I travel often (about every two to three months) and am required to take Alaska Air, as they are the only carrier that flies to my island (Baranof) in Alaska. Up until recently this was not an issue, yes their service wasn't that great, but what can you do? On January 6 this all changed.
I was flying back to Baranof Island from Spokane, Washington where I was visiting family. My flight from Spokane to Seattle started off fine. The flight was on time and we boarded in an orderly fashion. About ten minutes after takeoff I was speaking to the woman sitting next to me when the flight attendant came up to me and yelled for me to get off my cell phone (I suppose she was confused since my head was resting on my hand). When I tried to explain that I had no cell phone, and if I did I would certainly not be using it during a flight (if not for the roaming charges for the fact that I would be endangering one hundred some odd lives) she yelled and said I had to do what she said or they would land the plane and deboard me. Well I just took my hand down from my head and showed that I had no phone. Problem over, right? Wrong.
When we arrived in Seattle we had to change planes and had a two hour layover. No big deal. About fifteen minutes into my wait our gate was changed. I was in the restrooms so I didn't hear this. I noticed none of the same people were in the gate so I asked an employee where I should go, he told me D12. This was wrong. This happened about seven times before I was given the correct gate.
Once I got on the plane from Seattle to Baranof I noticed it was the same flight attendants. I sat near the back of the plane and could hear their conversations. I over heard the one that yelled at me calling me a b*h! I did not need this, but I chose not to cause a problem because I didn't want to get kicked off the plane. So while they were doing the in flight service they get back to my row (I was the only one in it) and they stopped infront of me and served them and then moved past me.
When I asked what was going on they said it was too turbulant (not true this was a very smooth flight) and yet they served the last three rows. When we landed on Baranof I went home and called Alaska Airlines and was refferred to their Customer Relations Department. I called them and explained the situation and the guy I spoke to seemed genuinly sorry. He told me I would recieve a call back from them telling me what they would do to compensate me.
I recieved no call but today I had an envelope in my mail from them. I thought, well no call but at least the fixed this, right? WRONG!
Inside the envelope was a generic "Oops we made a mistake, sorry" letter and a $50 travel discount ticker. I don't know if any of you have flown off Baranof island but you cannot get a flight out of here, or to here for that matter for under $700 ever. This is because Alaska is the only carrier that will fly here. I know this because we used to get flights from other carriers and the tickets were MUCH closer to a national average back then. Then to add insult to injury I have to buy the ticket in person, I cannot use this puny discount online.
Well our airport doesn't have authorization to sell tickets. Lucky me. I have been flying with these guys for a long time now and have never complained and this is the gratitude they give to a customer that spends thousands of dollars a year with them. RIPOFF! If I didn't have to, I would never fly with them again, but I have to, I have no other choice!
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