My experience with Alaska Airlines

Now, I know this is irrelevant to party planning. But I am still so flabbergasted that I want to get this off my chest. I promise not to turn the blog into a soapbox bashing businesses, but this will serve as a warning to anyone out there considering a flight with Alaska Airlines.

We are Canadian and had been planning a trip to Hawaii for quite a few months. We  booked flights to go from Calgary, AB to Kona, HI. The plan was to fly from YYC (Calgary) to SEA (Seattle) with a 2 hour layover, then continue to KOA (Kona.) On the way to HI, everything went fine.

On the way home, here's how it went down.

Weds, Mar. 5/2014:
Arrive at airport at 8pm for our flight departing from KOA at 11:15pm. We check in and go through security, anticipating a nice quiet ride home with our two kids, aged 3 and 5. Sure enough, we board the plane, kids fall asleep, and off we go.

Thurs, Mar. 6/2014:
Arrive at SEA at 7:30am (Seattle time.) We're tired, but we know the longest part of the flight is behind us, and there's a light at the end of the tunnel. We grab a coffee, and hang out in the departures lounge for the next leg of the flight, departing at 9:10am. It's not even two hours, we think, no big deal.

At 8am we hear that the flight to YYC has been delayed. The lady at the Alaska desk tells us the plane taking us to Calgary was coming over from Portland, but the plane hasn't even left yet, so the flight is definitely delayed, probably by about a half hour. Ok, so we're going to leave around 9:45am, no big deal.

At 8:30am we hear the flight has been delayed again. The lady at the desk doesn't know what's going on, but she thinks the departure is going to be bumped back by another hour or so. 'Jeez,' we think. 'Better get these kids some snacks, or something. We've been on the go now for 12 hours so they're going to be hungry.' So we grab some more American money and buy a couple of coffees.

It is now 9:10am, the original departure time, and we aren't going anywhere. We hear that the plane is delayed again, with no explanation as to why.

At 9:45am, we have been sitting in the SEA airport for over two hours, with no idea of when we're leaving. We continue to be reassured by Alaska that the flight is delayed, but whatever, it's going to work out. We're tired, and we wish we could just go home - after all, it's been 12 hours since we checked in to our flight in Kona.

At 10:30am, my kids are falling asleep on the benches, and we're getting worried. At 10:45am, we hear the flight has been cancelled. We're instructed to go to the Alaska Airlines service counter to rebook a different flight. We're not thrilled, but hey, it happens, and unfortunately we had the bad luck to encounter a cancelled flight.

We traipse through the airport to the service desk. After waiting in line for 45 minutes, because all the other clients on the cancelled flight have to be rebooked as well, we're told we have gotten the last four seats on a plane leaving SEA to Edmonton at 2:55pm. From there, they're going to have us wait another hour and a half, then get on a plane back down to Calgary at 7:10pm. 'At last!' we think. 'We'll be able to brush our teeth! And shower! Hooray!'

At noon, we're sitting in a different departure lounge, waiting another three hours for the Edmonton flight. It's been 12 hours since we took off from KOA. Two hours pass, and I take my daughter - who is still wearing her pajamas, tired, hungry - for a walk. We happen to pause at a departure screen and I see it: the Edmonton flight is now cancelled. No announcements, nothing - just a flukey glance at a screen.

Once again, we collect our exhausted 3 and 5 year olds, and ourselves (bear in mind that as a parent, it's difficult to sleep on a plane with a child sprawled across you. At this point, we've gotten two hours of sleep, total) and schlep over to a different service counter to try to rebook, again.

While we're in line, we chat with a few other customers on this plane, who tell us they've all had flights cancelled, both coming into and going out of Seattle. One guy and his wife lost a day of skiing in Jasper for their 25th wedding anniversary because of the cancelled Edmonton flight. Another couple lost a day in Vegas. One guy phoned Alaska while we were standing in line and they were able to get him onto another flight - but this would have taken him from Seattle to Portland to Vancouver to Edmonton. It was going to take him 8.5 hours to get home when a direct flight from Seattle to Edmonton is around 3.5.

We can't get help at this service desk. There are so many people in line that the staff can't handle it. We go back to another Alaska desk. This time I look the employee in the eye and say "We have been trying to get home since 11pm Wednesday. It is now 3pm on Thursday. You have cancelled two flights. Please, please, just let us go home."

He gets us onto a flight going from SEA to YVR (Vancouver) in half an hour, followed by a flight from YVR to YYC. This time, we sprint across the SEA airport, praying to the gods of airline travel that this plane will actually leave the ground with us on it. It does, barely. We board the plane, a teensy little commuter puddle jumper going from SEA to YVR. It's filthy. There are crumbs and crap all over the carpet. The seat back pockets are torn from the seats themselves. And the best part - there are literally duct taped windows.

