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CLOSE TO BLISSFUL ON ALASKA AIRLINES
By Chris Barnett
June 20, 2013 -- "Blissful" isn't a word business travelers would use to describe a coach flight on a U.S. airline today, but my roundtrip last week between San Francisco and Palm Springs, California, on Alaska Airlines certainly qualified.

True, it was only an hour and 20 minutes in the air. Veteran frequent flyers would likely claim that's not enough time to size up an airline's in-flight performance. But if you measure the total trip experience, Alaska Airlines, in my opinion, just may be the best legacy domestic airline in the sky. In fact, the just-released J.D. Power airline survey has the same view.

Why? Rivals are piling on new fees and hiking existing ones and giving passengers nothing in return. But Alaska Air pledges if your luggage isn't on the baggage carousel 20 minutes after the plane lands, you get $20 in cash, credit or bonus frequent flyer miles. When we landed at SFO on a busy Friday night, bags were tumbling out of the chute five minutes after I arrived at baggage claim. Fellow flyers were actually praising the promptness.

Another example: With Southwest quietly adding seats to its fleet of Boeing 737s and soon-to-be merged American Airlines last week telling troops that more coach seats will be shoehorned onto its 737s and MD-80s, Alaska Air is standing firm on seat pitch. Legroom on its fleet of 737s mostly remains at 32 inches with no extra charge to sit in the exit row, by the window or on the aisle. The airline's frequent flyers who hold elite status and full-fare ticket holders get preferential treatment when it comes to snaring those extra-legroom chairs.

Alaska Air also stood up for its passengers this spring by refusing to join other legacy carriers when they raised change fees to $200. Alaska has held firm at $75 for online changes and $100 if a reservation agent arranges the reticketing.

At least one of its in-flight practices, though, may be off-putting to some travelers. On hour-long flights, only beer and wine are served; no hard alcohol is available. But here's a nice touch: For the $7 fee, the airline pours a premium Washington state Chardonnay and a good quality red. That differs from the insipid wines the other legacies sell in coach or the "wine in a can" now peddled by Spirit Airlines.

Still, no hard liquor on short flights is nitpicking. What's impressive is the way Alaska Airlines apologizes to passengers if something goes wrong. I had trouble checking in online and printing out my boarding pass on my departure flight and mentioned it to the ticket agent at the airport. He not only said he was "sincerely sorry" for my inconvenience, but he also waived the $20 fee to check my garment bag and waved me on with a smile.

Ellen Paris, a corporate communications consultant in Palm Desert, told me a better story. She and her daughter were delayed six hours by a mechanical on a recent Alaska Airlines flight. A week later, she said, "out of the blue, I received two free roundtrip tickets from the [airline's] marketing department and I never filed a complaint or asked for anything."

The airline is apparently quick to bend a policy if passengers are inconvenienced, said Bob Clampett, a novelist who lives on Camano Island north of Seattle.

"Our flights were filled in both directions and the overhead compartments were full. So people who carried on to avoid the checked-bag fee were allowed to gate-check anything they wanted at no cost," he said. "Most airlines will only gate-check oversize suitcases."

Clampett also had trouble checking in on Alaska Air's Web site and "had to be bailed out by a reservationist. She was very, very helpful, humorous and hip."

A longtime Alaska Air loyalist, Clampett is convinced the 81-year-old airline outclasses its competitors because it "only hires healthy, hearty, happy Pacific Northwest people."

(A phone agent, who said that the Pacific Northwest hiring policy is a "myth," did confirm the Alaska Airlines site is currently giving error messages when passengers try to pay their baggage fee online. The airline is troubleshooting the problem, she explained, and until it is resolved, she advises passengers to click on "O" bags and pay the fee at the airport.)

The Alaska Airlines staffers I encountered were, for the most part, congenial and responsive. One reason employees seem like happy campers could be the man at the controls, Brad Tilden, chief executive of Alaska Air Group, which also owns Horizon Air, a regional carrier. Other U.S. legacy airlines are headed by tough wheeler-dealer types who have banged heads with their unions over the years and don't seem long on people skills. On the other hand, Tilden is a folksy, self-effacing, onetime accountant who has logged 22 years with Alaska Air. He is also on the record saying he has no interest in merging with any airline. His focus is on new routes and maintaining good relations with the airlines' unions.

Tilden and his management team are an independent, imaginative lot. Alaska Airlines isn't a member of any of the three major global airline alliances. Instead, it code-shares with Delta, American and several international carriers. Plus, I don't know of any other domestic airline that sells an Angus beef cheeseburger or "grilled chicken Mac 'n Cheese" or a fresh fruit and cheese platter that actually looks appetizing.

On second thought, the cheeseburger looked downright blissful.

ABOUT CHRIS BARNETT Chris Barnett writes about business-travel tactics and strategies that save time and money and help minimize hassles. He is based in San Francisco and has written for a wide variety of major newspapers and national magazines.

THE FINE PRINT Joe Brancatelli makes this space available to Chris Barnett in the spirit of free speech and to help encourage editorial diversity and the wider discussion of important travel issues. All of the opinions and material in this column are the sole property of Barnett. This material may not be reproduced in any form without the express permission of Chris Barnett.

This column is Copyright © 2013 by Chris Barnett. JoeSentMe is Copyright © 2013 by Joe Brancatelli. All rights reserved.