Every time I call the Alaska Airlines 426-0333 number, the hold time is at least 15 minutes...and sometimes up to 46 minutes. I try calling in the middle of the night, and it's the same story. Love Alaska, but what's the deal??

SJCguy

Same with National. Average wait for me is about 30 minutes. What's the deal with the poor phone support? I like National but this wait is just crap.

They are busy maybe? Just a thought.

Maybe because their customer service reps and ticket agents really don't care. Maybe that is why Alaska and National aren't thought that highly of. Say you are going to fly SEA-LAX. You would never think twice about going UA. Its because AS has a bad reputation. Personally, I like AS and would fly them again.

Hmm, that is an interesting thing you said Flight Level. I know National might not be thought highly of, but Alaska is a large west coast carrier. I never hear anyone complain about Alaska. Where did you get AS has a bad rep?

National_757, people doubted AS before their crash. After their crash, they had a much worse reputation. IMO, they have apalling service. They have lost my luggage on a myriad of occasions and I often find their staff to be rude and surely. I sometimes ask myself why I keep flying them.

Oh, I see Flight Level. Yes you are right, I completely forgot about the crash! I've never been on an Alaska flight, so I wouldn't know about the service. Thanks for the quick reply Flight Level  )

Well the hold times lately have been really long. Not sure why that would be but it seems to be cyclical. As far as the reason being their people don't care, I don't think that is the case. I have found them to be much more helpful than other carriers most of the time.

Their service is usually better than most carriers I have traveled on.

As far as safety, most people I know would fly Alaska any day without giving it a second thought. I feel safer on Alaska than any other carrier. If you look at their safety record it is quite impressive really. I know that the FAA conducted an audit right after the accident and of course there were all sorts of problems that were found that were all over the media. I think the significance of the discrepancies that were found was exagerated and I do know that many changes have been made since then to address them. I believe that the FAA had mud on their face after such things as Value Jet and came down hard on Alaska because their accident happpened at the wrong time. If you consider that the DOD had just done an audit of Alaska's maintenance practices since they were a DOD contract carrier and found them to be excellent and the FAA had not found any problems in their normal oversight you have to wonder how things could be as bad as the news reports made them out to be.

You want long holds call BA. I waited for 90min twice just to buy a damn ticket. It was crazy

I waited for 90min twice just to buy a damn ticket

BA has e-commerce ya know.

 

ILOVEA340: Yeah there is only 100 or so people left in the US BA call center. My friends told me it has been 1hr+ hold times every single day for the past month.

BA waited too long before they started hiring again. The turnover rate there is extremely high (due to $hitty management) and it takes 6 weeks to train a new class.

This is not a topic on Alaska's safety record...

Flight Level...I think you're among the unlucky ones. I have flowns Alaska Airlines over a hundred times (quite literally) and have never had a problem...if you don't like them why do you keep flying them?

Back to the topic, I've noticed that too about Alaska and cannot figure it out...it's just one of those things, and I assure you Adam84 it goes beyond being busy...I've also called in the middle of the night and had a 40 min's hold...not normal.

SEA nw DC10

SEA nw DC10, they kind of have a monopoly on the SEA-JNU route, which I frequent.

 

Probably just a shortage of staff. They must have quit hiring right after Sep 11 and waited to long to hire more people.

I can say that it probably is not because they dont care. Most call centers ($hitty or not) watch your phone time like a hawk. Damn intelligent phones can tell your boss when and how long you were using the can.

I got that all the time "I see your bathroom time was quite high this week and I see you used the bathroom 4 times on Thursday." The attitude there is generally like what you would find at a Elementary school.

It is a good way to get people who have not used the website before to purchase their tickets there instead of over the phone.   It is much easier that way anyway plus the airline saves money.

First of all calling the middle of the night is a bad thing. There are only 8 or so res agents...i was talking to a graveyard res agent and she said they were really understaffed.


"people doubted AS before their crash. After their crash, they had a much worse reputation"

Yeah that must be why they are one of the strongest airlines today...some people really bug me  

Ken
AS RULES!!!

I love AS too, but I personally believe they try a bit "too hard" to try and switch people over to e-commerce. It's not just the wait times for their phone service...it's also the long check-in lines for paper ticket customers and the $10 surcharge on paper tickets They make it pretty clear they want you to purchase an e-ticket, they want you to purchase it online, and they want you to either check-in online or at a kiosk.

