justageek

Recently flew BRW-FAI. Flight scheduled to depart about 8 PM, departed instead at about 3 AM. (Aircraft's left engine wouldn't start. AS flew in a replacement aircraft from ANC.) AS provided hotel and meal vouchers for people who wanted to rebook for the next morning, and provided pizza and drinks to people who wanted to wait for the 3 AM departure. All told, AS handled the situation well--the AS airport staff and the flight crew were great. OTOH I can't help but think that AS is one of many airlines that are reducing preventative maintenance and thereby increasing the incidence of mechanical problems that delay flights (just speculation).

The FAI-BRW flight that was supposed to take me to BRW was completely cancelled due to a mechanical problem on its previous leg, and everyone was rebooked on the following flight.

All told, not a great reliability story here--flight to BRW cancelled, return flight delayed seven hours, and this at an airport (BRW) with only two flights per day and no other major carriers besides AS--but the AS staff definitely handled the situation well.

Also, my sincere thanks to the dispatcher or manager or whoever made the decision to fly the replacement aircraft in from ANC rather than just rebooking everyone on the next flight. I had a multi-stop itinerary the next day that would have been extremely difficult or impossible to rebook if I had had to take the next scheduled flight out of BRW.

flyupfrnt

Isnt it nice when people care enough, and are empowered to make decisions that are "right" for the customer?

I think so....

BearX220

The headline of this thread is the very definition of "damning with faint praise."

Chugach

I was in BRW that weekend and was booked on 144 that following morning after 146 went mechanical. Took me two hours of standing in line to get my bag checked. But I agree, the staff in Barrow handled it extremely well. And it didn't help that there was fog that morning so the inbound flight was on a brief weather hold to begin with.

In my many bush Alaska travel experiences, the CSA's at the remote Alaska stations are some of the best in the whole system.

Quokka

The CSAs are typically good, however I've found the rest of the ground staff at BRW and OME to be painfully slow. I'm sure the TSA operations aren't helping matters, but the AS ground staff seems to be the major bottleneck.

By comparison, OTZ has its act somewhat more together ... usually. Two weeks ago I was on the "Tinkerbell" 737 and stopped at OTZ on the way to Nome. The usual procedure is for a refueler to use a forklift to pick up a pump and carry it over to the 737. A bunch of pax on the starboard side of the aircraft seemed to become alarmed when they saw that the refueler ran out of fuel for his own forklift while driving towards the plane

justageek

I had no complaints with the BRW AS station staff. They stayed there until 3 AM to get our flight out, and both the AS station manager and BRW airport manager showed up and stayed for a while.

Yeah, the TSA screening processing at BRW is exasperatingly slow. They won't start screening until the inbound aircraft is on the ground, because there's nowhere for anyone to wait once through security (i.e. there is no "sterile" area of the airport). And there's only one security line (one magnetometer and X-ray machine). With AS's 30-minute turn times, this is a recipe for a delayed departure every time. It sure would be nice if they would build a small sterile part of the airport so that they could start screening sooner.

But kudos to the BRW TSA staff for coming back to the airport at 2 AM to screen us so we could get on the delayed flight...

ClassCAir

Others have commended AS handling of the situation... I think you are deserving of a commendation as well, justageek. It always makes me happy to see another pax who handles delays with a grain of salt. It makes my wait much more pleasant when other pax aren't having a hissy fit. Good for you justageek and good for you alaska.