Our little adventured with Hawaiian/Alaska Airlines continues.
Late Wednesday afternoon, I checked in online for our Thursday afternoon flight back to Honolulu. Check in was easy. When the check-in process was done, I clicked on the link for boarding passes.
I was on alert, since on our flight from Honolulu to Seattle, Alaska’s boarding passes failed to contain our TSA PreCheck eligibility, and we were rejected at the PreCheck screening point.
So…the link displayed both of our boarding passes, properly displaying the PreCheck logo. And it then displayed a link to add the boarding passes to my Apple “Wallet,” which collects various things, from boarding passes to credit cards, in one easy-to-access place. So I did just that.
The problem is that the version of the boarding passes that appeared in my Apple Wallet was different than the one displayed on the airline app. The PreCheck logo was missing on the wallet version. It isn’t clear to me whether this is another glitch in the airline’s merger process or an independent issue.
The workaround is to access the boarding passes from the Hawaiian app rather than use the version it added to my wallet. Not a big deal, I guess, but less convenient and a glitch nonetheless.
But then I got more disappointing and somewhat aggravating news. Although Alaska Airlines has three—yes, THREE—lounges in the Seattle airport, none of them are located near the gates used by its Hawaiian Flights.
So although lounge access is a perk advertised as a benefit of our decision to splurge on First Class tickets, it’s a “make believe” perk because lounge access isn’t actually available in practice.
And then a hint to the new Alaska/Hawaiian airline. It really doesn’t help to direct passengers to the “southern end of the main terminal.” I’m sure that we’re not the only ones who don’t know which way is south. Wouldn’t it be simple to just display a small map of the terminal with a pointer to the Alaska/Hawaiian area? It would make these two flyers more comfortable to know in advance where we are headed.
Yes, I know. With the world crumbling all around us, this is all manini stuff and, besides, all these little indignities may be in the past once the merger of the two former rivals is completed, but that won’t be for a while yet.
In the meantime, I’m afraid we’ll be jumping back over to United. Yes, it has its own problems, but the overall experience is much better than what we’ve had with Alaska/Hawaiian on this journey.
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Ian, on the rare occasions my precheck doesn’t show up on my paper ticket — I don’t trust using tickets so always get print copy when I drop off my bags — I ask for a reprint. They ask for the KTN, I give it to them, and they reprint for me.
I don’t fly anymore. I couldn’t possibly tolerate this inefficiency!
Agree.
Are we free to run for our flight anymore waving our paper ticket, with our ID never out of our wallet?
Who created this “safety” quagmire?
Good one, yes, I’ve found that most Hawai’i residents don’t know “which way is south!” We just know mauka-makai, DiamondHead-Ewa, or ‘toward Kahuku’ for north!….. I think it’s the fault of #1 few polynesian residents navigating around on the american continent when younger, and #2 the odd shape of Oahu, west- and east-facing shores being called ‘North Shore,’ and the way the sun rises from Makapuu direction as Honolulu residents gaze out to sea each morning!… And #3 cars don’t usually have compasses on the dashboard like my Texas grandpa’s old Studebaker did.
This Hawaii resident was even worse off. Have a form of directional dyslexia and didn’t understand any of that stuff. I don’t recall it being taught in school or my folks using those terms either. The really weird thing is that I am an excellent navigator of maps. Probably because it’s 2-dimensional and related to my work.
It’s a Rube Goldberg world. It has been taking me hours to accomplish tasks with the “help” of technology and AI that used to take minutes. Nothing works right and I’m already fuming by the time I get to a human after going through these ridiculously long phone menus that are designed to discourage you so much you give up. Half the websites I visit are malfunctioning, and there are so many layers of authentication required now we might as well have our DNA tattooed on our foreheads. I had to send a live selfie to one company the other day, holding up a sign with the date on it, like a hostage photo.
I get sympathy from the phone agents by reminding them that they are going through the same type of hassles everywhere they go, too, and it’s not saving anyone any time. If I can get them laughing about the absurdities of life in 2025 they usually go out of their way to help me.
OMG, I’m gonna answer my own comment. I’m trying to port our business phones to a different carrier, and just now they sent me an email that says reply to it with the required info, but the address is donotreply@. They give a backup number to call, but I’m not doing it today because I’m fed up with this BS, and I know I’ll still have to prove my worthiness to speak to a human to the phone bot. One of them said “Humans are great, but they are super busy right now.” Then ten minutes of irrelevant responses and several eff-bombs later it finally says, “Let me put you through to a human.” Gee, thanks.
I sympathize with and relate to your troubles. But I had the best laugh so far this morning from “Half the websites I visit are malfunctioning, and there are so many layers of authentication required now we might as well have our DNA tattooed on our foreheads.” Still chuckling!
I agree. Jumpint back & torth for each airline for sets/odering food, etc wasn’t fun. Then I was’t sure which AIRLINE CONFIRM # I should use; had to switch back & forth…bah! humbug!
I lost a pair of nearly $300 noise cancelling headphones in one of the bathrooms at Sea-Tac International airport. I hope the custodian found them and can use them to protect his hearing. This happened at the genderless bathrooms which anyone can use. It was actually a really neat life experience. Men, women, everyone all were standing around wondering which stalls to use. We could use any stall!
Ian — You are a skilled techie so if you have issues there’s not much hope for the rest of us! Haven’t flown in several years, but will be on Hawaiian during Thanksgiving week. Hoping all goes well.