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My Alaska air customer expierence

jjking42

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I don’t understand these airlines. They have my money and would rather give me a refund then allow me to switch to another date.

I had two first class tickets to Maui booked for my trip in September. I cancelled the trip and wanted to change it to March 2021.

I used upgrade coupons to get the first class tickets but it was still a decent amount of money. I told them just give me two first class tickets in March and we will be good. They said we can’t give you that because thier are no upgrades available. My response was “the entire flight is empty I can see every seat is available online. As a matter of fact tickets are actually cheaper now than when I booked so either honor the upgrades or give me a full refund.”

They choose the refund.

These guys are bleeding cash and could have kept my money and filled two empty seats on a plane but choose not to. With decisions like that they won’t survive the downturn in demand.


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davidvel

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I don’t understand these airlines. They have my money and would rather give me a refund then allow me to switch to another date.

I had two first class tickets to Maui booked for my trip in September. I cancelled the trip and wanted to change it to March 2021.

I used upgrade coupons to get the first class tickets but it was still a decent amount of money. I told them just give me two first class tickets in March and we will be good. They said we can’t give you that because thier are no upgrades available. My response was “the entire flight is empty I can see every seat is available online. As a matter of fact tickets are actually cheaper now than when I booked so either honor the upgrades or give me a full refund.”

They choose the refund.

These guys are bleeding cash and could have kept my money and filled two empty seats on a plane but choose not to. With decisions like that they won’t survive the downturn in demand.


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I bet they do. They have a system, and they probably are hoping that things will turn around. If they do, they want to charge as much as they can, and as of now their system has not allocated upgrades to those flights.

Airlines are pretty particular at sticking to their established polices, and do so by not allowing front line agents to deviate from them.
 

jjking42

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I bet they do. They have a system, and they probably are hoping that things will turn around. If they do, they want to charge as much as they can, and as of now their system has not allocated upgrades to those flights.

Airlines are pretty particular at sticking to their established polices, and do so by not allowing front line agents to deviate from them.
They are giving me both the cash back and reinstating the upgrade certificates so I will get first class tickets again. Probably for even a better price then before just not until they start allowing people to use the upgrades. Just like with timeshares I will check the website often and as soon as I see upgrades allowed for 2021 I will buy tickets.
 

davidvel

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They are giving me both the cash back and reinstating the upgrade certificates so I will get first class tickets again. Probably for even a better price then before just not until they start allowing people to use the upgrades. Just like with timeshares I will check the website often and as soon as I see upgrades allowed for 2021 I will buy tickets.
Makes sense.
 

TravelTime

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I don’t understand these airlines. They have my money and would rather give me a refund then allow me to switch to another date.

I had two first class tickets to Maui booked for my trip in September. I cancelled the trip and wanted to change it to March 2021.

I used upgrade coupons to get the first class tickets but it was still a decent amount of money. I told them just give me two first class tickets in March and we will be good. They said we can’t give you that because thier are no upgrades available. My response was “the entire flight is empty I can see every seat is available online. As a matter of fact tickets are actually cheaper now than when I booked so either honor the upgrades or give me a full refund.”

They choose the refund.

These guys are bleeding cash and could have kept my money and filled two empty seats on a plane but choose not to. With decisions like that they won’t survive the downturn in demand.


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I assume you are talking to lower level people. The plane is probably not ready for booking. Just be grateful you can get a refund. Many people can’t. With the refund, you can book a new first class flight, right?
 

TravelTime

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They are giving me both the cash back and reinstating the upgrade certificates so I will get first class tickets again. Probably for even a better price then before just not until they start allowing people to use the upgrades. Just like with timeshares I will check the website often and as soon as I see upgrades allowed for 2021 I will buy tickets.

This sounds great. So why are you complaining?
 

