Its quite a transformative time for Alaska Air Group, as the company acquired Hawaiian Airlines, and is turning Seattle-Tacoma into a global hub, with plans to launch a dozen long haul routes by 2030.
Continue reading: Alaska Airlines Plans Seattle To London Heathrow Flights With Boeing 787
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Lucky -
34 business class seats and 266 economy class seats.
That is premium stingy. I get that these are ex-Hawaiian equipment which had configurations designed for leisure markets, but does Alaska have any plan to make their fleet reflect the airline starting to skew much more premium market?
Alaska is well positioned for this flight. I personally prefer Virgin, though if I had no choice would definitely fly Alaska, it’s a solid operation and product.
Seattle is a good geography for connection to Europe.
The difficulty Alaska may have is where to fly these planes in the winter. Will they point them to Hawaii?
Additionally, flights still are quiet a try to Europe from the west coast. From any city in the Northeast with direct flights, your flight takes 7-8 hrs. From the west coast this is at least 10-11 hrs, it’s a totally different story. It’s a whole day of travel
It says this is a daily year round flight. Looks like you didnt read the article.
What do you mean by 'the difficulty alaska may have is where to fly these planes in the winter'. The answer is here. Daily year round means both summer and winter. So these planes will go to London.
Was hoping AS would load a few saver award seats for this flight when it opened. That’s disappointing.
This was announced months ago. All that's new is the final schedule and flight #s. Nothing really new here.
Virgin Atlantic has reduced its service to 4 times per week, BA have deployed the 787-10 as well as the 777 do as you say it’s a competitive route.
Will this work for AS, if it didn't work for AA? Counting on connecting traffic in Seattle?
Will the code-share with BA for connections out of LHR?
Can Alaska be a truly global airline with the Alaska branding? It just seems very limiting. “Alaska” it doesn’t even reflect what they are now beyond some vague sense of adventure that Alaska may have once represented - oddly enough, “Frontier” or “Northwest” would be more apt names for the carrier.)
Wish someone, anyone, would bring back lie-flat for transcon to SEA; these are 5-6 hour flights, after all, often redeyes. Delta used to operate its 757 with 2-2 older lie-flat, which was nice. jetBlue flies JFK-YVR Mint. But, these days SEA gets no love. Just recliners. *yawn*
Alaska, do what Singapore did, take some 737 Max, add lie-flat in-front, start competing in actual 'premium' on SEA-NYC, please.
There are plenty of airlines named after cities or regions that do just fine in international markets. For instance, there are several PROC airlines named after cities or regions, like Hainan, Xiamen, and Sichuan; there's also Hong Kong Airlines, which flies a330 to SEA. Just saying, there are examples from overseas. Besides, Alaska is a pretty cool place and 'idea' so why not brand it.
Looking at Seatmaps, no premium economy on AS B787.
Ouch, that's going to make for a disadvantage compare to the balance of LHR carriers; eleven hours in economy is no fun!
Please correct me if I am wrong, but from what I have read, the leased slots from AA are only valid for six months. Hope AS has a renewal option!
Delta Air Lines is named after the Mississippi Delta region, where its predecessor company, Huff Daland Dusters (a crop-dusting firm), began operations in 1928; the name was suggested by trusted associate Catherine FitzGerald, honoring the rich agricultural area before the company transitioned to passenger flights, and it also influenced the airline's iconic triangular logo.
Looks like you didn't read other articles that reported the Heathrow slots are leased from AA only through October 24.
Well this is ever stranger than Zipair flying to Orlando. Imagine flying on an airplane that says HAWAIIAN (also HAWAIIAN AOC), but the airline is called ALASKA, but your flying from Seattle, Washington (Not HAWAII or ALASKA) to the UNITED KINGDOM. Funny!
The fares on SEA-transcons are not high enough to support lie flat seats. That's why you dont see them there. It's not as premium a market as some people seem to think here.
The plane will say "Alaska" on it, in their new livery, that they've announced for their 787s. Did you not read?
Touche, but yes I did read those articles. Alaska has the flight on sale past October 24, 2026. Says to me that they have confidence they'll get a slot in the slower winter season.
Settle down and show a little respect there, Jay! I have a reading and comprehension methodology that you would envy and know exactly how to read perfectly for understanding.
Booo; the LHR - SEA flight leaves too late in the afternoon, making it a loooong day travelling and then you miss your connections going further west e.g to Hawaii or Tokyo, forcing an overnight in a hotel.
Connections are not a key part of Alaska's business model, which is focused on traffic into and out of Seattle.
