Frustrating Misconnect at SEA (8/3/2019)
 

Some things in this thread are my fault, others Alaska's fault and others no one's fault. I'm going to point some fingers but mainly I'm just upset and need to vent.

A few months ago I booked RDU-SEA-BOI for a little over $300. The itinerary had a 70 minute connection. Today there was an ATC delay into SEA due to low ceilings and according to the pilots also because the Blue Angels were training around SEA. We pushed back at 6:00 PM forty minutes late and then took off at 6:20 PM. It should have been okay, especially as SEA-BOI originally delayed a half hour as well but that was later rescinded. Our arrival gate was originally C2 but at some point switched to D20. I don't fly AS much or use SEA much so I didn't know that D20 isn't a gate, it's an apron. We landed at 8:35 PM and then taxied for 15 minutes, often stopping, before we parked at this hard stand area which is tucked pretty far away from the terminal. Once I was off the plane I had to wait for the bus to fill before it slowly trundled its way to D20. We finally parked at 9:08 PM.

Unfortunately, once you get off the bus you're funneled into a series of ramps, at least eight, that slowly wind you down to the entrance of the terminal. It was filled with people walking in single file, no way around them, with no sense of urgency. I finally got inside and ran to C10C. I yelled out "BOISE!" as I was getting close. I arrived at exactly 9:14 PM for a 9:25 PM departure only to be coldly told "the flight is closed". I asked when they close flights and was told "12 minutes in advance". I asked the two agents to please call to see if I could get on, I didn't have to gate check a bag, I had no checked luggage, I was in First Class but they told me coldly "that's not how it works" and that I would delay the flight and they couldn't delay a whole plane for just me. I argued to no avail. They then told me I was booked on some 11:45 PM flight and to go to the customer service desk. There was a line of three dozen people there and once there I realized there was no later flight, that they'd either been mistaken or lied to me. I called Alaska and an agent called back a half hour later who to her credit was friendly and helpful. When she called back I had moved up maybe two places in line in 30 minutes.

I'm now booked for tomorrow. I'm out one night at my Boise hotel. I paid $200 for the SEA Marriott. I lost my rental car reservation. I paid for the SEA-BOI upgrade and they wouldn't honor it for tomorrow. So none of this is to the good. I just wish they'd let me board when I arried at the gate at 9:14 PM for a 9:25 PM departure, especially when it turned out the plane didn't even leave until 9:23 PM. Sigh.

Super frustrating, and I'm sorry that happened to you. Especially being lied to by the gate agent about your "new" flight...ouch.

You hit a double whammy with the ATC delay and the Bus Gate. I'm actually amazed you made it to C10 at 9:14, I've done D22 to C2 just recently, and It's a hike. (that narrow switchback ramp is a major PITA too)

Unfortunately, you had already misconnected a long time before that, per AS rules.

SEA is a mess and it's not going to get better. Where possible, I'm building in extra time to connect. When you miss your connection, good luck getting out quickly on another flight. Even with status, many of them are full. And "ATC" = no compensation. I fell your pain.

Good advice going forward. Sadly, only one RDU-SEA a day so it's either risk it or fly someone else. And the 7 AM RDU-SFO doesn't give many options for west coast connections to those secondary cities AS is so good at serving, like BOI.

Yeah, AS has become a lot more hit and miss regarding compassion and empathy for their customers. The phone and email agents tend to be better than the airport staff imo.

The Blue Angels add an additional interesting piece. They've known about the impact of this for what, months if not nearly a year beforehand? Why do the airlines (not just AS, but DL, etc) get a free pass for a known, planned ATC disruption?

It is an interesting situation. What is the MCT at SEA? Should it be adjusted given the recent addition of bus gates? Delays due to ATC used to be pretty rare at SEA, now they are the norm. It seems like it's a loophole to allow AS to sell you a ticket with a questionable connection time and then not be liable if you miss it.

Though the easy solution to all of this - buy your ticket with a credit card that has travel insurance and file a claim for your hotel charges.

I'd personally make it my duty to get reimbursed by AS for my expenses if I were you . Keep calling until they agree it was horrible customer service. Ask for a manager. Ask for the manager's manager. You were flatly lied to and given a cold "go to hell" response for being all of one minute late (according to the gate agent)? Unacceptable. They had to have known you were on a tight connection, but you make it? They should have held the plane. I'm pissed off for you! :)
Did the BOI flight end up taking off on time? Yep, it left 2 minutes early. That's tremendously unacceptable. They have 15 minutes past departure time to still be "on time" in the books. When talking to CS, I might make reference to other airlines in this case - especially DL. They would have held the plane for you.

#northofexpected

They have to meet their metrics! On time numbers are better than accommodated passengers! It's nice to see QX holding the last flight of the night for connections.

This has been an ongoing issue with Horizon for a while, especially in Seattle. I've been offloaded a QX flight by the gate agents because they see my connecting flight coming into N and don't think it's possible to make a 25 minute connection. It's a really customer unfriendly policy, especially when there are delays and the customer is at the gate >10 min from departure. They can't push more than five minutes early and meanwhile everyone on the plane is twiddling their thumbs waiting for the W&B info to come in. If it takes them 10 minutes to transmit W&B info to operations in PDX (or SGU if it's Skywest) and back to the line, they really need better technology.

Thank you for all the responses so far. It's been nice having people on my side.

Meanwhile, as a final insult, I'm at SEA now waiting for my rebooked flight which is delayed 18 minutes. That would have been the difference last night :(

There's not a lot going on in Boise after 11:40pm when that flight would have gotten in (I say this as someone from Boise). It would not have inconvenienced a planeload of people to wait 5 minutes.

