Alaska Airlines

t control what will be said about your company in new media but you can do your best to have customers that want to tell great stories about your company in their own voice, on their own terms and in their own medium (text, video, podcast).

(red checkered shirt) who recently left Phoenix to be in the tech mix up in SF. And big thanks to Josh Strebel (left) for saving our ass and running errands for us while we were stuck in Portland after Alaskan Airlines canceled our flight. The other guy in the picture above is our AZ friend Josh Knowles (blue shirt) who also came to party with us.

Ug, that sucks man. I hope it didn't totally ruin all your plans.

You sound like most people who fly frequently, but have little understanding of the airline industry or aircraft in general. You just want your flight to be available when you want it as a consumer. Fair enough.
But please consider the airline's perspective. SAFETY!!!! Ultimately the reason for your delay was most likely precautionary for a simple or complex maintenance issue. As inconvenient and costly as the delay may have been to you, I would hope you would rather be safe than risk a dangerous situation. As for the wifi, I agree it would be nice, but it costs $$$. And with the low profit margin, and state of the airline industry, most airlines cannot afford to deploy wifi at all of their gates. In some locations, it is also an issue with the airport facility. The wifi hot spots in the airport that count on people paying $$$ for the service are being cut out of that captive market if it's offered for free.

maybe you should plan your trips better.

My partner and I have flown Alaska (and many other airlines) on a frequent basis over the last 4 or 5 years. Out of all the airlines we've flown, Alaska has consistently had the best customer service and timeliness of flights I've seen. There have been a few snafus, of course, but that is to be expected when you fly every week or two. However, I know my partner has sat on the tarmac for TWO or THREE HOURS before in a plane for other airlines while they decide whether the plane is safe to fly in and then had the pleasure of going back to the terminal to switch planes. If your flight being delayed by a half hour causes you a lot of trouble it's probably best to book a slightly earlier flight. That way weather, plane safety, poor traffic to Seatac or long lines at the TSA detection security section will not keep you from arriving on time. I know it'a a pain, but for those of us doing frequent travelling after 9/11 we all know that it takes longer to fly and do things in airports than it used to. And airplane safety is a big issue for Alaska after the flight that crashed in 2000 killing all those people. I don't know how much you heard about that, but I was in the airline terminal waiting to get on an Alaska Air flight when that was announced on the television, and it scared the hell out of me.
So, please, give the airlines a little leeway. They are trying to provide everything they can in the best of balances–safety, timeliness, good customer service, and transportation to and from a location for a reasonable price. I've flown a lot of them, and by no means does Alaska suck nearly as bad as some of the others.

wake up alaska airlines, don't you know who Mr. Pirillo is?

One Word Saftey

Alaska Airlines concerned with safety.. now that's a laugh.
Alaska airlines the one that killed over 80 people off the coast of california because they wanted to save dimes and not replace parts as scheduled nor use grease and lubricant as necessary.

Alaska airlines SUCKS!!!!

Alaska Airline totally sucks, my plane got delayed going to and coming back. A friend of mine also used Alaska Air and his flight got delayed and not only that, they forgot to load his luggage and then they told him to try again tomorrow to see if it arrive then they promise to deliver his luggage at 6pm which it never came then their customer service was rude and uncaring. They told my friend to pick up his luggage at the airport and didn't even compensate him for the trouble

who gives a crap who chris pirillo is…sounds like a big whiner to me.

Reward for items Stolen by the Theives and Criminals of Alaska Air. Aug 09 LAX to King Salmon Alaska.
North face down bag, Golite silicone Hex tent, MSR Dragonfly stove and water filter, Alaskan blade runner knife, system 2l fly reel, parts for my kayak and other gear. Reward one of Alaska Airs worthless $200 flight coupons or a used paperback copy of Camus, The Stranger. (Value of the book is 25 cents) Believe me the book is the better deal. If you see the CEO of Alaska Air trying to fence my gear in one of the back alleys of your neighborhood ask him how he likes my reel.
P.S. If you have any spare change for those poor theives at Alaska Air would you please send it to the CEO so he won't starve to death.
P.S. The coffee was okay, I guess
This is not Anonymous,
Flip Stoker
Glendale California
alaskaairsucks@hotmail.com

I totally agree with what you're saying. I wish more people felt this way and took the time to express themselves. Keep up the great work.
Chris Scanlon
http://www.deltaairlineagent.com

I fly alaska ALL the time, and even though i have had some flights delayed, they are still a GREAT airline! Have they eer gone bankrupt? Like other airlines? i DONT THINK SO! yeah, they have crashed once or twice, but other airlines have had a WORSE reputation then alaska airlines, so maybe you should take other airlines, and THEN deide which is worse, or what airlines suck!

