First Look: New Alaska Airlines Seattle Board Room

In October I wrote about how Alaska is opening a second board room at SeaTac Airport, which was scheduled to open around mid-November. Alaska had posted a video of what the new Board Room would look like:

This new lounge was long overdue, as Alaska’s Board Room in Seattle is consistently crowded. While it’s a nice enough lounge for a regional US airline, the crowding levels were getting problematic, as I have barely been able to find a seat during my last few visits.

Well, the N Concourse Alaska Board Room in Seattle finally opened yesterday, and my friend Alex stopped by after his flight to check it out.

First let’s talk about the basics. The new lounge is in the N Concourse, which is one of the concourses out of which Alaska operates. This requires taking a train ride from the security checkpoint and other gates. So it was kind of annoying that previously if you were connecting in Seattle and your flight arrived and departed from the N Concourse, you’d have to take the train to use the Board Room.

The new Alaska Board Room is located between gates N1 and N2, and is open daily from 5AM until 12AM.

As a reminder, the following people can access Alaska Board Rooms:

• Alaska Board Room members
• Day passes can be purchased for $45
• American Admirals Club members traveling on Alaska or American (including if you have a membership through the Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard®, an excellent option for a premium credit card with lounge benefits)
• “Paid” first class passengers traveling on Alaska (meaning those who paid cash or used miles for an award ticket — basically only those who upgraded are excluded)
• Priority Pass members (you can get a membership through several cards):
  • The Citi Prestige® Card comes with a Priority Pass Select membership, and you can take two guests or immediate family members for free
  • The Platinum Card® from American Express and The Business Platinum Card® from American Express also come with a Priority Pass Select membership, though only the cardmember can access the lounge for free (Enrollment required)

Below are the pictures Alex was kind enough to share.

The entrance is located between gates N1 and N2 — this lounge isn’t underground where the former United Club was, but rather is in an area which used to be retail space.

New Board Room Seattle exterior

New Board Room Seattle signage

There’s a reception desk. As usual, Alaska Board Room agents are super friendly, as they’re not gate agents, but rather are management employees. The bad news is that since they’re not unionized they’re not allowed to help in the event of irregular operations.

New Board Room Seattle reception desk

There’s a seating area across from the entrance and reception desk, which is partitioned off by wooden panels.

New Board Room Seattle partition

There’s some high top seating, as well as some tables.

New Board Room SeaTac seating

New Board Room SeaTac seating

There’s also the typical station with self serve coffee, snacks, soup, yogurt, and the pancake machine.

New Board Room SeaTac snacks

Then the other part of the lounge has some more traditional lounge chairs, some more tables, as well as the bar.

New Board Room SeaTac bar area

New Board Room SeaTac bar area

New Board Room SeaTac bar area

There’s a self serve soda machine with Coca Cola products, as well as a Starbucks espresso machine. For what it’s worth, that’s my favorite kind of self serve espresso machine.

New Board Room SeaTac snacks

As you can probably tell, the lounge has nice tarmac views.

New Board Room SeaTac seating

Alex shared the following other “facts” about the lounge:

• The agent described the lounge as an “express” lounge, as it’s intended for quick connections; passengers on longer layovers are encouraged to visit the main Board Room
• There’s only a single “family” restroom, right behind the check-in desk (it’s sort of hidden); that definitely isn’t enough for a lounge
• Even though this is intended to be an “express” lounge, it has a full bar, and all the snacks you’d get in the other Board Room, including soup and the pancake machine
• The lighting in the lounge is horrible and far too bright, and feels like an office building
• Alex is an Alaska Airlines geek, and noted that the glass wall on the outside has the old Alaska Airlines logo, as the “k” strikes through the “a,” which isn’t the case on the refreshed logo
• Most seating has convenient access to power ports
• A new Board Room is supposedly opening next year in the old Admirals Club space at the end of the C Concourse, bringing the Board Room total in Seattle to three
• This lounge is temporary; as part of the N Concourse expansion and remodel; the new rooftop Board Room is supposed to open in 2018, although Port of Seattle documents reference a NorthSTAR North Satellite Renovation completed by July 27, 2020 (so 2018 might be optimistic)

Bottom line

This is a great new addition for those who have access to Alaska Board Rooms, including members of the Board Room, Admirals Club, or Priority Pass.

SeaTac Airport has experienced explosive growth the past few years, and lounge capacity hasn’t kept up. So it’s nice to see Alaska make an effort to fix that. Between this and the new Amex Centurion Studio Seattle, there are a couple of nice new options for those who access lounges through credit cards.

Amex Centurion Studio Seattle

What do you make of the new Alaska Board Room Seattle?