Alaska airlines miserable experience checking in

[TolmiePeak]

Yes, but they utilize AA, their one world partner to creatively gain more routes. Our flight home will be Seattle to DFW on an Alaska 737 (the model that demonstrates Beoing managements open door policy) connecting with an AA flight for the final legs home

Did connecting in Dallas really save that much money over flying the Wichita / Seattle non stop flight?

 

[TolmiePeak]

People are still flying Alaska. Air disasters don’t really stop people from flying. Has any airline gone out of business because of one? Perhaps PanAm.

People are funny. They will book an Ultra Low Cost Carrier to save $10 so they can afford to buy that coffee shake at the airport. Then they will complain about the flight.

 

[klpca]

Are you saying you can't check in on line with international flights because you have to show a passport? Unless you use that Airside app?

In the past passport verification was always done at the check in counter but we wanted to do it from home if possible so that we didn't have to arrive at the airport early enough to wait in line to check in. Alaska sent us the link to Airside. I don't know if other carriers are using that app. I don't fly internationally often enough to be sure of the exact policy, but from what I recall the airlines will verify everyone's passport information before passengers board because if they let someone fly on an expired/expiring passport, the airline will be responsible for the mix up. Someone with an expired passport, or one that expires too close to the travel dates for some countries, will not be allowed to enter the country and will be sent home. Every country is different. My passport expires in Sept and we are traveling to both Mexico and Canada this year, so I had to make sure that I was in compliance with the regulations of those two countries. We are responsible for familiarizing ourselves with the rules. In the age of google searches this is a nothing-burger, but people still seem to mess it up.

 

[dougp26364]

@TolmiePeak In our case, yes. We’re taking the red eye out of Seattle.

 

[dougp26364]

People are funny. They will book an Ultra Low Cost Carrier to save $10 so they can afford to buy that coffee shake at the airport. Then they will complain about the flight.

I agree. I booked the Alaska red eye flights (arrived YVR after midnight and depart Seattle at 23:00) to shave several hundred dollars off the cost of first class seats. However, there will now be limits as to what I’m willing to risk with Alaska vs how much we’ll save.
The flights themselves were uneventful and a good value. The check in process for an international flight from our home airport may eliminate them from consideration regardless of the savings. I know I’ll have to think long and hard about savings vs inconvenience.
Sometimes you gent the bear. Sometimes the bear gets you. This time the bear got me. The savings was, on the surface, significant, but not worth the hassle. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me

 

[davidvel]

I agree. I booked the Alaska red eye flights (arrived YVR after midnight and depart Seattle at 23:00) to shave several hundred dollars off the cost of first class seats. However, there will now be limits as to what I’m willing to risk with Alaska vs how much we’ll save.
The flights themselves were uneventful and a good value. The check in process for an international flight from our home airport may eliminate them from consideration regardless of the savings. I know I’ll have to think long and hard about savings vs inconvenience.
Sometimes you gent the bear. Sometimes the bear gets you. This time the bear got me. The savings was, on the surface, significant, but not worth the hassle. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me

Wasn't this whole "hassle" a 25 minute wait, for an international flight you likely had to check in far in advance? Aside from this seeming like an anomaly, I don't get all the angst and indignation to the extent you will pay hundreds more next time.
If this is the "worst" you've experienced with an airline, you should feel very, very blessed.

 

[dougp26364]

Wasn't this whole "hassle" a 25 minute wait, for an international flight you likely had to check in far in advance? Aside from this seeming like an anomaly, I don't get all the angst and indignation to the extent you will pay hundreds more next time.
If this is the "worst" you've experienced with an airline, you should feel very, very blessed.

I initially posted while still standing in a line that had not moved for 25 minutes. It took a little longer than that. For most standing still for 25 minutes is no big deal. For others like my wife it does become a big deal, affecting her for the rest of that day and into the next.
An airline can not spend 25 minutes with 5 agents checking in 3 groups of people and ignoring all others. In the realm of customer service, this can’t happen. In the time it took Alaska to clear those three groups SWA’s nearly cleared an entire line checking in for their 737 while Alaska had t cleared the first three customers for an Embrear 175.
Sorry, it’s not acceptable.
I will give you that it’s a first world problem, but anyone can always come up with an example of something worse. After all, no one died and I don’t believe anyone missed the flight. I’m still not going to excuse poor customer service just because it was only an inconvenience.
I did not request reimbursement for the inconvenience. I really don’t want or need it. What I want is for companies to do better by their customers.