As far as maintenance is concerned, AS is absolutely top-notch. AS and QX have each received numerous awards from the FAA for their maintenance programs during the past year, and I have no doubts what-so-ever that any deficiencies that existed have been corrected.

Flight Level...you are not making any sense. First you say you like them, then you say they have appalling service. What's up?

Sometimes I just say stuff like "Oh yeah, thats a great airline." I never want to be the one to say I hate them because I will feel like I am the center of the shit storm. I wait until someone else thinks the same thing, then I contradict myself.

Perhaps it is because they have absolutely by far and away the worst customer service of any major US airline. Yep, I am pretty sure that is it. That and the fact that they falsify maintenance records are enough reason for me to never give the bastards one red cent. Worst airline I have ever dealt with.

And you would fly United, or American, or ATA or anyone else? Fact is, falsifying maintenance records is a common practice at most airlines. Airlines do this to save money, get planes out quicker etc...What about American flying 727s MSY-MIA, having to turn the a/c packs off to save gas, because they load only enough to get there with 20 minutes holding?

How about United's customer service? How about America West being fined over $500,000 for mx practices? To me, Alaska seems pretty safe, considering they've had only one crash since the 1970's. I'd be far more worried to fly Spirit than Alaska.

Care to tell us why they are the "worst airline [you've] ever dealt with"? Please do Apathoid, I'd be curious.

I had the same ridiculous wait time with AS. I agree... What the hell is going on??? AS is supposed to be customer-oriented... I hope they address this issue soon.

Alaska (and Horizon) did freeze hiring after 9/11, and I don't believe they've started a new class since then, at least not in the Seattle area. So between that and the fact that AS/QX are above their pre 9/11 capacity, that would be my guess as to why their hold times are so high.

As for the comments about their service, every airline has people who have had bad experiences. In some cases, they're frequent/common enough, the airline's reputation is wrecked(America West, Continental pre Bethune), but considering Alaska and Horizon consistently win awards for passenger service (#1 Domestic for three years - Conde Nast), I'd say the good outweigh the bad. Of course, I admit to being a tad biased, I used to work for them (yes in reservations) and I've still got close ties.

Duane

I spent many years living and working in the Bush in Alaska, often in markets where AS was the only carrier. In these markets, they raped people with outrageous pricing because they knew they were the only show in town. Anytime competetion came, Alaska would drop prices so low that they bled the other carriers to death and then hyper inflated their fares...often overnight. For instance, when I lived in Kotzebue and Markair was still in business, a r/t walk up ticket to Anchorage was $199. The VERY NEXT DAY after Markair filed bankruptcy, AS raised fares to over $600 for the same ticket. Why? They were the only show in town and they knew it. And Kotzebue certainly wasn't unique. They did it in every market where they had no competetion, including our state capital, Juneau. What you have to understand about Alaska the state is that 80% of the state is only accesable by airplane. No roads whatsoever and very restricted service by boat. They have a captive audience and they rape them for it. How is it that I can fly Anchorage to Honolulu for hundreds of dollars less than I can fly Anchorage to Bethel (a 50 minute flight)?

In every instance I have HAD to fly with them, their customer service has been horrid, but they certainly aren't unique in that area, so I won't tell stories.

As to the falsifying of maintenance records...I am the Maintenance Supervisor for the airline I work for and I GUARANTEE you it does NOT happen where I work. EVER. FAR's exist for a good reason...aircraft safety...and we do not cut corners or try to "get away with things" like Alaska has on countless occasions....and I only count the ones that are public knowledge.


Alaska "allows" certain carriers such as Era and Penair to operate in certain markets where 737 service isn't feasable, but only under code share agreements and prices that AS dictates. For instance, Era isn't "allowed" to fly to Bethel, although they have several aircraft based there, becuase AS deems this to be a mainline market and they won't "allow" competetion for the passenger service and bypass mail service.

I hope I have "justified" my hatred for this airline enough to satisfy you, although anyone who is stuck in an "Alaska only" market would certainly need no explanation.

Of course the fares within the state of Alaska are high, but are they really exorbitant? For those who think so, can you provide a detailed analysis of Alaska's revenue and expenditures on their intra-Alaskan routes. After all, fixed costs for even the shortest flights within Alaska are considerably higher than in most other parts of the United States. I'm sure Alaska calculates fares such that they can be assured a profit, but is that really price-gouging?

