Subject: Formal Complaint – Incompetent Service and Denied Boarding on Flight 1409 (CLSVJM – Dear Alaska Airlines Customer Relations, I am writing to file a formal complaint regarding my experience on Flight 1409 departing from Seattle on 6/13/26. As a physician and business owner who frequently coordinates group travel, this was one of the worst airline experiences I have encountered. Upon arrival, I was informed that my check-in boarding pass was not official, despite successfully obtaining it electronically through your website/app with no warnings or indications of issues. My electronic boarding pass was rejected, leading to cancellation/denial of boarding. The gate agent (an older woman) was unhelpful, claimed my name had been announced multiple times (which it had not—she did not even know my name correctly), and mistakenly boarded my traveling companion under my name. Additionally, an older blonde staff member nearly failed to return my passport, highlighting a clear lack of training on your check-in and boarding systems. This chaos forced me onto a later flight while my group waited in Canada, unable to check into our Airbnb or pick up rental cars (as I was the primary booker). The entire incident caused significant business disruption, stress, and additional expenses. I have flown Alaska Airlines previously but will not consider it again without resolution. I request: • Full reimbursement of any additional costs incurred. • Appropriate compensation (vouchers/miles) for the inconvenience and poor service. • Confirmation of corrective actions for Please respond within 7-10 business days. Sincerely, Dr. Chunwen Teng
On time, good seats, not overly full, up beast positive crew.
Airport security lines in Seattle were awful. The only staff that was pleasant and made the trip more enjoyable was the young woman at the gate in Seattle. She was so pleasant and helpful. Flight attendant on the plane seemed like she would rather be anywhere but on that plane.
Never had so many staff members be rude and disrespectful. I had a staff member sarcastically call me “girly” after making me wait 20 minutes to be seen by her. I was able to print my luggage tag and she told me I was too late to check luggage I said the system obviously disagrees. And you had me wait way too long while you asked every single passenger ahead of me about their Disney vacations. She wasted so much time to then say “girly your bag won’t make it on the plane” I’m not her girly I’m a full grown adult. She needs to learn a hell of a lot of respect
My flight was several times rescheduled and then finally canceled.
The agents were super helpful. I was traveling with my mother inlaw who needed whell chair assisstance. The help and accomodation from the checkin crew, to the boarding crew and inflight crew was excellent.
People were friendly. Flight was a little delayed. Maybe I missed the reason for it. Overall a nice experience.
Completely full flight. Boarding was smooth, but people didn’t listen about use of overhead bins which is typical. We pre-purchased a snack which was tasty. Drinks were good and plentiful. Flight left late because previous flight was delayed.
The flight itself was great. But we had to wait over an hour to deplane so I missed my train. Not the crews fault. They were wonderful!
Flying into PAE was so easy because it’s baggage claim is quick and accesible. I had a car rental and the counter is inside the baggage claim area, very convenient.
Horrible. Faucet in sink not working, wifi not working. Didn’t bring food or snacks
Flight was delayed before take off and at landing. Baggage took 20 minutes. Flight crew would not serve full soft drink and had to ask multiple times before receiving water.
From checking to boarding, it was a seamless experience. The service agents were so helpful. The flight crew was so pleasant.
Gate agent showed up 20 minutes before boarding and was not at all friendly. Had to take this flight due to the one on the day before being cancelled and any later options were already full with long standby lists. Despite having paid for Delta Comfort seats, Delta did not allow me (or anyone) to choose their seat. The agent assigned them for everyone just prior to boarding. Self seat selection was allowed on the original flight. Flight staff was great - very friendly.
Flight attendants were great. Cheerful, upbeat and friendly. Jet, in particular, was fantastic.
I have Precheck. Flew HPN to DEN and return this past weekend. Delta didn't attach my Precheck number to this trip. So it was waiting in general line especially in Denver. Unavailable.
