I booked my husband and son on Alaska Airlines in february for christmas day returning January 1st
to Puerto Vallarta from Seattle using miles. British Airways miles for 1 of them and Northwest miles for the other. Back then it was easy to coordinate them to be on the same flight.
We wanted them to be on the last return flight since they were only going to be there for 7 nights. Since February Alaskas computer system has change their flights 2 times. They went from a 6:15pm flight to a 4pm non stop and now it's changed to a 3:45 afternoon flight. I looked up the flights for the return today and there are plenty of seats on the 6:15 return flight. I called Alaska and asked them to put them back on the 6:15 flight and why was it changed in the 1st place. The reservation agent said it was all computer generated. Then she said i had to call BA and NW and ask them to make a special request to put them back on the 6:15 flight. There is no way that BA and NW is going to have any award seats left for New Years. I think that since Alaska made the changes and not BA and NW that they should put them back on the flight that i booked on in the 1st place since ther are plenty of seats. I emailed Alaska on this letting them know that we have very loyal milage plan member with them for years.
What are my chances of getting the later flight?

Alaska is legendary for absolutely horrible customer service, so I'll be interested to see how this works out. NWA used to be almost as bad but has been really working to improve. Not sure about BA.
When you say "booked" do you mean reserved or was ticketing actually done? If it was - even if it was an e-ticket - I'd cite that in dealing with the agents, even though it is a FF ticket. You may want to check the contract of carriage with BA and NW, though, because some airlines specifically exempt FF tickets from the usual entitlements to compensation for unplanned/unwanted deviations from the orginal itinerary. Good luck!

They have been ticketed since February.
NW was an E-ticket and British was a hard copy. They had seat assignments together and everything.

The Alaska CSR is correct. You had to call BA and NWA to make the reservation, so it makes sense that you have to call to get them to fix any and all problems. This has nothing to do with availibility, but as the Alaska CSR told you it was done with computers for some reason. BA and NWA should be able to force Alaska to put them back on the 6:15 flights. Will it be easy, probably not, at least with BA, which I have been reading on FlyerTalk.com have been really bad in exactly the same situation, just different airline. But again, it was BA and NWA that "bought" the tickets for you from Alaska, and they are the only ones to fix any problems. Just think of this as BA and NWA being your travel agents.
Good Luck!

Personally, I don't like to book the last flight to/from anyplace, unless there are only two flights a day.

If you're on the last flight and it gets cancelled, then you loose or add a day to your trip.

While I'd be ticked-off to have something like this done without my consent, you just never know, this might be good in the end. Considering it's holiday time, it's not unusual that flights get backed-up during the day and your 3:45pm flight won't leave till an hour or more later - but then you did have to cut your day short to get to the airport for the earlier flight.

See what BA & NWA can do for you, but don't be surprised if they can't.

I agree with sandi about taking the last flight of the day, especially around the holidays. Also it looks like the 6:15pm flight has a connection at LAX whereas the 3:45pm (flight 299 right?) is a direct (no change of planes) flight to SEA so no chance of a missed connection.

The Alaska Airlines agent is telling you the truth--it is all computer generated. I personally would stick with the 3:45 flight as you will be more likely to get home on that day--2 1/2 hrs isn't enough to fight over and if there is a connection, you are more likely to make it with the extra time considering it is a holiday and the time of year. These computer generated things can be weird--my sons, husband and I all got rebooked on different iteneraries coming back from Maui over New Year's. The difference was that ours were paid tickets, and they were all booked together on American at the same time. When I called American, they straightened it out immediately. More difficult if you booked with 2 different airlines.

If it's chanced twice already, it'll change again between now and Xmas. I'd take the earlier flight - last flight of the day in the winter can spell trouble which might make an overnight stay necessary if things go poorly.

Thanks everyone for the replys.

Another schedule change wouldn't surprise me.
Even tho they are on the direct flight, they still stop in LAX and everyone has to get off the flight with everything and go thru customs.
At one point they were on a non-stop but AS changed that also.

Did you book directly on Alaska Airlines under their partnership with British Airways and Northwest for use of the latters' miles?

Or did you book with BA and NW respectively where they used Alaska as a code share?

There have been various complaints about airlines treating their passengers code shared fromother airlines inferior.

But really Alaska ought to put you back on your originally chosen flight regardless of award/miles inventory.

Write, don't call. Preferably to someone higher up at Alaska Airlines.

Travel tips:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/travel.htm

I am still awaiting a reply from Alaska on a flight they botched that my daughter was on during Thanksgiving week - complete incompetence and miscommunication from three different telephone agents and as many gate agents at her airport. I am ready to ditch Alaska and go back to Northwest for my mileage accrual.