RNCollins

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Alaska Airlines adding 10 routes from West Coast

By Robert Silk / Aviation / Travel Weekly / www.travelweekly.com / Jul 16, 2020


“Alaska Airlines has announced seven new routes from Los Angeles and three new routes from elsewhere on the West Coast, including the first transcontinental routes servicing Fort Myers, Fla....”
 

pedro47

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Basic Supply and Demand, they are projecting ticket prices will be increasing because the number of tourists demanding flights to the Big Islands in 2021.

Plus, they are buying as much cheap fuel as they possible can to use in the future.:wave:

Their airline fuel storage tanks are full . Profit. Big Profits. IMHO.

Finally, they are projecting IMHO, 95% of all their flight will be full to capacity.
 
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jjking42

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This sounds great. So why are you complaining?

The fact that I had to call at all upsets me. I should have been able to do the whole transaction online. They say it will take weeks before I can see the refund. It should have been a simple click of a button and instant credit.

They changed my original flight from non stop to a connection without even talking to me ! The hold times were too long and it took several phone calls to end up without a fully completed transaction. Now I wait and hope the refund shows up.

They called me back and said they could not reinstate the certificates because they were not mine and asked me who gave them to me. They were mine. I logged into my account and could see them under used certificates and had to give the number to them over the phone. Alaska airline pilots , stewardess and gate personal have always been great. I guess my beef is with the IT department and website.

Just not consumer friendly experience compared to SW airlines


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Kapolei

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I have always had a great experience with Alaska Air customer service. They always seem like real nice people that appreciate and believe in the company they work for. This is kind of rare these days. Alaska Air is my first choice when booking. They did absorb another airline. My good experience has been with the original company.
 

Sapper

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Just not consumer friendly experience compared to SW airlines

I think all of the airlines are showing they are greedy and manipulative. You cite SW, but I have had tremendous trouble with SW during this COVID event. For example, in the early stages of this, we had flights to Hawaii in April on SW. even though Hawaii was shutting down, SW refused to refund the tickets and kept stating that the flights were still scheduled, and we could take airline credit. They kept the flights “scheduled” until a week prior and then cancelled them. How many thousands of people took the airline credit instead of a refund because of this nonsense. We had flights scheduled to California in May on SW. two weeks prior to the flights, they made substantial changes to our scheduled flights, adding stops and delays that made the return flight a 24 hour ordeal due to a layover. They did not email or call, something they have done in pre-COVID times. When I called them, with their contract of carriage in hand, their rep said that there was a substantial change, and pushed the airline credit multiple times (even though I requested a refund multiple times). He agreed to issue a refund, which I discovered later was not true, he issued an airline credit. Another call resolved that, but it took two months to show the credit on my card. Also, each of these calls had an hour to an hour and a half of hold time. Every thirty seconds a happy voice would state they were experiencing longer than normal wait times, and to go online to make changes. You cannot get a refund if you go online. To me, this is the airline further manipulating their customers by making it painful to speak with a rep in order to dissuade their customers to take airline credit instead of issuing refunds.

Anyway, to sum up my rant above, it’s not just Alaska Airlines (who I have had outstanding experiences with pre-COVID, along with SW) that are giving their customers headaches, it’s all airlines.
 

jjking42

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I think all of the airlines are showing they are greedy and manipulative. You cite SW, but I have had tremendous trouble with SW during this COVID event. For example, in the early stages of this, we had flights to Hawaii in April on SW. even though Hawaii was shutting down, SW refused to refund the tickets and kept stating that the flights were still scheduled, and we could take airline credit. They kept the flights “scheduled” until a week prior and then cancelled them. How many thousands of people took the airline credit instead of a refund because of this nonsense. We had flights scheduled to California in May on SW. two weeks prior to the flights, they made substantial changes to our scheduled flights, adding stops and delays that made the return flight a 24 hour ordeal due to a layover. They did not email or call, something they have done in pre-COVID times. When I called them, with their contract of carriage in hand, their rep said that there was a substantial change, and pushed the airline credit multiple times (even though I requested a refund multiple times). He agreed to issue a refund, which I discovered later was not true, he issued an airline credit. Another call resolved that, but it took two months to show the credit on my card. Also, each of these calls had an hour to an hour and a half of hold time. Every thirty seconds a happy voice would state they were experiencing longer than normal wait times, and to go online to make changes. You cannot get a refund if you go online. To me, this is the airline further manipulating their customers by making it painful to speak with a rep in order to dissuade their customers to take airline credit instead of issuing refunds.

