formeraa

I have recently begun to fly AS primarily between PHX and SEA. On 12/31, my flight had a mechanical (identified during overnight maintenance) and the part had to come from LAX. Thus, the flight was 1 hour and 20 minutes late.

Going back today, the flight had a 2:30 delay out of SEA (inbound flight had maintenance issues in RNO). All the afternoon/evening flights today from SEA to PHX were delayed anywhere from 1 hour to over 3 hours.

The same thing happened last week and about 3 weeks ago. While I am absolutely for safety first, why is AS having so many problems with delayed flights? I love airports, but not for 4 or 5 hours at a time!!!

Even more annoying is the fact that gate agents make NO attempt to explain the delays (no announcement at all!)! C'mon, AS, I like your airline, but these on-going delays with no explanations are irritating your frequent flyers.

rjque

I have to agree with this. AS seems to be getting more and more reliable for the inability to push an aircraft on time.

My last two flights were delayed for non-weather, non-ATC reasons. The first was an SFO-PDX flight. It was the last flight of the night which is a virtual guarantee of a delay of 30-60 minutes. The gate agents made frequent announcements regarding the length of the delay but never actually gave a reason (there was no flow control that day in SFO so the problem remained a mystery). The second was the last PDX-OAK flight of the night. We boarded on time and then proceeded to sit and wait . . . until about 15 minutes past departure when the crew finally showed and began their pre-flight checks. No announcements made by the gate agents or the cabin crew until the pilot walked on board. I realize that this is just two incidents but this is part of a larger pattern I've noticed over the course of the year.

EIPremier

It's no secret that Alaska's on-time record during winter months leaves much to be desired. December and January are generally the worst months due to weather-related issues, and the shorter, "optimistic" turn times implemented last year certainly haven't improved the situation. It's common for afternoon/evening runs on certain routes to be 30+ minutes delayed due to an accumulating of shorter delays throughout the day (Southwest has this problem too). I have to wonder if the gate agents/crew tire of offering explanations during periods when so many flights are delayed. Some of the longer-delays are weather-related, although many seem to be "mechanicals". I think it is less that AS has more mechanicals compared to other airlines than that Alaska's high aircraft utilization/lack of spares leads to a pronounced domino effect.

I think AS could probably do a better job with expediting delayed flights. The turn times at the outstations are pretty good, but SEA is usually slow in my experience. 30 minute turns might work at SJC or BUR, but I think they should increase to a minimum of 40 min ground times at congested airports such as SEA and LAX.

AS made a lot of progress with on-time performance in recent years, but unfortunately it has slipped during the past six months. Hopefully they can get back on the right track.

Westcoaster

One of my "favorite" parts of these delays is the manner in which we are asked to stay on board at the end of the flight so that passengers with tight connections can have a shot at making them. I agree with helping my fellow passengers, so I don't mind waiting a bit to let them off if I don't have a connection myself. BUT what I don't like is that some FA's make it sound like it's going to be entirely our fault if a connection is missed without acknowledging that it was the AS mechanical that got us in so darn late in the first place.

I wish they would say something like "We're sorry that we got you here so late and have a favor to ask. Would you please allow fellow passengers with connections..." etc. My last flight on AS in December got in late due to a mechanical and ended with FA's pretty much ordering us to allow other passengers to get off with no apologies then (or during the flight from them or the flight crew) for the late arrival.

Thanks for letting me vent.

david55

I have been complaining about their on-time reliability for months....As many of you know by now I usually monitor a flight I am about to take a month or so before, watching it daily to see its on-timeness....more than half the time it leaves late.....I think this has gotten worse this past year....because even as of late 2003 the flights were pretty much on time....

