There’s no place like home: Alaska Airlines employees rally to help our guests fly

Over these recent tumultuous weeks, tens of thousands of guests have reached out to Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air for help with travel. Whether guests needed to reschedule long-awaited trips or were looking for guidance on how Alaska is keeping guests and employees safe from the novel coronavirus as they travel, our teams have worked hard to give their support. We’re in it together and are here for you.

Most guests are simply trying to find the best way home.

Our employees have been working around the clock, handling an unprecedented amount of phone calls and social-media queries. “It’s taken an all ‘hands-on-deck’ approach to deal with the increased volumes,” says Michael Roy, Alaska’s social-care program manager. He says the volume of requests has been 200% higher than normal. “Many of our agents have worked until midnight, only to wake up early the next morning to assist our guests.”

Our @AlaskaAir social care team is here for you 24/7. We love hearing from our guests when our team members get them where they need to go, especially when it’s home sweet home. Today, we’re sharing a few stories of instances where our remarkable teams helped people on their journeys.

Stories from guests shared with @AlaskaAir:

Stories shared by our teams:

San Francisco to Portland: “Going above and beyond: Our trainer, Maivan, deserves kudos for making sure a passenger who was traveling from overseas got back home to his family in Portland. She did her best to help him out and he was very happy. Total definition of the service framework. Go Maivan!”

Shared by Mary Ruth A., Alaska Airlines customer service agent, San Francisco, on March 16

Anchorage to Vancouver, B.C.: “Johnny from the Boise reservations team made it possible for a Croatian guest and two German guests on Canadian work visas to return from Anchorage to Vancouver, B.C., before emergency travel restrictions took effect in Canada. They had been dealing with weather delays on their journey among some other reservation snafus. Johnny’s work helped them get to Vancouver on time, and the guests were very appreciative. They would have had no way to get back to their jobs and homes in Canada had it not been fixed.”

Shared by Matt W., Alaska Airlines customer service agent, Anchorage, on March 16

Help during a crisis: “Alaska guest Vera sent an email sharing the amazing customer service she received from Daralyn L. in our reservations department. In Vera’s words: Daralyn was pleasant, knowledgeable and very helpful – and makes me want to support and use Alaska Airlines for my travel needs. I want to thank Daralyn and Alaska Air for taking care of me during a crisis situation.”

Shared by Karen U., Alaska Airlines customer care representative, Seattle, on March 19

San Francisco to Portland, Oregon: “My niece and I flew from SFO to PDX yesterday. Our flight attendant was Jose Antonio Ortiz. He was amazing! He’s such a treasure. He had us laughing and joking with him. It’s been a stressful few weeks for everyone and he made us forget that for a bit.”

Shared by Andre R., Alaska Airlines customer care representative, Seattle, on March 20