air service in Anchorage can stink

[Thoth]

I remember back in 1984 taking a flight from Wainright, Alaska to Barrow on Cape Smythe Air. The flight was full so I had to sit next to a corpse in a body bag. Oh, the joys of living in rural Alaska.

Oh wow !

[Budget Queen]

We were not very happy with our United flight to and from Alaska. We booked a flight from VA through chicago to Vancouver. We selected a 7:30am flight since we live more than an hour from the airport. It was about $40 more than the 5-6am flights.

 

A little over a month before the flight United cancelled that flight and put us on one at 5:55am. We could have booked that flight for less money at the time we booked. Now we had the less expensive flight for the higher fare we paid. i went through customer service to get them to give us the difference or even a free bag. (Do not laugh) But, this is really bait and switch. If I booked a premium hotel room and they changed me to a lesser room--I woud have gotten a refund. Well I eventually let that go.

 

Then the day we tried to check in online the whole system shut down. When we got to the airport they had reassigned my 6'3" husband an inside seat rather than the aisle that he booked. On the way back they changed his seat again.

 

We had a nasty surprise at the ticket counter when we left Alaska at ANC. We decided to arrive about 8:00 pm to return our rental car and find a restaurant to have a nice dinner (after dropping off checked bags) before our 11:50 flight. But the Ticket counter was closed. The counter closes from around 6-9:30pm. And, the only food before the security was Cinnabon. :mad:

 

.

 

Not sure how often you fly, but when flights are booked way ahead, you can count on there being cancelations and changes, with all the airlines. You also are under the wrong assumption, you were "reserved" a seat. It was a seat "request" you made, subject to change.

[Coral]

We had a nasty surprise at the ticket counter when we left Alaska at ANC. We decided to arrive about 8:00 pm to return our rental car and find a restaurant to have a nice dinner (after dropping off checked bags) before our 11:50 flight. But the Ticket counter was closed. The counter closes from around 6-9:30pm. And, the only food before the security was Cinnabon. :mad:

 

This is pretty common for small airports, unfortunately. I live in Lincoln and this is common to close down when flights are not taking off and landing.

 

Then the day we tried to check in online the whole system shut down. When we got to the airport they had reassigned my 6'3" husband an inside seat rather than the aisle that he booked. On the way back they changed his seat again.

 

My mom has a Seeing Eye dog and needs a Bulk Head seat to make room for a 75 lb German Shepherd in front of us. On average, we lose that seat probably 4x between the time we book and the time we fly, even up until the day before, they will move her seat to another seat. It is extremely frustrating and no one can ever say why it happens. Ironically - Southwest Air seems to be the best airline to fly for us (as they don't assign seats and always lets us on first).

 

Sorry you had a bad experience. I fly United quite a bit but only by choice as they are one of two airlines out of the airport I prefer to fly out of.

[pdmlynek]

We were not very happy with our United flight to and from Alaska. We booked a flight from VA through chicago to Vancouver. We selected a 7:30am flight since we live more than an hour from the airport. It was about $40 more than the 5-6am flights.

 

A little over a month before the flight United cancelled that flight and put us on one at 5:55am. We could have booked that flight for less money at the time we booked. Now we had the less expensive flight for the higher fare we paid. i went through customer service to get them to give us the difference or even a free bag. (Do not laugh) But, this is really bait and switch. If I booked a premium hotel room and they changed me to a lesser room--I woud have gotten a refund. Well I eventually let that go.

...

 

Wow, I would have been PO'ed. Not because of the money or the time, but on the principle of the thing.

I understand that there are good reasons that flights need to be cancelled, or delayed, or whatever; things happen. But it makes sense to treat people fairly about it. Did they give you any explanation about why they charged you more money?

[pdmlynek]

We had a nasty surprise at the ticket counter when we left Alaska at ANC. We decided to arrive about 8:00 pm to return our rental car and find a restaurant to have a nice dinner (after dropping off checked bags) before our 11:50 flight. But the Ticket counter was closed. The counter closes from around 6-9:30pm. And, the only food before the security was Cinnabon. :mad:

 

This would have been fine if they had told us that. We would have found a restuarant in Anchorage. But, we turned in our rental car before we found out. One of our traveling companions was sick to her stomach before we were able to get dinner.

 

Ouch. I think that closing down of the ticket counter is not a function of the size of the airport, but a function of frequency of flights by that airline. If there is only one flight per day, it makes little sense for the airline company to have the ticket counter open through the whole day.

I guess that is one of the drawbacks with flying with an airline that has fewer flights to that destination.

[mytime53]

Ouch. I think that closing down of the ticket counter is not a function of the size of the airport, but a function of frequency of flights by that airline. If there is only one flight per day, it makes little sense for the airline company to have the ticket counter open through the whole day.

 

I guess that is one of the drawbacks with flying with an airline that has fewer flights to that destination.

 

Agree...we have run into this with different airlines at all sizes of airports.

