Tag Archives: alaska airlines

Business, News, Transportation

Alaska Airlines Gouging Them, Say Flight Attendants with Strained Smiles

Veda Shook, International President of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA-CWA)

Though there will be plenty of good news for Alaska Air Group’s stockholders when they meet tomorrow for their annual meeting, the flight attendants who believe they share in that success will be rallying outside Seattle’s Bell Harbor Conference Center for better pay. Alaska reported record profits in Q1 2013 — net profit of $44 million, or $0.62 per diluted share in a traditionally weak quarter — and recently was ranked “highest in airline customer satisfaction among traditional network carriers,” by J.D. Power and Associates, for the sixth straight year.

But though Alaska was a 2011 On-Time Performance winner, the company has not been able to land a contract with its flight attendants for the past 18 months (pilot negotiations have been moving briskly in contrast). Earlier this May, due to contract talks stalling, the flight attendants turned to mediation. “For the last three contracts, flight attendants responded to management’s plea to keep costs low while the airline created a winning strategy,” said Jeffrey Peterson, Association of Flight Attendants president at Alaska Airlines. “Our wages continue to fall below inflation and behind those of our peers in the industry.” (Here’s a pdf of what the AFA is negotiating.)

That’s exactly right: part of the way Alaska could increase profits by at least 17 percent the past four quarters is by keeping a lid on the salaries of its 3,100 flight attendants. Every quarter that the company doesn’t sign a new contract represents another quarter they can surprise analysts.

In other news, last Friday Alaska Air Cargo flew in their first shipment of this year’s Copper River salmon run: 24,600 pounds of mostly sockeye. The cargo planes deliver Copper River salmon from Ocean Beauty Seafoods, Trident Seafoods, and Copper River Seafoods throughout a 95-city network. “In many cases,” said Betsy Bacon, managing director of Alaska Air Cargo, they’re delivered “within 24 hours after the fish is caught.”

John Howie, executive chef at Seattle’s Seastar, won the Copper Chef Cook-Off this year, besting previous champion Pat Donahue, executive chef at Anthony’s Restaurants — at least, according to a panel of judges that included Jay Buhner; Mike Fourtner, deckhand on Deadliest Catch‘s crabber Time Bandit; Chief Master Sgt. Tony Mack, the 446th AW command chief from JBLM; and Jeff Butler, Alaska Airlines’ vice president of customer service-airports and cargo.

Travel

What’s the Deal With Alaska Airlines Food?

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Enjoy! You can’t have either one. (Photo: MvB)

Is it just me, or has airline food service actually gotten worse since we’ve had to start paying for it à la carte? It’s an interesting proposition: “How about you pay us more money, or we let you starve? Ha ha, psych, here’s a pretzel.”

A few weeks ago, I’m flying back from Hawaii on Alaska Airlines, after spending a whole weekend eating in paradise, and the flight attendant says to me, “What would you like?”

The couple next to me has just gotten engaged that weekend, so I motion to them to go first. I like to do at least one courteous thing each year–I like to think I’m bringing civility back…just not in a rush.

They order, and the attendant pivots on her heel and leaves. I track her down in the galley and explain I’d like to order the Teriyaki Chicken. “We don’t have that,” she says. (Fine print: “Flights to Hawaii.”)

“Oh, Cashew Chicken, then.”

“We’re out of that.”

“What do you have?”

“Have you read the menu card, sir?”

For the record, that’s the precise moment my Hawaiian vacation ended. I’m just trying to buy dinner, and I feel like it’s some kind of practical joke. But the attendant’s forcing a smile, maybe she’s had a long day, so we compromise on the cheese and fruit.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” (Photo: MvB)

On a trip out back east to see family this past weekend, I order the Continental Breakfast (a bagel and fruit). Damn you fine print! Served on flights “2-3.5 hours long.”

“Hot breakfast?” checks the flight attendant, over the engine noise.

“Continental breakfast. With a bagel,” I clarify.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about”–she literally says this. “Would you like to look at the menu card?” I pull out the card and point to the bagel.

“Oh, that’s not served on this flight.”

I am no food-rocket scientist, but it seems to me that if you’re too cheap to print menus that actually go with the flight people are on, the least you could do is make the layout distinguish between flights.  Rather than create a “Breakfast” heading that contains three items you can’t get and one you can, you might break that down a little further. Again, not an expert, but I can impersonate a harried traveler. By now, I’m feeling like Alaska is building a file on me, like the one Elaine suspected her doctor had.

If you’re sitting in the rear of the plane on a long flight, there’s a good chance the one dinner option you have will be gone, and you’ll be stuck with “Something for Everyone.” I don’t want to pile on, but it seems to me that the “Something for Everyone” section lists a random assortment of food stuffs that Alaska snagged the low bid for on Ebay. It’s like you got to go crazy at the vending machine in a Greyhound terminal.

No dinner for you! (Photo: MvB)

On the flight back, I get a plastic cup of wine, which I nurse while waiting to order the fruit and cheese plate. It’s like a little picnic in the sky.

Eventually the attendants come by, pouring water, which they offer to me. “No thanks, ” I say, and wait for the promised dinner service.

I still don’t know what happened–I never saw anyone else get food, either–but I can tell you that no one asked me what I wanted for dinner on a five-and-a-half-hour flight.

Now, I can stand to lose the weight–No, no, it’s true!–but I was flying with my mom, who is no longer in her seventies, let’s put it like that, and no one asked her, either. (Nor did they offer a pillow, or a blanket.)

