6 ms·

Now everything Virgin America will get much worse. Time to find a new miles credit card I guess.

SmellTheGlove 10y ago
Not necessarily. Alaska's onboard product is dated, but my experience has been excellent customer service on the ground, and friendly crews in the air. Something I recently learned - Alaska's flight attendant contract has the lowest duty period in the industry (10.5 hours a day), and in general has better terms than the legacies. I didn't know that until a couple of weeks ago when I read it in a Flyertalk thread, but I wasn't surprised given that Alaska FAs seem happier than their legacy counterparts. VX has that same solid core customer service.
johansch 10y ago
This was my first reaction. This seems like a weird marriage. Virgin America is one of the western world's most innovative regional carriers (along with Norwegian, IMHO), and Alaska Air, from my experience, is kind of the opposite.
- adrr 10y ago
  Fly both airlines. Not sure how you say Alaska isn't innovative. They have Wifi and outlets on every plane i've flown. Also have paperless tickets. These are the innovations business travelers want. Other airlines its hit or miss.
  - johansch 10y ago
    I did fly both airlines, a couple of times each. (I don't normally fly many domestic american flights, but somehow I managed to fly with both of these...) Paperless tickets.. really? That's so 10 (20?) years ago.
    - adrr 10y ago
      Whoops, meant paperless boarding passes via your phone which came on to the scene in 2010.
      - johansch 10y ago
        That happened in 2009. http://www.businesstravelnews.com/Business-Globalization/SAS-Joins-European-Airline-Mobile-Boarding-Pass-Bandwagon http://www.businesstravelnews.com/Business-Globalization/SAS...
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
  - Gorbzel 10y ago
    >Not sure how you say Alaska isn't innovative. Since VX has had those exact same amenities plus additional others for longer, and AS is not going to keep the Airbuses around...from the perspective of a Virgin flyer, Alaskan wouldn't seem that innovative.
jyrkesh 10y ago
I highly suggest you wait and see. I moved from LA--where I flew almost exclusively Virgin because they were fantastic--to Seattle--where I now fly exclusively Alaska and have an Alaska credit card. The credit card is fantastic, their mileage program is generous, their partner network is wide, and in my experience, they've got really good customer service, both on the phone and in the air. They do a low-price guarantee so that you can call in and get refunds if the price of already-purchased tickets drop. Combine that w/ TripIt Pro, which gives you notifications when the price drops, and you can save a ton of money. The downside? They're much lower tech than Virgin: typically no screens on the backs of seats (especially for shorter flights), less of the fancy check-in stuff, the app isn't SO slick. But I really think the value combined with a sense of "wow, that was actually a pleasant flight" more than makes up for it. So I'm actually excited to see if we can get the best of both worlds: the technical innovation of Virgin with the no-nonsense customer experience of Alaska. :fingers crossed: Either way, I'm stoked to have more places to earn/burn miles.
- mikestew 10y ago
  They're much lower tech than Virgin: typically no screens on the backs of seats (especially for shorter flights), less of the fancy check-in stuff, the app isn't SO slick. True, but...I bring an iPad or MBP on every flight so I don't need a screen. Fancy check-in stuff? I dunno, how fancy can it be (serious question asked out of ignorance)? What Alaska has seems to do the job, and I'd be at a loss to improve on what I view as a simple process. Virgin's nice, yes, but I really just want to be transported from point A to point B without the cattle car feel of less expensive airlines. For me, Virgin does seem to hit the happy medium of "costs a little more but worth it", but they don't fly Seattle to anywhere I care to go other than SF. Service? I've had them screw up, but they have always eventually made it right. The worst was when it snowed in Seattle, meaning the plane never left to go get me in Orlando. Just a voice mail at 3:00 a. m. telling me I'm screwed. Called right back to their outsourced overnight call center who told me I could fly out in two days. Eventually my wife took over, got a FTE Alaska employee who got us out that day, and exit rows for the trouble. Now, that was with a five-hour layover in DC, and we shouldn't have to spend hours on the phone. I'd say they did their best, but "best" would have included taking me up on my offer to fly out of Tampa instead so they didn't have to funnel all the cancellations through Orlando. But it was good enough for me, and I've had far worse from other airlines. And Alaska has never once given so much as a sideways glance when I walk on with my mandolin case. If they can extend the Virgin amenities to Alaska's SEA-MCO route (my most common trip), I look forward to it. Otherwise, meh, I'm happy with Alaska the way they are.
