Alaska Airlines has today made a slew of passenger experience announcements, which I’ll be covering across several posts. The theme is simple, and it includes focusing on the premium experience (as is the standard in the industry nowadays).
In this post I’d like to cover what I consider to be the biggest announcement, which is that Alaska plans to install flat bed seats on some narrow body planes for the first time.
25 Alaska Boeing 737 MAX 10s will get three-cabin layout
Up until now, Alaska Airlines has countered the trend by not introducing flat bed seats on any narrow body aircraft. That will finally be changing.
Alaska Airlines has 168 Boeing 737 MAX 10s on order, and the plan is for at least 25 of those planes to be in a special, premium configuration. The 737 MAX 10 is the largest variant of the 737 family, so airlines have a bit more space to play with.
The airline plans to introduce flat bed seats with direct aisle access on these planes. Specifically, they’ll be reverse herringbone seats, so that’s a huge competitive advantage, as other airlines introduce herringbone seats on narrow body planes. The seats will be branded as “Aurora Suites,” which is how Alaska plans to generally brand its long haul business class product going forward.
The airline intends to have 12 business class suites on these planes, spread across six rows, in a 1-1 configuration (oddly the renderings actually show 14 seats, but the airline insists it’ll be 12). Is this the Safran VUE product, or does anyone know which seating platform Alaska selected?
On top of that, these 737 MAXs will be equipped with 12 premium economy seats, spread across three rows, in a 2-2 configuration. This is part of a larger rollout of premium economy at Alaska, which will be branded as Premium Reserve. This cabin will be coming to select Boeing 737 MAXs, as well as all Boeing 787s and Airbus A330s.
While Alaska is sharing renderings of the new economy seats on the premium 737 MAXs, there’s interestingly no look at the seat backs. I would assume that we’ll finally see seat back entertainment on these planes in economy, but that’s not evident based on the renderings. Maybe the airline hasn’t yet decided for sure?
While 737 MAX 10 deliveries are expected to start as of 2027, the airline is only planning to introduce this specific configuration as of 2028. These premium 737 MAX 10s will also be easily identifiable from the outside, as they’ll feature a separate livery from the standard 737 fleet. They’ll have the same livery you’ll find on the 787s, with the Aurora design that’s inspired by the Northern Lights.
Premium Alaska 737s will operate transcon routes
Alaska’s planned premium Boeing 737 MAX 10s look incredible. The fact that the business class seats are reverse herringbone rather than herringbone is something that most travelers will appreciate, as this is definitely a step up.
The funny thing is that back in the day when Alaska took over Virgin America, the airline competed fiercely in the New York (JFK) to Los Angeles (LAX) and San Francisco (SFO) markets. Executives at the airline insisted that flat beds weren’t necessary, though over time, Alaska has hugely scaled back its network in those markets, presumably because it just couldn’t compete in terms of product, frequencies, etc.
Admittedly part of the reason that flat beds work now is because of the amazing unit costs of the 737 MAX 10 — you have a larger plane than all previous 737 MAX variants, but with only marginally higher fuel burn. So that gives airlines some aircraft “real estate” to play around with.
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, or if Alaska has something else up its sleeve:
- Alaska already dominates Seattle (SEA), and Delta doesn’t offer a flat bed product in most markets to and from Seattle, so it’s not like this is needed to compete
- Does Alaska plan to once again grow its presence in more competitive transcon markets, given that it’ll have a product that can actually compete?
- Or is this not at all about competition, but instead, does Alaska think it can generate more revenue per passenger by offering a meaningfully better product in existing transcon markets?
So I’m very curious about the strategic play here. Either way, this should make for a great passenger experience, no matter where the planes fly.
Bottom line
Alaska Airlines plans to introduce a subfleet of at least 25 premium Boeing 737 MAX 10s. For the first time, the airline will offer flat bed seats in business class on a narrow body, along with a premium economy cabin.
Not only does this look amazing by Alaska standards, but it one-ups the premium narrow bodies we see at American and United, which have herringbone seats in business class, rather than reverse herringbone seats.
Alaska claims it plans to fly these planes in transcon markets. That doesn’t really seem like it’s needed competitively, so I’m curious if Alaska just hopes it’ll generate more revenue in existing markets with this configuration, if this is intended to put Delta even more in second place in Seattle, or if the airline has some other strategic plan.
What do you make of Alaska’s premium Boeing 737 MAX 10s, and how do you think the airline will use them?
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 😂
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
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.
"Could" as opposed to "will."
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?
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...
@ 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?
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. :-)
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.
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...
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.