Sorry you had to deal with this, I echo the sentiment of others.

While it's probably a very small point in your mind now, I'm curious why your paid upgrade from SEA-BOI was not honored today. I've never experienced this kind of IRROPS with AS, so is this normal not to rebook in the original class of service paid for?

That seems to be correct. The phone agent did talk to her supervisor but they said that upgrades are flight specific. Today's SEA-BOI was F7 when I was rebooked but U0. U opened this morning and I was able to again pay my $29 to get into it. Good thing too as the flight filled up with standbys so I'm glad to have spent $29 to be more comfortable and have a few cocktails.

Glad it worked out! The lack of protection on rebooking is another one of those AS points that is easier to overlook when they offered better service and benefits than the big 3. As they move towards that same service level, those sort of things become more of an irritant.

Too bad you couldn't sprint from the remote gate to gate C10 and then board. That risks arrest.

Sorry about your ordeal, OP.

The GAs had likely already closed your flight in the computer and were unwilling to re-open it. It's unfortunate that they seem to be disincentivized to help connecting pax make even the last flight of the night, and even when that flight is running early.

For the record, the website seems to indicate that the "official" policy is that you need to be at the gate with a valid BP at D-30

Nevertheless, hopefully AS Customer Relations will issue you some comp. Please keep us posted on their response

Your seat was probably filled by another displaced passenger from a mess earlier, and even if they opened the door, the seat was gone. That's my guess.

A "few" cocktails on a ~90 min. flt? Be happy if you get > 1. I would have bought u a drink in BOI but we're fishing in AK. :)
Next time in BOI let me know.

Many unfortunate observations here:

I assume this was Friday?
Blue Angels were practicing in the early afternoon...How that impacted your 8:35pm landing flight, I am not sure.
They were flying over my house and when they were I took a look at the ATC flow via FlightAware. Flights were taking off to the north and had to make a curve around the the city to the west. Inbound were not affected much on the pattern running them down over Lake Sammamish. I didn't see this impacting capacity really. Also much earlier in the day.
I am not sure when there would have been low ceilings, maybe in the early morning but the rest of the day was quite clear.
I do know that the low ceilings in the AM excuse has been used for evening flights and possibly because capacity is so constrained that ANY delays any time during the day will compund into the evening.

As others observed, at this point, you can't really rely upon being able to connect in SEA anymore. These delays are also highly variable. They can easily be 90-120 minutes.
Seatac is rapidly expanding the number of gates and flights without anymore runways so this will continue until a complete meltdown in 2021 once some of these expansions are complete.

Blue Angels were indeed practicing, I had a Q400 flight that took off on Thursday at around 3 PM and we had a dramatically altered climb out to avoid their airspace after an insanely long taxi out.

All true but lets keep things in perspective. I have sat on the taxiway at ATL in a line of planes that went on forever for three hours and I have endured endless multi-hour T-storm delays at EWR. When I think about that the bus gates at SEA don't compare.

I'm freaking out
 

ok, you guys have me freaking out. In 2 weeks, I fly JFK - SEA (AS 349) with 1 hour layover then SEA - ANC (AS 57). I had a longer layover and AS changed the flight schedules a few months ago. Any way for me to know which gates I will arrive and depart from? This trip has been in the works for a year. If I miss the second leg, friends who are meeting me in ANC will be stuck without a car, hotel, etc.
Thanks.

Ouija board? Tarot cards?

You're asking for gate assignments two weeks in advance. That's not going to happen. If it does, make sure you get some winning lottery ticket numbers.

SEA-ANC isn't like SEA-BOI, there are regular flights to ANC available at all hours, if you miss your flight you will be rolled to the next one.

There is really no way to know what gate you are scheduled into until a few hours prior to the flight, and even then it can change up to the time you arrive.Since you are scheduled to arrive at noon that is a slower time at SEA so gates should not be an issue. I don't think the transcons ever use the bus gate so assuming you are not delayed in NYC you should be ok, but not by much.

ok, I just checked and surprised to see flights SEA -ANC 1 and 2 hours later. Neither are full. I don't know why they put me on such a tight connection but now I feel much better.
Thanks!

Did you explicitly accept the new itinerary? If not, call up AS and ask for the later flight if you feel nervous.

Who is "they?" Presuming you booked the short connection at the time.;)

Given the schedule change, AS will likely rebook you onto the later flight. I would do that sooner rather than later. Just because there may be availability today doesn't mean it will be there tomorrow.

Sorry. I thought I was clear, but the metrics I was referring to were the internal AS/QX metrics, not the DOT ones. It's the same reason why they routinely refuse to list/clear standbys under 15 minutes before departure, including company pilots. Heck, some new GAs won't deal with standbys under 20 minutes because "there's not enough time to clear you and close the flight!"

It all depends on where one sits. Delaying flights is a poor idea. It leads to lengthier delays, particularly at larger airports, and that leads to crew time outs and other passengers missing meetings.

I hadn't thought of this... I'll bet a heaping helping of polenta that this what really happened.

I've done the same thing, asking them to please not close the gate early. That usually works, esp in F and if you have a little status.

UA's program is much ado about nothing. They claim to have 150k connecting passengers a day and accommodated 14k over 4 months. A few people I'm sure were saved a big delay, but hardly Earth shattering. What does that amount to? Less than .001% of connection passengers? It's such a non event that I got 7 pages into the United forum looking for a part about i and got bored.

UA marketing people love people like you.

The "program" is nothing more than carriers have done for years.