maherbeg 10y ago
Definitely going to have to strongly disagree. Having dealt with customer service from both airlines, Alaska is a massive upgrade in competence, friendliness, and results. Alaska certainly isn't as fancy but I personally don't need the screens and check in experience. I actually find that Virgin's webapp for booking tickets to be incredibly buggy.
- mjcl 10y ago
  So, this is all ancedata, but my experiences with Alaska have been fantastically poor. The last time I flew AS, they lost my bag. No big deal, it happens. I was staying with a friend in his apartment. Late that evening after I had gone to sleep, I received a series of voicemails from the AS employee trying to deliver my bag, but couldn't get into the building. The first few voicemails were rude, the last was vulgar. The employee ended up leaving my bag ON THEIR BACK PORCH and instructed me to go get it. To top the experience off, she left some sort of receipt on top of the bag, which I took and threw away. I later received another call from her berating me for taking the receipt, without which she apparently would not receive payment for delivering the bag. For the return flight, I did arrive 5 minutes too late to check a bag by the rules. Instead of telling me this or giving me a chance to carry on my small bag (easily fits in the sizer), the check-in agent moved me to standby on the next & last SJC flight of the day, told me I wasn't likely to make that flight, and called for the next person in line. I went online with my laptop and found they were still selling one-way F tickets for that last flight for $250, so I bought one and ended up making it home that night, no thanks to the check-in agent. Now, I will grant that at the time (~2005) I wasn't a super-experienced flyer, and there were tons of points I should have pushed back or complained, but their service was just plain awful. I've had a bunch of bad experiences with AS, but the above was the last straw. After that I booked Southwest/Virgin and just worked around their limited schedule for SJC/SFO-SEA. Contrast this with VX, where I accidentally purchased a ticket for a flight the day before I intended to travel. I realized my mistake when I received a marketing "thanks for flying with us" e-mail. I called and explained that it was entirely my fault, and was allowed to rebook for the next day and they refunded the original ticket, minus the change fee. I had no status with VX, they had every right to take the entire ticket value and they still were incredibly generous.
koenigdavidmj 10y ago
Alaska delivers a consistent passable product. Think Starbucks, not your local independent hipster coffee shop. It's going to taste the same at every store in the world. Not amazing, not terrible. * No shiny screens or anything. Chair, outlet, coke. That's good enough for me. * Free gate-checking if you volunteer before attempting to board. * Their carry-on size limit hasn't been reduced to absurdity, unlike American. I was flying out of JFK terminal 8, and apparently their size is small enough that even the TSA agent, at a glance, tried to stop me, only relenting after we walked over to the Alaska counter and had one of their counter people confirm it.
- Fomite 10y ago
  The chairs are also pretty damned comfortable as far as coach seats go. I'll take the extra inch over a screen.
- johansch 10y ago
  I think that summarizes their operations quite well: "consistently passable". I get the feeling their customer experience, like many other older american airlines are, is designed after listening more to the aging flight crews (and in no-doubt also after many negotiations with their union) than to the passengers.
matthiasb 10y ago
Alaska Airline has great craft beer from Alaska if that helps ;-)
Relys 10y ago
Ultimately time will reveal the outcome of this merger, but if Virgin America becomes more like Alaska Air that is hardly a bad thing in my eyes.
rconti 10y ago
Virgin surpassed Alaska as my favorite airline, but they're both pretty awesome -- unfortunately, in different ways. Here's hoping they take the best from each.

