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In praise of Alaska Airlines

Posted by (Forest Grove, OR) on

We have had many changes to our two trips this year, one domestic last month and one European adventure coming up soon. All booked through AK. Due to the inevitable changes, some airline caused (BA, I am looking at you!), some driven by various COVID restrictions (Italy requiring quarantine if you even change planes in the UK), and some by personal preference of this traveler, I have had cause to call AK several times since May.

AK answers the phone promptly! The longest wait on hold to get to the first agent was never more than 5 minutes. Every agent was a gem, handoffs to specialty colleagues (we booked with miles on partner airlines) were flawless, and every time they were able to resolve my issues. In fact, the latest change resulted in a refund of 10K miles and $1400!

They have my loyalty and I will pay more to fly AK if needs be.

Posted by
11201 posts

Our pre- COVID. experiences with Alaska Airlines were excellent too, very superior to other airlines.

Posted by
6544 posts

Same here, they've always come through for me and I use them whenever I can. Sadly, they don't fly overseas.

Posted by
92 posts

Agree. It is our favorite airline. Always courteous and professional!

Posted by
3235 posts

Something we Alaskan's know so well. My husband and I are MVP on Alaska airlines and may even make gold this year, but even when we have not had those statuses, the agents are always polite and helpful when I call and I call a lot! We are often even willing to pay more to fly on Alaska, not only to get our miles up, but because they are just such a great airline! We are using our miles to fly to Cairo, Egypt this October on Qatar and Emirates (both one way on each), both partners with Alaska (oops, Emirates ending their partnership with AS). Can't wait to try Qatar as they get top ratings.

Posted by
2195 posts

Laurel, would you mind sharing the number you called? We had a complicated situation that we discovered last weekend for an upcoming flight to Hawaii next week. My husband tried calling repeatedly and was never able to reach an agent or get a call back. After 3 days of trying, he sent an email and got it resolved a day later. But it was pretty stressful waiting.

This has been a crazy summer of flight changes, but we do love Alaska.

Posted by
16376 posts

Tammy, I had no idea that Alaska was ending their partnership with Emirates! Fortunately, I booked our flight to Italy for next spring on Emirates with our Alaska miles before July 31, so it’s good as long as I don’t have to make any changes.

I wonder if that $1400 refund that Laurel mentioned is from switching a flight to Italy from BA to some other airline (maybe even Emirates) so they don’t have to fly through the UK. That is what I am doing with that Emirates flight. Now to cancel the one on BA . . .

We are huge fans of Alaska Airlines, for all the reasons mentioned. A big change from the days when I lived in Alaska (in the 1970’s) —-then the airline was jokingly called “Elastic Scarelines” by my boss and other Alaskans.

Posted by
11349 posts

Lola, I did get a refund due to not landing in the UK. Apparently BA has a huge fuel surcharge. I love that BA flight from the West Coast to LHR but there is a price to pay. We are planning to start our trip in Switzerland so flying to FRA works. Now hoping CH doesn't exclude vaccinated Americans when they reassess COVID restrictions tomorrow!

Posted by
2195 posts

Laurel, thanks so much! Back in the day we had all kinds of paperwork with different phone numbers but an actual customer service number is hard to find.

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