Alaska Airlines will introduce flat bed "Aurora Suites" business class on select Boeing 737 MAX 10s, plus a new premium economy cabin, starting in 2028.
This is a necessary and positive development, in that if AS is serious about being a competitive force on transcontinental service, specifically to high dollar value destinations and markets, it needs flat beds and an elevated, premium experience. The absence of these is partly what led it to fail on JFK-LAX as an example.
This is also a sign that the A321NEOs inherited from HA won't be deployed on routes like this in reconfigured cabins and will either remain the mainstay of secondary US mainland to Hawaii or will eventually be phased out entirely.
The future of Alaska Airlines though remains a bit cloudy. It certainly has the upper hand in the SEA market vs. Delta. It is bigger, has more local traffic, and the long game favors them, not DL, but it likely will find itself in the arms of American Airlines through some sort of merger in a few years, and its c-suite will eventually dominate the Ft. Worth c-suite.
This is huge! One of the main things holding back AS was their lack of a competitive premium product for 5+ hour redeyes on single-aisle aircraft. Once this goes live, they'll be competing side-by-side with B6 Mint, D1, AA Flagship, and UA Polaris. I'm genuinely excited to try this product, and glad to see more options coming in this specific market segment.
I'll add, as others have started to mention elsewhere, if AS can put these on SEA and PDX to NYC and elsewhere, they'll make up for where there's a real dearth of actual premium (lie-flat) 5+ hour transcon redeyes. Sure, DL occasionally puts a 75S with 2-2 older D1 on JFK-SEA, and B6 does as well (or to YVR), but that's rare these days. It should become a daily offering on each with AS once this goes live. I'll be thrilled once that happens.
We’d all like to see that, but Delta has tried to introduce Delta One on JFK-SEA and it seemingly just did not work. If Delta has hubs on both ends and can’t make flat-bed seating work in that market (not to mention Delta One lounges at both ends), you have to think the premium demand just isn’t there. And if JFK-SEA doesn’t work, there’s no way JFK-PDX works.
“Just did not work” …well, not with that attitude. DL made a mistake, especially as you mention, D1 at both ends for JFK-SEA. (I was even booked on a DL 75S earlier this year, until they downgraded it to a321neo, so I cancelled that itinerary.) Thankfully, AS isn’t DL; I’m excited to see them pull off what DL gave up on; I bet once AS starts this up, DL will bring back D1, because they are just that petty.
I think that's why we're seeing a 12J lie-flat product. AS is 2.5x the size of DL at SEA and enjoys comparable premium share.
A 20J or higher lie-flat product has not worked repeatedly, but a 12J one? I can see that working given AS' size at SEA and the OneWorld feed from AA at JFK.
That does make it tricky for DL on how to respond though - I don't think their current fleet (or upcoming A321 with lie flats) have the right configuration to make JFK or BOS-SEA work
Hopefully this alters your perspective on whether there is true long-term benefit to the average consumer (not loyalty-obsessed consumers) for an AS-AA merger. It reinforces to me that AA should come nowhere near this airline.
@ Kelly -- No, if anything, it reinforces for me that Alaska management has a strategy, and they should be running American. 🙂
Indeed, but because AA is larger than AS, they would be the acquirer, and chances of any of the AS c-suite surviving that are sketchy at best. AA Board will protect their own, however incompetent they may be. Certainly could be wrong on that, but I wouldn't want to chance it. Think AS-B6 makes more sense, although that also seems unlikely. After today's presser by AS, I'm liking them staying independent. I like their strategy, we will just need to see how it plays out. Nobody's perfect! ;^)
@ Kelly -- I mean, let's keep in mind that American is run by the America West management team, so that definitely wasn't a case of the bigger airline getting the surviving management team.
Fair point. Stand corrected.
Still...think AS has their hands full with integration, and are being thoughtful. Still JCBAs left to complete for pilots and FAs.
You need to look at the fares @Ben, Alaska was getting clapped on SEA transcon routes. They're the lowest fare carrier on many on them.
Look up the FC prices on SEA to JFK. Delta routinely was getting double or more, easily in the 3k range. Unless Alaska radically changed up their product, they weren't going to be able to catch up.
Alaska is evolving, not sure why the suspicion.
@ yoloswag420 -- First of all, I don't know what "suspicion" you're talking about. I think Alaska is a very well run airline, and wondering exactly what the strategy is (rather than claiming to know everything) isn't suspicion, as I see it.
Regarding Alaska not getting good yields on transcon routes... is that really true? I mean, obviously Delta has a lot more pricing power between SEA and JFK, given the number of premium passengers on that route who are connecting to a transatlantic Delta flight. No matter how good the product is, the dynamic won't change for connecting passengers.
However, in other markets, I'm noticing comparable pricing, including to DCA, BOS, etc. Or is there something I'm missing?
You dedicated a long section talking about this: "Alaska claims that it plans to use its premium 737 MAXs to operate transcon routes. What’s interesting is that I’m not sure to what extent that’s needed based on current competitive dynamics..."
So that's what I'm interpreting as you being dubious about it. If you look up the DOT fare data, it's true. Alaska is typically the lowest fare carrier on most routes longer than 2000 miles from SEA.