[Coral]

Ouch. I think that closing down of the ticket counter is not a function of the size of the airport, but a function of frequency of flights by that airline. If there is only one flight per day, it makes little sense for the airline company to have the ticket counter open through the whole day.

I guess that is one of the drawbacks with flying with an airline that has fewer flights to that destination.

 

You are right. I know we have few flights at our small airport and our counters are closed a lot.

 

I was in Moscow once and flying with Swiss Air. All the other counters were open but not Swiss Air until the very last moment.

[DragonOfTheSeas]

We fly a few times a year. I know that flights are cancelled sometimes. I understand the need to fly full planes.

 

When I contacted United I expected them to either give us a free bag or a good seat as compensation. ( I did not really expect money back.) But, when I mentioned that I paid for a more expensive flight and got a cheaper flight the customer service representative told me that was marketing. (In other words that is how they make money)

 

Since i was sitting next to the women sitting in my husband's seat (and she struck up a conversation) I asked her when she booked that seat. She told me she changed her seat when she checked in on line and that seat was shown as enpty. :eek:

 

When United and Continental merged their computer system it led to major issues.

 

Regarding the closed counter--that is a lesson learned for us. I have flown into many cities (US, Bahamas, Caribbean) and never had a counter closed. I will always go onto the airline's site in the future to look at the counter hours from here on out.

[Coral]

I will always go onto the airline's site in the future to look at the counter hours from here on out.

 

I am not sure it is always listed. Way back when (after 9-11), they were telling people to show up 3 hours early for an International flight. Our counters didn't open more then an hour before the flight for the first flight in the morning. It was never an issue but I always tried to do what they suggested. I know our airport doesn't have hours listed for gates.

[DragonOfTheSeas]

I am not sure it is always listed. Way back when (after 9-11), they were telling people to show up 3 hours early for an International flight. Our counters didn't open more then an hour before the flight for the first flight in the morning. It was never an issue but I always tried to do what they suggested. I know our airport doesn't have hours listed for gates.

 

I guess I will do what I can and hope for the best. We always expect a few bumps in the road when we travel. The cruise and land tour were great. We loved Alaska.

 

The flights (not so much:eek:) --we have put the whole thing behind us. But, the closed counter situatiion is something that shoud be discussed on these boards for future cruisers.

[Thoth]

We fly a few times a year. I know that flights are cancelled sometimes. I understand the need to fly full planes.

 

When I contacted United I expected them to either give us a free bag or a good seat as compensation. ( I did not really expect money back.) But, when I mentioned that I paid for a more expensive flight and got a cheaper flight the customer service representative told me that was marketing. (In other words that is how they make money)

 

Since i was sitting next to the women sitting in my husband's seat (and she struck up a conversation) I asked her when she booked that seat. She told me she changed her seat when she checked in on line and that seat was shown as enpty. :eek:

 

When United and Continental merged their computer system it led to major issues.

 

Regarding the closed counter--that is a lesson learned for us. I have flown into many cities (US, Bahamas, Caribbean) and never had a counter closed. I will always go onto the airline's site in the future to look at the counter hours from here on out.

Or how about this ? I show the United gate agent a receipt where I purchased an "economy plus" seat for two flights adding up to $ 130 and was told "YOU agreed to pay that... I'll put you in an aisle seat but that's about it". It did work out however, but no thanks to United. The ANC United crew also implied that since they rebooked me onto US Air that I was US Air's problem. I called United's 1-800 number was told that since i purchased a ticket with United, that I was still United's problem.

Certain counters at ANC only open at odd times. Like US Air does not opens until 2200...10PM. I think that American and Delta have similarly odd hours since their flights leave in the middle of the night also.

Yes, when United merged computers with Continental, there ARE serious complications. I was told the same thing months ago when their computer messed up my itinerary going to my cruise....arrive to SEA at 1630 for a 1600 connecting flight.

[bellebud]

OP - thanks for posting this. I wasn't sure about which airline to book for our first Alaskan cruise next summer, and now I know :)

[DragonOfTheSeas]

Yes--I am glad the OP posted, too. I thought it was just our bad luck--but, I see that there are some issues to keep in mind when flying in/out of Alaska. It will be important for someone to start a thread about things to keep in mind in late winter when the Alaska message board picks up for the new season. (i.e. closed counters)

[Thoth]

OP - thanks for posting this. I wasn't sure about which airline to book for our first Alaskan cruise next summer, and now I know :)

 

Glad to be of help. Just don't let me worry or discourage you. You will have a wonderful time .

Just my opinion, but I'll use Alaska Air for Anchorage next time. Plenty of flights and the gate people were nice to me...based on my experiences only.

[Thoth]

Yes--I am glad the OP posted, too. I thought it was just our bad luck--but, I see that there are some issues to keep in mind when flying in/out of Alaska. It will be important for someone to start a thread about things to keep in mind in late winter when the Alaska message board picks up for the new season. (i.e. closed counters)

 

I'm glad that you understood where I was coming from in trying to help the next person.