My friends meet the fine folks at SCOTTEVEST / SeV

So what’s my jacket of choice for winter travels?
Check out the Fleece 5.0 Jacket by SCOTTEVEST – I can’t hardly wait to drop that jacket down on the TSA unloading dock. If that doesn’t make those cranky security folks happy, I don’t know what will!

SCOTTEVEST doesn’t just make jackets – Go check out their entire line of Jackets & Vests, Hoodies & Pullovers, Shirts to Pants & Shorts!  Whether it’s making travel easier or just geting around town I’d love to hear which wearable you’re going to purchase.

You are buying one?

Note: Officially the TSA does not endorse this jacket. However, as long as the jacket is placed flat in the basket it should go through without a hitch. It was also noted they may empty pockets if they have to run it through again. That said, can’t the TSA just say “Awesome!”

Follow-up to this Story: “The worst flight of my Life!”

Greetings all!

I received a gracious and apologetic call today from Alaska Airlines VP of Marketing. As a business it’s never easy owning a mistake, especially when it’s caused by the employees you entrust to represent your brand.

We’ve all had bad customer service, and for the most part we’re generally conditioned to assume ‘the bigger the company, the less likely a complaint will have any significance’ so we either shelve it, remain bitter, or rant publicly. - Am I right?

Today’s call, I really had a real sense that Alaska Airlines does care about their customer experience. My experience in fact was already making rounds internally at Alaska Airlines and was being followed up – even as I published my story.

What I’d learned is the customer service agent I spoke with felt I was satisfied with her apology and $100 discount on a future flight. My response “really?”  Perhaps in retrospect I was too nice when speaking to Alaska Airlines agent about my flight experience. On the other hand, what would yelling at a agent whom was so removed from the experience accomplish?

Logically, I don’t feel a customer needs to lead by drama or have to ask to be fully compensated, especially when it was as awful as my experience.  Any situation outside the normal hiccups of travel should be an automatic “go the distance” for the customer.  When the customer service agent felt sitting in vomit from a previous flight was worth a $100 bucks and a apology, I felt insulted.  Again, should I have to push and defend the value of my poor experience? If I do, it’s simply not a genuine gesture on the company behalf.

In my phone call with Alaska Airlines today, we agreed while my situation was a rare and extreme – customer service should be able to evaluate appropriately in making a bad situation right. The good news is they are looking at how to improve this process of customer service.

So what really happened with Alaska Airlines flight 190Y from FBX to ANC? It was obvious to me the crew of that flight were completely off course as a result of being RUSHED.  The flight was late when it arrived in FBX, rushed people off the plane, rushed the cleaning crew through the plane in 5 minutes (literally) and then board as quickly as possible.

Not only was it insane but unacceptable in retrospect. Even now I ask myself, what other corners were cut in flipping that plane for the flight back?

The takeaway from this is simple – It doesn’t matter how big or small your business is. You must pay attention to your customers. If it all goes wrong, you have one chance to make a bad situation right with a customer. Whether it’s Ten or Millions of customers, the majority of them are in the social cloud and they’re all talking about their experience in real-time.

The rule of 1 customer experience equals 10 (ten) shared experiences becomes multiplied by hundreds of thousands – That’s a game changer in my opinion. So what experiences do you want shared? In my case if I was a really aggressive customer, I could have posted flight crew photos on my facebook and twitter along with the puke on my seat.

I seriously applaud and appreciated the call from Alaska Airlines today. It was for me an affirmation of what I came to love about the Airline in the first place. Owning this was understandably not a proud moment for anyone at Alaska Airlines, especially for VP of Marketing and they took it to heart.

As consumers, we shouldn’t take things for granted or as they are. Seriously folks, it’s our job to praise for all the good, but also share constructively what’s not working. If a company really cares about your business they’ll work to keep your business. We can’t expect greatness if we don’t also do our job.

As an open evangelist for Alaska Airlines and supporting my mission in promoting travel in Alaska through advertising, I hope we’ll continue to share the Alaska experience together with all of you watching!

