s0ssos

After speaking to customer service and being told I have to pay to change my companion's ticket (within 24 hours, but I already made a change) and the agent being completely unsympathetic and going just by the book, what is the point of flying Alaska? I'm MVP Gold, and I know those are the rules, but sometimes agents try to help you out ...

That is, in the old days.

In looking at other threads about people whining about Alaska it seems the only point in flying Alaska is their mile-based earnings, compared to other airlines' revenue-based. Are there are other benefits? If I just took the money I saved on booking Alaska flights (cause they usually cost more), took advantage of the flexibility of not flying AS (which has a horrible route network once you get out of the West Coast), gave up the game of trying to get upgrades (their first class isn't that great anyway), would I come out ahead?

eponymous_coward

I've never understood why people don't primarily pick airlines based on flight frequency, service level you want to pay for, and pricing, but if everyone did that FT would be rather boring I suppose. The brick doesn't love you, so why love it? The salad days of doing TPA-ORD-JFK-MIA-SFO-LAX for $99 and boatloads of miles and elite status while you're a broke college student are behind us. You get what you pay for.

I don't have problems using Alaska but I'm SEA based. I happily defect to WN or DL, or even NK when it works for me, though. AS coach is about as good or better than anyone else's, considering UA and AA can squeeze you in to 30" coach and tiny lavs. Once AS starts the "pay us more to upgrade or get benefits" game I'm more likely to be a free agent- if everyone is racing to turn themselves into NK I might as well consider NK or (fill in the blank).

I don't have many complaints about AS operationally (see: DOT stats, and I don't check luggage either) and I find the whining about PDBs and F food to be mostly small beer, but I'm also not paying for F almost all of the time. Most of my flying is 2-3 hours where I don't really care if I get the upgrade. I've done OK on upgrades on longer flights. I almost certainly would rather have cocktails and better food at sea level than at 35,000 feet. Once I get to longer flights J or F is nice, but I'm mostly burning miles to do those flights... AS is OK for giving me options on that (along with UA/AV).

Legend717

I understand bemoaning the loss of service levels across all US airlines since 1940, sure.

But if your b!tch is that the customer service representative FOLLOWED POLICIES, then you've got to get over yourself.
You are gonna complain that you didn't get something you're not entitled to, for FREE?
Oh, brother.

s0ssos

No. It is how nicely they follow policies.

And no, they DO NOT follow policies in the US. Go to Japan and see what "follow policy" actually means.

tatterdema

I am almost exactly the same as eponymous_coward. I earned MVP for the first time last year, and was trying to earn it again this year until all the cuts to benefits they have done. Just when they made me loyal to them, even willing to pay a little more, they made those cuts. Now my loyalty is completely gone. The AS flight I have taken to Mexico every year for the past 10 years I just booked on Delta one way and WN the other. 6 months ago I never would have even considered that.

Sadly I doubt it is over either. I personally think they will go revenue based like everyone else in the near future.

writerguyfl

Your choice of the word "sometimes" indicates that you realize you can't always get what you want. Maybe this is just one of those times?

Finkface

I have always been charged the change fee for my no-status companion on the same PNR. Always. Never occurred to me to whinge about it as I know that there is a change fee for non-status pax and it is not waived for companions of Gold’s. If I don’t like it, I am free to book elsewhere but to come here and whine about it because you expected them to bend the rules? Complaining about having to pay a legitimate change fee for a non-status companion is a bit disingenuous. If it has been waived for you in the past, be grateful. But don’t complain when you are rightly charged.

Kacee

As a new AS flyer (and multi-year UA 1K) I am still blown away that AS waives change fees for Gold and 75K. By contrast, UA consistently gets around $2k in change fees from me every year. And I just paid $450 to change an AF ticket.

If you're complaining in any way, shape, or form about the scope or application of the AS fee waiver, you need a serious reality check.

chrisl137

They have nonstops BUR-PDX and I get a lot of upgrades as an MVP. I fly them primarily for my commute to PDX, and expected to stay with UA for most of my transcon east-west flights, but AS has been convenient for those, too. If they don't go where you want when you want then it doesn't make a lot of sense to fly them. I'll probably make MVP Gold this year and will continue to fly them as long as I have the PDX commute (and they maintain the frequencies to BUR and LAX)

I sat in UA E- for a transcon this past saturday. I'm a UA Silver and would get E+ at check-in, but LAX-EWR is so heavily subscribed that they were basically all taken. I'll take AS regular seats over that any day, and AS is nice enough to let me upgrade to PC 48 hours (and usually more) before the flight, which beats the check-in window problem of being silver on UA. I've gotten several upgrades this year on AS transcons as MVP. Check out the UA forum where 1Ks are complaining they can't ever get an upgrade.