Anyway, to sum up my rant above, it’s not just Alaska Airlines (who I have had outstanding experiences with pre-COVID, along with SW) that are giving their customers headaches, it’s all airlines.

I agree it’s a tough time for all airlines. If I only flew s few times a year and SW made me take a credit instead of refund I would be pissed off. Luckily I am not in that situation

I canceled lots of flights on SW due to Covid but I wanted the credits and have already used my credit up. I would have been happy with credit from Alaska but they did not offer they only offered refund. I was surprised by that.

I took over 50 flights last year on SW not including the flights on Delta, American , and Alaska. Most of the time I book and change flights online or using the App. I really dislike calling customer service

This is how I rank them

Airport and inflight experience
1. Alaska
2. SW
3. Delta
4. American

Website , App , telephone customer service
1. SW
2. Tie American
2. Tie Delta
4. Alaska

If only they could make the online experience as good as the in flight. I have had better experiences calling Interval than Alaska but I hate having to call either one.

This is my experience other people might have different experiences.


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Sapper

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I agree it’s a tough time for all airlines. If I only flew s few times a year and SW made me take a credit instead of refund I would be pissed off. Luckily I am not in that situation

I canceled lots of flights on SW due to Covid but I wanted the credits and have already used my credit up. I would have been happy with credit from Alaska but they did not offer they only offered refund. I was surprised by that.

I took over 50 flights last year on SW not including the flights on Delta, American , and Alaska. Most of the time I book and change flights online or using the App. I really dislike calling customer service

This is how I rank them

Airport and inflight experience
1. Alaska
2. SW
3. Delta
4. American

Website , App , telephone customer service
1. SW
2. Tie American
2. Tie Delta
4. Alaska

If only they could make the online experience as good as the in flight. I have had better experiences calling Interval than Alaska but I hate having to call either one.

This is my experience other people might have different experiences.


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We only fly with the kids twice a year, and the credit is per the individual. The other constraint is the credit must be used with in a year of the date the flight was booked. We booked in December, so not really much time to utilize the credit for the kids. Last, if the airline goes bankrupt, you become an unsecured creditor.

In the past I have had good experiences with Alaska and SW, right now, however, they are acting poorly.
 

jjking42

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We only fly with the kids twice a year, and the credit is per the individual. The other constraint is the credit must be used with in a year of the date the flight was booked. We booked in December, so not really much time to utilize the credit for the kids. Last, if the airline goes bankrupt, you become an unsecured creditor.

In the past I have had good experiences with Alaska and SW, right now, however, they are acting poorly.
Forcing you to take credit in the kids names is not good and I would be very upset about that. Now you havev to try to find someplace to go with the kids before the credit expires and feel safe doing it.
 

Luanne

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Forcing you to take credit in the kids names is not good and I would be very upset about that. Now you havev to try to find someplace to go with the kids before the credit expires and feel safe doing it.
Having the credit in the name of the passenger is pretty standard these days. I remember when SW used to let you use the credit for anyone but that changed a few years back.
 

pedro47

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I will never forget when The Commander In Chief, left our tickets home by mistake, many, many years ago. We were taking our first cruise with Celebrity. We were at the airport, when she realize her error. That SW, counter agent found our reservation in their computer system and printed out a completed set of tickets & luggage labels. With No Problems and a Smile. Thanks you SW.

We have been SW loyal customers from that day.
 
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