flight attendant

customer service representative

reservation agent

senior software engineer

software engineer

Alaska Airlines

A typical day at work is working second shift or third shift with no weekends off, until you have accrued 5 years of seniority. You will receive many pointless calls where guests are extremely lazy and do not want to simply book a reservation on their own or look up the baggage policies on the website. You will receive many pointless calls from other departments because the call-center system is designed to make sure that you always receive a call, even if there are no guests left in queue for your desk. I.e., Flight information, baggage, Elite guests, complaints, etc. The automated system literally has nothing in place to prevent high call volume at all for pointless calls. You will often wait 30 seconds at the end of each call (on purpose) to avoid getting so many pointless and angry calls. Also, you are not compensated for having high stats, or high customer service satisfaction via feedback. Compliments will not pay your bills; the union will eat a portion of your check.

I have learned airport lingo and terminology. I have learned that working for Alaska Airlines in any form of customer service is not worth it. If you work an autonomous job and can make use of the travel benefits, go for it. Any entry level jobs I would avoid unless you are just here for a check until you finish school. Even then, a grocery store job may be better on your morale.

Management does not care. No matter what happens, if you ever have to take time off work for any reason, you are automatically given an attendance occurrence and it cannot be appealed. You are expected to trade your shift or receive coverage, however you will NEVER get coverage or trades because if you are a new agent,  80% of your coworkers will quit, and senior agents do not want to work the terrible hours that you have assigned. For example, low seniority agents will receive a shift that is Wednesday and Thursday off, while working 3:30PM to midnight. Who on earth would ever want to work a shift like this for months at a time?

The workplace culture is toxic. If you call support desks, you will be told to look at your manual. Basically being told "leave me alone." If you call HR, you will be put on hold for 10 minutes and will not receive any help. I honestly feel like we have an HR department just to say we have one, and they do not do anything to help you.

The hardest part about this job is how PAINFULLY slow the advancement is. Over one year of working here, and still cannot get a shift that has one weekend day off; or is not second shift. The Union and management will always team up against you, despite them saying "we don't associate with each other." That's complete BS.  You will be told advancement is a possibility, that is a complete lie. You will check job postings, or biddings for other jobs for several months at a time within the company and see NOTHING. The only thing you will see is the same entry level jobs.  "Reservations, Customer Care, Ramp Agent, and maybe accounting." These are all the undesirable jobs that you DO NOT want to work long term for.

The "Most" enjoyable part of this job is working from home, and honestly that is barely enjoyable.  

With that being said, good luck trying to study while working, there will never be enough downtime to do so. If you are not in ready status taking calls and getting yelled at 99.9% of the day, you will be hounded by quality assurance and your supervisor for work avoidance, despite taking 60 calls a day. You have 8 minutes of personal time on your shift, if for any reason you exceed that by 5 minutes, you receive a FULL day's attendance occurrence. Keep this in mind if you have a family. Also, If you have low seniority it's impossible to get leave of absence or approved unpaid time off during your shift (Staffing Adjustment.)

If you truly need a job, work here temporarily. Study for certifications or degrees outside of work and move on to a company that truly cares about its employees and does not fake it like Alaska does.  I highly do not recommend trying to "Grow." with this company, if you do you will be like the agents who work here 5-20 years who are still taking phone calls, are grumpy and miserable and have ultimately wasted their life. Alaska does not want you to grow, they want you to stay strapped to a phone all day so the senior agents can bask in the glory of your hard work. You will be given schedules that are so terrible and undesirable that it will be very difficult to study and pursue goals outside of work.  If you are extremely lucky, you may get a supervisory role and no longer need to take calls with annoying customers anymore if you work here for an absurd amount of time.  Leads do not have it better than regular agents do, they get a small pay raise and worse shifts. They are extremely moody, and still receive an overwhelming amount of calls, so becoming a lead is useless. If you do not get a supervisor, management role, or skilled IT job you will be treated with zero respect by management, the union, and guests.

P.S. finishing probation does not make the job better. The shifts are still terrible for 4 more years.