Thanks for sharing and supporting me in my experience.
Cheers! Scott

Greetings my Friends!

It’s been quite a ride since last spring, but really happy to announce an all new season of Alaska HDTV is coming to you starting October 1st, 2010!  We’re also coming up on Five Years of producing great Alaska Videos and Talk shows, so keep your ears open for a celebration announcement.

SHOWS LINEUP

• Alaska with Scott Slone – Weekly
  Get an inside view of life in Alaska with weekly audio shows offering the best in local talk, independent music, interviews, stories and more!
• Travel Adventures – Biweekly
  Discover great Alaska travel destinations for everyone!  Join me as hikes, boat, climb and travel throughout some of the most awe-inspiring locations in the last frontier. This year we’re doing an all season spread from summer into winter!
• Sanity Savers - Biweekly
  A visual journey around Alaska featuring the best views of wildlife, lifestyles and incredible landscapes all mixed with music from independent artists.
• Hike of the Week - Biweekly
  Featuring hikes from around Alaska.

We have several other special programming, contests and new website feature coming out soon, so be sure to check back here often so you don’t miss out.  What’s the best way to keep up to date? Subscribe to our newsletter from the homepage, subscribe to the website rss feed or subscribe to the podcast feeds!

So where have I been? I’ve got a blog post for that stay tuned!
Talk to you soon,
Scott

READ THE FOLLOW-UP TO THIS STORY!

The worst flight and customer service experience of my life took place on the very airline I’ve promoted for years. As a faithful customer of Alaska Airlines, client and evangelist I feel completely betrayed by my once favorite airline.

Note: I’m posting this story in detail as there’s been no response from Alaska Airlines to seriously make things right.

Here’s my story:

Returning from a production in Fairbanks I boarded Alaska Airlines flight 190Y FBX to ANC at 6:55p. The flight had already been delayed and packed full and every boarding was anxious to get back to their seats. Arriving at my seat 20B and quickly put my bag in the overhead compartment and took a seat to get out of the way of the line behind me.

After sitting down, my pants immediately became soaked causing me to leap out of my seat. My arm was also wet from the arm rest, which I smelled the sour odor of VOMIT! Turning around, it was obviously puke left on my seat from the previous flight.

I made my way back to Attendant #1 to the rear of the aircraft – I explained the situation to Attendant #1 and never said a word and gave me a look as if the situation was a bother to her. I couldn’t believe her response, but needing to quickly get this crap off of me I entered the lavatory. Trying to wash with very slow running water at short bursts of length, it took at least 10 minutes to wash the smell off my hands. I couldn’t help think the entire time washing my hands and what might be on my pants was a bio hazard. Was it baby puke, was it adult, was it someone extremely ill? The thoughts that were going through my head I’ll tell ya! Finally, cleaning bits of chunks off my pants was all together the worst. [Insert gag here]

Exiting the lavatory Attendant #1 was no where to be found, so returning to my seat I asked Attendant #2 if the other Attendant cleaned my seat. Attendant #2 looked away from me in the opposite direction not even acknowledging my concern. (This is where I went from polite to slightly more stern) I said to her “I can’t believe this happened, my pants are soaked and I’m to sit in these all the way back to Anchorage?” and Attendant #2 walked away saying nothing!

This was like the Twilight Zone, you know where the unimaginable situations come true? Was this really happening, was I really experiencing this? I mean one crew member, but two? WOW!

I inspected my own seat, saw it was cleaned up, but regardless I had no choice but to sit there the entire flight in my soaked pants, smelling like vomit for 45 minutes, plus the time it took me to drive home in Anchorage. The thing I also noticed during the flight Attendant #1 ignored me during inflight service and Attendant #2 who served me had taken her name tag off.

The next morning I called Alaska Airlines Customer Service, which I still very much upset at the fact and the way I was treated. The Customer Service Agent answered, I was polite and explained my experience. Not only did her responses sound scripted, but was annoyingly overly polite when explaining my story. The agent said something to the fact they would report this etc etc. then said I quote ” I’m going to give you $100 discount on a future flight with Alaska Airlines” and that was that!