That's why people fly UA. They have a huge network with high frequency on popular routes and offer some opportunities for upgrades, however slim, for people who are on pay-for-Y-cabin-only policies. Everybody seems to hate them and continually point out how they're going to the dogs, but the planes are going out without any empty seats. They're great if you can pay for F consistently, ok if you can get E+ consistently (legroom will make up for a lot of sins), and awful if you have to sit in E-. Fortunately my saturday E- flight was followed by 7 hours TATL in Polaris Silver (E+ with an empty adjacent seat). When I read that forum, all I can think of is Yogi Berra - "Nobody flies United anymore, it's too crowded". I don't fly AA or DL, but my impression is that they aren't any better as far as upgrade or FF mile value.

One other thing that I've noticed that doesn't seem to get discussed on FT is that FF programs are all really split into two programs. The BIS program that provides perks for people who spend a lot of time actually paying to sit in the planes, and a separate "S&H Green Stamp" program that provides funny money for buying flights (or other things if you want). The BIS program is the real loyalty program - they give perks to the people who sit in the seats because they recognize that the more you do it, the more it sucks, and the perks make it at least tolerable. So programs separate the loyalty into the EQM/EQD/EQS part of the earnings that you get for paid BIS miles. The S&H Green Stamp program is an income center where airlines make money by selling miles to other companies (credit card, hotel, florist, pet groomer, whatever) and they expect that people who are earning via those routes have less loyalty and are just looking for "free" flights. The customer in the S&H green stamp program is the credit card or whoever is buying bulk miles to give away, not the recipient of the miles.

s0ssos

Do other airlines have a 1 change rule? I did not know that.

Jetblue also waives change fees. And Southwest obviously does for everyone, not just people with status.

As for AS having rules ... Yes, if you pretend you did not know the old AS, where the rule was that if you change a few months advance there is no change fee.

What irked me is the agent's attitude. If someone comes in to the store and asks to use the bathroom without buying something, and the policy is that the restroom is for customers only, should the attendant smirk at you and say "can't you read?"
It is only because all the airlines in America act like LCCs that people accept it.

halamadrid

I'm a little confused. OP states that it was still within 24 hours so why not just cancel and book the whole itinerary again without penalty.

viperbrown

No airline loyalty program is perfect. You can always HUCA to see if a different MVP Gold phone rep can get what you seek instead. In my experience with MVP Gold reps in 2018, not only do they pick up the phone fast, but they also don't whine/lie as much/if at all like the AA and UA premium reps do!

Agree that AS routes or flight prices are not the most competitive. I also don't like the benefit cuts without notice. I like them for the mile earnings till the time its still possible, and for amazing J / F class awards between the U.S. and Asia etc.

eponymous_coward

To be clear; I'm in the process of requalifying for MVPG this year. But I have WN, DL, AA flights on the docket as well. UA just doesn't work well for my travel patterns right now: routing through SFO seems to be guaranteed ATC delay, and a connection at DEN isn't worth dropping a nonstop. It's fairly likely I'll fly at least some AS as long as I'm based in SEA.

But I expect to lose the ability to upgrade or cancel/change the lowest priced coach fares (even as a Gold) once all the changes are implemented. That will push a lot of my flying to WN since they don't have that restriction. And if airlines are going to treat me like I am flying NK because I want to buy cheap tickets, I might as well fly NK... or just go with "what airline works for me for the amount of money I wish to spend"? Sometimes it will be AS. Sometimes it won't.

If I'm going to be stuck in a coach seat, there's significant advantages to WN (no change/cancel fees, even on WGA fares, the award program is at least straightforward if not full of lucrative places to get Krug and showers). WN also has good frequencies in markets, and no tiny RJs. They will likely pick up my business once AS guts some more out of MP.

PotomacApproach

I'm keeping my MVP going, but we'll see how I feel in '19. I fly to SoCal 1-2x/month, and much prefer to fly into BUR. Mostly splitting between JetSuiteX and WN, with occasional AS. If JSX ever launches a PacNW - East Bay service, I'd be a free agent.

SFOPeter

They've not charged me the couple of times I've done it, but I don't expect it. Couple of weeks ago we split a PNR so my girlfriend could stay in Hawaii a few more days and they definitely charged $125 to change her ticket. No surprise there...