Original flight was delayed, then cancelled and the gate staff did not expedite rebooking. Also, no instructions were given that a ticket number was needed before being called to facilitate rebooking. This could have been much more organized.
Be on time? When not on time a circling for over an hour offer more than 1 bag of chips to the passengers? It was a 7 hour flight by the time we got done.
Five hour delays every hour, I wish it were all at once
Flight delayed four separate times. I’m now one hour hours late to landing.
Our flight was delayed 2.5 hours from Lisbon to DC so we missed our connection to Seattle that would have arrived at about 9 PM. The agent initially said we had to stay overnight in DC and there were no other options to put us on to get us to Seattle. While on board I discovered a flight via American he could have put us in but by the time we arrived in DC that was sold out. We were then put on a flight to San Francisco that was also delayed then arrived in San Francisco and our flight to Seattle was also delayed so we ended up not arriving until 2:15 am. Our son could not pick us up so we ended up having to pay over $100 to Uber home. This is the second trip with United that the flight has been delayed causing us to miss an evening in Las Vegas and we were given nothing.
MY FAMILY'S LUGGAGE WAS LOST FROM ROME TO BARI. I WAS THE ONLY ONE THAT RECEIVED MY LUGGAGE FROM ROME TO BARI. AFTER DEPLANING IN BARI, WE WASTED A LOT OF TIME AT BAG CLAIMS LOST AND FOUND REPORTING THE CLAIM AND PLEADING FOR THE BAGS TO BE DELIVERED THE NEXT DAY. WE WERE TOLD THAT IT TAKES 3 DAYS MINIMUM TO DELIVER. MY DAUGHTER AND MY GIRLFRIEND NEEDED THEIR PERSONAL THINGS AND WE WERE STAYING 3 HOURS AWAY FROM THE BARI AIRPORT. WE HAD TO DRIVE 3 HOURS TO THE AIRPORT TO COLLECT OUR LOST LUGGAGE THE NEXT DAY. WE ARE NOT HAPPY WITH THE EXPERIENCE
There were no facilities in the middle of the aircraft and premium economy was not allowed to use the business class facilities, and had to share the only two toilets at the back with economy. The upgrade to Premium was definitely not worth it
Our flight to Rome, Italy was cancelled the day of and we were never informed. We only found out because I was trying to get into my husbands account and called to get his account number. Had to pay more for worse seating on another airline.
The economy seat was much less comfortable for an international flight in terms of recline and moving space when food tray is expanded. Per entertainment, it would be amazing if I could connect my Bluetooth headset or ear phones to the entertainment screen. Or provide in-flight wifi to connect directly from my own device.
We were a little disappointed to not be able to complete check in online without uploading pics of passports. Also we have KTN's and they weren't on our boarding passes when we got to security. Had to trek back to counter to have them fix.
Excellent service in Polaris class IAD to ZRH. Arrived rested and well fed after the overnight flight.
It's a short hop. My carryon was checked at the gate, I didn't have to drag it all over the airport. Excellent wheelchair assist.
Was great in general, try to respect time and excuses when slight changes have been made, appreciated!
Terrific in every way. On time, professional staff, multiple movie options to select, great food and drink.
The airplane was an old model, the overhead didn’t have enough room for people’s items and made boarding and boarding disappointing and stressful. Crew allowed passengers to bring more than the permitted baggage sizes.
It was great. Smooth flight, comfortable, left on time and landed on time.
Horrible experience upon landing. Probably more due to DCA utter incompetence than AA.
Easy boarding. Rows are smaller but that may be an older and bigger me now :)
Flight has been delayed every time I've ever taken it. Seats uncomfortable. Children behind me yelling the entire flight. Some of this is out of their control but overall just consistently not a great experience.
Poor communication ahead of time about flight delays and old planes/other equipment.
Never going to fly your airline again if it can be avoided.
Not to have gotten delayed by 2+ hours for the fourth straight American flight. They're the worst.
