trip earlier than I want to take it.

It's just not worth it. As much as I dislike United... it seems to be my only viable option out of SFO now. Hopefully it's better than when I left a few years back.

NoLaGent

It's not, but I understand your situation all too well. AS seems to be narrowing the gap between itself and UA on a daily basis, which probably surprises no one. <sigh>

KnownasEric

I fly primarily for business, then leisure second. Since SEA is my home, it was either them or DL. AS just has a better route network for me, and they have a lot more non-stop options to the midwest, where I typically fly to for business.

That, and the CX redemption rates...

eponymous_coward

AS can't make SFO-DEN work. They are therefore the WORST AIRLINE EVER. I can't BELIEVE they would give up on that kind of route, amirite?

Fun fact: UA just gave up on LAX-DFW.

That's a route between the #3 and #4 airports in the world, y'all. On a much bigger airline than AS; if UA really wanted to they could run hourly widebody shuttles on the route.

And they suspended LAX-PHL.

Huh. Go figure. I guess AS has competition in the WORST AIRLINE EVER game.

This just in: B6 gave up on IAD and cut back BWI. OMG, new WORST AIRLINE EVER!

sfozrhfco

Which misses the point completely. From SFO which was a VX hub, AS has cut out flights to some major business markets either by pulling out completely or by reducing frequency. Couple this with non-viable connecting options and it reduces the overall value of AS to SFO flyers. Many, many people flew VX to get away from UA but now with UA getting a bit better and expanding their domestic footprint, it becomes increasingly difficult to avoid them and with AS being a non-viable option in so many markets, AS is not in a great position at SFO and that will only get worse for them. There are too many other options with competitors which are stronger in every other market aside from going to Alaska, SEA, and PDX.

UA has major hubs in SFO/IAH so getting to DFW/PHL is not really a problem if somebody is loyal to UA as there are a ton of options to still get there. There is very little O/D traffic from JFK to IAD and UA could not even support it...no big deal as AMTRAK/bus or DL/UA shuttle can take care of that. Totally different situations.

eponymous_coward

Oh, I'm pretty sure I get the point, which is "AS DROOLZ, VX ROOLZ AND ALL ROUTE DROPS PROVE THIS POINT".

AS serves more destinations today than AS+VX did at the time of the merger. But hey. I'm sure they'll be in Chapter 11 next week.