Just a little therapeutic venting.
We splurged for first class seats to Seattle and back on the airline slowly coming together as a result of the merger of Alaska and Hawaiian.
A red flag came up early when I was booking the reservations. I called Hawaiian, booked the flights, then asked about seats. Well, the flight back on Hawaiian wasn’t a problem. But the flight over to Seattle on Alaska was a problem. I could book a reservation but could not get seats assigned through Hawaiian. Suddenly they were two separate airlines. No workaround. Luckily, when I made the call to Alaska reservations, we were happy with the seats available. But I can easily imagine things going sideways at this point.
Early on the morning of our departure for the Great Northwest, our cab driver asked what airline.
I said Hawaiian, since that was where I booked the flights.
Luckily, she pushed back. Alaska and Hawaiian are currently in different terminals. I hurriedly checked my emails, and both the Hawaiian and Alaska apps.
Turns out we were leaving from the Alaska gates in Terminal 2 at HNL, not the familiar Hawaiian lobby over in Terminal 1.
First problem dodged, except that the Hawaiian lounge is over in Terminal 1, meaning that it wasn’t really available to us.
Check-in and bag drop wasn’t a problem, and we proceeded on the long walk to the only open TSA PreCheck screening area. Here we got another surprise.
Although we’ve made lots of Hawaiian flights over the years and have always been properly put in the PreCheck category, apparently that info wasn’t shared with Alaska, and no one along the way suggested that we check. So we were turned away by a friendly but firm TSA agent who said the airline had us in the system as regular passengers, no PreCheck, and there was nothing he could do about it. “You have to go back to the airline,” he said.
This problem grated, since it involved lots of extra early morning walking between gates and the loss of PreCheck benefits, and a lack of disclosure by the two airlines that we assumed were now one.
When we finally cleared the regular security check, my first task was to dig through the Alaska and Hawaiian websites and make sure our “Known Traveler” numbers, which are key to getting cleared for the appropriate security screening process, were entered. Hawaiian had them. Alaska didn’t, and there was no sharing between the two sides of the merged airline.
The Alaska Airlines flight to Seattle was, well, okay. But it came nowhere near the friendly and attentive service we had become used to on Hawaiian, whether in economy or first class. A meal was served, and it was as good as can be expected. But that was just about the end of the service offered during the 5-1/2 hour flight.
Before our flight to Seattle, we were asked to pre-select a meal option, which we did.
We’re now 48-hours from our flight back to Honolulu, and I checked the Hawaiian website for info on a similar meal selection for the flight.
Finding nothing, I initiated a chat with what turned out to be an AI assistant rather than a person. It repeated directions applicable to economy passengers, which meant no preselection of meals.
“… you are welcome to bring your own meals or snacks on board, but please note that there is no option to choose your meal in advance.”
I replied by noting that our flight over in first class had indeed offered a choice, forgetting once again that these are still primarily two separate airlines, although that separation will supposedly end soon.
Honestly, I have my doubts.
We chose to fly Hawaiian/Alaska based on our previous experience with Hawaiian, and the availability of a direct flight to Seattle, in contract to United which requires a stopover and plane change in San Francisco.
But this experience certainly takes the rose off of the Alaska/Hawaiian option, and may send us back into United land.
