Flight: Seattle to Ontario (CA)

Airline: Alaska Airlines  

Flight Number: 918

Plane: Boeing 737-Max9

Registration: N931AK

Cabin: First

Seat: 1D

This Flight

This a quick review of my Alaska Airlines flight from Seattle to Ontario, along with Mrs Neil.

Having not flown Alaska yet, I was excited to see what it would be like. Alaska is of course the newest airline to join the OneWorld alliance.

Alaska operate a whole bunch of flights from Seattle and Portland, as their primary bases. Destinations include San Francisco, Las Vegas and places in Alaska.

I believe this flight is operated daily 3 times, with other flights being around 11am and 8pm – I was on the 17:35.

Checking In

First Class checking in in a slightly different area, opposite the Coach checkins.

There was a bit of a line, which took a while to move.

One thing that annoyed me about the check in was that the Agent acknowledged both mine and Mrs Neil’s OneWorld statuses – but we’re still chasing for the tier points and Avios to be credited for the flight. It’s becoming a painful process!  

The Lounge   

As always, we got to the airport very early.

We were able to sample the Alaska ‘main terminal’ Lounge, and the C Gates Lounge – you can find those reviews by clicking on the link. We were slightly disappointed with the quality of the food, so we went to explore the Centurion Lounge, the review of which you can find here. 

Boarding

Boarding was pretty quick, there were no delays – and as always in America, it’s a very quick process!

The Plane

This plane was the very new (released to Alaska in November 2021) N931AK; Alaska’s Boeing 737-Max9. Many people have reservations about flying in the Max series – but I don’t!

The plane was barely 6 months old, incredibly clean and a pleasure to fly in. 

The only ‘thing’ which I find across the whole 737 series, is that the windows are a lot lower than A320’s so you find yourself almost ducking to look down!

The Seat

In general terms this seat is the same as most economy seats in short-haul routes. There was plenty of room to stretch out.

However, there was a game changer! This table rested on the ‘other side’, which meant it was supported from both sides! This is something I often complain about on A320’s – and it was perfect for using my laptop on without flexing!

Also on the table is an iPad holder, which is perfect – very well thought about!

Well done Alaska Airlines!

Food and Drink

For this short flight, catering was quite simple.

Waiting for us at our seats before we got onboard was water in cardboard cartons.

After taking off, we were offered drinks. I took a Mexican beer, which was served with a bowl of nuts.

Alaska, in a similar way to American Airlines offer a pre-ordering service (take note BA!) – Mrs Neil pre-ordered the Chicken Sandwich, and I pre-ordered the cheese tray. These were served on quite nice wooden trays – miles different from the usual black plastic ones!

These were both served with warm cookies.

Amenities Kit

No Amenities Kit was offered for this short flight.

Entertainment

There was not entertainment screens were fitted to this aircraft – I am not sure if the longer flights over to Alaska have screens or not. But I believe it’s possible to use the Wifi to link a device to a bunch of entertainment on the Alaska network.

Wifi

I didn’t use it on this flight, but Wifi was available for the 2hr flight for $8 – or you can buy a monthly pass for $49.95 – which is actually pretty good value if you fly lots.  

Cabin Crew

Serving in the First Class area was Carole, who was nothing short of exceptional and a complete pinnacle of what Alaska Airlines should be.

Before taking off, Carole introduced herself to the cabin – explaining that if we needed anything she was Carole, and would love to help. Nothing was too much trouble – and I could see Carole with eyes on the cabin, even when she was busy in the galley.

I have to say Carole’s command of the galley and cabin left me slightly in awe – she just had everything nailed, and it was excellent.

In a slightly casual way, I was addressed as “Neil”, rather an “Mr Scrivener. This was slightly unusual, and many people note that – but I quite liked it.

So great work from Alaska!

Landing

Landing into Ontario was easy and very straightforward, after some great views!

Alaska offers a guarantee that your baggage will arrive in 20 minutes from landing, or you are entitled to a refund. This is a great idea! Sure enough, 18 minutes after we landed, there was the baggage!   

Conclusion

This was a great flight!

The service was excellent and on point. The food (for the short flight) was good and similar to American Airlines.

I just wish Alaska flew to the UK!

Score

Being such a short internal flight it’s difficult to score every individual area.

So, I’d score this 95% – everything was excellent, but the food choices could be turned up a notch, compared to say TAP or BA – and the same applies in the lounges.