Notes from the SFO area MVP Gold Luncheon
Mar 20, 2003, 7:30 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Dec 2001
Posts: 1,617
Notes from the SFO area MVP Gold Luncheon
An SF Bay Area MVP Gold luncheon was held yesterday, March 19th. Some notes:
Fairly early during the Q&A session, the issue of coach pax using the FC lav came up. When it did, there were general grumbling noises emitted by many of those present. It was obvious that the speaker from Alaska Air had heard complaints about the lav policy before. He mentioned that Alaska was one of two airlines with such a policy but that frankly it wasn't working very well. He said Alaska was planning on changing the policy and that it was "in process". What exactly the new policy would be and when it would change were not mentioned.
Alaska's "Travel Reassurance Policy" was mentioned along with noting that the web site would be enabled to cancel reservations online under the policy (if they were made on alaaksair.com originally). It seemed this wasn't terribly interesting to most of the assembled, since only a few (by a show of hands) said they or their companies would change travel plans if/when war started.
The new partner realtionship with CX was mentioned, and the response right back was along the line of nice, but you don't earn status miles on CX.
The recent changes to alaskaair.com were mentioned (electronic tickets segment limit increased from 4, interline ticketing, the various new look changes). The ability to buy AS/CO interline was mentioned as coming fairly soon. The bigger news was that the flight and fare search feature of the website would be enhanced to be hopefully be more competitive with the abilities of other web travel sites.
Some questions were asked about the possibility of more flights between SFO and SoCal. Unlikely to happen was the response since the SF-LA market has lots of (competitive) service already, and that along with the lowish fares and other issues in the market make it unappealing. It was mentioned that the SFO-LAX service that currently exists really mainly serves to conect to flights to Mexico. *If* any more SF-SoCal services commenced, it would be more likely to be from Horizon instead of Alaska.
IFE was asked about. The answer was that it was still being looked at but there were major challenges: cost and coverage being the two biggies. Movies for (built-in) IFE suffer from the expense of equipment and programming and the problem that the most frequent fliers would likely run through the movies faster than they'd be changed. In flight satellite TV was more interesting, but suffered from expense and limitations in coverage over Canada, Mexico, and over water to Alaska. Basically nothing was announced or promissed concerning IFE other than it would continue to be looked at.
The discount for InMotion players and DVDs was mentioned (and seemed to basically generate yawns).
In flight power ports for laptops, etc were asked about. Many people in the room seemed to perk up at the mention of this topic. Strangely, the speaker seemed to tell those interested in the topic that they really didn't have a problem because many flights were shorter than battery limitations and longer lasting batteries were supposedly being developed that would help on long flights. And anyway, equiping aircraft with powerpoints was expensive and not currently planned.
Several people asked if flights could be retimed so they could more easily fly to east coast destinations from the Bay Area (via SEA). Perhaps even same plane (or flight number) service. It seemed many in the room would like the option to fly an indirect route to the east coast on Alaska than a more direct route on other airlines.
A question was asked if the website would be changed to handle split upgrades. For example, if you book DCA-SEA-ANC as one flight number, the website can only give you a FC seat if a FC seat is available on both segments. There's no way currently to grab an open FC seat on just one of the segments. And if you break the itinerary into two flight segments (with the same flight number) it's flagged as an illegal connection because of times. Right now the only way to get the seat is by phone.
The upcoming YVR-ANC service was mentioned several times by AS speakers. They pointed out that it would now be possible to fly SFO-YVR-ANC to get to ANC. People seemed to be wondering why should they care, as it's already possible to fly SFO-ANC or SFO/SJC/OAK-SEA/PDX-ANC so what's the big deal about heading through YVR? A couple of MVP Golds also admitted that they have never even been to ANC in all the years they've been flying AS.
Fairly early during the Q&A session, the issue of coach pax using the FC lav came up. When it did, there were general grumbling noises emitted by many of those present. It was obvious that the speaker from Alaska Air had heard complaints about the lav policy before. He mentioned that Alaska was one of two airlines with such a policy but that frankly it wasn't working very well. He said Alaska was planning on changing the policy and that it was "in process". What exactly the new policy would be and when it would change were not mentioned.
Alaska's "Travel Reassurance Policy" was mentioned along with noting that the web site would be enabled to cancel reservations online under the policy (if they were made on alaaksair.com originally). It seemed this wasn't terribly interesting to most of the assembled, since only a few (by a show of hands) said they or their companies would change travel plans if/when war started.
The new partner realtionship with CX was mentioned, and the response right back was along the line of nice, but you don't earn status miles on CX.
The recent changes to alaskaair.com were mentioned (electronic tickets segment limit increased from 4, interline ticketing, the various new look changes). The ability to buy AS/CO interline was mentioned as coming fairly soon. The bigger news was that the flight and fare search feature of the website would be enhanced to be hopefully be more competitive with the abilities of other web travel sites.
Some questions were asked about the possibility of more flights between SFO and SoCal. Unlikely to happen was the response since the SF-LA market has lots of (competitive) service already, and that along with the lowish fares and other issues in the market make it unappealing. It was mentioned that the SFO-LAX service that currently exists really mainly serves to conect to flights to Mexico. *If* any more SF-SoCal services commenced, it would be more likely to be from Horizon instead of Alaska.
