Getting to Utah the Hard Way...(an Alaska Airlines-FAIL!)

We bought our plane tickets for the holidays back at the end of July.  We used our Alaska airline miles for the Thanksgiving/Utah trip.  And we got first class tickets to and from Utah.  Score!  We were beyond excited!

But after we got our tickets our itinerary changed multiple times.  And during those changes the last leg of our flight was no longer first class (they said we would be put on the upgrade list though), but we didn't care because it meant we didn't have to fly to Minnesota on our way home.  (This was one of the itinerary changes I was talking about...)

Finally the day had come for our Thanksgiving holiday travel.  The morning started out great.  Our wonderful neighbor, Adrienne, drove us to the airport.  We made it through security without any problems.  Things were going well.

We were in the first group that boarded the plane, and about 30 min later we seemed to be on our way. However, as we were taxiing to the runway, the pilot came over the intercom saying there was a minor mechanical problem in the cockpit that required us to return to the gate for maintenance.  So we went back.

And the fun began.

The minor problem in the cockpit turned out to be an hour and a half of waiting for repair and paperwork.  (Paperwork...the necessary evil...just ask Luke.  He does A LOT of paperwork!)  So that was 2 hours total of sitting on the plane...waiting...

Luke and I were enjoying the extra leg room and spaciousness of first class, but then we got to wondering if we were going to make our connecting flight on Delta airlines in Seattle.  We did some math and and talked to the flight attendants and decided it was going to be close...but possible.  (We were told that 7 people on our flight were going to be making that connection, so we thought for sure they would wait for us...)

Look at all that room!

When we landed in Seattle, we had less than 30 min to make it to our next flight.  We hurried on our way toward for our next gate...which, lucky for us, was at the opposite end of the airport.  We took 3 trains, and made it 7 minutes before our plane was supposed to leave.  But there wasn't anyone at our gate!  Luke ran over to another counter to ask where our gate people were.  And then over the intercom we heard that our flight...flight 1457...had closed it's doors.  When our gate people came back through the doors, they informed us that Alaska airlines told them we were going to be rebooked on another flight and they told them not to wait for us.  (Geez.  Thanks for letting us know before we made it to our gate...in time.)

So we took the 3 trains back to the gate we arrived at to see what was going on.

As it turns out we had been rebooked on a flight to Phoenix where we would catch a connection to Salt Lake.  We were given an itinerary and our boarding pass, and we got right back on the plane we came in on to go to Phoenix.  (Keep in mind that the plane we came in on was an hour and a half behind schedule...)

We looked at our itinerary and were relieved to see that we had 2 hours between our flights in Phoenix.  We had hope that we would make it to Utah after all!

When it was finally time to go, we weren't going.  Turns out frost had accumulated on the wings of the plane and they had to be de-iced (which they did at the gate)... 30 minutes later we were on our way.

After take off, I was looking at our itinerary and boarding pass and I realized that the times weren't matching up.  On our itinerary it said our flight was leaving at 3:20, and on our boarding pass it said our flight was boarding at 4:26 (and with the de-icing time...we were about a hour and a half behind schedule.  Sound familiar??)

That's when Luke and I realized that we would, again, only have 30 minutes between flights.  We purchased wi-fi time so we could look up a map of the Phoenix airport.  Our connection was on U.S. Airways and we doubted that it was in the same terminal we would be arriving in.

And we were correct.  But not only was it not in the same terminal...the Phoenix airport is even more special (and by that I mean stupid)....because each terminal has it's own separate security.  So to go from one terminal to the next we would have to leave security, go outside, get on a bus, get off at the terminal we needed, and then go back through security to get to our next gate.  (Boo Phoenix.  Boo!)

This time we weren't going to rush like crazy people.  We decided to talk to the Alaska Airlines gate agent and see what our alternatives were.