I was a Customer Service Agent for 2 years. I left and came back as a Flight Attendant 5 years later. Alaska prides themselves on being safe, caring, reliable, and etc…but their leadership lacks everything they pride themselves on. They claim to be diverse, but I believe they hire to appear diverse because they find a way to get rid of you. 

To speak on accountability, and not hold your team accountable is unacceptable. They claim to put safety first, but force employees to skip steps of a process to have the best “on-time departure.” 

Reliable? A huge NO. They fail to make sure employees are able to use their benefits that they advertise as one of the major benefits of joint their company. Employees barely use their flight benefits for vacation, and most have settled and accepted; but we can’t even rely on our benefits to get us to and from work. 

Caring? Heck NO! What an example? 

Uniforms are ordered during training. Several people in my training class had to borrow uniforms for their fit center…then when we were put on the schedule after training, we were written up for our skirts being too short or not wearing the right pieces together even though the whole company was aware that there was a uniform shortage/backlog. I got my uniform 3 months and a week after I started. Forget about how they chastised us for something that was completely out of our hands, but to not even imagine how uncomfortable we felt in uniforms that didn’t fit NOR BELONG TO US IS WILD! NOT THE ACTIONS OF A CARING AIRLINE…

For the PROS: As an FA, they do have a great reserve system, you’re able to trade, giveaway, or even pickup trips for money (a bonus especially to 1st year FA’s because the income isn’t the best), most FA’s are genuine and want to help and try to make your trip a good time. ALASKA DOES HAVE THE BEST CUSTOMERS FOR SURE…one thing I can say is they have the most amazing and understanding passengers. Their passengers remind me of Seahawks Fans, loyal, happy, they will accept the bad news like it’s a win. Of course they have a few undesirable customers but that’s every company. 

Medical/Dental/401k Benefits: medical benefits is ridiculously expensive for no reason at all. They do have one of the highest matching 401ks that I’ve ever known which is currently at 7.5%…don’t have much more details on this. 

Quality of Work Life Balance: I believe Alaska has the best work life balance as an FA. This is just my personal opinion. My opinion stems from my current airline and lots of FA friends within different airlines. 

Summary: Alaska can be everything that they say they are if they truly put people that align with their values into leadership. They are willing to invest thousands into someone and will fire them for the pettiest thing. It makes you question if you’re hiring diverse people to make your company appear diverse and then firing them…or is your leadership really just that unstable and broken? Their only loyalty is with their customers. They have no loyalty with their employees unless you’ve been their since the beginning. They pass judgement as if the Bible never existed and I’m not even religious…it can be an amazing company to work for but I don’t see them taking accountability which therefore will prevent them from thriving and setting the tone for the industry. 



Over the past couple years Alaska Airlines has shifted in brand strategy and leadership has completely lost touch with employees. It's sad to see that a beloved brand treats its long term and valued employees as replaceable. It's a great brand to love, but a horrible brand to work for now (wasn't always the case).

In marketing, you are expected to have no work/life balance. You are expected to work long hours, to be available at all times of day and you have no actual "time off" you are still expected to work. There are limited staff in marketing compared to other airlines and recently the bulk of marketing was laid off last winter, including ones that had a long tenure and wealth of knowledge at the company. Anyone who reaches a certain age will be asked to leave or early retirement in marketing. You will be replaced with someone who is younger with no experience. This is common practice in marketing and has been going on for years. 

The leadership at Alaska is a joke. They are toxic and micro-manage every detail. Whatever their whim or desire is, they will change company directive based on it without any valid data. They have no problem spending hundreds of thousands of dollars with someone they are friends with or using company resources to purchase items for their family's gathering or friends party. They paid almost a million dollars in hiring a women's niche print magazine that then laid off it's staff months later. Wonder where that money went? 

If Brad Tilden has a meeting with another airline or CEO, all of a sudden what that brand is doing will be what Alaska should do. Alaska is not a leader, it's a follower and the CEO has no idea how to drive the brand forward - he's not a visionary. He completely disregards data to determine what marketing strategies should be, even if the data is showing him that he's wrong. He makes decisions on a whim by personal opinion and is okay running an airline like that. 

