Just needed to give a shout out and a big middle finger to Alaska Airlines for the flight back to Seattle. A two-hour delay taking off from Maui...all because of a warning light which the pilot said they would have ignored had we been in the air. The biggest part of the delay was waiting for a new gate to dock at, and mechanics to take a look. Since we were already boarded on the plane, that made an already long flight a whole lot longer.But hey...I'm all for making sure the plane is safe before it takes off. No problem there. What really ticks me off is we received nothing for the inconvenience. A free drink? No. A free sandwich? No. Free use of the overpriced digi-players? Oh hell no. As I was purchasing our meals, I said to the flight attendant that I thought it was odd, given the long delay, that we weren't being offered a free meal or at the least a free drink. She assured me there would be a freebie coming later in the flight. Well...it never came. Alaska will be hearing from me.
Bottom line - don't fly Alaska to Hawaii. It's only a single-aisle plane, and that's too long a trip to be a prisoner of the food/beverage cart in the aisle. We normally fly Hawaiian, and it's sooo much better. Wide-body jet, free meal (not just a cruddy sandwich) -- which Ally enjoyed on her way to Maui from LA. Jorge and I flew Alaska this time because I wanted to use my $99 companion ticket to help offset the cost. Never. Again.
