Alaska Airlines' Suzanne Druxman.

• Author: Orr, Vanessa
• Position: CORPORATE 100

Suzanne Druxman recently celebrated her 20th year with Alaska Airlines, where she works as a trainer and concierge in the Alaska Lounge at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport. Despite everything that has happened over the past two decades--including 9/11, the pandemic, huge upheavals in the airline industry and even a personal battle with breast cancer--she is still excited to be working with the guests she loves.

"I really enjoy helping our most frequent travelers and members; because they travel all the time, we get to know them and there's always someone you recognize when you walk into the lounge," she says. "My job is to welcome them and to assist them in any way that I can, whether that's helping them change an airline seat or bringing them something to eat or being a master barista or mixologist.

"We wear many hats in the lounge," she laughs. "We do it all."

Druxman first joined the airline in 2001 after working as the manager of a fine jewelry store for many years. Single when she moved to Alaska, she got married and had three children and decided to take some time off before going back to work.

"My friend Barbara Zipkin had been employed with Alaska Airlines for two years, and she said that it was the most fun place she'd ever worked," says Druxman. "So I decided to follow in her footsteps and become a customer service agent."

During her tenure at the airline, Druxman worked in the front ticket area checking in passengers, on the concourse getting flights out, in cargo accepting packages, and as a trainer for customer service agents.

"As a customer service agent, it's crazy what you see," she says. "I remember one customer checking in who had a service animal-a cat in a soft-sided kennel. Then she had another kennel with two cats--one was a service cat for the other cat who was blind."

"We've also had people want to fly with their pet snakes," she continued. "Haven't you ever seen Snakes on a Plane, for gosh sakes? This really should be a reality show."

Druxman says that she found her home six years ago when she started working in the lounge-one of her favorite places when she used to be a frequent flyer herself.

"I was a business traveler for ten years before this job, and I was a member of the lounge," she says. "Some of my best meals were on Alaska Airlines' flights. Back in the 1980s and '90s, you could get Chateaubriand and broiled salmon in first class; that sure beat the frozen dinners I was eating at home!"

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