Originally, I purchased tickets to fly to Spokane this Saturday with my return flight scheduled for Monday. Fairly immediately after I purchased those tickets, I realized that Monday was the start of my Federal Jury Duty summons. I then changed my tickets to fly out this Friday and to return on Sunday (so that I could call in and find out if my group number needed to report for duty in Tacoma on Monday morning). For a change, no more than two hours later, I paid $40. --I didn't complain.--

Unfortunately, the change was made incorrectly. I assume it is because I used the 'back' button on my internet browser. When I went online to get the flight information, the itinerary said that I left Friday and returned the next day! I immediately called the Customer Service line and got a very rude woman. She did absolutely nothing in the way of offering me options. She simply said that there was nothing she could do except have me pay $80 per person to change the Saturday flight and a service charge of $100 per person on top of that.

So, for a trip that should have cost me $100 per person… it would actually cost me (100*2)+40+(80*2)+(100*2)= $600. SIX HUNDRED DOLLARS to fly from Seattle to Spokane and back!? This is the "deal" that I was given?? I could have flown to Florida for that kind of money!

I tried calling the Customer Service line for Alaskan Air. They were much, much nicer and did provide options to me. One of the options was to upgrade my return trip to First Class where I would pay nearly $300. The other option was to refund me $59 per person (the cost of the return flight) and I could then buy a new one-way ticket back from Spokane for Sunday.

One-way tickets for Sunday are now up to $140+ per person. I am still out the ~$162 which means that I have to pay $442. That is better than $600, granted. However, that is no where near the "deal" that the website offered me (at $49 each way per person).

Argh...

As it stands, I have a ticket to Spokane and no return ticket.