A great example of lack of respect for employees is the parental leave policy. Alaska offers 2 weeks parental leave - that is so outdated and completely disrespectful to female employees. At company meetings when employees mention the outdated policy, leadership completely disregards the opinion and HR completely ignores it. They will not take a look at re-examining the policy in order to compete with businesses who offer more. When a co-worker accepted another job, they asked if it was cause she was pregnant and laughed. The company is run by men who believe it's 1950. 

Alaska is not a forward thinking brand. Leadership copies other airlines, they are outdated in technology and thinking. They need a leader who will actually improve the airline. They will spend millions on ad campaigns that won't even run because one person dislikes it. It's sad to see the brand change from a beloved company into a toxic environment. 

I would not recommend anyone work in marketing until there is a leadership change.

Alaska airlines is a great company as far as benefits go, relatively easy to learn if you pick up things quickly, if you are computer illiterate, this job will be very hard and stressful for you. The company does take very good care of you with health benefits for you and your family, dental, 401k, life, union security, etc. Free unlimited standby for you, your spouse (or designated primary traveler), your children (still living with you), and your parents. When you finish 1040 hours of probation (actively on the phone) you can begin to book international flights on a generously discounted rate for you and your beneficiaries. Many good resources for mental health, and general wellbeing. You do have the ability to learn different help desks after finishing probation, if you don’t enjoy direct customer service as much. 
Only downsides are mostly being new and on probation. Very strict schedule, OK flexibility, but still able to trade or pick up shifts or work out something with other agents. Part time is out of the picture unless you’ve been there for years. PTO is not allowed until the next year after your probation ends. Do not get sick or let anyone who is sick around you on probation. Calls are back to back, not much room to breathe in between, and can get stressful being new, due to OT being assigned by seniority during the winter a lot. 
Management is decent, leads and supervisors are pretty good  as long as you are actively trying, which is fair. They could work a little harder at checking in with the employees and their well-being a bit more frequently, but overall they do pretty decent. 
Training is paid and is about 6-8 weeks. Good trainers, but don’t expect to really apply what to learned in class, to the phone training. It’s completely different, and nothing like what you learned in class, you gotta learn to tread the open water you are thrown in, and learn fast too.

Overall, I like working for Alaska. It definitely can get stressful, but it’s very doable for those who truly try and work hard. They really do take care of me and my health. They pay my bills and put food on the table. They hired me and saved me from a debts I was quickly going in to, and they are very generous with sharing the love to my family. It’s a good place to start at least, for people trying to find something new, and who want a sense of security for life and their family.

Here is what I experienced while working there.
Overtime was a mandatory 2-hour shift when needed, even on your day's off. If you got a call to work on your day off, and refused to work or didn't call back to a voicemail message, you could get written up. And, for example, if you worked until 5pm and they called you at 7pm that same day, you had 1 hour to get back to the office to work another minimum 2 hours. 
As a Reservation Agent, they had a very strict 3 strikes and your out policy, which resulted in employees coming in when they were sick - flu, pink eye, strep throat, stomach flu, etc. An example of an attendance strike could be logging in the phone 1 minute past your scheduled start time, or being unavailable too many times during your shift. Even if you have high ratings when your calls are monitored, excellent overall reservation knowledge, ability to diffuse an tense situation, and even getting personal thank you cards sent by customers, those aren't considered as part of your overall job review. It's about attendance. 
The culture at the office I worked at was, "what's in it for me" mentality. If you wanted/needed time off you could try and find someone to either take or trade your days. But it won't be done simply because a co-worker is trying to help you out. (Example: I needed 2 days off for a speaking engagement I accepted before being hired. The only person that was willing to trade agreed to take my 2 days but I had to take 4 of hers or she wouldn't do it.) Your schedule/hours are done by lottery and seniority and then you're on that shift for months, unless you can find someone who wants to switch with you, and then management has to approve. 
Discounted or free travel were offered as a perk, but it is pretty hard to work it out. 
Agents were part of a union but, from what I could tell, they didn't do anything for the employees except collect dues from your paychecks.