I think I handled discovering (some years ago) that Alaska wasn’t owned by a jolly Inuit man fairly well, but this latest set of customer service experiences has shattered the illusion that Alaska cares about me–despite, you know, them greeting me by name as I board. But on the other hand, it does level the playing field when you can get the same stressed, minimal service from your “local” airline as you can from established leaders in the field.

News, Transportation

Will New Flight Paths Bring Quieter Seattle Skies?

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New flight paths (Image: FAA Draft EA)

Current north flight traffic (Image: FAA Draft EA)

Proposed north flight traffic (Image: FAA Draft EA)

Current south flight traffic (Image: FAA Draft EA)

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Back in June 2012, the FAA launched a study called “Greener Skies Over Seattle,” as part of its larger NextGen initiative to upgrade air traffic control nationwide. (If you follow the news of such things, you may already have heard about previous tests without passengers, in the summer of 2010.)

Now, if you live below a flight path on the north and south SeaTac approaches, you might be noticing a change in the skies above you. In theory, this is all for the better, as the traffic control upgrade is supposed to reduce jet noise, save fuel, and in the future allow a greater volume of arrivals and departures, even in limited-visibility conditions.

For the next six months, the FAA will be analyzing real-world flight data from Greener Skies, in part to continue to optimize, and in part for an environmental assessment process. To provide feedback, make plans to drop in at a public meeting:

  • September 5, 2012, from 6:00 to 7:30 PM: Federal Way Library, 34200 1st Way South, Federal Way, WA 98003
  • September 6, 2012, from 6:00 to 7:30 PM: Ballard Branch Library, 5614 22nd Ave. NW, Seattle, WA 98107

You can also email comments@greenerskiesea.com by September 14, 2012. The final assessment should be published by the end of the year. (Further study will be conducted in 2014, 2018, and 2023.)

The airline leader in this is Alaska Airlines, which thanks to more challenging Alaskan conditions, has been leveraging technology to fly in and out of airports with satellite-guided precision since the mid-1990s. Together with its subsidiary airlines, Horizon, Alaska carries about half the air passengers at SeaTac (the airport served some 35 million passengers in 2011), and its aircraft are already equipped to implement the alphabet-soup advances the FAA plans: RNAV, RNP, and ODP.

That said, any airline flying more recent Boeing 737s, 757s, and 767-300s or the Airbus A-319, -320, and -321 will likely be able to use the new instrumentation procedures (Canadair’s CRJ-700 and -900 regional jets make the grade, too)–93 percent of SeaTac jets should fall in this category. Traffic from the north, south, and west is most affected: Cranky Flier notes that, “For Alaska, that means 75 percent of its traffic (and around 60 percent of Horizon’s traffic) can take advantage” of the new flight paths.

The tricky part is to integrate satellite-guided approaches with controller-handled approaches. At SeaTac, that means that jets will be cleared for an autopilot approach from as far as 40 miles out (northwest approach) and 140 miles out (southwest), giving controllers time to slot in other planes that need their guidance.

Planes using the optimized descent profile (ODP) will make a single, long “gliding” descent, all at flight idle, which is where the fuel savings come in. Overall, the impact is not huge–it’s expected to provide a one-percent reduction in fuel usage. But airlines would prefer not to spend the extra money if they can help it, and it does reduce fuel usage (and its concomitant pollution) specifically over Seattle.

They also begin that glide at altitude, so they can remain higher up (with less noise making it down to rooftop level) for a longer portion of their approach. Residents close in to SeaTac won’t likely notice much difference in noise-per-jet, but outlying areas might. The new paths are expected to cut 14 to 26 miles of currently dog-legged southern approaches, but will add to others.

A new, shorter western approach that takes southern arrivals over Elliott Bay, rather than over north Seattle, will have an obvious impact for north Seattle residents. But the FAA’s draft assessment (full documentation here) also says:

The new procedure is expected to increase slightly the number of flight miles flown for some aircraft, taking them farther north than at present. Instead of overflying northern portions of Kitsap County as now, more of that traffic would approach the runways from over Hansville and Puget Sound south of Island County.

The ramifications of the changes are a little mind-boggling, if you want to know what precisely the effects will be. Really, only time will tell. Consider that so much depends on which way the wind blows:

Because aircraft operate most effectively into the wind, and winds are always reported in the direction from which they are blowing, September is the most likely month to experience the use of northerly-oriented runways 34L, 34C, and 34R. Other months, the winds would tend to favor use of southerly oriented runways 16L, 16C, and 16R.

News, Travel

Alaska Airlines Knew About Wing Thingie, Totally Did Not Expect Depressurization Whozit

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On July 28, an Alaska Airlines passenger (not William Shatner) looked out the window and saw something on the wing. It wasn’t a gremlin, but a note written on the wing, with an arrow pointing to a half-moon divot that said: “We know about this.” Alaska Airlines now says that the note referred to a repair that had already been made, rather than, as the passenger suspected, a note that they were going back up with a known problem.

Alaska’s reassurances would be more effective if they weren’t being made the same morning as another Alaska plane, a Boeing 737, was diverted to San Jose for an emergency landing after the cabin depressurized. Flight 539 will stay in San Jose for inspection, which seems like a good idea, since the plane also experienced electrical and flight control problems.

Back in 2006, Alaska had five depressurizations in ten days, which sounded like a record of some kind, though Alaska Airlines Chairman Bill Ayer wanted you to know it was all a big “coincidence.” For balance, it may help to know that “Alaska Airlines has received the Federal Aviation Administration’s Diamond Award for maintenance training excellence for 10 consecutive years,” according to Alaska’s site.