Only a dummy would fly from LHR-SEA-TOK. You can go directly from LHR for far cheaper and FAR less time (approximately 12.5 hours non-stop) LHR-SEA is 12 hours and then SEA-TOK is another 11.5 hours.
Ron,
Note that the final departure out of SEA is at 2:25AM. You need nearly 8 hours for a layover?
Having 6 competitors already on a route is going to be tough for them to break through. Let's see what happens!
Other '1990,' please note that UncleRonnie doesn't like '1990,' so, be prepared for hostility. Feel free to go 'rough' with him. Bah!
No that's a seasonal reduction. It goes back up to daily in the summer.
The DL/VS JV has always scaled back to 10ish per week in the winter, as has BA.
Ross, that's a really cool backstory! Interesting how Delta claims 2025 as its 100 year anniversary... (but the Delta name didn't start until 2028.... *cough*)
I'm not sure this will be all that lucrative given that they had to lease expensive slots from AA and compete with 3 other airlines on this route, the margins will be slim, while their operating costs are going to go way up too.
Please don't be another jetblue please don't be another jetblue please don't be another jetblue
Wrong again as usual @1990, connections are a very big part of Alaska's business model.
In fact they even market how SEA geography makes it an ideal connection for longhaul flights.
SEA has a relatively high percentage of connections compared to other West Coast hubs because of Alaska's business model.
400 people per day and 5 daily flights means each plane is flying out with 80 passengers. Even if BA cut one of their flights that seems like too many flights for too few people
that's JUST a number referring to people going between Seattle and London only. Once you add connectivity at either end the number increases substantially.
They had better swap out the 787 on the route then before returning to capacity for S26.
Don't forget the cargo component of flights ex SEA.
There is occasionally a very profitable cargo opportunity out of SEA. Especially when there's an AOG.
Everytime someone talks about cargo being important, I know to not take them seriously.
Cargo really only averages 20ish% of revenue with the vast majority 70, 80% being passenger revenue.
Cargo is not going to turn a route into a success.
The new Alaska livery looks like it was modeled on Cathay Pacific. I know AS tried to add the Northern Lights. We’ll be flying AS SEA-ICN, then CX on to KIX, TPE, and HKG. We might try AS to FCO in June. Why not? As an AS Titanium, I’m glad to have an alternative US carrier TPAC and TATL.
Love Alaska Airlines and wish I could fly with them more often. I truly wish them the best of success. Great airline with outstanding people.
Cargo isn't about average revenue; it's about optimising the capacity in the belly of the aircraft that would otherwise be unused, and the lift capability of the aircraft, and then capitalising on unique spikes and flows like AOGs, valuables. It's the difference between a broken route and a break-even route.
The Alaska cabin isn’t as nice as the cabins used by Deltas 330-900 on the SEA-LHR route.
Hi Ben
I thought you would have picked this up by now, but on 4 Dec an article was published in the San Diego Union Tribune (San Diego UT) that Alaska is opening a base in SD and hiring hundreds. As a SD resident that's good news for me, but it looks like they are not flying my favorite non-stop transcon from SAN to EWR next year. I hope it's just temporary.
Cargo is a tablestakes aspect, not a profit driver, if you don't fill it, you will bleed even more money. Profit comes from filling the front of the cabin and maintaining strong yields.
Regardless, Alaska is behind the curve on cargo and doesn't have the lucrative cargo contracts.
Every time someone ends their blog name with 420, I know to not take them seriously.
Which one are you? Cheech or Chong?
"Far out, man!"
Why would anyone want to fly from London to Seattle on a U.S. airline? Especially, when they can travel First Class on a World Class Airline, to the much preferred destination of Vancouver?
A really beautiful location, with friendly inhabitants and real cultural attractions. Even the organ grinders monkey would dance with joy there …. 🙂
Yes but the days of delta offering business class from sea to Europe for under 100k ow is long gone. It's not anywhere close to that anymore. If Alaska competes and be more like flying blue (where my last sea Europe business class was 70k), I would prefer Alaska. Until then I'm sticking with flying blue.
I assume that future 787 deliveries will have a true premium economy cabin?! No way they will be able to compete with any airline marketing themselves as upscale without a true premium product. Extra legroom is NOT a premium product no matter what they call it. I fly Alaska first class only, and it's okay, Delta has generally better food and more consistent service in first. Alaska current "premium class " doesn't get any additional service, you just get a free drink during the single cabin service.
The Alaska 787s look okay (have not flown them yet). Summer economy pricing is surprisingly competitive, but the business class pricing not so much...