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Discover the heartbeat of Juneau's cultural and community landscape with 'Capital Chat.' This series explores the vibrant world of the community, arts, and dynamic cultural and social events happening in Alaska's Capital City. Tune in to 'Capital Chat' for your essential guide to the pulse of our community, where every story is an adventure and every voice matters.
KINY, Cliff Duma Show. Good morning. Joining me is Scott Habberstadt, the managing director of Alaska Airlines. Scott, good morning. Welcome.
Speaker 2:Good morning, Cliff. It's great to be with you. Great to be in Juneau. Summer's here. May not show it outside, but it is here.
Speaker 1:What? Thank you thankfully, because we've all had one heck of a winter.
Speaker 2:Oh, Whether you're in Juno, Anchorage, Fairbanks, this is the winter that just won't let go, will I mean, cold and snow. Know, You you think we live in Alaska
Speaker 1:or something. Let's talk a lot about Alaska Airlines. Yes, sir. And before we do that, I have to tell you a personal experience that I had last night. My wife and I are flying to, Seattle, and I was gonna book mine on points.
Speaker 1:I was gonna pay for hers.
Speaker 2:And First off, I'm glad you're seeing the right terminology. I'm still trying to stick with Miles because it's been so long, but we have points now. So thank you.
Speaker 1:You got it. And I'm thinking, okay. I'm trying to figure out this on the app. I'm gonna have to make two separate bookings, and I can't guarantee that we're gonna be sitting together or they're gonna lock the you know, all the things you have to do on the app. So I think, you know what?
Speaker 1:I'm just gonna call. Phone line was answered immediately. And I gotta tell you, and I said this to the person who was talking, I had the best customer service experience with this guy. His name's Christopher out of Seattle. And, we we had a lovely conversation talking about Juno as he's taking his time going through the process that he needed to do.
Speaker 1:Right? So he had to book mine separately and make sure they were connected, and that took some time. And during the time we're talking about Juno, he's looking up Juno. He's seeing pictures of whales because he's never been here before. And he's authentically engaged in the in the conversation in a way that I I honestly haven't experienced before.
Speaker 1:And I I I walked away from that experience going, that is a guy who who gets his gig, is interested in what I'm saying, is a great representative of the company. So congratulations.
Speaker 2:Appreciate that. You know, we've got some amazing people to work for us. We've we've put them under a lot of pressure over the last year because we've we're doing a lot of things. There's a lot of change at Alaska Airlines. But really it's in our DNA to, to deliver for our guests because the reality of the world in in my area, in the aviation industry is, you know, everybody has the same type of seats on their airplane.
Speaker 2:Everybody runs the same types of airplanes. The only way we can differentiate ourselves is how we treat our guests. Yeah. And that's a great example of it. And it's, you know, it's what made has made Alaska Airlines these 9093, almost ninety four years.
Speaker 1:I thought in that moment that's what aligns Alaska with our radio experience because you can have all the best equipment in the world. It doesn't matter. It it comes down to your people. Right? It does.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Yeah. You gotta be able to connect with folks. Right?
Speaker 1:And Yep.
Speaker 2:Yes,
Speaker 1:sir. Let's let's talk okay. A few bumps in the road this year. Let's let's let's I'll let you address what you want to address as far as some of the challenges that Alaska Airlines has had this year.
Speaker 2:Yeah. You know, we brought our sister partner airline on Hawaiian, so we merged the airlines. And we've had some technical issues with the apps and with the web. Mainly on the web, we're we're making a lot of change and the changes out there to make it easier for the guests and for our employees. Right?
Speaker 2:So but change is sometimes hard and it's really hard if we don't explain the why behind the change. So, know, that's some I'm here today. We'll be at the chamber talking a little bit about the why we've made some of these changes. And the neat thing is a lot of the technical glitches in which you've seen in the app over the last year, they've been resolved with what's called a PSS. We, we merged the Hawaiian infrastructure, web infrastructure with our infrastructure, so everything is working on the same platform in the background.
Speaker 2:And if a if a guest had flown to Hawaii this past year on us or on Hawaiian and had a mixed itinerary, it wasn't the best guest experience. And the reason it wasn't the best guest experience is Hawaiian was on one system and Alaska Airlines was on another system and never the twain shall meet. I mean, they didn't Right. Hawaiian employees couldn't see the Alaska Airlines system and vice versa. So there was a lot of finger pointing back and forth and that was a horrible guest experience.
Speaker 2:I'm excited to say April 22, we merged systems. It went very smooth, and now we can cross support our guests, and it's making it for a better guest experience and a better employee experience. And to your point when when our employees didn't have the tools to deliver for you what you expect or what they wanted to makes it hard for them and you. And so we've seen a a great rebound in our in our employees' morale because they can deliver what they're used to delivering for our guests. And so we're excited about that moving forward.
Speaker 1:Now you've been with the airline, I think, almost twenty five years. Right?
Speaker 2:Almost. It's it's hard to believe. Amy and I left Ketchikan twenty five years ago for Anchorage, and, it's been a great ride.
Speaker 1:When we talk about the importance of Alaska Airlines in in Alaska communities Yes, sir. And what's the thought process and the importance you you you put on ensuring that these communities are served the way that they are?
Speaker 2:Appreciate that question. You know, I'll focus on Southeast. Right? That's where my heart is and it's it's where it's it's topical for who we're talking to right now. I mean, you look at the region and you'll for me, it's it's connectivity.