BigKing

It has gotten worse this year and that was what many people on this board predicted would happen when TANGO was started. My opinion then and now is that AS schedules things as optimistically as possible, when things go well they benefit from increased utilization, lower labor costs, etc. And when things do not go according to plan the passengers end up losing in terms of wasted time, missed connections and general frustration. And the worst aspect of the situation is their feigned surprise that these delays occur and their implication that the delays are beyond their control. They will blame the weather, ATC, catering, and anybody else except themselves. But the fact is they have been flying these routes for YEARS and these delays have been a constant frustration for YEARS, not months. Many of the delays are within the control of the airline, they just need to write a realistic schedule. They write an unreasonable schedule partly because of pressure to increase efficiency which is ultimately due to the typical customer's unwillingness to pay $1 more than the lowest available fare. So indirectly the schedule could be attributed to customers, but I for one would much prefer that Alaska be completely honest and tell passengers that they can't meet the schedule most of the time. At least be honest about the delays so people can make better use of their time while they wait.

travelalot5

You all have legitimate concerns and complaints but I do ask that you consider who in the AS world has the ability to make the decisions and who decides what agents can say to the passengers.

Sometimes being completely honest results in punitive action being taken against the agent. If a delay is due to failure to staff adequately or the implemented programs (TANGO and ASTM) causing the delay and the agents informs the passengers of this, there is a very good chance they'll hear about it later and not in a good way.

Concerns might be better addressed directly to those who can make changes. An email to Bill Ayer or Ed White might be a start.

RASMguy

The on-time performance issue was discussed in length in a recent planning meeting. Without elloborating, changes are going to be made to improve the situation.

formeraa

A sympathetic gate agent (who makes reasonably frequent announcements in a positive tone of voice) is well appreciated by the passengers -- even if the delay is the inbound flight from RNO. In fact, that is all I'm asking. Everyone wants the plane to be repaired properly; everyone understands that weather is beyond the airline's control. Just give us some information. Let us know that, once the plane arrives, you will quickly work to get it out ASAP. That's all we need.

Do you have an email address for Bill or Ed? I would be happy to send them my concerns and observations. I sent an email to customer service and got a nice response (but wasn't sure that anything was really going to be done).

I have actually spent extra to fly AS (over WN, for example). I am not paying rock bottom fares, but I seem to be getting rock bottom on-time service.

formeraa

Thanks, RASMguy, for letting us know that changes are on the way. I hope that this in fact is true! AS should take a look at what CO is doing. They seem to have a great way of mitigating delays from propogating across the system.

missydarlin

emails are best sent to Customer Relations. You can even use the link provided on the AS website.

If you're going to specifically address Ed White or Bill Ayer, fax a letter addressed to them through the Customer Relations fax number, or snail mail it to the corporate address.

travelalot5

Sometimes information isn't as easy to provide as it should be. Agents get thrown into the situation at the last minute, have multiple other tasks, understaffed, make an announcement which many times results in a negative and hostile response from some passengers. So lets put it this way; you've been getting your butt kicked all day, haven't been provided time for lunch and breaks and making an announcement results some passengers expressing their frustration (legitimate frustration but inappropriate response) to the agent who is just the messenger. It is the responsibility of the agent to make informed announcements but given the working conditions you might appreciate the reluctance to do so for the fifth late flight that day.

removed information per request of others - easy stuff to figure out anyway.

Good luck

formeraa

Travelalot5 --

Trust me, I understand the gate agent's perspective. Not only have I "been there, done that", but we have all seen passenger's inappropriate reactions. However, when announcements are made appropriately and empathetically, the agents can get the passengers "on their side".

When I was checking in for my flight on Monday, the AS agent asked me if I wanted to go on the earlier flight. I said "No" because I wanted to visit my grandmother who lives up the street from SEA-TAC. Silly me, I should have asked how late the earlier flight was running (turned out to be 90 minutes late) and how late my flight was running (turned out to be 2.5 hours)!

Do you see how ridiculous this is from a passenger's perspective? It is truly embarassing for Alaska Airlines. If your management thinks that this is a quality operations, I assure you that it is NOT.

I will be more than happy to write an email. Unfortunately, given airline management's willingness to drink "Kool-Aid", I am not expecting much.

EIPremier

Yikes...the November DOT data was out today.
http://airconsumer.ost.dot.gov/repor...5/0501atcr.pdf

AS OTP has really been tanking lately. I noticed that AS had the highest percentage of "airline-related" delays of any airline at 9.31% and also the highest number of delays due to "late-arriving aircraft" at 11.31%.

formeraa

Yikes, I fly out of PHX and the OTP is at 56.4% (almost half of all flights are at least 15 minutes late)!!!