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Dear Alaska Airlines –
It’s over. I am tired of the lies, cheats, mistreatment and abuse over the past several days. This relationship will cease to exist moving forward. Not only for myself, but for others who have had relationships with you. On 1/5/2019 at 6:30pm, I boarded a flight from Boston to Los Angeles, which should have been a duration of a little over 7 hours. Instead, I was not on the ground in LA until 9:30pm the next day. Which, in itself, is not that big of a deal. It’s the hell that you put myself and fellow passengers through in between that I am pissed about.
Let me break this shit down for you, real slow:
Upon take off on Saturday, we were informed that the manifest was wrong. This resulted in all incorrect baggage loaded onto the plane, which then had to be unloaded for correct bagged. This left us on the airplane for over an hour delay. My morbid sense of humor quipped “if we go down, they won’t know who is on the plane” to by best girlfriend, Christine Simonson. In hindsight, not the best joke I’ve ever made. As we were about 90 minutes in flight, the staff abruptly stopped refreshment services and ran the drink cart to the back of the plane. The lights flicked, the entertainment system cut out and the smell of burning wire lingered in the air. Stewardess are frantically telling passengers quickly, “clear all the aisle of all items, all aisles need to be absolutely clear, please put on your seat belts.” The entire plain fell into a dark silence, everyone simply looking at each other in shock. Christine and I exchanged glasses and quickly both txt our mom’s. A scratchy PA announcement followed “folks, we are getting reports of some smoke and odd odor from staff as well as passengers, we’re just going to be safe and emergency land in Buffalo, NY, please fasten your seat belts, we will be on the ground soon”.
After a few terrifying minutes descending, the plane landed safely in Buffalo, NY. We were all thankful for the safe landing and awaiting patiently as they attempted to prepare a gate for us. Alaska Air does not have a hub in Buffalo, so they were not prepared to accommodate. Passengers chatted and exchanged their secret terror during the decent and expressed gratitude for the safe arrival. After sitting on the plane another hour waiting for the gate to be prepared, passengers were led into a gate at the Buffalo Airport. The pilot came out “hi all, I am going to have to yell, we do not have a PA system. Please stay put in this area, we are not sure how to proceed. One of two things will happen, either we put you back on the plane after firefighters and inspectors deem it safe or we put you on an emergency rescue plane back to Boston, we just don’t know”. Passengers sat patiently for over 2 hours before the next announcement from the pilot “Folks, we are still waiting for confirmation on how to move forward, still just not sure. I am going to be timing out soon, so likely you will have a new pilot”.
At this point, passengers began calling customer service, attempting to book new flights out of Buffalo. Myself included. When I finally reached them after an hour long wait, I was informed that I could not book a new flight as I had checked luggage. The funny thing is, I had not checked luggage. This isn’t my first rodeo, I never check. Once I inform the customer service agent of this, she replies “hmm, that is really weird, I am showing both you and Christine booked luggage. What is even more odd is I see another plane ticket on here, but the to and from cities don’t even exist”. *insert hand to forehead emoji*
All I could do was laugh with the agent at this point, she was as frustrated and at a loss as I was. After an hour of trying to override the system, she finally said “I’m really sorry to tell you this, but you’re going to have to wait it out”. So, wait it out I did, in an empty airport where stores and restaurants were all closed and everyone was hungry, grumpy and tired. The crew finally brought out what was left of the food from the plane and passengers allowed those with children to grab food first. It was only enough food and water for about 20% of the plane. However, we were informed that water fountains and a vending machine were available (with credit card).
We sat in that empty closed airport for 7 hours straight. Babies crying, running out of diapers, milk and patience. Elderly and disabled sleeping on cold floors in a brightly lit room. Pets stuck in carries unable to go outside as we were not allowed to leave. Still, we sat patiently. No one was yelling, no one was making demands. However, even if we wanted to, no staff was anywhere to be found to do so. Finally, without announcement a new plane arrives to take us back to our original destination in Boston. Upon arrival in Boston, we wait inside the airplane again for another hour. Once inside, we are informed we have been booked on new flights at 4:30pm OR possible a 6:30pm flight. That would be hours and hours of sitting in the airport again.
Christine and I are savvy travelers, we knew we could demand a hotel voucher now that we finally had staff to speak to. So, we went to the ticketing deck “We would like a hotel voucher and a food voucher”. This was met with a quick and rude “we don’t have information that those things will be offered”. Christine and I simply said “We will wait” and refused to leave the counter. About an hour later, they finally agreed to both. At that time, we went around telling all the parents to do the same as no one had been informed. One extremely tired parent told me he was down to his last diaper and that in flight they had asked for milk for their child, but it was not available. Luckily, they did end up with a room for a few hours of rest, but very few.
Upon arriving back to Boston airport for our 4:30pm flight, we were told that the flight would be delayed again by another hour. Sitting at the gate, we started to speak to and bond with other passengers. It was then that we learned many had not received hotels or even vouchers for food. Christine and I did the only thing we could think of, we started a complete social media storm. We took videos of passengers and statements that we passed along to Alaska. When we were still ignored, we began tweeting media. Finally arriving home, many passenger found their luggage was lost (surprise, surprise) as the airline had loaded all the wrong luggage. Later, we found the luggage was still on the original airplane in Boston.
Finally home by 2:00am on Sunday after starting my journey at 6:00pm on Saturday. When I woke up the next morning, I was still pissed. Having received no communications, no apologies, no refund announcements. I took to social media and news outlets with the videos. Christine and I, alone with other passengers told our story wherever we could. Finally, after the first story went live on The Seattle Times, I received a call from Alaska Representatives. I advocated, not just for myself, but for ALL passengers.
I requested they refund all passengers, to which they replied “it’s complicated, we cannot refund anyone who booked through a 3rd party” and “we cannot give miles back for those who booked with miles”. I argued this reasoning with them and they agreed to refund ALL passengers and miles. I was armed with a list of requests from fellow passengers that I reached out to as I anticipated this call would come. I also asked for reimbursement of out of pocket expenses, such as flights and hotels booked as a result of the delay. They agreed to this. I asked that the 2 $500 vouchers would be usable on a sister airline, they reluctantly agreed to this.
However, low and behold, when I received the final letter which was to outline the agreements from our call, the vouchers were ONLY usable for Alaska. Guess who will NOT be using this “compensation?”
So, it’s over Alaska. You have worn me down. All the media and work to bring passengers together has been in vain. You continue to lie, continue miscommunication within your own departments and cover things up. A communication center down, does not equal an emergency landing due to potential electrical fires, this flight and at least one other in 48 hours. Someone is not telling the truth.
It’s over.
Below are the last communications that I had with Alaska on behalf of all passengers, hoping they would honor their original promises.
UPDATE:
Passengers have stayed in contact and supported each other. Which is a damn good thing, because I was able to connect a bag sent incorrectly to one passenger from a Facebook message and confirm it was another passengers bag via a Twitter message. I can’t make this stuff up, but I do think I should be on Alaska payroll by this point. Just freaking sayin’!
The post A Dear John Letter To Alaska Airlines: From A Pissed Off Passenger On Nightmare Flight 1367 appeared first on Stimulation From A Broad.