Alaska Stingy About Waiving Cancellation/Change Fees
Feb 4, 2019, 7:44 pm
#61
Join Date: Dec 2018
Location: Seattle
Programs: Alaska airlines 100k
Posts: 923
Status doesn't come close to telling the whole story. The 75K who only buys coach tickets (or travels mainly on partner airlines) and sneaks through to requalification through transcon mileage runs on R fares is going to show up differently in internal metrics than the one who's booking F at the last minute.
Feb 4, 2019, 7:58 pm
#62
Join Date: Jul 2015
Location: SEA
Programs: Hilton/Marriott Gold, Accor Silver
Posts: 2,036
Feb 5, 2019, 12:00 am
#63
Suspended
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Kan@da
Programs: Anything with sweet spots
Posts: 1,790
I believe Delta has a different model in that they want to be great at customer service recovery. I flew delta only a handful of times (not counting miles redemptions) on discounted coach short-hauls and they waved award change fees three times and also awarded me 9K miles (enough for another domestic flight) miles twice for genuine complaints.
Feb 5, 2019, 1:03 am
#64
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Oct 2014
Posts: 10,904
I believe Delta has a different model in that they want to be great at customer service recovery. I flew delta only a handful of times (not counting miles redemptions) on discounted coach short-hauls and they waved award change fees three times and also awarded me 9K miles (enough for another domestic flight) miles twice for genuine complaints.
Apparently you believe that you are some great high-valued customer who should receive fee waivers. AS seems to disagree. You're not happy with their service and they don't value you as a customer. So, I guess that's the end of that. I'm not sure what you're hoping to accomplish here.
Feb 5, 2019, 10:01 am
#65
Join Date: Sep 2017
Location: Between SFO and STS
Programs: Alaska MVP Gold, United Serf, Delta Gold
Posts: 731
I believe Delta has a different model in that they want to be great at customer service recovery. I flew delta only a handful of times (not counting miles redemptions) on discounted coach short-hauls and they waved award change fees three times and also awarded me 9K miles (enough for another domestic flight) miles twice for genuine complaints.
Feb 5, 2019, 3:34 pm
#66
Join Date: Sep 2008
Programs: A3 *G, AA exePlat, AS MVP 75k Gold, JL sapphire, UA silver
Posts: 4,035
I believe Delta has a different model in that they want to be great at customer service recovery. I flew delta only a handful of times (not counting miles redemptions) on discounted coach short-hauls and they waved award change fees three times and also awarded me 9K miles (enough for another domestic flight) miles twice for genuine complaints.
Feb 5, 2019, 4:25 pm
#67
Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: YVR, HNL
Programs: AS 75k, UA peon, BA Bronze, AC E50k, Marriott Plat, HH Diamond, Fairmont Plat (RIP)
Posts: 7,832
Feb 6, 2019, 12:39 pm
#69
Join Date: Jul 2015
Location: SEA
Programs: Hilton/Marriott Gold, Accor Silver
Posts: 2,036
Feb 6, 2019, 6:16 pm
#71
Join Date: Nov 2017
Programs: AS 100K, HH Diamond, SPG/Marriott Gold
Posts: 189
Disagree - have seen far too many people complain bitterly about why they hate XXX airline - usually either for something the airline has no control over, or because the airline CHARGED THEM HUNDREDS MORE FOR THE SAME FLIGHT A DAY EARLIER????!1111! or similar. I don't even necessarily think it comes from a pure place of entitlement: most folks don't understand how the industry works/how tickets are priced, and think of themselves as paying for transport from A to B as opposed to a specific product depending on what, when, and what routing they purchase.
Feb 6, 2019, 6:27 pm
#72
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: SEA, but up and down the coast a lot
Programs: Oceanic Airlines Gold Elite
Posts: 20,389
Disagree - have seen far too many people complain bitterly about why they hate XXX airline - usually either for something the airline has no control over, or because the airline CHARGED THEM HUNDREDS MORE FOR THE SAME FLIGHT A DAY EARLIER????!1111! or similar. I don't even necessarily think it comes from a pure place of entitlement: most folks don't understand how the industry works/how tickets are priced, and think of themselves as paying for transport from A to B as opposed to a specific product depending on what, when, and what routing they purchase.
So go with the airline that treats you better, and realize that you're not a great customer if your model is "I scheme to pay as little as possible and use any trick in the book to extract value from the business relationship". Those are the customers whom businesses often actively try to fire...
Last edited by eponymous_coward; Feb 6, 2019 at 6:32 pm
Feb 6, 2019, 7:44 pm
#73
Suspended
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Kan@da
Programs: Anything with sweet spots
Posts: 1,790
And also, perhaps being disillusioned in hoping to attract Alaska's marketing to negative perception about their cancellation policy and about the elimination of the free pre-60 days cancellation.
Last edited by MasterGeek; Feb 6, 2019 at 8:27 pm
Feb 7, 2019, 1:04 pm
#74
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: Bay Area, CA
Programs: UA Plat 2MM; AS MVP Gold 75K
Posts: 35,068
I think your paradigm here is WAY off base and you got REALLY, REALLY lucky with DL. They are not some sort of unicorn in a field of ponies. AS is consistently rated higher in customer satisfaction than DL (11 years of top CS in traditional carriers), but as always, YMMV...
A lot of these satisfaction metrics are a function of the customer base. AS can get away with stuff because they have a very forgiving, SEA-centric customer base. Open a JFK hub and see how this stuff flies.
Feb 7, 2019, 2:43 pm
#75
Join Date: Sep 2017
Location: Between SFO and STS
Programs: Alaska MVP Gold, United Serf, Delta Gold
Posts: 731
AS is barely above DL. And Southwest and JetBlue do better than both of them. https://www.jdpower.com/business/pre...sfaction-study
A lot of these satisfaction metrics are a function of the customer base. AS can get away with stuff because they have a very forgiving, SEA-centric customer base. Open a JFK hub and see how this stuff flies.
A lot of these satisfaction metrics are a function of the customer base. AS can get away with stuff because they have a very forgiving, SEA-centric customer base. Open a JFK hub and see how this stuff flies.