For the first segment of my quick trip to Japan & Korea, I flew Alaska’s Boeing 737 MAX 9 first class on the 5hr50min midday flight from Fort Lauderdale (FLL) to Seattle (SEA). While I had reviewed Alaska’s Boeing 737-900ER first class before, this was my first time flying on one of the carrier’s MAX…
Continue reading: Review: Alaska First Class Boeing 737 MAX (FLL-SEA)
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Flew Alaska for the first time on a transcon not too long ago and was also very impressed. Great service, good food, good legroom, and fast Wifi that allowed me to even stream a NFL game. Just impressive overall and based on that experience would agree a cut above AA, DL, and UA.
Glad to hear you had a good experience. As a long time MVP 75k/100k on AS, your experience is more of an anomaly
than the norm. AS service has very much been hit or miss in the past few years (as well as trash operations). Shocked you didn’t have to wait for 1+ hour for the “gate” at SEA (always happens when the flights are early).
I usually find the service usually decent on their daytime long distance flights. Otherwise, avoid at all costs and take DL or UA.
Ben, if it was a clear day, the pics alone are worth a review of sea-yvr! Even if it's on an AS Embarer or AC dash 8.
AS has an interesting beer selection as well. I appreciate airlines which put emphasis and thought into their beer offerings, both in the air and on the ground. AS appears to lead the way.
Delta offers a drink and snack in F on the Seattle to Vancouver route, while Alaska doesn’t provide any service? Win for Delta in my book.
A dealbreaker for me is no IFE.Delta and United typically have it. United will be getting free Starlink Wi-Fi but they desperately need to improve catering. Because Alaska has no IFE, a mainly domestic network, and charges for Wi-Fi they will always trail.
@REYYAN - SEA-YVR is maybe 35 minutes flying time. That's nice that Delta sees fit to offer a drink and snack (What was it? A bag of nuts or a granola bar? Oh boy!), but if you put them head to head against Alaska on longer routes such as SEA to LAX, DEN, MSP, DTW or JFK - Alaska's nicer cabin, service and meals (There's even a hot meal available for purchase in coach on longer flights) make Alaska the much better carrier in my book.
But what do I know? I've only flown 6.2 million miles...
@justsaying - True, Alaska does not offer a traditional IFE with seat back screen, but if you have a phone, tablet or laptop (with the latter two providing an often better viewing platform than the typical seatback screen on domestic aircraft) you can stream hundreds of movies, television shows and documentaries for free.
Hi Ben, nice report.
One correction - Alaska does not have Viasat Wi-Fi on its mainline fleet. It has Intelsat's 2Ku system on its mainline fleet, including the plane you flew.
Alaska will soon install another satellite system from Intelsat on its regional jet partners' fleets. That system promises to be even better, because it will take advantage of low-earth-orbit satellites that provide lower latency.
I too am a longtime 75k/100k and you are correct. When AS is on they are on, but when they are not it can be miserable. As of late, it seems like there are more misses when it comes to service than there used to be.
But @Ben has me thinking. Would my service on AS be more consistent if they thought they were being reviewed by a famous blogger when I flew with them? I am sure that Ben doesn't overtly advertise his status or purpose, but I notice the pics of the interior are great and no other passengers are in the pics. @Ben are you asking for early access to the plane for taking pics? Do you think this is somehow affecting the level of service you are ultimately receiving?
Again, I love Alaska and 8-10 years ago 95 percent of the time when I flew AS the service was spot on. Now it seems that percentage is down to around 70 percent of the time. I don't fly Delta, but that 70 percent rate is still better than AA. Maybe if I pretend to be a famous blogger, the rate will go back up into the 90 percent rate again . . .
“After the meal, I decided to order an Old Fashioned.” Look at you lucky. Bourbon drink no less.
Ribbing aside, nice review. I very much enjoy traveling an Alaska F transcon with my wife. Service levels (as noted) are very good.
I've been 75k for four years, 100k for one of them, and I disagree. I find Ben's experience to be more the norm than the exception. 1+ hour waits on arrival? I can't say I've ever waited that long in SEA. As a former AA EP I'll take AS over AA any day of the week on both hard and soft product (to be fair, I've never flown F on UA or DL). I do agree that recently operations has been more of a mess with fewer on time departures though. Most flights I've been on seem nearly or actually 100% full; I wonder how much that factors in. And not related to AS, but I'm getting real tired of the unfinished construction at SEA...
The tablet holder on the tray can also be used when the tray is fully extended -- you just swivel it around to the other side.
I once happened to be the first passenger on a LH A350 and took many pictures of the empty cabin with no one else in them. I didn’t even try to be first, it just happened. I am sure a frequent traveler can just line up at the gate and sense the right moment when the boarding starts to be one of the first.
On that specific LH flights, I sensed that one of the flight attendants mistook me for a blogger.
Isn't this completely misleading? Delta specifically makes it a point to compete with Alaska on these flights out of SEA, even ones shorter than their published distance.
That's why Delta does provide meals on short stints like SEA-SFO which are shorter than 900 miles.
My family has had a long connection with the State of Alaska and Alaska Airlines going back to the wonderful " Golden Nugget Fan Jets " of the 1960's. I have never had anything but a great flight on AS in F as well as Y. I fly TPA-SAN several times a year and while normally s DL fan, I chose AS not only because its a nonstop ( HELLO !) but the F Class service is just so darn nice.
It's not the same experience as Alaska providing the screen. They used to do this in first class with free digEplayers, but they cheaped out at some point in the last few years and eliminated this amenity.
The meal looks great and substantial!
I can't say I'm a fan of the stumptown coffee and boxed water. Yuck!
Salt and straw is legitimately good ice cream. This is probably the best served on any airline....
“Since I was booking last minute, the best value was paying cash.”
Hi Ben. Why did you make such an authoritative statement when you always preach the best award inventory is last-minute? You should caveat your statement.
Interesting and great to see an actual cupholder in the seat (i.e., with a well indented into the seat). I'm not sure I've ever seen that in an F domestic seat, and I would really appreciate it (obviously a drink placed on an armrest drink shelf is not that likely to fall over due to turbulence, but can also be knocked accidentally).
I couldn't care less about the IFE on an aircraft unless we are talking flights over 5 hours or flying Internationally to a different continent. Talk to any Crew Member, the IFE is the biggest point of contention on a flight when it has faults or flat out doesn't work and they have to listen to a Karen piss,moan and whine. People need to adjust and realize there is more to life than burying your face into a screen. JFC already.