Alaska Airlines and Continental Airlines are two of the great Airlines still going strong. I’ve been flying these two airline for the past eleven years and I don’t have a problem with delays when it’s done for the safety of passengers and crew. If those of you who want to fly no matter what the weather is like and don’t care about safety, try Spirit Air, the Greyhound Bus of the airline industry.

lets look at this objectively….when your car breaks down, is it your fault? or is it something that happened that you have to deal with? The airlines do more maintenance on their equipment than anything that I can think of, and I don’t think that when a mechanical announcement is made people should get upset. do you prefer finding out the aircraft has mechanical issues when you’re over 18000ft in the air and no one to fix the problem or when you’re still on the ground and the issue takes a couple hours maybe days to fix. be thankful you’re alive, and for those annoying things like mechanicals, and for christsake (or whoever you believe in the most) be nice to those people that are burdened to give you the bad news, its not personal!

alaskan airlines is the most sucky arlines on this planet and they are a bunch of incompetent fools. My final destination was seattle and ended up on alaska due to missed connections. The British airways baggage service person showed me that the bag arrived in seattle and was picked up by alaska and then these guys seem to have lost it… can you believe it. Its hard to explain how an airline can be that lax. I guess mediocrity breeds mediocrity. The airlines really should have their license revoked or something

I love the “have they ever gone bankrupt like other airlines? ” comment. Of Course not, they charge three times that of a normal Airline, and as an Alaska resident, I have heard on more than one occasion ” What are you going to do? We are the only ones that fly there” from there supposedly “wonderful” customer service. I hate Alaska Airlines as much as the next person. All I can say is VIVA AIR CANADA!!!! Come to Alaska and show these bastards that they can be replaced!!!

The last three flights I’ve flown with Alaska, including the one I’m currently waiting three hours because of some problem with the plane.

I have flown over 100,000 miles in the past year with various carriers and I have had one, believe me, one delay. Every other flight has been on time.

I understand the need for safety, but this probably goes to a larger issue of Alaska and their aging fleet and the terrible preventative maintenance of their aircraft. Just google “Alaska and maintenance” and you’ll find the stories.

Even though I they are a partner of Northwest, my primary carrier, I’m not going to use them in the future for my west coast trips. I’d rather get home on time than get more miles.

Ok guys, How many of you can run an airline…anyone…. think it’s easy? There are so many airlines out there that can’t brake even at the bank because the damand for low price tickets and hight demand compensation for every little interruption of your day, and expect the airlines to pay for every problem that you caused because you planed to catch a flight that lands at it’s destination with only a few hours to get to your little meeting or what not. Yea it’s the airlines fault that you plans were bad to start with, because Alaska is the only one who has delayes right….BS….and for you State of Alaska people….your lucky to have ANY airline service your little towns that most airlines wouldn’t think twice about. IF it wasn’t for the FED’s subing some of the cost of running the airline Alaska air wouldn’t be there as well. How many flights in the state of AK are full…..NONE. get over yourself. The price you pay isn’t even paying for the fuel to get the jet to take off…

Amazing.

The number of people who don;t know a bloddy thing about air travel in general, and Alaska Air in particular.

Did anyone know, that a contractor called Menzies handles all the luggage for Alaska Airlines (and several others)? That once your luggage goes down the belt, it is no longer in the hands of the Alaska employees? Thought not. If something got stolen from your bag, why wasn’t there a TSA lock attached?

For anyone traveling to Seattle, and winding up in Alaska, THEY are the blithering fool.

My experience from LA to Anchorage.
Check-in counter closed 2 minutes before we were at counter.
This was due to an earlier cancelled flight (reason being the pilots exceeded rest time), causing a long queue at the counter.
Our confirmed seats were given away.
Waited at the airport for 8 hours + 2 hours delay for a connecting flight via Seattle to Anchorage.
At Seattle we ran for out connecting flight.
Arrived Anchorage without our luggage.
Total airport time: 16.5 hours
Luggage recovered 5 days later in LA.
Wrote in for compensation.
After a few e-mails, ALASKA AIRLINES refuse to reply anymore, said something about Singapore Airlines will compensate us.
What a load of shit.

