don't fly Alaska
 

The wife and I took a flight from Bellingham to Honolulu (via Maui) on Feb 24th. After paying the exorbitant baggage fee of $25 each suitcase, Alaska lost both bags for 3(!) days. We had nothing. No toiletries, no clothes, just what we were wearing (coming from Bellingham those clothes were *NOT* appropriate for Hawaii!). We spent a lot of money for some things (clothes, toiletries, etc.) to get us through the 3 days. To date (Apr. 14th), Alaska has NOT done a thing to "fix" this. Nothing! I'm wondering what is wrong with this company? I've written 3 letters to the CEO, and nothing has happened. Seems to me that passenger recourse is very limited in a case like this. Nobody cares.

Don't fly Alaska. They are incompetent. If they can't manage a simple baggage transfer, then how are they able to maintain and fly airplanes? Scary!!!!

Um, did you try writing or calling customer service? I mean CEOs don't deal with lost luggage.

they do now!
 

I've found that the best way to get action is to go to the top. CEOs ought to know about these sorts of problems. It's their job. Even if they don't deal with it themselves, they have a way of getting the information about the problem to the right people. In this case, Alaska Airlines seems to me to be a very dysfunctional organization. They seem to be incapable of dealing with a straightforward screw-up on their part.

Best to start where they ask you to start. Courts prefer that too. Like, if you tried to take this to small claims, the first thing the judge will ask is did you contact their customer service office. You'll say no, the judge will find in favor of the airline. I was just reading an article two or three days ago that Alaska ranked number one for fewest complaints.

CEOs job is running the whole airline. You start at the bottom and escalate. If you don't want to follow their procedures, you're likely going to get ignored.

Did you first file a lost luggage report at the airport? Did you follow up with them? Did you contact central baggage in Seattle? If you did none of that, there's no record of you having lost anything

what are you -- some sort of airline shill?
 

or maybe you're an employee of Alaska??? Huh?? Huh??

Of course I filed a lost baggage claim. Duh! Of course I followed up with them. Duh. Fact remains that they charged us $25 each for two bags, lost them for 3 days(!), and they have yet agreed to do anything about the extra $$'s that it cost us to survive in Hawaii for 3 days with only what we we wearing. I've been in touch with their "baggage supervisor" (hah), and still nothing. In my book that's pretty poor customer service. Or shall we say customer *NO* service. I've had luggage lost before (by other airlines), but in every case it was returned to me in less than 24 hours -- in most cases *WAY* less than 24 hours. And in every previous case, the airline at fault bent over backward to HELP. Alaska has done NOTHING.

Face it, Mr. Alaska (or whoever you are) -- Alaska Airlines stinks. Flat out a BIG zero in my book. My next stop is small claims court with this. That's no way to run an airline

I own a few franchise stores, and employ a healthy number of people. Operational complaints from consumers go right in the round file or handed off to customer service.
You don't write the CEO for a luggage complaint. Alaska isn't a terribly large airline however they still operate over 800 flights a day and fly over 24 million passengers a year (source: Alaska Airlines website). Anyone is upper managements time is worth too much to mess with a single persons problem.
No surprise you are getting nowhere.

get real!!!
 

Come on, man. I've worked in the corporate world (retired now). CEO's are surrounded by a small army of administrative types. I'm confident that the Alaska CEO didn't even open my letters. BUT .... in a functional organization, a complaint like mine would be forwarded immediately to the appropriate individuals for handling. Probably with a post-it attached, stating that the problem needs to be resolved so that the customer is HAPPY. The fact that Alaska can't (or won't) deal with a simple dispute tells me that they are completely dysfunctional.

So, the warning here is that if you like Alaska, and want to fly with them, then fine. But be aware that if *anything* unusual occurs on your trip, Alaska seems unable to deal with unusual and make it right. They give all appearances of NOT caring about customers and the problems that they (Alaska) create for them. A word of warning to the intelligent is (usually) sufficient.

And, sure, CEO's have a lot to deal with, but without customers, all that other stuff wouldn't be happening. There wouldn't be anything else to deal with. Happy customers are the life-blood of an airline. Without them, the airline is nothing, flying around empty planes.

Finally, this is the last time that I'll have anything to say about this. All you airline shills will be talking with yourselves after this post.

No moron, I don't work for Alaska or any airline. I have a better grasp on how the real world works better than a child throwing a tantrum like you. You made no mention of going through channels until I pressed you on it.