Let me ask you all something -
Is my experience with a scripted apology from some random customer service agent who is so far removed from this experience worth $100 discount? My pants alone were 80% of that compensation never mind the experience.

I’ve been an evangelist for Alaska Airlines. The company has been a sponsor of my show, I’ve spoke publicly to my audience in Podcasts, in presentations and on social networks. I understand bad experiences happen, but it’s how employees and company handle those moments that can make them shine.

I’ve since tried reaching out to folks I know higher up at Alaska Airlines, a week has past and not one of them has returned any of my messages. My end goal was to share a success story, taking one of the worst flight experiences one could have and deliver a happy ending.

Completely let down!

Scott Slone

Keeping with the winter and snow theme, I just got word from Kelley Ferro over at TripFilms.com that we got a little highlight in her recent review of snow themed videos. Thanks Kelly!

Watch more travel videos at tripfilms.com

What’s new in this version

• Star Tab - You can now mark with a star, your favorite videos or those you want to quickly reference for viewing later. The starred episodes are quickly accessible from the new third tab of the app.



• Offline Mode - There is now the option to download starred video episodes and play them back later when you are not connected via WiFi (or have a slower connection). Getting on the plane to visit Alaska? Download a few videos from the app and watch them later!



• Bug Fixes – Several overall app usability updates and graphical tweaks were made.

Thanks again for your support and we hope you are enjoying the incremental improvements to the Alaska iPhone app! If you haven’t already downloaded the app, get it here in the iTunes store: http://clicky.me/fortheapp

Finding quality videos can be tough sometimes. You have better things to do with your time! So we did the work for you! Here we have compiled a short list of 10 great videos we found that show off Alaska.

This list is in no particular order.

Alaska HD

This great video by Mark Mostad has it all: eagles, whales, sea otters, great mountain shots, airplanes and more.

Tailgate Alaska | Episode 6

Tailgate Alaska is an awesome concept: set up camp once a year and get pros, beginners, and anybody who wants to join in, together to enjoy some of the worlds best snowboarding! Just as amazing are Media Knievel’s well produced videos of the event. I chose to highlight episode 6, but you should definitely check out the rest, as they are all great!

Also available on: YouTube

Ravencroft Lodge

This video, by Boone Hodgin, is produced piece to showcase Ravencroft Lodge. It’s not your typical promotional video though. There is no talking, just a music track set to some great shots of: fish, bears, whales, eagles, sea otters, seals, mountains and more. Any person longing for Alaska would be remiss in not watching this one.

Also available on: YouTube

The Magnificent Moose

Title says it all. This video, by Dennis Zaki, has some incredible shots of moose in Autumn. Magnificent Moose is a must watch!

Although you can find Dennis on YouTube, it doesn’t look as though he posts his nature videos there.

Falls Creek, Alaska in Autumn

I don’t think I could ever get enough of Alaska in Autumn. Maybe that is attributed to how short it is? Regardless, it’s a beautiful season for Alaska and Dennis Zaki does an wonderful job of capturing it.

Although you can find Dennis on YouTube, it doesn’t look as though he posts his nature videos there.

Alaska Brown Bear Cubs

No music in this video, just great footage of two cubs doing what cubs do best, play! Video by Melissa Miller.

Aurora Near Fairbanks

This is an absolutely amazing time lapse of an Aurora Borealis up by Fairbanks. Kudos to Poul Jensen who captured this amazing shot.

Turnagain Ice Tide

Turnagain Ice Tide, by Chris Flynn, is combination of some really great time lapse shots, music and sound bites from weather reports. The sound bites give you a little insight into what it can be like living in Alaska sometimes (-65°F). It makes you happy you can watch it without having to weather the cold (unless, of course, you want to).

Solomon Gulch (Valdez, Alaska)

Brad Kelone shows us the scenery of a beautiful hike up Solomon Gulch in Valdez.

