Rant time:
So we flew from Newark (EWR) to Spokane (SEA) (with a layover in Seattle) with a family of four, including my two little boys (under 12yo both). No issues on the way there.
On the way back, the plane from Spokane to Seattle got delayed by 1:40h due to "maintenance" - so what's the big deal? Well, this is the point where this little trip goes to hell.
You see, the issue is my flight from SEA to EWR had a 1:30h layover, and the incoming flight is late due to airline issues.
The issue is that airlines (in this case, Alaska Airlines) can hold the flight for millions of reasons, but your being unable to make the connecting flight due to their own fault isn't one of these reasons.
So our hell beings.
First of all - a 3-hour-long wait line to Alaska guest hostage services misservices. After I finally spoke with an agent, they cheerfully mentioned (it's at about 2 am by then) to me the next flight is in TWO days (Tuesday) at 7 am, and their provided hotels are broken/full/non-functioning, and I'm to find and book my own and get reimbursed later. So here I'm in the airport in Seattle at 2 am trying to book a hotel for 4 people. A hotel was eventually found, but at 2 am most hotels don't run shuttles. So UBER time it is.
So after spending two nights in a hotel so far out of 3 nights in Seattle, 2 of them were pretty sucky, as I had to wake up kids by 4 am due to a flight at 7:00 am.
Getting to the SEA airport, waiting for a flight delayed until 1 pm, the flight gets canceled due to storms in NJ.
Now Alaska guest hostage services misservices books me on a United flight later in the same afternoon, and guess what - it also gets canceled, but luckily due to mechanical issues. You see, if the flight gets canceled due to weather, you don't get a hotel on the airline, but plane issues - you do. So now I'm with two delayed and canceled flights. So now United guest hostage services misservices after only 2 hours on hold and nearly 1 hour of phone calls gets a link to hotel booking and $120 worth of food vouchers. So we stay overnight in another hotel in Seattle. The next day, after breakfast, we go back to the airport and finally fly !!! .... to San Francisco ?? Yes, to SF, because why not have another 3 hours (which turned into 7 hours) layover in SF airport??
Finally, after 4 days of this hell, yesterday at 7 pm local time we took off back home to NJ, and landed in EWR at local time around 4 am.
Finally, we're all done? Well, not fully - you see the checked-in bag, which we gave to Alaska in Seattle, didn't made with us to EWR, but decided to stay in SEA despite the Alaska airline baggage claims misservices representative. So now we are speaking after another pleasant 40-minute hold time call with Alaska to send our luggage with nearly $2k worth of stuff back to us. That part is just started. Will update later on this adventure"
Shout out to Alan, the shuttle driver at the Hampton Inn Seattle/Southcenter - you're the superstar, and we feel bad we missed you in the morning