I've certainly heard from numerous Alaskans who are disgruntled b/c of the high fares, but I think on the whole, most people are pretty satisfied with Alaska's service. Year after year, their complaint rate is lower than all other major airlines excepting Southwest. Even if you want to dismiss all those opinion polls that place Alaska at the top, you can't deny that Alaska's service does not generate many complaints on the whole.

Hey man, this wasn't an open forum to bash Alaska...and what you said about them, in my opinion is very false. I have flown them probably more times than you have blinked your eyes...and I have had not one bad experience. I take Alaska WEEKLY to SEA from SJC...always smiling, always awesome people...and ALWAYS bump me to first   Cool off...

SJCguy

Hey, this was a forum to bash Alaska... you started so yourself. While I am just tickled pink that you have had such a lovely time with them, that has not been my experience. No law says I have to like them just because you do. I was asked for specific examples and I gave them.

>Maybe that is why Alaska and National aren't thought that highly of. Say you are going to fly SEA-LAX. You would never think twice about going UA. Its because AS has a bad reputation.

Being ranked the number one major airline in the United States by two reputable surveys this year is a bad repuation? I fly SEA-LAX a bit. Wouldn't ever take UA, or any other carrier for that matter. They've got the best customer service (possibly short of MidEx?) in the US.

>IMO, they have apalling service. They have lost my luggage on a myriad of occasions and I often find their staff to be rude and surely. I sometimes ask myself why I keep flying them.

I fly Alaska on many, many occasions every year. Never have had "apalling" service. Ever. My luggage has, though, been lost once on an evening flight to Seattle. The bag was delivered to my door by an Alaska rep. a few hours later.

I'm with Bjones on this. I feel safer and more comfortable on Alaska than any other carrier. The problem that caused the crash has been rectified, and Alaska probably has one of the safest (and newest) MD-80-series fleet in operation.

More on topic, I've called up Alaska to buy tickets a few times since September and haven't had a problem. A ten minute (ish) wait time most of the time and great customer service reps (they'll stay on the line for quite a while trying to find you the best fare... saved me over a hundred dollars each time because of their extra work).

Hmmm, Apathoid hates Alaska because they are a competitor who cuts prices too low when there is competition? And when other airlines beg to partner with Alaska they tell their partner not to compete on their main routes (and this is different from CO dropping AmericaWest when Americawest cut their fares?). And Alaska charges too high rates when there isn't competition (if they are too high why doesn't UA or AA or CO come in)?

It's clear that Apathoid works for a competitor to Alaska, none of his (her?) complaints related to customer service, they are just ramblings of a bitter competitor. If your airline is so great why don't you take on the routes where Alaska "price gouges" and make tons of money?

Real Alaska customers like myself (I fly alaska on a monthly, if not weekly basis) know that it's one of the best domestic airlines, with a tremendous safety record flying into some of the toughest regions in the world. My great experiences on Alaska far outweigh my worst experiences, and in a decade of flying them they have never lost my luggage. But individual experience is really just hearsay, so look up the customer satisfaction ratings and you'll see Alaska has been highly ranked for over a decade.

"For instance, when I lived in Kotzebue and Markair was still in business, a r/t walk up ticket to Anchorage was $199. The VERY NEXT DAY after Markair filed bankruptcy, AS raised fares to over $600 for the same ticket."

This is hilarious!!! Markair set fares at a price so low they went out of business, and Alaska is the bad guy because they matched those ridiculously unprofitable fares while Markair was in business, and raised the fares to make a good profit when Markair's ruinous business policies took them under!!!

"How is it that I can fly Anchorage to Honolulu for hundreds of dollars less than I can fly Anchorage to Bethel"

Hey Apathoid, don't you know that your really cheap fares to Honolulu are so cheap because the airline is subsidizing them with profits from markets where there is less competition? It's called discriminated pricing, it's why business fares are so much higher than leisure fares. It's why they will sell the last couple seats on a plane through priceline for any price since the flight is already paid for, and otherwise the seats would be empty and lost forever?

