sethMCOflyer

Why does the boarding pass make it more obvious that this is a non smoking flight than what gate I should go to?

It was also extremely hard to figure out which baggage claim to go to, they didn't announce it on the plane and the app doesn't list it anywhere as far as I could tell. I had to Google the flight number and find it on a 3rd party site.



Am I just crazy?

be_rettSEA

This isn't their standard boarding pass, but I've gotten them before, usually from a general airport computer vs one of their kiosks. Sometimes their own boarding passes don't list the gate if it hasn't been assigned yet, but airport monitors or the Alaska app are a good resource to find your gate number.

Agree re: baggage claim number. They'll sometimes provide it just before deplaning, but wish they'd include it in the app like other carriers do.

JacksonFlyer

I only use the boarding pass on my I-phone and the gate is prominently listed there, usually several hours before the flight. I don't think I have ever seen "non-smoking flight" anywhere on my electronic pass nor do I remember seeing it on a printed pass in decades. I will have to look next time. As far as what baggage carousel is being used I agree that might be a little hit and miss at times but the few times I have checked luggage, the baggage claim is in the same terminal and there has always been a reader board that says which carousel you flight is being assigned.

sethMCOflyer

The boarding pass in the photo actually has the gate listed, 111. I realized this after looking at a departure board.

It sounds like this boarding pass layout isn't very common, sounds like one of their systems is needing an update.

steve64

Personally, I don't use the boarding pass to determine the gate (though I do still insist on a paper BP).
Paper passes don't auto update with changed gate assignments. The app and airport monitors typically do.
To answer your question literally, the gate for your flight is subject to change while the smoking status isn't. So IMHO, the gate info isn't to be relied on. I do think it's funny they couldn't at least print the word "gate" next to the 111.

Since the name "Alaska Airlines" had to be printed on the pass (vs a pre-printed airline logo in color), it suggests to me that this pass was printed from a generic printer operated by the airport, not the airline.

For baggage claim, I've found it best to check the monitors in the claim area itself. They usually list a specific belt while arrival monitors in the terminal often don't.
But I also take bag belt numbers with a grain of salt. At many airports, I don't think the physical belt is "assigned" until the tug pulls up and see's which belt is available. At my home base of PHX, both American and Southwest are notorious for delivering bags at the end of the arrivals hall that is opposite from the advertised belt.

nearlysober

Did you get that printed out by a person at the arrivals desk? The only time I see that kind of card stock these days is when I have something printed out that way.

In my experience when I use the little self-service kiosks at most airports they print out the much flimsier paper, but easier to read format like the example below.
Although for non-business domestic travel these days I just 100% use the app instead of a paper ticket.

Here's what the AS boarding pass should look like (recently remodeled):

isaac.chambers

The BP is the old classic SABRE format and is only given out at the counter - the background should be on regular ticket stock so that the printing is more intuitive. I remember when i worked for AA these were the passes i printed on a daily basis....i miss the old paper ticket stock ....but it was expensive for little use....we are all electronic now!

rustykettel

sethMCOflyer

This makes the most sense. I don't think it's necessarily a shared counter in the idea that it switches between different airlines during the day, but probably owned by the airport and the airlines leasing space don't have much freedom to change the setup. There counter looks generic and then the wall is covered in LCDs displaying "Alaska Airlines" and all of their upcoming flights. So it's possible it's just the ticket printer that MCO provides with the setup.

I might just need to take my gripe to MCO instead of Alaska, although I can't remember anyone else having this same ticket layout from MCO.

chrisl137

Wikipedia still has a picture of a ticket printed on old style stock here. The problem is that they're just feeding blank white stock into the printer, but whatever is doing the formatting was told it's on standard stock. The most probable outcome, given how institutions work, is that AS will manage to update the format so it makes sense on blank stock, and someone at the airport will put real ticket stock in, and we'll get a post in a couple weeks from someone who has an unreadable boarding pass because it's the new format on pre-printed stock

Legend717

How sad that our society has deemed it appropriate to gripe AT ALL about having to go through the egregious emotional suffering of locating one's own departure gate and baggage claim.
Heaven forbid we actually ask a real live human being for this information. Alaska employs many of them.

sethMCOflyer

I'm not claiming emotional suffering. I'm just griping that they didn't provide a boarding pass that is easily readable or give clear indication of the bag claim number. Sure there's other ways to get the same info but I'm the customer here, I'd rather pay an extra couple dollars on my ticket to not have to deal with this type of stuff.

It sounds like this is a one off situation, at least limited to one airport so I'm not going to say much more about this. If this was how all of the Alaska boarding passes are, as I originally thought, I would have thought very poorly of Alaska's infrastructure.

jsguyrus

No Alaska boarding pass ever shows the bag claim number. As far as the gate, no one who travels often looks at their printed boarding pass to get their gate as it changes often (and most frequent travels don't use printed passes anyway). Always use the airport monitors or the app.

nearlysober

For a lot of people - flying & the airport experience sucks. Printing out a boarding pass of indecipherable hieroglyphics doesn't help that experience. Forcing them to seek out help from airport employees instead of making it seamless doesn't help that experience.

That boarding pass should be an embarrassment to AS and they really should try to avoid using it... after all they put a lot of thought & consideration into the version they print out on the thermal paper.

His complaint isn't invalid because he didn't feel like seeking out one of the "many" AS employees who wander the halls of MCO apparently. I know we're in the AS forum and most of us are fans and maybe even apologists, but don't need to attack the OP for discussing his experience which he did not enjoy.

Flying for Fun

When I arrived NRT for a QF Flight to MEL that had already been closed for 30 minutes (long story) a very helpful JL Agent summoned 4 additional Agents to assist her in getting me on the flight. One went running to fetch blank QF boarding pass stock for her printer, another called the gate, a third assisted with my luggage and a fourth hand delivered my baggage to the aircraft. The first then assisted me through staff/pilot security ahead of the queue and escorted me to the gate where they were waiting for me. Of course customer service seems to have a different definition in Asia.

James