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Site Features:
Flight Schedule, hotels, vacations and rental car by WWTE,
Frequent Flier Loyalty Programs, Travel guides by Best Places,
Weather, Vacations, Links, Contests, Site is available in spanish.
Linked to Horizon Airlines site.
Site Report:
Sometimes big companies start out small.
For Alaska Airlines, the prosperous company that now proudly operates a low cost carrier with the motto -- "For the same price, you just get more", the start came right from the days of bush pilots winging their way over the sprawling glaciers of the land that was once known as Sewards Folly.
Alaska Airlines was born in 1932 when Linious "Mac" McGee took his three-passenger Stinson, painted "McGee Airways" on the side and started flying out of Anchorage. In 1934 he joined with Star Air Service to create the largest Alaskan airline with 22 planes. In those days, flights still weren't operated on any kind of schedule. If the plane was full, then Alaska Airlines would put it in the sky. If it wasn't, you waited. Not the best in customer service, but hey, it was 1930 and folks traveling the Alaskan hinterland generally took what they could get.
Alaskan Airlines expanded in 1950 with the purchase of two more small Alaskan carriers. Alaskan Air became big time when they finally go the right to fly from our 50th state to Seattle and Portland. At about the same time Charlie Willis, a decorated World War II pilot, came aboard as chairman and CEO in ‘57. Charlie might have been a pilot, but he was a marketer a heart. As a result of his leadership, Alaska Airlines was the first airline to feature in-flight movies on their planes.
Alaska expanded in a measured, yet opportunistic fashion throughout it's history. After deregulation, it started service to Portland and San Francisco. Further expansion brought Alaska Airlines to Southern California, Oakland, San Jose, Spokane, Boise, Phoenix and Tucson. In a move bolstering its north-south route structure and complementing the seasonal nature of travel to Alaska, the airline launched service to Mexico in 1988.
As the airline industry changed to favor the smaller, less operationally heavy low fare carriers, Alaska Air took notice. By streamlining its cost structure and increasing aircraft utilization, Alaska Airlines reshaped itself faster and more comprehensively than any carrier -- and this is while they continued to keep their focus on excellent customer service.
Alaska Airlines operates a very full featured website. As most carriers do, they offer the ability to book air, hotel or rental cars (as well as packaged travel). They go a bit further however. Alaska has build a great series of travel guides that even the team here at Travelsites is jealous of. The guides feature outstanding content provided by the award-winning Best Places® books series. The guides examine each destination city that Alaska flies to. If you're interested in knowing what to pack, don't worry. The guides feature weather information from AccuWeather, and Alaska Airlines makes land navigation a breeze with driving directions by MapPoint. Alaska Airlines frequent flier program is called Mileage Plan, and it's got a full section devoted to it as well. The promotions section shows customers all the offers that their travel has earned them.
And the influence of Charlie Willis lives on, as the www.alaskaair.com site features a great section on the Iditarod. Not only do they have a section on this event, they have great fares for folks who might want to go. This section and the Iditarod Event Fares that
Alaska Airlines they offer probably works as a great Internet marketing campaign to attract users and buyers to the www.alaskaair.com
site.
In addition, Alaska and Horizon
are both available in spanish -- a great idea!
Travelsites.com thinks that this
airline is doing the web thing right. Surf over to check them out!
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