flytoeat

On the Alaska's World website (www.alaskasworld.com) there is an article titled "Let the celebration begin!" It contains the following paragraph:

"On May 15 we'll have a one-day promotion that customers should find of great interest. We can't tell you what it is because that would spoil the surprise, but stay tuned."

OK, they caught my attention. Any AS/QX experts care to give us some insight?

toadman

Hmmm, interesting. I'll be on a flt that day.

whlinder

Oh man, I can't wait to find out what this will be.

Even a hint from anyone with info would be greatly appreciated, so we can stay up to midnight on the 14th if it is that darn good of a promotion. I'm guessing it may be like that thing AirTran did once, like $36 each way anywhere for one day, to celebrate something like their 36th city.

(edited to add: I found the thing AirTran did: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum...ML/001451.html )



[This message has been edited by whlinder (edited 05-02-2002).]

westcoastman

Sorry but I think that promotion will be limited to employees only. Oh well.

BearX220

Friend of a friend, inside AS, tells me there will be some sort of broad fare promotion that day. We are advised to "book a ticket to somewhere" on May 15. No promises or confirmations, of course, but that's what's in the wind.

whlinder

From the link the employees have a promotion. But it specifically says that customers will have their own special promotion on 5/15.

Thanks Bear for that info.

westcoastman

Well this is great. The flights this year will be full of $70 RT employees and drive up the prices for everyone else even more than the sky high prices that exist now. Here's a thought: offer $200 fares to your customers instead of the $333-$395 that exist now for 2 hour flights. Now everyone has to buy National and UA tickets. Sure the employees are great they got you first place and they have been working hard for 70 years. I am not knocking the employees but how about the customers as SOME of us are price sensitive.
Somehow this May 15 thing could be a good price but will it require me to fly Weds or Sat, leave home late a night and come home really early in the morning? Removing any restrictions would be quite a treat but Alaska does not have the guts to do something like that since they will need to pay for all those $70 RT fares.

AS Flyer

God Westcoast - you drone on and on in several threads about how high Alaskas pricing is. As if someone here can change that. None the less, you peaked my interest, I actually wondered if, indeed, Alaska was priced that much higher. I checked fares for most western markets from SEA where AS competes with UA for the random dates 7/17 outbound and return 7/24. That would give plenty of time to meet any advance purchase rqmts and allow for the minimum stay requirement that most airlines require. This is what I found:

LAX - AS 223.50 UA 304.50
BUR - AS 246.50 UA 326.50
ONT - AS 246.50 UA 293.50
SFO - AS 137.50 UA 157.50
SJC - AS 137.50 UA 199.00
SAN - AS 216.50 UA 151.50
SMF - AS 147.50 UA 212.50
PHX - AS 214.50 UA 230.50
LAS - AS 162.50 UA 229.50
DEN - AS 317.00 UA 317.00

With the exception of San Diego and Denver, Alaska's fares are lower than UA's. Denver is priced at the same price as UA and if you look at last minute business fares then most likely you would find that AS would be cheaper.

Keep in mind that approximately 25.00 of each of these fares is the new security tax that has been instituted since 9/11.

What exactly is your beef? Perhaps the specific flight that you wanted on a specific date was not available but obviously Alaska is not charging more than United. You may be able to site several examples on different days to prove me wrong but I think I could come back with just as many, and more, examples that would prove you wrong.

As for the $70 employee fares - BIG DEAL!!!! That would be 70.00 on the west coast. And you can be sure that they will be very tightly capacity controlled on the flights they are available on. Because this is not a published fare they are not subject to abiding by the same laws as they would be if this were a fare offered to the public. Alaska can choose on which flights exactly how many, if any, seats they want to make available for the employees. I don't think this is the big deal you think it is - I don't even think that many people will take advantage of it. Why pay 70.00 if you can fly for free anyway - And in case you weren't aware - Positive Space passes are only positive space as far as the whole non-rev pecking order goes. We would be asked to deplane if the flight were oversold by revenue generating passengers and they had more of those then they had seats.