 

[davidvel]

I initially posted while still standing in a line that had not moved for 25 minutes. It took a little longer than that. For most standing still for 25 minutes is no big deal. For others like my wife it does become a big deal, affecting her for the rest of that day and into the next.
An airline can not spend 25 minutes with 5 agents checking in 3 groups of people and ignoring all others. In the realm of customer service, this can’t happen. In the time it took Alaska to clear those three groups SWA’s nearly cleared an entire line checking in for their 737 while Alaska had t cleared the first three customers for an Embrear 175.
Sorry, it’s not acceptable.
I will give you that it’s a first world problem, but anyone can always come up with an example of something worse. After all, no one died and I don’t believe anyone missed the flight. I’m still not going to excuse poor customer service just because it was only an inconvenience.
I did not request reimbursement for the inconvenience. I really don’t want or need it. What I want is for companies to do better by their customers.

Sorry about that. Certainly your wife did not need to stand for 25 minutes. You could have requested a wheel chair and had her sit until it arrived, or you were at the checkout counter. I'm not trying to be a d!ck but it seems obvious this was an anomaly. I still don't really understand who the 3 groups were (size) or what you mean by ignoring all others. Should they have helped people behind in line? I'm still confused, but not convinced that this is such a travesty it has been made out to be.

 

[dougp26364]

Are you saying you can't check in on line with international flights because you have to show a passport? Unless you use that Airside app?

That is correct……sort of. We could check in but not receive a boarding pass. The utilize and app called Airside that is suppose to scan your passport and share the information with Alaska, it it wouldn’t scan my wife’s passport so we couldn’t ise it. If it had scanned my wife’s passport we would have, in theory at least, been able to get our boarding passes.
The instructions were to scan our passports at the kiosk. However, the kiosks don’t/wont scan a passport.
Until the passports are verified, Alaska won’t provide a boarding pass.
Of. It’s we still hade to show our passport when boarding in Seattle. That sort of seemed to make the entire issue more of a moot point and a greater hassle than necessary

 

[WorldT]

Scanning the passport (or providing via an app) has a purpose:

1. Checking for expiration dates prior to boarding so this does not have to be done at the gate. Saves time.
2. I suspect some countries collect the passport data before flight departure to scan for individuals they don't want coming into the country. A couple of years ago, whenever I was flying from the UK to the US, there were these people collecting your passport, scanning it and asking you questions. I ran into something close to that this March in Mexico but those people did not scan the passport. They just looked at it and asked me questions. Obviously, the flight manifest would eventually be sent to the destination country.

 

[StaceyM]

Wichita, KS……. and they didn’t have a first class line.

Alaska has one flight per day to that city. Based on my experience with other regional or "one flight per day from X airline" airports... those are not Alaska Airlines employees, they are generic airport employees/contractors who "work for" multiple airlines on a shift. They put on the shirt of the airline while they work checkin for 2 hours, (and they may even go to the gate and handle boarding/closing out the flight), then put on the shirt of the next airline. Your checkin experience sounds like a technical glitch with the airport equipment. But definitely not the "normal" Alaska Airlines experience.

That said, if you always travel originating in ICT, I don't know that the staff or equipment will improve significantly in the near future, so it's not completely unreasonable to write them off. However, I would guess that if you email Alaska Customer Care to complain, they will offer you a coupon or discount on a future flight. Or 5-10k Alaska miles, which can now get you an award ticket on AA to one of their hub cities.

I like the Alaska Companion Pass and their 20-minute luggage guarantee. Plus the hazelnut-espresso liqueur they can put in your coffee.

Alaska first class service is CONSISTENTLY the slowest domestic airline. It has taken me 60 minutes after the 10,000-feet chime to get a beverage in the F cabin. (Unless you count lukewarm boxed water as a beverage...) However, the staff are always polite and cheerful in my experience.

 

[1Kflyerguy]

People are still flying Alaska. Air disasters don’t really stop people from flying. Has any airline gone out of business because of one? Perhaps PanAm.

ValuJet had their reputation damaged pretty bad after their big crash... Ultimately adopted the AirTran name after they acquired them a year later.

 

[Huskerpaul]

The Alaska FC product is just not that great. We live in Portland and have flown with Alaska for years, but anymore we just get Premium Economy seats.

 

[dougp26364]

I wanted to follow up on this thread with our flight home experience. This time around we are NOT traveling internationally.
Online check in and getting our boarding passes wasn’t an issue. Our bags were valeted from the cruise ship to Alaska Airlines, so we won’t have to mess with that this time around. Other than our luggage arriving on time, which would be a concern with any airline, this has been a considerably better experience