IFE was asked about. The answer was that it was still being looked at but there were major challenges: cost and coverage being the two biggies. Movies for (built-in) IFE suffer from the expense of equipment and programming and the problem that the most frequent fliers would likely run through the movies faster than they'd be changed. In flight satellite TV was more interesting, but suffered from expense and limitations in coverage over Canada, Mexico, and over water to Alaska. Basically nothing was announced or promissed concerning IFE other than it would continue to be looked at.
The discount for InMotion players and DVDs was mentioned (and seemed to basically generate yawns).
In flight power ports for laptops, etc were asked about. Many people in the room seemed to perk up at the mention of this topic. Strangely, the speaker seemed to tell those interested in the topic that they really didn't have a problem because many flights were shorter than battery limitations and longer lasting batteries were supposedly being developed that would help on long flights. And anyway, equiping aircraft with powerpoints was expensive and not currently planned.
Several people asked if flights could be retimed so they could more easily fly to east coast destinations from the Bay Area (via SEA). Perhaps even same plane (or flight number) service. It seemed many in the room would like the option to fly an indirect route to the east coast on Alaska than a more direct route on other airlines.
A question was asked if the website would be changed to handle split upgrades. For example, if you book DCA-SEA-ANC as one flight number, the website can only give you a FC seat if a FC seat is available on both segments. There's no way currently to grab an open FC seat on just one of the segments. And if you break the itinerary into two flight segments (with the same flight number) it's flagged as an illegal connection because of times. Right now the only way to get the seat is by phone.
The upcoming YVR-ANC service was mentioned several times by AS speakers. They pointed out that it would now be possible to fly SFO-YVR-ANC to get to ANC. People seemed to be wondering why should they care, as it's already possible to fly SFO-ANC or SFO/SJC/OAK-SEA/PDX-ANC so what's the big deal about heading through YVR? A couple of MVP Golds also admitted that they have never even been to ANC in all the years they've been flying AS.
report. I've never been invited to any of the luncheons, but then PSC is over 200 miles east of SEA.
Mar 21, 2003, 1:40 pm
#4
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Sea-Tac, WA
Posts: 854
[QUOTE]Originally posted by Quokka:
Several people asked if flights could be retimed so they could more easily fly to east coast destinations from the Bay Area (via SEA). Perhaps even same plane (or flight number) service. It seemed many in the room would like the option to fly an indirect route to the east coast on Alaska than a more direct route on other airlines.
[/QUOTE
With the upcoming schedule changes, quick connections will be available from the Bay to BOS and MIA. WAS currently has some very nice connections.
Several people asked if flights could be retimed so they could more easily fly to east coast destinations from the Bay Area (via SEA). Perhaps even same plane (or flight number) service. It seemed many in the room would like the option to fly an indirect route to the east coast on Alaska than a more direct route on other airlines.
[/QUOTE
With the upcoming schedule changes, quick connections will be available from the Bay to BOS and MIA. WAS currently has some very nice connections.
Mar 21, 2003, 9:20 pm
#6
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: SFO
Programs: AC SE, AA EXP MM, UA Gold MM, Hyatt Glob, Marriott Titanium, HH Dia, IHG Plat
Posts: 4,777
The lunch was served in impressive high-rent surroundings at the Fountain Room of the Fairmont Hotel, San Francisco. Very toothsome boutique lettuce salad, followed by a glazed chicken breast with mashed potatoes, dark gravy and zucchini slivers, and finished off with berries in a thin pastry bowl. Mini-wallets labelled "MVP Gold" were distributed as gifts. Luckily this was on the day BEFORE the massive anti-war demonstrations in SF.
My AS Sales Dept. seatmate commented that they had poor participation holding a previous year's event at the Oakland Airport hangar where she works, though I would have gone there too.
At the lunch, AS was complimented on the fine creative meals enjoyed between SEA and WAS in 10/02 (e.g. breakfast of salmon and scrambled eggs with Yukon Gold potatoes; snack of camembert, apple wedges, pear slices sprinkled with cracked peppercorns, figs on lettuce; dessert of pumpkin pie with a layer of cream cheese; and always warm nuts before meals - compare to boring UA). This was contrasted to the occasionally strange "snack" fare dished up in AS F on short West Coast hops.
[This message has been edited by Explore (edited 03-21-2003).]
My AS Sales Dept. seatmate commented that they had poor participation holding a previous year's event at the Oakland Airport hangar where she works, though I would have gone there too.
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by PSC 1K:
Just one question - I know the trancons don't go from SFO, but any discussion of food on those runs?
</font>
Just one question - I know the trancons don't go from SFO, but any discussion of food on those runs?
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[This message has been edited by Explore (edited 03-21-2003).]
Mar 22, 2003, 2:46 am
#7
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: SFO/OAK
Programs: AA/EXP 3MM; UA/1K; HY/DIA; SPG/PLT; Fairmont/Life PLT
Posts: 2,232
I might also add that the SF Board Room is mentioned to have a renovation, and a possible "remote facility" for departures out of the SFO international terminal.