We returned to the Hawaiian Islands by taking a flight from Seattle to Maui. We’ve been fortunate to experience Alaska Airlines Hawaiian service many times before. However, this was the first flight that we’ve taken on their new First Class product on their Beoing 737-9 Max product. Alaska Airlines offers reliable and frequent service from the mainland to the Hawaiian Islands. Read on to see what the service looks like as they forge ahead with their merger with Hawaiian Airlines.

---

Review: Alaska Airlines First Class B737-9: San Diego International Airport – Seattle Tacoma International Airport

---

Our flight back from Maui, Hawaii had us routing through San Diego International Airport in order to take advantage of Alaska Airlines First Class Confirmed Upgrade space (U – Class).

Unfortunately, at the time of our booking, this upgrade space was only available to the mainland through the non Alaska Airlines hub city of San Diego. As a result, we’d need to take a connecting flight from San Diego International Airport up to Seattle Tacoma International Airport.

This flight was purchased this flight paying cash. We credited these flights to Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan.

Some might question the value in taking a two and a half hour detour in order to stay in First Class. Given my height at 185 cm or 6 ft 2 inches, in my humble opinion, every amount of space counts. I really felt the difference in width and length of seats.

A few days prior to our flight, Alaska Airlines was offering buy up upgrades into the First Class cabin at $690 USD per person. Based on dynamic pricing, this was a crazy amount for a a short two and a half hour flight.

Fortunately, the Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan MVP Gold status upgrades came through. Despite almost thirty people on the upgrade list, our expensive upgradable fares held up and we managed somehow to get to the top of the upgrade list with confirmed seats in First Class.

The upgrade list was absolutely crazy with over thirty six people on the elite upgrade list to the Alaska Airlines hub city of Seattle.

Transiting San Diego International Airport:

We arrived into San Diego International Airport on Alaska Airlines First Class Maui Kahului – San Diego.

From the halls of the San Diego International Airport, we located our departure gate. The San Diego International Airport doesn’t have a lot of space surrounding it’s hallways.

Given that we had a tight connection, we didn’t get to enjoy any of the Priority Pass lounges at San Diego International Airport.

Alaska Airlines
AS 1071 – First Class (U)
SAN – SEA (San Diego International Airport – Seattle Tacoma International Airport)
December 8, 2024
6:50 PM – 10:00 PM
Booked: Boeing 737-900
Flown: Boeing 737-900

On Board Alaska Airlines First Class:

Like with our last flight, our Alaska Airlines First Class flight ended up being on Alaska Airlines traditional blue leather seating First Class on their Boeing 737-900 product. Alaska Airlines files a collection of Boeing 737-900, a Boeing 737-900 ER and a Boeing 737-9 Max product; all of which can be used interchangeably with a similar seat configuration.

Since I had taken photographs from our earlier flight, and the cabin was dark, I’ve used photos of the seat from an earlier flight.

Alaska Airlines First Class remains configured in a 2 – 2 configuration across four rows of First Class seating. The Alaska Airlines First Class seating is about as good as it gets among the narrow body American first class products.

The space of the Alaska Airlines First Class seat itself offers a fairly large amount of leg room, with a class leading 31 – 32 inches of space among domestic carriers.

We located our pair of seats in 4A and 4C, which were located at the rear of the Alaska Airlines First Class cabin. Alaska Airlines does not provide in flight monitors for entertainment purposes in their seat backs. We ended up packing our tablets with us, which took care of the lack of entertainment.

Alaska Airlines First Class offers in seat power along with a USB C power connection at every First Class seat. The outlets are rather inconveniently located in the arm rest console, making it difficult to see when plugging in your device.

San Diego was fully dark outside after we settled into our seats in 4A and 4C.

Along with all Boeing 737 products, Alaska Airlines offers individual air nozzles over the seat. This makes for a comfortable ride, with temperature control at your fingertips.

Pre-Departure Services:

It’s a bit hit or miss on whether you get a pre-departure service on Alaska Airlines. On this short flight, we didn’t get any pre-departure offer.

We had a pilot announcement of a flight time of two hours and forty one minutes with 1056 miles from San Diego to Seattle.

We got underway promptly, with dinner orders taken about twenty six minutes into the flight.

In Flight Entertainment:

Alaska Airlines offers in flight entertainment on your phone or tablet. This is accessed through the Alaska Airlines home page on the wifi sign in screen. After signing in, it is relatively easy to access the entertainment.

More recently during my travels, I’ve ended up bringing an iPad along as it’s much easier on the eyes than a small iPhone screen.

Alaska Airlines offered a reasonable selection of films available for the trip. There was also a rudimentary flight tracker available, which was more oriented towards checking your location versus any actual entertainment function.

For people who need to stay in touch with friends and family, Alaska Airlines provides complimentary texting and messaging in addition to the free movies. Additionally, Alaska Airlines provides $8 Wi-Fi for passengers who need to stay connected during a flight.

The free tablets that were formerly offered in First Class medium haul flights have been discontinued by Alaska Airlines. You won’t have any video entertainment throughout the flight if you don’t bring your own tablet.

The Meal: A Dinner

As I normally do, I ended up doing the food pre-order for my meal for this flight. Alaska Airlines offers First Class travellers the option to pre-order for their flight.

I’ve often found that Alaska Airlines tends to run out of your preferred choice of meal when travelling in First Class. I’ve usually had better luck ordering in advance.

I ended up pre-ordering a Tillimook Burger; a familiar standby that I last enjoyed on my Alaska Airlines First Class Anchorage – Seattle flight.

Alaska Airlines also offered an in seat back pocket menu that outlined all the drinks and wines on offer.

The wine list featured wines by Airfield Estates from Yakima Valley in Washington State. The spirit menu offered Aviation Gin and Tito’s Handmade Vodka. Alaska Airlines also offered Straightaway canned cocktails, which I found to be quite sweet for my tastes.

Supper service started about seventy minutes into the flight. I started off with a Gin and Tonic. This was a break from the usual Mai Tai’s of the past week. It was presented in a crisp tumbler, with lots of ice

The Alaska Airlines flight attendants were starting to run out of food by the time I got my dinner in row four. I was really glad that I had pre-ordered.

The Tillamook Burger was presented with lettuce tomato and onion on the side. The BON was crisp and it was pretty flavour bowl for an airplane burger. It was much better than last burger I’d had enjoyed on United Airlines.

Mrs World Traveller 73 enjoyed a Havana Cuban bowl. This was an interesting dish although I don’t think I would’ve enjoyed it myself as much as she did.

After dinner service concluded, I ended up improvising with the in-flight entertainment through song download Netflix on my tablet that I had brought with me.

I had a bit of a rocking seat meet in front of me which move the screen a little bit but otherwise I made do.

Landing in Seattle Tacoma International Airport:

We had an uneventful landing in Seattle Tacoma international airport. Our two hour and 40 minute flight ended fairly quickly.

We ended up connecting on a third flight of the day on Alaska airlines First Class Seattle to Vancouver. Since there is no “in-flight service” on that flight and I have reviewed the flight several times before, I won’t be doing so again.

My Thoughts on Alaska Airlines First Class Service:

Overall, Alaska Airlines First class domestic flights within the United States are pretty reasonable. You’ll get a comfortable seat, a light reasonable meal and prompt baggage claim service. Well there isn’t usually much in the way of entertainment I mitigate that by bringing my own tablet.

---

If you travel on Alaska Airlines, is it your first choice when flying on short haul domestic United States flights?

---