Other than nearly three hour delay for maintenance issues, everything went smooth
Snow delayed boarding several times, which I understand happens. Issue I had was that after we did board, pilot told us we were going to roll out to be de-iced, then on our way. We were de-iced once, taxied to the tarmac and then stopped. Sat for another 30 minutes or so, the another de-icing. Then we rolled out to a parking spot, only to sit for another hour due to a traffic stop in DCA, which I'm confident they knew would happen before we boarded. Pilot gave no updates other than we had to hold, attendants did speak to the crew, but when asked, said the pilot would be updating us. We on the ground in the plane waiting for over 2 hours. They did communicate that bathrooms would be open, but no other news until we left. Would have been better to be up front about status.
There weren't enough employees at check in took awhile to get bags checked. There wasn't a wheel chair for me, I was sent to someone who turns out to work for a different airline, if My flight hadn't been delayed I probably would have missed my flight as it was, by the time I arrived at my gate, they started boarding in about 15 minutes. I don't know who took me to my gate, definitely was not the normal people who take passengers to the gate. I'm guessing she may have been in a management position. I wish I knew her name, she went beyond to help me. With that said everyone was kind, and were doing the best they could. So, I choose to say it was an Adventure, stressful start, but good. In the end went well. The situation was not only difficult for passengers but the employee's.
The staff at the check in counter was so rude. Made you feel Incompetent
Frontier scheduled a 40 minute connection in DEN. What they failed to mention was that they “close the doors” 20 mins prior to departure, which means you only have 20 mins. Not enough time. Possibly against DOT regulations. Filing complaint.
Flight was scheduled at 9:40pm. Got delayed to 10 am, the next day. crazy
The bag check, flight check-in, and onboard experience convinced my wife and me that we will actively go out of our way to avoid flying Frontier Airlines in the future. At bag check, we were informed that check-in could only be completed via the Frontier mobile app. Unfortunately, the app was extremely frustrating—sending us through repetitive, confusing loops that repeatedly forced us to decline add-on services with nearly every click. While most airline apps upsell, this one felt intentionally exhausting. As the process dragged on, we became genuinely concerned that my phone battery would die before check-in could be completed. We approached the bag check staff—who were standing together talking—and explained both our frustration and our predicament. They laughed. Later, my wife described the interaction as “gaslighting,” which felt accurate. We were then informed it would cost $25 per person simply to have our boarding passes printed. From that point forward, the tone of the experience was consistently hostile. The bag check employees were condescending and combative, behaving more like bullies than customer service staff. Unfortunately, that same attitude continued onboard. One flight attendant argued with me when I attempted to stow my backpack in the overhead bin. I explained that we had each paid $75 to check our bags specifically so we would not need to use carry-on space and could have adequate legroom. She demanded to see my ticket, pointed out that it said “no carry-on”—which I acknowledged—and I reiterated that this was precisely why we paid to check our bags. Her response was, “I don’t make the rules.” She then walked away, but not before asking if I “truly wanted to fly back to Chicago today?”—an unnecessary and unmistakable threat. It is also worth noting that despite booking our tickets together in the same transaction, we were not seated together. Upon our return to Chicago—where we could once again sit together—we compared onboard experiences. We both remarked on how unhappy the flight attendants appeared and how each of us was separately asked whether we would like to purchase a beverage. We declined. At no point was water mentioned as an option, leaving us with the clear impression that even water came at a cost—or that complimentary water, if available at all, was deliberately left unmentioned. Overall, the experience was shocking and deeply disappointing, but it was also a profound learning experience—one we will not forget and will not repeat. -Steve
Plane was hot and miserable and the crew was rude!
12 hour delay required getting on and off plane 3 times - would have at least liked to have been offered a snack or drink
They didn’t offer a water, even after I asked
They switched our terminal 3 times and we were delayed for four plus hours!!!
It was an early flight and most people napped/slept and the crew let us which was nice.
