Alaska Airlines Retrofitting Planes With More Premium Seats

An additional perk of this is uniformity in case of aircraft swaps to maintain the same seating assignment in the premium cabins. 16 F and 30 Y+.... Smart move.

Another stuff to note about the retrofitted first class of Alaska is that it'll be the only domestic first class product with a leg rest and foot rest.
It won't have a fancy-looking IFE monitor, privacy wing, center divder and wireless charger like Delta or United, but Alaska will offer more legroom(41" pitch vs 37"), leg rest and foot rest which are all crucial to passenger comfort.
All the gadgets and privacy stuff are useless once you close your eyes. I'd choose Alaska's new first class over Delta or United merely for a more comfortable seat.

I'm not even that tall (6"2'), but I really hate footrests. They always take valuable space away and are really annoying.

More premium EATS. Yum. Lol

More paid seats more money for them. Profit over people.

I agree with @Lucky, not exactly earth-shattering news. However, it is a net increase in available FC/Premium seats, and to @Tony N, it is about profit - that's why AK (and most other airlines) flies.

Now, I wonder if they'll make any announcement about toning down the (often extreme) territoriality some AK flight attendants display around the front lavatory for FC customers. To me, the front lavatory is a part of the "premium" experience, for both ease of access and less traffic.

Has anyone else experienced similar?

Recent examples:

DAL-SEA (FC), while seat-belt sign was unlit, I missed the very small lavatory indicator light (about 1 inch square above the aisle). I got up to use the lavatory and had the misfortune of interrupting the flight attendant's credit card pitch. She stopped her pitch and yelled at me twice (and very quickly, like I was attacking someone), "Someone's in there, sit down!". I would have likely found that out by engaging the door handle and it being locked, but I guess it's "premium" to treat sober and behaving paying premium passengers like a five-year-old on a field trip.

PDX-DFW (FC), respecting the policy of AK in that the lavatories are "closed" during climb out and descent, this amounted to about 45 minutes in total. Further, the FAs physically barricaded the aisle in front of the front lavatory for about 30 more minutes, when the seatbelt sign was unlit. Add in the obligatory "turbulence" seat belt sign illumination for another hour as we smoothly crossed the Intermountain West. During a three-hour flight, the front lavatory (by policy and practice) was only available to premium passengers for about 45 minutes.

Nice to have more premium seats, but AK needs to fix this lavatory attitude by some FAs.

I am probably most uninspired by Alaska of any us Carrier. Flying transcontinental in a max on a recliner first class seat is equally as good as lighting money on fire. I really don't get the general American populations infatuation with a seat like this. The soft product features I totally understand. With all of the innovation and efficiency seats have had over the years in transcon premium this is really just a meh.

Section? Cabin? Which is it?

Footrests are especially appreciated by us short people, whose legs don't comfortably reach the floor in some aircraft seats. When there is no footrest, I have to suffer, or more likely, use my underseat personal item as a footrest.

I think a part of the story that is not talked about and is very important from a revenue perspective is that they are standardizing FC and PE to align the 737-800 and 900 as well as the max -9. This will allow Alaska to swap fleet types to better align with revenue opportunities or in the case of a mechanical issues and not disrupt their premium customers.

Using by backpack to build a support is what I've usually done in Business Class seats before they were all lie flat. Works like a charm and is much nicer than intruding into the space with something attached to the seat.