[This message has been edited by AS Flyer (edited 05-02-2002).]

[This message has been edited by AS Flyer (edited 05-02-2002).]

MileKing

Not very familiar with AS pricing, but I can assure you that in almost any market you name, UA is bound to have a price that is no better than the next carrier's fare. In many, many cases, the UA fare will be significantly more. UA is THE premium price airline.

flytoeat

So, AS Flyer, any insight on this promo?

horizonair

I don't think that you should worry about the employees taking up all the seats and driving up the prices...The employee fares come out of T class of service with is the next to last fare basis that we have just one notch above coach saver tickets.

AS Flyer

I don't have any idea on this promo. I'm kind of excited to see what they have up their sleeve also. If it's a good deal then maybe I'll buy a few tickets myself. I don't like to mess with non-rev travel anymore - you never know if and when you'll get on a flight. It's nicer to buy a confirmed ticket - choose your seat in advance - always be assured you will get a meal AND of course, the most important thing - accrue mileage!!!

westcoastman

I did not realize that they would be limiting the $70 fares to just a few dozen per flight.

I think it is a bad example to select Wed to Wed since of course AS will be cheaper. I need to leave Friday afternoon so I can see my family for the longest amount of time. On the return On Sunday night there should not be any business travelers. An example I was pricing Fri June 21 to Vegas and return June 23 and was getting over $400 - United Airlines = $182.50.

Seattle to Orange County Airport June 7/June 9 AS = $349. United has $200 for LAX with great times. Not sure of your job but you probably have the flexability to fly on Weds morning but two hours on Friday can mean a big difference to my family and it is coming out of my pocket and I do not make a lot of money. When work does pay for it I get put on National ($238 everyday to LAX through April 30) or United because they are cheaper by more than $50. I want to fly AS but the new AS formula has drivin up certain days/times of the day even though the flight is very open according to ITN.

AS Flyer

I checked AS on 6/7 and return 6/9 SEA-LAX and they offer a 200.50 round trip - same as UA. If you are going to compare AS to UA then compare apples to apples. You can't price SNA on AS and LAX on UA and then complain about AS being outpriced by UA. Price SNA on UA and see what they have to offer you.

My point is that AS is competitive at the very least. In many cases they are less expensive than the competition. Try booking a last minute SFO-IAD on UA and price it on AS. You go on like AS is always outpriced by the competition but more often than not, AS is at least competitive if not cheaper than the competition. Incidentally, I found AS as low as 233.00 SEA-SNA on the dates you were looking for - I assume that you are probably looking for an evening departure from SEA and a later departure from SNA and that priced out at 278.50. I don't know where you are getting your figures from - I went directly to the Alaskaair.com website - the best source for AS airfares.

Also, I don't know that AS is limiting the 70.00 employee seats to a few dozen on each flight - but it will be limited and if I had to guess I would say they most likely will be limiting the number of seats available to just 5-10 seats and none on prime time flights. So it's not the sweet deal you imagined it was.

If you're claiming that your company puts you on National then I'm not sure how they are doing that. National doesn't start service to SEA until 5/23.

[This message has been edited by AS Flyer (edited 05-03-2002).]

Westcoaster

In the past I certainly might have agreed with you, but now I'm not so sure. Maybe their financial woes are causing them to rethink their pricing, I don't know. But UA has had some great low fares lately in some markets. Last week, UA was undercutting AS advance purchase fares on all kinds of routes -- sometimes by a significant amount. This week, AS has cut some of those fares and UA has raised some. No doubt other airlines are affecting this game as well.

You may have seen the thread on the UA forum about UA prices fluctuating all over the place. Something similar seems to be happening with AS. I guess this is competition at work. It sure keeps me busy checking prices every day for myself and others.

(edited to fix typo)

[This message has been edited by Westcoaster (edited 05-03-2002).]