The best part about the job? Talking to and assisting people with their travel plans. Everything from celebrations (weddings, family trips, dream vacations) to lending a listening ear as they book for a hardship (funerals, unexpected emergencies, terminal illness). It was an honor to assist people during their happiest, and hardest, days.

I was hired in December as a reservations agent. You go through 3 weeks of paid training learning the basics of your job. You are required to learn and memorize roughly 118 airport codes for the airports Alaska flys to. They test you for this during the first week and email you the airport codes you need to learn roughly 2 weeks before you start class. You must score at least 85% to pass. The email says you are tested for this and are required to pass on the first day of class but we didn't get tested for it until the beginning of the second week and I know some people failed but did not get let go they just had to come back on there own time and pass it before the end of the 3 week class. You are taught things each week and tested on what you've learned. You aren't required to pass the weekly tests only the final test which is given on the last week and you must score 85% or higher. It's a rigorous process but honestly this is the easy part. The hardest part is after the 3 week class you are put out on the phones with people over seeing you walking around helping you with calls for 3 weeks. Reservations agents deal with so much stuff that you will feel totally unprepared and overwhelmed at first. After the 3 weeks of ojt with helpers walking around helping you they put you on your own. There are excellent help desks you will most likely be calling for several months on various phone calls until you get use to it. Every day is different you are expected to help the customers with many different things and it could take 6months to a year to feel fully comfortable. Balancing work and life can be very difficult with this job. You bid for schedules every 2 months shifts are granted based on seniority so you'll most likely get bad hours until your seniority climbs. Attendance policy and on time policy is very stringent you cannot be a minute late or you will obtain an occurance. You cannot call in sick or you will also obtain an occurance. 3 occurances in a year and you will be fired. Other then that I love this job and hope to have a long career with Alaska airlines.

A typical day at work can really depend on the companies management and layout of flights and operations. When things are bad, they are really bad and this will trickle down all the way to baggage and obviously to customer support. In the beginning I absolutely loved my career. I gave up a wonderful job to come here and I was happy to do so. The transition of our company to grow into a much larger one has not been smooth and has come at a hefty prices of the happiness and work/life balance of all of our employees. Although I am not pleased with management I don't believe that supervisors are really given any power to help us. They are constantly undermined and ridiculed so I can't really blame them for being a bit helpless in all the madness. The company has really become so incredibly toxic I have found it hard to continue to stay here. In part obviously covid has effected us all in our personal lives and in our professional lives, obviously. However, that being said, it doesn't feel like the right choices are made to improve our daily lives, whether it is hiring people who have absolutely no clue what they are doing (IE MANAGEMENT) or completely ignoring our cries for help. Overall I think it has become a really toxic environment and I do know that many have left the company and changed careers completely or are hanging by a thread. Our schedules have been so insane and exhausting and we are constantly ridiculed for not pulling through but I know full well high up management would not survive one day in our shoes with the stress, exhaustion and THE PAY! The overall enjoyable parts of the job are the people and sometimes (though covid changed that too as you see in the news) passengers. If it were not for great co workers I would have left a long time ago. There does tend to be a little aggressive behavior between senior and junior people that I find gross but I guess that would be anywhere you work. I hope it gets better because it once used to be a flexible and pleasant place to work. 