Also available on: YouTube (much lower quality)

Denali National Park Flightseeing

Medical Staff Recruiter Bradford Clark gives us a glimpse of some of the amazing views you can have by coming to Alaska. Regardless of how effective this is as a recruiting tool, it’s enjoyable to watch.

Also available on: YouTube

Did you like the videos we found? Know of any other great videos we didn’t post? Leave a comment, let us know.

Version 1.2.1 is now available. Click the link below for information about the upgrades to the new version.
New version update!

We’re extremely excited to announce the arrival of our first iPhone app. Not only is it our first application, it’s the first and only Alaska travel video guide app in the iTunes Store today!

Watch the screencast.

What’s in it?

Get the latest Alaska travel adventure video episodes from the Alaska HDTV podcast and videos from other great destinations PLUS bonus features such as:

• Wallpaper images of Alaska
• Exclusive bonus videos and interviews
• Monthly news and updates
• Alaska travel discounts and promotions

Inside Alaska

Alaska HDTV is made in Alaska, by Alaskans. If you are looking for an “Inside” view of Alaska destinations with the authenticity of a local Alaskan perspective – this app is for you!

Get the app
The Alaska Travel App is available inside the Apple iTunes App Store. Version 1.1 is available at an introductory price of $2.99, so buy now and start saving on your next adventure to Alaska!

Once you get the app, be sure to rate it and post a comment inside the App Store. Thanks again!

Special Offers

Alaska HDTV’s Video Travel Guide also has integrated discounts and special offers! For example, Alaska Waters is offering a 2 for 1 deal on their amazing jet boat glacier tours and save on Alaska Railroad travel by booking early. Get the app and start saving money on your next trip to Alaska!

Discounts and promotions are associated with individual episodes and may change from time to time, so it’s a good idea to watch for announcements. (Please note, not all bonus content is available for every episode.)

Exclusive Wallpaper Images of Alaska

We partnered with Alaska Stock Images to be the exclusive image provider for wallpaper images in our iPhone app. Alaska Stock is the preeminent stock photography house for all things Alaska. Every month we will be releasing a new wallpaper image at the top level of the app and most episodes will also have a Alaska Stock images associated with them.

Find a image you really like? You can get them in real life by buying a large print, calendar, greetings cards and more at www.alaskastockprints.com

buy now and save.

Snow Leopard & Final Cut Studio Seminar
Come join us in Anchorage for a two part seminar hosted by MacHaus, Alaska HDTV and Apple Inc.

Register Now at Apple.com
(It’s free)

Snow Leopard Presented by Apple
The first portion will run from 5:30-6:30. An Apple representative is flying in to present the latest Apple operating system Snow Leopard along with all its new features and advancements. A small break will then follow before the next portion of the seminar covering Final Cut Studio proceeds.

Break Sponsored by MacHaus
Between sessions experts in Apple hardware and software will be available to help answer questions you may have.

Final Cut Studio Presented by Alaska HDTV
After a small break from 6:45-7:45 there will be a second seminar, this time covering Final Cut Studio and its latest features and advancements. Alaska’s very own Alaska HDTV will be on hand and available to help answer any videography questions that come up.

Any questions you have can be sent to training@machaus.net

If you would like to register and sign up for the seminar, please visit Apple Seminar and Events page, search in the state of Alaska and select the seminar(s) you wish to attend.

When
September 29, 2009
5:30 PM –  7:45 PM

Location
Anchorage Center for the Performing Arts
Elvera Voth Hall
6th Avenue Entrance
621 W 6th Avenue
Anchorage, Alaska 99501

View Larger Map

Sponsored by: Apple, Inc. | MacHaus | Alaska HDTV

We’re enjoying the additional attention and exposure iTunes is giving our production, and it’s an honor to be featured next to other great outdoor podcasts. It’s great being featured, but hearing from you all is always the best!  So why not take a moment and share what it is you like about Alaska HDTV – Please write a review on our iTunes profile.

Thanks all for your ongoing support and comments!
Cheers,
Scott