Speaker 2:It's connectivity to community and it's connectivity to points beyond because a lot of Alaskans or Southeast Alaskans don't fly because they want to, they fly because they have to. Right? And it's incredibly important that we connect the communities on a daily basis with each community. For health purposes, if a if a guest that lives in Petersburg or Wrangel has to visit the search hospital in Juneau, we need to make sure that our flights interconnect to make sure they get there. When the Juneau basketball team's playing Kehi, go Kings, and we need to make sure that the the Bears can get down to Juno and back in a timely manner to to play the game where fans can get down there and watch if they like or listen on on Kehi and Y and have that experience.
Speaker 2:And so there's commerce that needs to flow between each of the communities and sometimes that means that you have to take a milk run to get to Seattle Mhmm. Which isn't always fun but there's a reason for that. Right? There Southeast Alaska, I look at as one big community, and we have to keep it connected for commerce, for community, and for health.
Speaker 1:What does Atmos stand for?
Speaker 2:That's a good one. So thank you for saying Atmos. After, you know, over thirty five years of mileage plan and miles, it was time for us to to evolve our loyalty program. And especially when we brought on Hawaiian Airlines, they had their own loyalty program. Mhmm.
Speaker 2:So we had to we had to launch a new program that would work for Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines and also our One World partners. So all three of those programs fall under Atmos. And Atmos, it's it's a play on where we where we fly. Right? It's the atmosphere.
Speaker 2:And the idea is, you know, the Atmos atmosphere, the idea is it gives you more more opportunity and it's supposed to aspire you or inspire you to to travel. Now it's I can be a cynic sometimes. I'm still at I think 50% of the time I still say mileage plan, but Atmos is out there to give our guests choice. We haven't done a good job of talking about all that choice, but more choice will be coming down, more opportunities for you to use your points will be coming down the pipe. Today, you can use those points to buy experiences Yeah.
Speaker 2:On Alaska Airlines or our other partners. You can you can we've got a suite at the Kraken's at the Kraken facility at Climate Pledge. You can buy that suite for a night with your Atmos points. So we do all kinds of fun stuff to to get people engaged. So Atmos is a play on atmosphere.
Speaker 2:Got it.
Speaker 1:Okay. I understand that now. So if I'm signed up like most everybody is in Southeast or Alaska on on Club forty nine
Speaker 2:Yes, sir.
Speaker 1:Is it automatically integrated in my app?
Speaker 2:It is. Okay. It is. You can find everything in there. But what I would encourage you to do is to look we've had some challenges with with Club forty nine and the system dropping people out.
Speaker 2:Right? And so we used to make people requalify for Club forty nine every year because we we thought we we didn't want folks in the Lower 48 taking advantage of the program it was designed just for Alaskans. It's our community. And we learned really quickly that you couldn't take advantage of it in the Lower 48. So we've dropped the requalification aspect of Club forty nine.
Speaker 2:Okay. But some people in the process, whether last year or the year before were dropped and then didn't get back in. Mhmm. So you need to look at your mile not mileage plan, your Atmos card Yep. Where it shows your Atmos number, and right under there it should say Club forty nine.
Speaker 2:If it doesn't, please email customer care or call customer care to get reinstated. Okay. And they'll help you out, and we shouldn't have the problem moving forward unless you leave the state and change your address and your contact information to address other than Alaska, and then it will pull you out.
Speaker 1:Two more things. Yes, sir. One, we've got summer hours underway. Just kicked off. Right?
Speaker 1:So we got a 05:00 flight underway now.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. You know, we've got 10 flights a day to Seattle out of Juneau. Five of them are nonstops, five connect through other communities. So we're in the midst of summer, and we're pushing hard, and it's exciting.
Speaker 1:Nice. And, London kicks off today.
Speaker 2:Right? London. We are. We start nonstop service Seattle, London. That joins our nonstop service, to Rome.
Speaker 2:That was two weeks ago we launched, and we'll launch Roy Kovic out of Seattle next week. Wow. Our, our chairman has an amazing vision to get us to over 12 international destinations out of Seattle by 2030. So we're gonna start adding some more pins to the long haul destination, which is really kind of exciting.
Speaker 1:Nice. Okay. And and one more thing about that. Those are the Dreamliner, aircraft. Right?
Speaker 2:Yeah. Those if you haven't seen the Dreamliner or you haven't experienced it, it's a whole another level.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:My daughter's going to school, and you're in London this summer. And so her and my wife are gonna go over there and spend some time, and I think I'll get to see it at the end of July. So looking forward to
Speaker 1:it. Fantastic. Well, it's you know, when you look back at what the airline took on to accomplish in the last year alone, it's pretty monumental with the merging of two companies, the launch of a new points program, and the the success you've had and and come out of the other end to be able to brag about, hey. Not only are we on time, but the systems are working the way they should. So congratulations.
Speaker 2:Appreciate it, sir. It's a lot of people did a lot of work. I mean, when I started with the company back in twenty five years ago, 2001, think I we had about 12,000 people. Today, Alaska Airlines has over 33,000 people. Right here in Alaska, we have 2,300 people working, neighbors, the people that meet and greet you out at the airport doing a great job.
Speaker 2:They live and work and play in the community. One of the things just to remind folks, are in the summer, so loads are picking up out at the airport. That means that, security lines can get longer. So, don't scurry into the airport like it's February you've given yourself only twenty minutes to make it through. Give yourself time.
Speaker 2:Stress at the airport is nothing anybody likes. And so look forward to seeing you out there. Have a cup of coffee in the morning, get on the flight, and enjoy your experience.
Speaker 1:Nice. Scott Habberstadt, Managing Director of Alaska Airlines. Great to see you again. Thanks for coming in this morning.
Speaker 2:Cliff, appreciate being in Juno. Juno, be safe. Have a great summer.