Not necessarily. Alaska's onboard product is dated, but my experience has been excellent customer service on the ground, and friendly crews in the air. Something I recently learned - Alaska's flight attendant contract has the lowest duty period in the industry (10.5 hours a day), and in general has better terms than the legacies. I didn't know that until a couple of weeks ago when I read it in a Flyertalk thread, but I wasn't surprised given that Alaska FAs seem happier than their legacy counterparts. VX has that same solid core customer service.

johansch 10y ago

This was my first reaction. This seems like a weird marriage. Virgin America is one of the western world's most innovative regional carriers (along with Norwegian, IMHO), and Alaska Air, from my experience, is kind of the opposite.

adrr 10y ago
Fly both airlines. Not sure how you say Alaska isn't innovative. They have Wifi and outlets on every plane i've flown. Also have paperless tickets. These are the innovations business travelers want. Other airlines its hit or miss.
- johansch 10y ago
  I did fly both airlines, a couple of times each. (I don't normally fly many domestic american flights, but somehow I managed to fly with both of these...) Paperless tickets.. really? That's so 10 (20?) years ago.
  - adrr 10y ago
    Whoops, meant paperless boarding passes via your phone which came on to the scene in 2010.
    - johansch 10y ago
      That happened in 2009. http://www.businesstravelnews.com/Business-Globalization/SAS-Joins-European-Airline-Mobile-Boarding-Pass-Bandwagon http://www.businesstravelnews.com/Business-Globalization/SAS...
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
- Gorbzel 10y ago
  >Not sure how you say Alaska isn't innovative. Since VX has had those exact same amenities plus additional others for longer, and AS is not going to keep the Airbuses around...from the perspective of a Virgin flyer, Alaskan wouldn't seem that innovative.

jyrkesh 10y ago

I highly suggest you wait and see. I moved from LA--where I flew almost exclusively Virgin because they were fantastic--to Seattle--where I now fly exclusively Alaska and have an Alaska credit card. The credit card is fantastic, their mileage program is generous, their partner network is wide, and in my experience, they've got really good customer service, both on the phone and in the air. They do a low-price guarantee so that you can call in and get refunds if the price of already-purchased tickets drop. Combine that w/ TripIt Pro, which gives you notifications when the price drops, and you can save a ton of money. The downside? They're much lower tech than Virgin: typically no screens on the backs of seats (especially for shorter flights), less of the fancy check-in stuff, the app isn't SO slick. But I really think the value combined with a sense of "wow, that was actually a pleasant flight" more than makes up for it. So I'm actually excited to see if we can get the best of both worlds: the technical innovation of Virgin with the no-nonsense customer experience of Alaska. :fingers crossed: Either way, I'm stoked to have more places to earn/burn miles.

mikestew 10y ago
They're much lower tech than Virgin: typically no screens on the backs of seats (especially for shorter flights), less of the fancy check-in stuff, the app isn't SO slick. True, but...I bring an iPad or MBP on every flight so I don't need a screen. Fancy check-in stuff? I dunno, how fancy can it be (serious question asked out of ignorance)? What Alaska has seems to do the job, and I'd be at a loss to improve on what I view as a simple process. Virgin's nice, yes, but I really just want to be transported from point A to point B without the cattle car feel of less expensive airlines. For me, Virgin does seem to hit the happy medium of "costs a little more but worth it", but they don't fly Seattle to anywhere I care to go other than SF. Service? I've had them screw up, but they have always eventually made it right. The worst was when it snowed in Seattle, meaning the plane never left to go get me in Orlando. Just a voice mail at 3:00 a. m. telling me I'm screwed. Called right back to their outsourced overnight call center who told me I could fly out in two days. Eventually my wife took over, got a FTE Alaska employee who got us out that day, and exit rows for the trouble. Now, that was with a five-hour layover in DC, and we shouldn't have to spend hours on the phone. I'd say they did their best, but "best" would have included taking me up on my offer to fly out of Tampa instead so they didn't have to funnel all the cancellations through Orlando. But it was good enough for me, and I've had far worse from other airlines. And Alaska has never once given so much as a sideways glance when I walk on with my mandolin case. If they can extend the Virgin amenities to Alaska's SEA-MCO route (my most common trip), I look forward to it. Otherwise, meh, I'm happy with Alaska the way they are.

