And I hear the same things from legacy AS gate angents, flight crews and even dispatchers in Seattle. It happens in vans, at hotels, throughout the terminal..... Only thing you and I can do about it is to not act like pouty children who aren’t getting their way and need a timeout. If you can’t act with civility towards your coworkers you should have never been offered a job in the first place. I thought that was one of the things companies tried to weed out at the interview. “Can somebody sit next to this guy for 4 or more days” I’ve been stonewalled more than once in a hotel shuttle after saying hi to VX crews. Don’t know why. I didn’t buy the company. I didn’t hand down the arbitration ruling. I didn’t put either SLI proposal forth to the arbitrator. I didn’t close JFK. Non of us did.

 

Unfortunately I get triggered by civility. 😉

👍🏼👍🏼

 

Not sure that's true really. There's nothing about living in Alaska that makes it easier to reach MVP status. Alaska does have "Club 49" for Alaska residents but about the only benefit of that is baggage fees are waived plus some other minor discounts on tickets and air freight. You still have to fly 20,000 miles to reach the level where you get to board ahead of other coach passengers, which is not all that different that other airlines loyalty programs.

 

Other than the fact that every flight you take to the lower 48 racks up more FF miles than someone flying a typical domestic flight in the rest of the US just because of the distance involved.

Actually it is quite different. Someone on AA who reaches the lowest level (Gold, 25,000 miles) isn't invited to board along with the first class passengers the second the boarding process starts.
When I fly in first on AA, they call us to board. I can stand up, leave my seat, walk calmly to the ticket agent through the priority line without feeling like I'm 4th and goal on the 1-yard line. All that takes is a few minutes to actually let us get to the gate agent before the next group is called (which still isn't Gold).

On AS, it's a joke. They call first class and before I've started to move, they're calling the MVPs, which as I said, usually seems like it's just about everyone else.

Just one person's observation - maybe it's not always like that, but if not, I sure am unlucky.

 

Seems that one would only be concerned about "carry on bag Nazis" if one were intending to ignore the carry on restrictions. If you're abiding by the restrictions anyway, enforcing carry on baggage limits would be a significant improvement in quality service. It would eliminate having to wander the entire length of the airplane looking for a crevice to stow your carry on when a tight connection has you boarding last. It would do away with discovering at your destination that while you weren't looking someone moved your small carry on a number of rows back to make room for somone's oversized carry on. It would eliminate having the cabin crew trying to coerce you to put your (only) bag in your foot-space to make room for someone else's luggage (No, I'm not giving up my leg-room so that others can carry on twice the limit)

 

Sure, no question that there's probably more people living in Alaska who fly 20K+ miles a year than other places, on a per-capita basis. That's a consequence of geography, not Alaska Airlines policy. I suppose you could lobby AS to require Alaska residents to get 35K miles to reach MVP, because Alaskans have an unfair advantage.




OK, if the gate agents are calling the MVP passengers immediately after the First Class then I can see your point. I haden't noticed that, but then I don't travel first class on Alaska, so I'd be less likely to notice that. On the other hand, Delta allows their Diamond Tier passengers to board at the exact same time as the first class passengers, so the effect is similar. I used to fly a lot on their ATL-DXB flight when they had it, and because most of the passengers were Dod contractors making that flight on a monthly basis, everyone on the plane was Diamond (slight hyperbole) so half the plane got on when they called the "Premium" boarding zone. (Business Class and Diamond tier)

 

I’m glad a company is finally putting it’s foot down on these crazy oversized bags people try to bring on. The stuff pax try to bring on board has gotten waaay out of hand. How many times has boarding been held up because a bag won’t fit or they’ve run out of room halfway through boarding? Then the last third of the pax are all having to check their bags anyways and are ****ed. Now if AS really wants to make an improvement, make checked luggage free and charge a fee for extra carry on bags. Poof! Just like that, everyone gets space for their normal sized carry on...

 

True, the root of problem is the "I'm the center of the universe" types who think their stuff is more important that other people's stuff, but the airlines have gone a long way in encouraging the problem, by ignoring the carry on limits, and charging for checked baggage.

 

Kind of on topic:

In addition to the size limit, many foreign airlines have a weight limit on carry-ons, some as low as 7kg. They use a fish scale at the gate. Seen it with my own eyes.

 

True. I've seen this boarding Qantas in LAX, they have the dimensional gauge mounted on top of a scale. Their agents will use it. Oddly enough, their boarding process doesn't include the pointless unnecessary thrash while passengers and FAs wander around blocking the aisle trying to find a place in the overflowing overhead bins to stow baggage. It's probably just a coincidence.