Reading through the email this morning before finishing up this week’s issue of PlaneBusiness Banter and couldn’t help but post this one. Longtime reader and PBB subscriber, this person told me I could post his note, as long as I didn’t say who he was. (Methinks he must have some friends at Alaska.)

No problem. I understand. That’s why I always get lots of emails and very few public comments. <g>

So for your Friday morning reading pleasure, yet another first-hand account of good relationships gone bad. Frequent flyer relationships that is.

Holly,

Enjoyed your rant about frequent flyer tickets, even though it reminded me of the pain I’ve been enduring lately. Perhaps my most disappointing experiences of late have been with Alaska Airlines. Believe it? Alaska, my favorite airline of choice for many years.

Last August, I began searching for a reservation from Spokane (GEG) to LAX for Christmas. Even that far in advance, seats were very limited. The only ones I could find at the ‘saver’ rate of 20K miles were on the nonstop flights, which you’d think I would prefer. I would, except they were earlier changed from Alaska big jets to Horizon CRJ700s. I don’t mind that type for a short flight, say from GEG to SEA, but a 2 hour, 49 minute journey down to LAX? I don’t think so. Then I checked connections over SEA, and found nearly all the seats would cost me the equivalent of LUV’s “Freedom Fare,” or 40K miles. It turns out first-class tickets are also 40K miles, so why not book up front? The “best” connections involved three or more hour sits at SEA both ways.

I finally found a decent connecting going into Long Beach (LGB), with a return from LAX still involving nearly three hours of sit time at SEA, and booked the flight. Imagine my glee when, in November, ExpressJet announced new GEG-LGB service and offered an introductory roundtrip fare of $205 including nuisance fees, taxes, etc. I jumped all over it and gladly paid the $50 cancellation fee (since increased to $75) for Alaska to redeposit my miles.

I won’t go into all the details of my Florida trip that I wound up canceling as well, but here are the highlights: Alaska had no first-class seats on the daylight SEA to Orlando (MCO) flight on any of the three days I selected. Not being fond of red-eyes, I reluctantly booked the downward portion on Delta, an Alaska partner, with a return on Alaska; 45K miles, thank you very much. Shortly thereafter, I was notified that my Delta flights had changed; the 737-800 on the GEG-SLC portion was miraculously turned into yet another Canadair Regional Jet, not quite as long a flight as GEG-LAX, but long enough to turn me off. Because this constituted an “involuntary” schedule change, I was allowed to cancel and redeposit my miles, and then booked a “real” ticket on Frontier.

At this point, I was ready to reserve another flight to LAX for March. ExpressJet came in at $224 all up to LGB; why even bother with an Alaska mileage ticket? I decided to dump the remaining 140K Alaska miles and fly in style to Frankfurt next November for the annual aviation photographers meet; 140K miles equals roundtrip in first class on British Airways from SEA via LHR and includes the GEG-SEA portion on Alaska; I’ve done this trip six times already and thought it would be fun to see BA’s new Terminal 5; by then, they should have all the kinks worked out.

Now for the fun part. Alaska’s “Partner Desk,” that handles the details, was efficient and pleasant, as much as one can be with all the bad news. First class? Nothing available eastbound on the day I wanted, or the day before, in the dark of November; no holidays around it, nada. Going via Vancouver? Nope. Even San Francisco? Nope.  By going over a day earlier, I was able to get a business-class seat. The kicker is that business class is only 20K miles cheaper than first, which is well worth the extra 20K. I could get first coming back, but on the later departure from LHR, and it would cost me the 20K extra, even though I was going over in business. Okay … I went for business on the preferred flights. Those pesky taxes and fees were “only” $139!!

Once the formalities were complete, I was given my seat assignments on the Alaska segments. I asked if, as in the past, I should contact British Airways for my other seat selections? “Oh no, you don’t need to. Those seats are assigned at check-in.” Huh? I’m booking in business class TEN months in advance and can’t get pre-assigned seats? “No, only in First do they allow that.” But First is what I want!! The gal explained that I could check in on-line 24 hours in advance in order to get the best of basically what was left. Swell; you sure do get a lot for those 120K miles.

Well, silly me. After a week, I thought about that first-class bed for the return flight, which would get me home about 3 hours later, but what the hell? The 20K sitting in my Alaska account was all but useless and I might as well shoot the wad. I called back to Alaska, and an equally pleasant reservationist told me that yes, the seat was still available; would I like to do that? Yes, thank you very much. Done, even with a seat assignment: 4A. “And what credit card will you be using for the $75 change fee?” You’ve got to be kidding! “No, if you had upgraded on the same flight there would be no charge, but you’re changing flights.” Yes, even on the same day. Well, take my credit card, please! And take my 20K miles; we won’t be having this conversation again. The good news: I can keep calling and calling and, should by some miracle that first-class seat become available on the same eastbound flight, I can upgrade with no additional fee or miles. Now let me think: what are the odds? For fun, I checked the British Airways site, with the thought of changing my seat assignment. But alas, at least for us lowlife Alaska folks, only the last row in first was available, or center seats; the rest of the good ones were blocked. Could all those seats already be assigned to “real” people? I doubt it. At this point, I printed out my reservation details and filed them. I may try calling later for that elusive first-class seat. Then again, maybe not.

A footnote: when I was going through the drill with my LAX reservations, I commented to the reservationist about the difficulties involved and disappointment with Alaska’s tightened, more restrictive frequent-flyer rules. He responded with the company line: “We’re just made the changes to become more in line with industry standards; all the carriers are tightening the rules.” I reminded him that Alaska had been my airline of choice precisely because it was BETTER than the rest, and by aligning itself with the industry, its advantage as my airline of choice was quickly evaporating.

Pardon my ranting; I’ve just cut up my Alaska Visa card and feel much better.

Happy New Year!