The rattle box takes off, while I clutch my children in terror, convinced that I have sentenced them to die in a hideous crash somewhere in Puget Sound when this tin can crashes. By no small miracle we make it back to Canada. Although I'm tempted to fall to the ground and kiss it, it's now 4:45pm and we have a flight leaving at 6pm - so gotta dash. We can barely move at this point. We're just a group of zombified airline passengers who have slept 2 hours and spent 21 trying to get home, but we dash anyway.

Because we have now crossed back into Canada we have to go through Customs. Then we have to pick up our baggage.

Guess what happens next?

Yeah. Alaska lost our baggage. But they don't know that, only we know that. We find out by checking every. single. baggage. carousel. in the Vancouver Canada connections terminal, then confirming with the Alaska Airlines baggage service girl. She tells us she has no idea where our stuff is, because they haven't updated the computer in Seattle yet.

At this point, it's 5:30pm, and we have only a half hour left before we have to be on a flight to take us from YVR to YYC. We RUSH through security, begging and thanking folks letting us stand in front and praying that by some twist of fate our baggage has made its way to Calgary (a possibility introduced by the Alaska girl at YVR.) Finally, we get through security, glance at the screen and see we have five minutes to get on our YYC flight.

Freedom beckons! We can taste the dry, cold prairie air! Scoop up children and backpacks, and dip into our final reserves of strength. We sprint across the departures lounge. My son trips and falls on the carpeted floor, but even his little boost of adrenaline spurs him on through the carpet burn. We fly around the corner, knowing we've got nothing left - no toothbrush, no time, no energy.

The flight to YYC is delayed.

This last flight, however, is not through Alaska. It's through WestJet, who will forever be seen by me as a shining beacon of hope in every airport I ever visit. They smile and say "hey, listen, we're just cleaning the plane up a bit. Give us a half hour." And amazingly, a half hour passes, and then we board the plane. And it flies to Calgary.

And we sob in joy. Sort of. That slight possibility of our luggage making it from SEA to YYC without us was... slight. No baggage. No carseats. No suitcases. No clothes, no toothbrushes, no mitts or tuques. We go to WestJet to ask if they know which Alaska counter can help us make a baggage claim. They take one look at us - bedraggled, exhausted, dirty, exhausted, hungry, exhausted, and have spent 22 hours trying to get home - and say "Nope, we'll take care of it."

And they do. They give us brand new carseats to take our kids home. They take our information and start the baggage claim process. They reassure us that often, baggage can make it from Seattle to Calgary on its own, and they offer to deliver it to us when it arrives. This morning they called just to update me on the baggage - still not found, but they're looking. WestJet is great.

This morning I called Alaska Airlines. They put me on hold. Then they offered me a $200 per person credit for another plane ticket with them. I told them they could offer it, but nothing was going to convince me to put my family through that kind of torture ever again.

To recap:

- four delays
- two cancelled flights
- a dilapidated duct taped plane
- lost baggage

And they didn't even give us a voucher for a free coffee. They didn't give us anything except another attempt to extort money from us.

The reason I flew Alaska was because their Kona flight arrived in daylight, and I wanted daylight when we tried to navigate Kailua getting to our condo. In retrospect we should never have made this choice.

Driving in the dark or paying an extra $100 would have been far more preferable than spending 12 hours waiting to go from SEA to YYC.The careless Alaska staff who saw us and our tired children standing there begging to go home didn't even have the decency to offer us a voucher for a bag of chips. Nobody apologized. And we aren't the only ones they did it to - we spoke to dozens and dozens of Alaska passengers whose flights were cancelled. Alaska wasn't cancelling empty planes - we are talking about full planes filled with people.

I own a small business, and I have clients. Part of my relationship with my clients is the contract created with a sale - they give me money, and in return, I give them a service.

I paid Alaska Airlines money to take me and my family and our belongings from YYC to KOA and back again. They trusted me to pay them, and I trusted them to provide me the service they promised. They failed to hold up their end of the deal. They are, essentially, taking people's money and failing to provide the service they claim to offer.

I intend to share this information with as many people as I can. Spending 23 hours going from Hawaii to Alberta is ludicrous. We had enjoyed a relaxing holiday together as a family, but the treatment from Alaska put a terrible stain on the trip and has made it the worst memory of the entire trip. We never want to set foot in an airport again at this point.

Finally, Alaska's carelessness extends not only to the way they treat clients - who flies planes fixed with duct tape?!

Save yourself the stress, additional expense, and exhaustion that comes with Alaska Airlines. I'll be flying WestJet from now on!