Regarding specific routes, BOS is a legacy JetBlue Mint route, so there's justification for having it. Alaska does do very good at DCA, but note that Delta has been using D1 configured 757s frequently on this route as well, even if only marketed as First Class.
I'd also add that I'd expect SEA to see some United Coastliners at some point too, so Alaska is preparing for that eventuality.
The biggest add is to do what United does at SFO, which is allow one-stop connectivity to the full TPAC network in full Polaris, this is the same for Alaska at SEA.
At any rate, the YouTube video has a flight map showing all stations getting them SEA/PDX/SFO/LAX/SAN to what looks to be the Northeast, so likely JFK, and then maybe BOS/DCA.
Ben - looks like there will be seat back screens in premium economy. The picture directly above where you ask has a rendering and the announcement says PE will have a “16-inch 4K OLED entertainment screen with Bluetooth connectivity.”
@ Amit M -- Yep, that has been confirmed, my question is about economy seat back entertainment, since I don't think that's covered?
Given the ship's range, it could also be employed in each West Coast city to/from Hawaii.
@ Lee -- That was initially a thought I had as well, but the airline is explicit in saying it'll be used for transcon routes.
There’s no reason to go through the ETOPS process and ongoing maintenance requirements for these frames if they are only going to be used for transcons. They could change their mind, of course, but I doubt they can command the revenue premium on Hawaii routes for this product that they can on transcons.
Ben, it appears this is the new Elevate Ascent Narrowbody. Elevate (Adient) with United designed the seat for them bespoke, but this is their more generally available non-bespoke seat, and it looks very nice
Is it me or are they already mimicking AAs new colour scheme in the seats? A great way to keep costs down during the merger 😂
Looks fantastic. Big fan of the 737-10 (what's planned). Can't wait.
With their new investments into the 737 MAX 10 and 787, would it even make sense to keep the Hawaiian A321neos and A330-300 around for the long term? I think fleet consistency would be a simpler move as they take more deliveries and can streamline maintenance crews, processes and pilot allocations. Very excited to see how Alaska grows in the next decade though
@ cloudypie -- The plan is to still keep separate Alaska and Hawaiian branding, so I imagine the A330s and A321neos will continue to fly for Hawaiian. And since there will be different branding on the planes, there's a need for subfleets anyway. At least they'll be consolidated in one base, which will be efficient.
Alaska has hopefully learned from its past fleet simplification mistakes. And they’re investing strongly in the A330s, which seem like they’ll remain Hawai‘i’s workhorse for the foreseeable future
I'd also guess that their flying the A330Fs for Amazon will keep the Airbus fleet around for some time. There really isn't a need to replace those and the Seattle brand airline won't have the Airbus in the fleet.
Just fyi, their YouTube announcement highlights all 5 hubs getting premium transcon to the Northeast.
They also state getting at least 25 of these aircraft, which translates to 37ish round-trips.
I'm expecting some combination of JFK/DCA as those are the primary shared destinations from those hubs. Not sure if Alaska would relaunch LAX to JFK though. BOS/EWR could also work
It makes sense. Premium corporate and leisure (Amazon, Microsoft, Boeing, etc., cruises to Alaska, etc.) connected to the capital (of government, finance, medicine, tech.) Maybe they can throw Ben a bone, add a SEA-MIA frequency with lie-flat!
It's Ascent Narrowbody by Elevate Aircraft Seating.
Safran Vue has flat backshell with pivoting monitor, not fixed like Ascent.
Are they flying these planes to or from Chicago? No? Then I don't care.
They might. They could. Maybe they even… should… or, at the very least, they’ll kick their competitors off their *sses, so that they too will ditch 44-recliners for actual lie-flat…
BOS is farther from all the West Coast hubs. My guess is that will also get it. I wouldn't be surprised if the DCA routes also get the product as well as competitive routes like SAN-IAD
I highly suspect that they will provide seat back in Y on the Max 10s. That would be a huge cost on infrastructure just for premium cabins. I suspect they will provide them in Y class too.
I think the retrofit to add them fleet wide is coming…..later today at thier Investor day.
I don’t think all the news has dropped. Gotta leave something for the stage.
Just wanna celebrate: seat facing the window. Yes. Winning. 100%. Thank you. (Now, why couldn’t AA, B6, or UA manage that... sheesh!)
Am I the only one that doesn't have a strong preference for reverse herringbone over standard? Your head is closer to the aisle (and on a narrow body, you get all the traffic) which also means you're physically too far from the window to actually see much... and I think screen glare is worse.
I don't think I prefer standard to reverse necessarily, but I can't see it so definitively clear cut as Lucky and many others. Anyone else?
I agree with it not being a big deal to “face” the window. Yes you’re positioned towards the window but your head is located near the aisle, so you end up being able to look out the window the way someone in the aisle seat in coach can look out the window.
All you have to do is turn your head with the other set up. It’s not much of a head turn but your head is right up against the cabin wall.
Now with the further max 10 delays with the latest software and coverup.....i really wish AS would look at more 321s....at least lock some in....there are also a ton of 321s/320s available from spirit.....
I hope they include Boston and not just JFK.
I wonder if they will also rotate these to/from Hawaii?
If you look at their instagram post on this it looks like they’ll be departing from SEA, PDX, SFO, LAX, & SAN and then they highlight the northern end of the east coast. So assuming Boston, New York, and DC?