As I wrote last week, my husband and I flew home from Chicago a few weeks ago, ticketed from O’Hare to SeaTac to Medford in Southern Oregon on Alaska Airlines. Originally, we were to arrive in Seattle around 9 p.m. Monday night and catch our flight to Medford about 90 minutes later, arriving home around 1 a.m. Tuesday. However, upon arriving in Seattle and turning on our phones, we learned that the SEA–MFR flight had been cancelled. We had automatically been rebooked on an 11 p.m. flight to Portland. Since there would be no more flights that evening from PDX to Medford, we were then booked on a 7 a.m. flight Tuesday morning. Figuring at best we’d get maybe three or four hours of sleep in Portland, we decided to see what other options were available to us.

A short stroll from our disembarkation gate took us to an Alaska customer service desk, where the agent was able to offer us a few different options while not able to tell us what led to the cancellation (which had been a full flight). We settled upon staying overnight at a nearby hotel and then taking a direct flight to Medford around 8 a.m. the next morning, which allowed us more shut-eye while still getting us home in time for afternoon appointments. Vouchers were provided for “dinner” that evening (since it was approaching 10 o’clock, we weren’t that hungry, and very few vendors were still serving, that one was moot) and breakfast at the airport the next day ($25 each), and we were booked at a Best Western. By 11 p.m. we were turning out the lights in our room, thankful we had everything we needed in our carry-on bags and hoping the assurance that we would be reunited with our checked bags in Medford would be fulfilled.

While we were disappointed that we didn’t make it home as early and easily as we had planned, Alaska did several things which made the whole situation more tolerable. First, it informed us as quickly as possible and immediately booked an early-as-possible alternative while making it easy to choose something more to our liking. Next, before we’d even landed in Seattle, we received an email from Wayne Newton, vice president of airport operations and customer service. It read in part: “We’re very sorry we let you down today. We are reaching out to you because your flight was disrupted for reasons we believe are within our control. We will be emailing you a discount off of future Alaska Airlines travel in the next few days.”

It went on to direct us how to contact Alaska if we did not receive this further communication. I haven’t had to deal with a mid-travel cancellation like this before, so maybe this isn’t so unique, but I found it refreshing to receive such an apology and admission of responsibility without lengthy excuses. It closed with a thank you for flying with Alaska and a hope that “you’ll give us the opportunity to exceed your expectations on another flight.” Throughout the experience, Alaska personnel were sympathetic, helpful and courteous.

True to Mr. Newton’s word, by the time we arrived home around 10:30 the next morning, we each received an email with a discount code for $250 to be used on a booking made in the next year for travel between any Alaska Airlines cities up to 330 days after ticketing. All in all, Alaska’s actions made a travel disruption as minimally inconvenient as possible in a respectful, reasonable and responsible way.

Oh, and our checked luggage rolled off the conveyor belt right on schedule.

— Patty Vanikiotis, associate editor/copy editor