Alaska is a great airline. I fly about 70k miles per year on them and am very rarely disappointed.

I'm guessing you have status with them? Almost every airline is great once you have status.

Personally, I hate Alaska. I fly ~2/month & avoid Alaska if I can. My wife's family is from Seattle, so sadly, they're unavoidable around the holidays.

Some grievances:

* Ridiculous fees. Before we were married my wife booked two flights for after we were married. She changed her name & realized that would cause a problem with those tickets. Southwest made the name change without a fuss. Alaska charged us $100.

When we protested & explained she had gotten married, the agent responded: "Every airline does this." "We just did it with Southwest & they didn't charge anything." "We don't consider Southwest competition."

* Alaska’s 20 Minute Bag Guarantee felt like a sham. It's no longer running (I believe), but multiple times my bags took over 30 minutes. Each time it took nearly an hour to get someone to give a voucher. And the vouchers are very limited.

* They charge for simple modifications to tickets.

* They charge for bags.

* Consistent long lines at LAX & SEA.

* Older planes. Both coach & first are C+ compared to other airlines.

* In-flight personal aren't as bad as United, but they're certainly not nice. Southwest & Virgin set the bar here & Alaska is far from it.

Yeah most of their planes are disgusting and I can't stand their branding. It's such a shame that they acquired Virgin America. I loved that airline. I wish we lived in a world where that acquisition had been the other way around.

Why are their planes "disgusting"? I fly a lot, both short haul and long haul, and I can't see any quality difference (is that what you mean?) between any planes from any carriers. They are all the same. Mind you, there are differences in seat pitch, lack of USB ports and so on, but I would not call any plane more disgusting than any other plane.

I primarily fly Alaska or Virgin America. Virgin planes are much newer, cleaner and ask around beautiful pieces of design. The Alaska planes are run down, less well kept and have a ugly design to begin with. Flying Virgin is like traveling inside a first generation iPod.

For what it's worth I flew with them two days ago and they were still announcing the 20 min bag guarantee. My bags didn't take long either

You say "simple modifications to tickets", but give no examples. Are you just repeating your earlier accusation of charging for name changes?

At any rate, you just spoke to to someone who didn't know the company policies well enough, Alaska doesn't charge for name changes due to marriage. It's actually the only exception AFAIK. You have to present some paperwork as proof, but it can be done. You just happened to talk to someone who was not aware this exception existed. You could have asked to talk to someone else.

Also, consistent long lines at LAX & SEA? Do you have any suggestion on how the airline has any control over how quickly they can check people in?

Most airlines these days charge for bags, especially for domestic flights.

I don't come to the US often, but in my limited experience I've had a better flight on Alaska than the majority of US based airline providers.

Sat in the back on an Alaska flight to Hawaii and they ran out of food a couple rows before me. Felt like a bad MBA optimization - save $20 on food by under buying at the cost of periodically making a few passenger unhappy for a 5 hour flight.

Same thing happened to us, also on a flight to Hawaii. Except we sat near the middle of the plane. We had to feed our two young kids using various snacks and cheese plates.

Seems like there is a systemic failure - their food oversubscription system doesn't correct for a fact that on a six hour flight almost every passenger will buy food.

Any compensation offered?

I assume that wasn't free food he's talking about

Or could have just been a simple human error.

I've been disappointed once with them.

Bought 2 tickets (one for me, one for GF). She was assigned a seat, I was told they don't allot all seats for any given flight and that I would get that seat at the gate. Couldn't change through Alaska Airlines phone/web portal. At the gate they gave me a seat in the very back of the plane since all the other seats had been assigned. It's crazy to me that I couldn't choose seats on purchase - especially when buying 2 together.

That's just not factually true, as well - I fly on Alaska all the time and pick a seat each flight. Usually you get your choice from a restricted list on purchase and then can pick from a more open list on check-in.

Except... it happened to me. Maybe because I bought through American Airlines, since it was AA operated by Alaska.

For future reference, you can look up Alaska iterinary by AA e-ticket number and change seats directly on Alaskas website. I've done it a number of times

That didn't work for me. I feel like everyone is assuming I didn't go through all possible ways to try and change my seats before accepting my fate...

What do you like about them?

Being in Seattle, they're the local airlines for me, so a lot of my flights go through them. They have top to bottom great customer service - from the call centers to check in staff to flight attendants. Everything just works with them. I've had odd requests/problems here and there before, and the call center staff really try to work with you to solve the problem. And they're US based, not a call center in India.

I also never get the feeling the check in agents are just mailing it in. I've had bad experiences before with agents before (a tired AA agent once just through my suitcase on to the belt right after I told him I was checking in a firearm), but it seems Alaska cares a lot more and they're better trained (more consistent).

They also are a great community partner here and sponsor a lot of events and organizations including things like Pride celebrations.

I love Alaska as well. They have amazing customer support. I was stranded in SF some time ago because someone broke into my car and stole my stuff. I had an onward flight to NYC the next day. So I called Alaska and told them that I needed a flight back home since I can't make it to NYC. The person on the phone without hesitation re-booked me on the next flight back and even refunded the difference. No change fees and no extras. I was flying coach.

I also really like them as an Airline, and use them often to go to and from Hawai'i. Their staff is usually very kind and the planes are clean. I don't remember the seat sizes.. I am not a 'big' person so not an issue for me (at least yet)

They get the basics right. The seat sizes aren't anything special but that's okay for most people.

They're like McDonalds. Not fancy but consistent in getting you there, OK service and no attitude.

At least in SJC, they are the only airline that consistently loads from both ends of the plane. I like them for that.

Really? I fly about two times a year to HI - never happened. But anyways, my favorite airline, the companion ticket thing rocks (especially to HI)!

Ha for the companion ticket I prefer Southwest (though it's a slight chore to get the companion pass). They don't fly to HI though.