maherbeg 10y ago

Definitely going to have to strongly disagree. Having dealt with customer service from both airlines, Alaska is a massive upgrade in competence, friendliness, and results. Alaska certainly isn't as fancy but I personally don't need the screens and check in experience. I actually find that Virgin's webapp for booking tickets to be incredibly buggy.

mjcl 10y ago
So, this is all ancedata, but my experiences with Alaska have been fantastically poor. The last time I flew AS, they lost my bag. No big deal, it happens. I was staying with a friend in his apartment. Late that evening after I had gone to sleep, I received a series of voicemails from the AS employee trying to deliver my bag, but couldn't get into the building. The first few voicemails were rude, the last was vulgar. The employee ended up leaving my bag ON THEIR BACK PORCH and instructed me to go get it. To top the experience off, she left some sort of receipt on top of the bag, which I took and threw away. I later received another call from her berating me for taking the receipt, without which she apparently would not receive payment for delivering the bag. For the return flight, I did arrive 5 minutes too late to check a bag by the rules. Instead of telling me this or giving me a chance to carry on my small bag (easily fits in the sizer), the check-in agent moved me to standby on the next & last SJC flight of the day, told me I wasn't likely to make that flight, and called for the next person in line. I went online with my laptop and found they were still selling one-way F tickets for that last flight for $250, so I bought one and ended up making it home that night, no thanks to the check-in agent. Now, I will grant that at the time (~2005) I wasn't a super-experienced flyer, and there were tons of points I should have pushed back or complained, but their service was just plain awful. I've had a bunch of bad experiences with AS, but the above was the last straw. After that I booked Southwest/Virgin and just worked around their limited schedule for SJC/SFO-SEA. Contrast this with VX, where I accidentally purchased a ticket for a flight the day before I intended to travel. I realized my mistake when I received a marketing "thanks for flying with us" e-mail. I called and explained that it was entirely my fault, and was allowed to rebook for the next day and they refunded the original ticket, minus the change fee. I had no status with VX, they had every right to take the entire ticket value and they still were incredibly generous.

koenigdavidmj 10y ago

Alaska delivers a consistent passable product. Think Starbucks, not your local independent hipster coffee shop. It's going to taste the same at every store in the world. Not amazing, not terrible. * No shiny screens or anything. Chair, outlet, coke. That's good enough for me. * Free gate-checking if you volunteer before attempting to board. * Their carry-on size limit hasn't been reduced to absurdity, unlike American. I was flying out of JFK terminal 8, and apparently their size is small enough that even the TSA agent, at a glance, tried to stop me, only relenting after we walked over to the Alaska counter and had one of their counter people confirm it.

Fomite 10y ago
The chairs are also pretty damned comfortable as far as coach seats go. I'll take the extra inch over a screen.
johansch 10y ago
I think that summarizes their operations quite well: "consistently passable". I get the feeling their customer experience, like many other older american airlines are, is designed after listening more to the aging flight crews (and in no-doubt also after many negotiations with their union) than to the passengers.

matthiasb 10y ago

Alaska Airline has great craft beer from Alaska if that helps ;-)

Relys 10y ago

Ultimately time will reveal the outcome of this merger, but if Virgin America becomes more like Alaska Air that is hardly a bad thing in my eyes.

rconti 10y ago

Virgin surpassed Alaska as my favorite airline, but they're both pretty awesome -- unfortunately, in different ways. Here's hoping they take the best from each.