Alaska Airlines has been the target of complaints for late flights, overbooking, poor service and running out of food. The airline's problems have led not only to customer complaints, but investigations by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Although problems still occur, in some areas the airline has improved.
ConsumerAffairs.com allows customers to file complaints about Alaska Airlines.
One passenger posted that her flight attendants did not follow the proper take-off and landing procedures. Another had a nightmare experience of missed flights, overbooking, and malfunctioning planes, all on the same trip.
Yet another customer was informed at the gate that her flight from Seattle to Pittsburgh would be late due to a delayed connecting flight from Chicago. By the time she arrived in Chicago, her connecting flight to Pittsburgh had left. Alaska offered her a new reservation for a flight to Pittsburgh scheduled to leave in two days. She found another flight for the next day, but spent $1100 for new tickets, hotel room and food.
One of Alaska Airline's worst incidents occurred when Flight 261, on its way north from Puerta Vallarta, Mexico, crashed into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California. On January 31, 2000, all 88 people on board the MD80, including passengers and crew, were killed.
An investigation by the FAA determined the cause as the mechanical failure of a jackscrew and nut assembly that controlled the plane's horizontal stabilizer. The audit also showed poor record-keeping by maintenance and repair crews, and a lack of control and oversight by management.
The airline has since abandoned use of the MD 80, and uses Boeing 737s and Bombardiers. But after the crash of 2000, Alaska Airlines continued to have mechanical failure incidents, including, in 2005, a loss of cabin pressure due to a gash in the plane's fuselage; and in 2008, flight cancellations for safety inspections. On October 7, 2009, a blown fuse caused a delay at the Seattle-Tacoma airport.
In 2006, Alaska Airlines had one of the worst ratings for on-time arrivals. More recently, their record has improved. In a report released in July 2009, the U.S. Department of Transportation showed Alaska Airlines with the second highest on-time arrival rating, just below Hawaiian Airlines.
Like many airlines, Alaska Airlines uses overbooking as part of their policy. On its website, Alaska outlines its policy in detail, including how customers are compensated should they get "bumped." These rules are very specific depending on how quickly the airline gets the bumped customer to his original destination.
The U.S. Department of Transportation's Office of Aviation Enforcement and Proceedings and its Aviation Consumer Protection Division outlines consumer air travel rights (see Resources). Chapters include such topics as reservations and tickets, delayed and cancelled flights, overbooking and passengers with disabilities.
