ctporter

Booked a trip tonight SEA SMF for mid March. The corporate TA we are required to use still has not invoiced me (3+ hours) and when I called AS I got a notice that the wait time is 3-4 HOURS! at 10:30pm. Either Snowmagedden is really here or they are woefully understaffed at AS call centers or both. The FC fare is so cheap I really wanted to upfare (company will not let me book FC of course) but I would have done it on my own, for the bonus. Can not even take advantage of the discounted fares right now. GRRRR. Hopefully, I can do this in am, and the FC fare will not be out of consideration

HaleiwaFlyer

Well....that was not fun. PDX-SEA-EUG. My original 7PM flight to SEA got cancelled, and a gate agent placed me on a 6PM flight. We boarded around 5:40PM, and literally sat on the plane for 2.5 hours. The wait was due to a combination of luggage, de-icing, and the inability to get the tug out of snow. The luggage rack froze to the ground . PDX finally shut the airport down by 8PM, and we all deplaned around 8:15PM.

Ended up renting a car, and driving to Eugene. It blows my mind that Portland cannot maintain their roads, but a totally different story.

Earlier in the day, no Uber drivers at all from downtown Portland, and RadioCab was out. Luckily a Yellow Cab company was open, but the wait was 1-2 hours for a ride. Definitely not a fun day.

Xrayman

Outcome:
called on 2/11 around 9pm CST and asked
if I could get put on ORD flight for 2/12. The customer service agent in Boise was initially very proud that they had already booked me
for the next day out of MKE. I asked again if I could just be put on an ORD flight so I could sleep in my own bed on 2/12 as originally planned. He states that there would be a fee difference because it was a different airport. I expressed understanding but asked for the courtesy. He put me on hold and went to a supervisor. Within 2 minutes he returned and ask which flight I preferred but clarified that my FC upgrade could not be immediately transferred or honored as all FC seats were filled.

I asked for the 8:00 am flight and it was completed within 2 minutes. I checked in on my phone subsequently and got a boarding pass and placed on upgrade wait list.

later that evening I looked at the next day flights seating availability. Later flights had some unfilled seats but no FC seats for sale. I was within the 24 hour window so did SDC very easily on my phone to an alternate flight and was placed on the wait list. After checking in I was #1 on list.

more of a pain to get to airport at ORD due to change, had to take train to downtown Chicago then blue line to ORD. Was gonna take Coach airport bus but the timing efficiency was just a bit narrow - with only 15 minute arrival before takeoff- which could easily be a late arrival to ORD).

At T2 before takeoff received email that I was upgraded

overall other than my original flight being cancelled (I suspect because flights for this route both ways was less than 1/2 filled, they could easily combine for the next day) I was satisfied with the result and process.

arrived home in Seattle at nearly the same time as original and able to sleep in my own bed.

jiburi

Generally, this is true for every airlines. Airlines periodically help their best customers in dire situations in solvable situations but they all have to follow the same ATC restriction and airport facility constraints (eg. deicing, runway capacity, staffing). For non-weather related delays, Rule 240 was loosely the policy airlines followed for re-accommodations (back in regulated 20 century air travel) but policies of airlines have evolved, giving less and less options.

Type of ticket can matter too, as award tickets are worthless currency at most other airlines, and basic economy also has its “fly at the whim of the operating airline restrictions.”

AS contract of carriage (which ironically was recently updated On Jan 19,2021) is generally the policy AS is supposed to follow as posted here. As the document reads, weather is one of those force majeure event, refund or rebooking to another AS flight seem the language it seem to indicate.

jiburi

RAD_PDX

Yikes!

brentyb

Flying from SLC>SEA>PDX this morning, woke up with SEA>PDX being cancelled.

Gate agent at SLC booked me on SLC>PDX on Delta. Originally a 820a departure, now scheduled for noon. Delays seem to be because the plane is having problems leaving Boise, and seems to be stuck on the tarmac based on flightaware. Guess we will see what happens.

As a side note, am I screwed in earning miles since I got moved to Delta?

Xrayman

Correct, no AS miles.

tom911

Think Alaska needs to update their winter weather advisory for PDX. It still only contains information for minors traveling solo and animals in cargo.

NoLaGent

You're not screwed, you can request Original Routing Credit (ORC) thru Mileage Plan with AS. I've received it when rerouted on DL.

brentyb

Thanks for the tip, ill give it a shot if I actually make it out.

PDXPremier

Sorry for all the troubles, but when it comes to snow/ice in the Portland area, the metro area is well-known for NOT dealing with this kind of weather well...it's just the way it is....we hunker down and it usually goes away in a day or two.

safari ari

This generally is not a straight forward ORC answer. I did a similar change, AS didn't give the miles but said they would "put a note in my account" if i needed the miles at the end of the year to qualify.

Original Routing Credit (ORC)

TEDisgone

Probably a knock-on effect but my 08:00 flight on Sunday (2/14) to SEA is now cancelled. The 08:30 is still scheduled to go and I can still connect to my other flight but I just went ahead and canceled my entire trip since it's just a run and I'd rather not deal with additional WX issues during this time.

skyblue

Just posted:
https://www.alaskaair.com/content/ad...ries#pacnwsnow

brentyb

Lucked up and actually made it back to Portland on Delta. Drive from airport to home was adventurous.

is it just me or does it seem like when there is snow in PDX, Alaska usually shuts everything down, but Delta manages to keep operating?