AS Flyer

from mid Sept through the holidays are some of the leanest months of the year in normal times, traffic-wise. It's no surprise to see Alaska leaning up the schedule quite a bit so they can get more pilots trained and prepare to beef the schedule up right after the holidays. Alaska announced they're hiring 800+ FA's by summer of 2022. They aren't doing that if they don't expect a bump in flights in the near future. SAN will continue to grow and I expect that LAX and even SFO will start to see traffic returning as the months go by. I know it's popular for some to pontificate about Alaska leaving SFO and another blue-ish airline moving in but I don't expect AS will let SFO wither on the vine. SEA will, naturally, continue to grow as well and PDX should see some nice bumps coming up. All these things are predicated on whatever may or may not happen with Covid...

xliioper

SAN-LIH operates on Nov 30th. It goes on hiatus from Dec 1 - 15 and then returns on Dec 16th for a couple weeks for holidays through Jan 3rd.



It's only in the schedule for Jan 1 - 3 in January, and then goes on hiatus again until March 17th when it is currently scheduled to restart. Although current schedule only looks mostly firm through Jan 3rd, so they could very well extend the route from Jan 4th onwards to March 17th.

xliioper

SAN-PVR is daily for Thanksgiving week through 12/15, and then goes less than daily for awhile until Jan 4th which is somewhat counterintuitive (you'd think it be daily during busy end of year holiday travel demand period rather than from 12/1 - 12/15 which is generally weak).

Ford Fairlane

Here's an odd one. Checking the app yesterday (Sunday) morning, I had a notice that there was a change to a multi-city itinerary I have booked for mid-October, and that it'd require agent assistance (meaning there' s no easy fix, I assumed). I figured I'd call in later this week.

Then last night, I received an email that "Your travel plans have changed" for this same trip. But my updated flight information for this trip is identical to what I had before. Same flight numbers, DEP/ARR times, and days. The only difference I could spot is that my seat number was different for the final flight, but I changed it back. As I said, odd.

SoCaltravel

Just checked my flight schedule for January. Had LAX-KOA booked direct both to and from LAX. That vanished and now have to contact AL. Had another trip in November to LIH that was through SJC from LAX and that also went away a month or so ago. It seems difficult to plan anything more than a month or two in advance from LAX for longer trips (something other than the normal west coast runs).

Calculon

Same aircraft type?

PV_Premier

My holiday flights to Hawaii got blown up, no surprise. This happens pretty much every time I book AS out of SMF. The only reason I did it this time is that HA was $$$$$$$$$$$$$.

Originally outbound booked SMF-SAN-KOA in paid F with a 35' stop in SAN. I guess they reshuffled the SMF-SAN schedule (AGAIN) and it ended up bumping me onto a SEA connection that got in almost 3 hours later. I canceled and booked business select on WN nonstop. Sucks to fly WN but better to get in before noon than closer to 5pm, with both options departing within 30' of each other.

Now on my return which was KOA-SEA-SMF on an F award, it seems that AS has scrubbed basically all daytime flights out of KOA that allow for onward same day connections...we booked the flights we did to avoid the redeye. As flight prices are astronomical on this particular day, we will I guess be accepting KOA-SJC, which hopefully will continue to survive on its existing schedule until we travel.

This is peak holiday period between December 23-January 3, not the "down time" between Thanksgiving and Christmas. So if you have Hawaii flights during that time I would strongly suggest checking your reservations especially if you are booked in F, and even more so if you have an ongoing connection, as the remaining available seats might go quick.

I am pretty glad that this flight will burn down my remaining pile of miles so that I can sort of be done with this nonsense once and for all.

Ford Fairlane

Yes, also exactly the same for all four flights.

ACVFlyer

I cashed in points to fly WN between SAN and Hawaii in December. 19K pts each way to HI and 5K pts interisland was too hard to pass up.

I booked positioning flights between RNO-SAN and LAX-RNO in PC on AS. I miss QX service into MMH.

Out of the blue, I called AS res and upgraded my LAX-RNO segment to FC. It was only a $40 difference from PC and I love the single seats on the E175. When the schedule changes came out, my LAX-RNO leg was switched to 10am (7pm flight was 86'ed) which is before my train arrives in LA from San Diego. With a quick call to AS res, I rebooked to the early evening LAX-SEA and SEA-RNO flights. Looks like I will definitely get my $40 worth on those two legs plus I earn 50% bonus mileage and lounge access. What is for dinner on the LAX-SEA leg, sandwiches?

bobdillingerz

What's the secret to flying out of Hawaii (any airport) before Noon? Both legs of these flights have received big changes:

PDX-OGG (original departure 10AM, now 7AM)
OGG-SEA-PDX (original departure 8AM now ***Noon***)

Pretty lousy move by Alaska as this is over Christmas week and peak travel. For various reasons we we're hoping to get back on the original time of 530PM, now we're looking at 930PM. I've always defended AS but this is a premium route.

Our only recourse looks like a United flight from OGG-LAX-PDX, but even then we're only getting in 90 minutes earlier than the updated time.

PDXPremier

As mentioned in another thread, red eyes ex-Hawaii on AS (even AA to some extent) are SOP....sorta like the flights out of ANC.

WebTraveler

We got hosed as well in this. PDX-OGG went from 2 flights to one. We had the 630pm PDX-OGG cancelled on us, and now on the 7am; it was either that or fly thru San Jose over Christmas week. SEA connections basically full with odds and ends here and there - not enough for all of us on the flight and we'd have to split up. Return we had the overight red-eye 830pm - 4am. Now we are on a return at 4:30pm back to PDX. It is what it is.

I do not understand why you are flying thru Seattle on the return. Is the non-stop return not working for you?

Sign of the times really.

philemer

Our Feb. 5th, 11:15 AM flight, KOA-SEA, just got axed. Closest option is to leave at 12:45 PM which isn't too bad. No AM flts, KOA-SEA, around that early Feb time frame now.

pcoll

Just did my usual Sunday Night check for schedule changes to my trips. 2 PNR's for tonight. Mid day flight cancelled. Only very early or very late offered for that day. Changed to day before for 10:00 am flight. Fourth change for this trip. I am sure there will be more.

chrisl137

I discovered an interesting quirk of the Chase portal a couple weeks ago. If there's a CoS change they give you the option to cancel the flight for a refund or credit. It first showed up on a ONT-SEA-PDX-SEA-ONT F itinerary where for some reason AS put one of the PDX-SEA segments in coach (on an A320) but Chase thought it was F. When I upgraded to PC, chase gave me the option to accept the class of service change or decline and they'd cancel the flight for a refund or whatever. I accepted it, since it was actuall main to PC (followed by an upgrade to F anyway).

Tonight they sent me the same thing for an equipment change and it's more tempting. I used chase points to book ONT-PDX-SEA-ONT in F around thanksgiving to just squeak over the 75K miles mark, and they just swapped the PDX-SEA segment to a Q400. Since I booked, I also had a long RT on AA that got me miles, plus they've extended the 1.5x multiplier so I don't need the EQM from F anymore. It's a little tempting, because I can rebook in main for much less in real money, though I kind of want the F seat as a sure thing around thanksgiving when flying will be a circus. It's also not clear if I'd get points back with Chase or if they'd give me wallet credit (which would be even better...)