Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air Speed Up Baggage Service Guarantee

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Jun 16, 2010, 08:00 ET

SEATTLE, June 16 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air customers checking bags can expect to retrieve their luggage five minutes sooner through an enhanced baggage service guarantee beginning today. Introduced in July 2009 as a 25-minute guarantee, the airlines' new offer gives customers their choice of 2,000 Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles or $20 off a future flight if their luggage is not at baggage claim within 20 minutes after their flight parks at the gate.

"Alaska and Horizon continue to have lower baggage service fees than most other airlines and are the only U.S. carriers to offer a baggage service guarantee," said Joe Sprague, Alaska's vice president of marketing. "Our enhanced guarantee is a commitment to hold up our end of the bargain by delivering customers' bags on time."

Also starting today, customers checking bags will be charged $20 for each of the first three checked bags. This represents a $5 increase for the first checked bag, a $5 decrease for the second, and a $30 decrease for the third. Passengers checking two bags will continue to pay the same amount as they did before, while passengers checking three bags will pay $30 less. In addition, the airlines cut the cost of the fourth through 10th checked bag from $100 per bag to $50.

Charges for the first two bags are waived for customers confirmed in first class at the time of check-in, Mileage Plan MVP and MVP Gold members, and passengers traveling to or from Mexico City and Guadalajara, Mexico. Customers traveling solely within the state of Alaska and military personnel on active duty are not charged for their first three checked bags.

More information about Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air's baggage service guarantee is available online at http://bit.ly/ncl8k.

Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air, subsidiaries of Alaska Air Group (NYSE: ALK), together serve more than 90 cities through an expansive network in Alaska, the Lower 48, Hawaii, Canada and Mexico. Alaska Airlines ranked "Highest in Customer Satisfaction Among Traditional Network Carriers" in the J.D. Power and Associates 2008, 2009 and 2010 North America Airline Satisfaction Studies(SM). For reservations, visit alaskaair.com. For more news and information, visit the Alaska Airlines/Horizon Air Newsroom at alaskaair.com/newsroom.

SOURCE Alaska Airlines