Anyone has contacts to higher management?

My wife assisted flight crew last Wednesday on a flight from Barrow AK to Anchorage AK. Not one thank you from the pilots of that flight. Alaska Airlines a joke to no end. I would think a CEO of a company like that would like to hear the details????

I’ve usually had good luck with Alaska but I find that Seattle seems to be problematic for them. It doesn’t matter what time of the day, or where the connection is going I always plan for a delay out of Seattle.

They have a real good massage bar in the “C” concourse right near the Alaska sister airlines (Horizon) gates. I’ve spent quite a bit of time there waiting on Alaska delays.

One positive thing about Alaska is they usually have pretty good customer service. I’ve complained about baggage, reroutes for missed flights, etc… and have received vouchers for complimentary flights or discounts. The key there is you just have to ask.

I recently had an absolutely nasty flight with WestJet. Can not believe the miserable customer service on that airline!!! They say they are modeled after Southwest… I don’t think so!

I HATE them.
Who once again, cannot get my girls home to me when promised. My sister used to fly them down here when she came. Almost NEVER were they on time. The last time my girls tried them, they were almost 5 hours late on a 2 1/2 hour flight. NO ONE at the desk or terminal to tell you what was happening, or when they’d be in, or if the plane went down, NOTHING.

My wife booked a flight on them against my advice almost 3 months ago. When she got to the airport almost 3 hours early tonight for the flight out of Seattle, only to find when she arrived that the plane was leaving in 17 minutes. NO other flights for the night, NO other airline with seats available. So they are stuck up there another night, and my little one will miss most of the school day on Monday.

This is the LAST time we use these idiots. We do plan to write letters to them etc, but I don’t think much can be done. Even if they offer us a free flight somewhere, I’m not setting foot on another one of their planes ever again.

My little one, though a VERY seasoned traveler, is still shaky for the airport process (most of her flying is post 9/11) so this sure didn’t help her at all. Spent some time on the phone to calm her down.

A safe flight is all that matters………safety is the issue, end of story, no matter how long it takes or how inconvenienced one is. Seatac has miserable weather 9 months out of the year…and Alaska as well. Alaska air once had to change a tire on the runway, with passengers in the plane already and was I HAPPY when we arrived in EWR that they did that because the landing was hard and a faulty tire would have been death. Continental has been, since after the 80s anyhow, the safest of all ..but recently they better make sure their pilots arent too young….i like when I see an older pilot…like Sully from US Air….seasoned, smart and savvvy that is how i like em. Airlines must never scrimp on maintenance…food is NOT important and an hour delay or more, if necessary for safety , is fine…..i think they should all raise the price of tickets and require more maintenance. The airlines with the excellent safety records are the only ones that should survive. flying is a privilege it is NOT public transportation treat it as such

by the way, is the little green monster the flying spaghetti monster?

Alaska Airlines SUCKS! They want to charge 15.00 to check 1 bag and the second one is 25.00 more. Tell all your friends this airline SUCKS.

Yes Barb, I completely agree safety is the issue and this is why I refuse to fly the dirt bag company called Alaska Airlines. Do you all recall the AS flight 261 where all passengers were killed. They had to be identified by the following indicators were used to identify crash victims:

* Fingerprints
* Dental records
* Tattoos
* Personal items
* Anthropology examinations

Yes the impact they had from the 31000 foot plumet to the ocean floor tends to transform your body. Alaska Airlines was at fault. Funny the NTSB boardman wrote this: NTSB board member John J. Goglia’s statement for the final report, which was concurred with by all three other board members,[10] he wrote:

“This is a maintenance accident. Alaska Airlines’ maintenance and inspection of its horizontal stabilizer activation system was poorly conceived and woefully executed. The failure was compounded by poor oversight…Had any of the managers, mechanics, inspectors, supervisors or FAA overseers whose job it was to protect this mechanism done their job conscientiously, this accident cannot happen…”

Why the fuc- is Alaska Airlines still in operation.

ALASKA AIRLINES SUCKS AND IS UNSAFE!