Did you know they use Hawaiin trips to remove Frequent Flier Miles from their liabilities? That filling up the rest of the flight with cheap coach tickets makes sense at almost any price? Did you know you can take a loss on a connecting flight through your hub if you can make a bigger profit by connecting them through one of your other flights? Does anyone here understand how complex airline pricing is? Apparently MarkAir didn't & Apathoid doesn't 

Poor service on flights, flight crews, etc. are not reasons for long hold times. Get the facts straight, and if you want to complain about Alaska, go ahead and write them. We're trying to figure out why the p-h-o-n-e l-i-n-e has such a l-o-n-g h-o-l-d t-i-m-e.

SEA nw DC10

Last comment I will make on this mind numbing thread.

I do not work for a competitor of Alaska. I used to work for one of their code share partners and had first hand experience with their deliberate gouging of captive markets. It may be good for profits to charge as high as the market will bear, but when the market has no other choice, it isn't good business to treat the customer that way.

Alaska the state is a unique environment. MVP, it is clear to me that you do not understand that. I can fly from ANC to SEA on AS or any of their competitors for about $250 to $300 depending on the time of year. Some of those flights stop in Juneau. If you continue through to Seattle, the fare is the same. However, if you go ANC to Juneau, the fare is nomally in the $600 range. Why the difference? Well you and the other marketing genius' will blow a bunch of smoke about seat mile costs and blah..blah..blah... However, I am not stupid. No one else flies to Juneau. The only other way to get there is on the ferry which takes a couple of days. You can't drive to Juneau. It is the state capitol and all the legislators and their staff pay big bucks to fly their when in session. Market has no options = price gouging by Alaska. It is no more complicated than that.

If I lived in Seattle and flew alot I would probably like Alaska airlines. However, I live in a market that is captive to Alaska airlines. I have seen time and again how they treat their namesake customers and I don't like it. So what? You want to comment on it anymore, come live here for awhile first. If there is one thing we Alaskans really don't care for it is you Outsiders telling us how things are here. You really don't know.

Oh yea Apathoid, Northwest, USAir, and American have never done that before...What happened to Legend? Go try flying Minneapolis-Detroit or Minneapolis-Memphis, or try flying DAL-LAX...Oh wait, you can't because American forced Legend out of biz, and after Legend was gone, guess what? AA left DAL as well.

Do you work 24 hours a day, 365 days a year with your company? Do you personally see EVERY SINGLE REPAIR that happens? Do you sign every one off yourself? How do you know that falsifying records doesn't happen in other cities/stations?

Apathoid,

Don't go away angry! I'm not going to blow smoke up your ass about seat mile costs  You missed my point, which is when you fly for $250-$300 SEA-ANC, what makes you think any of those carriers is making money on that flight? You assume that $250 is reasonable, when it's very likely a fare subsidized by other routes, and connecting passengers. Continental, NW, all have their "loss leader" routes that feed passengers into their "low-competition" routes where they make enough profit to pay for the loss leaders.

Would you pay an extra $100-$200 on your ANC-SEA flights so they can be profitable if you could get a Juneau flight at cost? Well if Alaska priced that way they'd probably be bankrupt in a couple months, after they lost all their ANC-SEA feeder traffic.

The key question is, if Alaska is making so much money on it's Juneau flights, why isn't anyone competing there? Maybe costs are higher, maybe loads are low, etc. The reality is Alaska is serving your state and providing Alaskan consumers options to the ferry, the competitors aren't. Yet instead of railing at the missing competitors who refuse to offer service to you, you attack the one company that does.

FYI, your little rant about outsiders is really provincial. We're not discussing a problem that is unique to Alaska, in every state there are routes where a single competitor has pricing power, but there is little to stop anyone from entering those markets. For example, if I want to fly PDX-Klamath Falls on a business trip, it will cost $302! And it's less than half the distance of your Juneau trip. Am I mad that it's so expensive? Nope, I'm glad I have the option to avoid 10 hours of mind numbing driving. Somehow I doubt Horizon is making a killing flying a turboprop with 3 crew for only 10 passengers to a remote airport. And so what if they are? it's up to a competitor to come in and take that business.

So, instead of whining, why don't you get off your fat behind, and start an airline to Juneau, and start making tons of money by offering a better choice to these "gouged" consumers! This is america, so stop making excuses, you've identified your opportunity, go take it! Imagine how much poorer we all would be if Herb Kelleher had your attitude..

Boy...I'm sorry I even brought this up! Apathoid...sorry you hate Alaska, you're one of the few. Enjoy HP or whatever you fly.

SJCguy