      love the people that I work with, but the corporate culture is, sadly, one of greed. Flight attendant contract negotiations have laid bare how little the corporate decision makers value the employees who make Alaska Airlines successful. It seems they believe we do all of the work and they deserve all of the rewards. While our days are padded with more and more short flights, growing longer for incrementally more pay (think one hour of additional pay for a work day increased by three hours) and the company routinely breaks the rules of our contract (oops!), the Alaska Airlines opened flight attendant contract negotiations with a proposed pay increase of a mere 15%, which fails to meet even the rate of inflation. 
     Let me point out that while our CEO, whom the majority of flight attendants I have spoken to do not respect (no way that man has an 81% approval rating) got a more that 100% pay increase recently—along with big raises for other corporate leadership and a massive stock buyback—many hard working flight attendants qualify for government assistance or even live in their cars or with friends or family. If I flew only the schedule I was given, I’d be making less than $50,000 a year, at almost a decade with the company. My “raise” this year will be less than a dollar per flying hour, which is about $.70 per actual hour worked. I can’t afford rent and simple luxuries like eating out anymore or buying organic vegetables at the grocery.
     The corporate leadership at this company should be embarrassed and ashamed. I, however, am not. Like my colleagues, I show up to work on time, looking polished and making sure I’m prepared for emergencies in the air, and I take excellent care of our passengers, who have no idea how much of a struggle it is to hold on to a job that used to be rewarding but has that has latelybeen feeling like drudgery. Good flight attendants are leaving for other airlines, and if Alaska doesn’t step up and start living the values boldly printed in our company literature, then I might be forced to go work for an airline that pays better for hours worked. 

Pros:
- Working at Alaska Airlines looks good on a resume
- Some opportunity to get tickets to local events for free

Cons: 
- Alaska Airlines has some very smart specialists in high level leadership positions, whom while excellent at their specialty, completely lack the people and management skills to lead teams. As a result, this creates a toxic environment among those teams where members of those groups are not working together but are instead competitive against one another. 
- This also creates an extremely cliquey work environment where not all people feel welcome
- As Alaska flies nonstop, so does the work.  Very little work life balance. 
- Some of the most self-serving leaders I've ever come across.
- Meetings often were met with snarky and unproductive comments from upper level leadership (who again have no idea how to build up teams and employees)
- Very little career development opportunities
- Unhealthy expectation (though unspoken) to post to your personal social media accounts showing team pride and love of Alaska Airlines
- After the layoffs and budgets were cut, expectations around results were not balanced. 
- The company values are mainly designed to keep frontline airport employees happy; leaders within the corporate environment do not mirror the values at all in my experience. 
- The flight benefits (standby tickets) are not benefits unless you're single; if you have a family, you'll often times be stuck somewhere trying to get back to your homebase because you simply can't get on a flight back. 
- Want to have a drink at lunch? Think again; you won't be able to even if you're a corporate employee. It makes no sense for an employee who works at a computer at corporate to have to follow the same rules as an employee who flies. 
- The day-to-day benefits are basically non: You might get leftover lunch from someone's meeting and the coffee is terrible. Not even snacks. If you're reading this, I'd recommend looking at working in the tech industry.

Alaska Airlines is a good airline to work for.  The airline industry, in general, is no longer the industry it was with a glory such as it may have been the case in the 60's and 70's decades.  The industry today struggles quite a bit and is cutting back more services in certain sectors.

Alaska Airlines recently acquired and just received a single operation license from the government.  I am hoping that the acquisition will blow some fresh and creative out of the box entrepreneurship to further build the airline into a leader far ahead of its competitors such as the big three (Delta, United and the worse one, American).  I am no longer delighted by Alaska being part of the OneWorld group.  I believe Alaska should hold its own and control their domain in total operations away from any dependability on the big three.  I worked for one of the big three and I know through the first-hand experience they did not appreciate having Alaska around at one of their major hubs!

In conclusion, if one does not mind living in a city where it rains a lot, Alaska may be a better airline to be employed by.  I shall return to Alaska to serve again if a suitable position, good total compensation and reinstating my seniority were to be offered.  

Do not expect too much, keep a low profile, be attentive to your duties, attend work on a regular basis, and see what other opportunities may open for you to move ahead.  Remember, this is also a corporate America company.  Refer to the books in Harvard, Yale, Wharton, and you will be more informed about the company's objectives and goals.  Wishing you continued success and well-being.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Flight attendant 3 salaries reported	$49.33 per hour
Customer service representative 6 salaries reported	$20.20 per hour
Reservation agent 8 salaries reported	$20.08 per hour
Senior software engineer 3 salaries reported	$124,000 per year
Software engineer 4 salaries reported	$24.00 per hour

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