Alaska Airlines foo

[howeird]

It's 6:30 pm when I check in for my 8:30 pm flight from SEA to SJC and it is delayed till 10:38. A 2-hour delay for a 1.25-hour flight? What kind of BS is that?

The plane did not actually board till 11, and took off at about 11:45. Got to SJC at 1:05 am. SJC normally shuts down by then, my shuttle to De La Cruz parking did not arrive till 1:25. Home by 2. Should have been home by 11.

When we were pulling out of the slip, and again when we reached cruising altitude, the captain made profuse apologies but said they had a flat tire "and there is nothing we can do about that".

Bullshit.

What they can do about that is have spare aircraft. Alaska has something like a 0% on-time record for their evening flights, because they run it like a shuttle, one plane just goes back and forth between SJC and SEA. Another plane adds PDX to the loop. One mechanical breakdown and the whole schedule gets hosed. They really need to buy some extra planes. Seattle is their major lower-50 hub, they ought to have spares there.

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SeaTac Airport has remodeled, and they have taken away all the internet kiosks! There is no longer any way for a stranded passenger to get online unless he has brought along a laptop. WTF?

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So I read The DaVinci Code. By the time the parking shuttle arrived, I was on the last 3 pages, which I finished at home in bed. Review coming soon.

Comments

[unseelie23.livejournal.com]

But spares are overhead and cost money. You, on the other hand, HAVE to travel and are therefore at their mercy.

And yes, I've never once left SeaTac on-time when flying Alaska, and generally fail to leave on time with any other airline. I hate SeaTac.

[skydancer.livejournal.com]

I hear your rant, and I agree very much it can be frustrating. Here's just a bit of info to season your thoughts about this...

No-one in the airline business today can have "spare" aircraft just sitting around.

Margins are extremely thin. You say Alaska runs as a "shuttle" because they use the same aircraft on multiple flights in a day... All airlines work similarly. It cost a huge amount of money to have an aircraft on the ground (AOG) since an AOG is not generating any revenue, but is still costing debt service, insurance, (and if at a gate) gate fees.

Alaska does have the second-worst ontime arrival ranking (71.2%) according to Bureau of Transportation Statistics January 2006 report. According to their June report (available from here) they've gotten better (77.1%) and are now middle-of-the-pack.

It's also interesting to note that ALL airlines ariving to SFO (SJC not on this subset of data) experience their worst on-time behavior around noon and between 8-10pm, though the performance into SFO is below 70% any time after 10am.

In aggregate, at all airports, all carriers, in the statistical sample, the 8-10pm is the worst time frame.

There are NO Alaska flights listed in the set that arrive 15+ mins late 80%+ of the time. There are only 33 routes with this distinction :)

Out of 427 flights (i.e. flight numbers/recurring flights) Alaska has 2 that are late 70% of the time. ExpressJet is the worst offender here at 37.

Total aggregate at San Jose for 4995 arrivals during the period, 76.6%arrived ontime compared to 66.5% at SFO. 82.8% of 8528 departures from SeaTac were ontime.

For Alaska airlines, the top reasons for delay were:
Late Arriving aircraft (8.04%), National Aviation System (7.34%), Air Carrier Delay (7.07%)

[howeird]

Thanks for taking the time to look at the stats. However, when I book my flights, the printout from Alaska shows the on-time recoord of the flight, and this one was 0%. The flight from SJC to SEA was 80% or thereabouts (and we arrived 20 minutes early, thanks to how they pad their flight length stats).

No-one in the airline business today can have "spare" aircraft just sitting around
I think they can, and should. There's more than the bean-counting involved here. When a flight is canceled, they often have the expense of putting people up in a hotel, giving free tickets, etc. And then there's customer loyalty. I have a choice of 4 airlines at SJC and SFO, and will be looking at the competition now. IMHO they can't afford not to have spares. As for the AOG argument, spares which are pressed into service are no longer AOG.

[skydancer.livejournal.com]

I suspect the 0% was a data-entry error or missing DB record rather than a valid statistic. Considering that if it really were 0% it would have shown up as such in the BTS reports.

The thing is, it's not as if any of the other carriers are significantly better.

[lisa-marli.livejournal.com]

Actually, they had the rules changed a few years back. They are only required to make sure you have a seat on a flight within 12 hours, if the problem isn't weather related. They can usually manage that. Other than that, they owe you nothing. And if it is weather related, they owe you nothing. Not even a seat, until it is "possible". If their next round of flights is overbooked, you may be waiting a while.

So yes, it makes sense to stiff you rather than have a spare aircraft. Welcome to the whatever they can get away with non-regulated system we have now.

I usually fly Southwest when I fly. They still seem to almost care about the paying passenger. They have a reasonable ontime record too.

I missed a connection for weather reasons, and they got me to my destination within 2 hours of my original arrival time. Even my bags made it!

[lisa-marli.livejournal.com]

And this is just the start of the heavy flying season.

It has already run in the newspaper. The FAA is stating expect all your flights to be late, some will even be very late. See Kevin Stanley's report on Cheryl Morgan's flight to WisCon.

The system in its wisdom to improve the All Mighty Bottom Line has officially cut costs to the point where there are no spare aircraft, there is no spare personnel, you are lucky to have a seat. And they have cut corners and salaries to the point that the drones no longer care.

And now they want to cut the starting Air Traffic Controllers starting salary to $17K a year. If it was good enough in Reagan's time, it should be good enough now. I'm sure they'll find Mexicans willing to work for that.

I don't care what they say about Driving is Less Safe than the Flying. I'm driving whenever I can this summer.

And remember, the Economy is booming. We just aren't allowed to know it. Huh?