So after we got off the plane we went straight to the Alaska airlines gate agent and showed her our itinerary.  We told her we didn't have boarding passes for our next flight, so there was no way that we could make it to the terminal, get our boarding passes, make it through security, and to our gate in less than 30 minutes.  She assured us that, since security was light at that time of day, we could make it...if we ran.  We asked her to call them and tell them that we were coming.  She kept a copy of our itinerary, and said that she would.

(I wonder if she laughed at us as we ran away.)

We made it to our next terminal, but we didn't have boarding passes so we needed to find the ticket desk.  We came in from the bus and took a two story escalator to the security floor.  But the ticket counters were on the floor in between where we came in and the security level.  We made the mistake of getting on the wrong escalator to go to the ticket counter.  So we turned around.  We weren't far from the top, but have you ever tried to go up a down escalator?  It's hard.  And at the top I fell...and scraped up my legs pretty good.

That's when Luke said "we aren't running anymore."  I could tell he was mad.  And my knees were pretty scraped up, so I was done running anyway...even walking was a struggle.  (Good thing my pants didn't rip, and that they were black so they masked the blood stains.)

We got on the correct escalator and made it to the ticket desk where were informed there was NO WAY we could make our flight since it was supposed to leave in 5 minutes.  We asked if they could tell them to wait for us, and the lady said "no."

She rebooked us for a  flight the next morning and told us to go back to the Alaska airlines desk to see about hotel vouchers.

So we went back outside, got back on the bus, and went back to the terminal where we started.  Of course the Alaska airlines customer service desk was closed (since it was after 7:30 p.m. and all..) and a sign directed us to go to the Alaska airlines baggage office (which was also closed but there was a sign directing us back to the customer service desk...Lame-os!)

We eventually found a lady that worked for Alaska Airlines who found another lady with the keys to get in the office so we could get hotel and meal vouchers.

There was another lady, Katherine, whom we met at the customer service desk.  She had been on this adventure with us from the beginning in Anchorage.  She, like us, couldn't believe the incompetence we were experiencing from Alaska Airlines.

As we were talking about the adventures of the day, the lady from Alaska Airlines said "we are actually a very good airline."  We told her that if she would've talked to us YESTERDAY we probably would've agreed with her.  But after today we weren't so sure.

We eventually made it to our hotel- The Fiesta Resort.

 And of course we didn't have any toiletries in our carry-ons...Murphy's law.  But on the hotel shuttle I found this toiletries kit on the seat.  (I feel bad for whomever lost it, but we were thankful for the tender mercies in the form of a toothbrush and toothpaste...and deodorant...)

We didn't sleep well in our hotel room.  Eventually we realized it was because it was hot.  (Funny how we are used sleeping in a 58 degree home at night...with lots of blankets of course.)  We turned on the air conditioner and that made things much better, but I still wasn't able to sleep very well.  I think it was because my injuries from the escalator were achy, and I couldn't stop thinking about the crazy day we had had.  I finally got a few hours of sleep though.

And the next day we made it to Salt Lake.  Hooray!

And as for an update on our flight back, we checked to see if we were actually on the upgrade list (like they promised we would be) and we weren't.

How disappointing, but par for the trip.

Luke wrote a letter to Alaska airlines about our experience.  I'm glad he wrote it.  I wouldn't have been as nice as he was.  (And probably would've called them a bunch of dumb-heads!)

This is part (a very small part) of what he wrote to them:
"I appreciate the challenges that an airline faces in moving so many people around the country and I am grateful that Alaska Airlines was able to get us on flights that eventually got us to our destination but overall our experience was very frustrating.  We were looking forward to a smooth day of premium travel and what we ended up with was a delayed, multi-day, miscommunication-fraught triple leg flight that was anything but relaxing...We were given multiple incorrect assurances of making flights, were re-booked on flights that were impossible to make, and overall we had a very negative experience."

See not once does he call them a dumb-head!  He's so much nicer than me :)

We are flying to Denver in a couple of weeks for Christmas, and let's just say we aren't looking forward to flying with Alaska Airlines....

Dumb-heads!