Review of Alaska Airlines flight San Diego → Newark in Domestic First

introduction

Hello and welcome to a new series of pandemic-era flight reviews that will once again take us across the Atlantic. With all the unpredictability surrounding international travel in times of Covid, having dual US and French citizenship has at least allowed us to continue travelling between our two countries. 
 
This first flight was a standard domestic flight taking us to the East Coast where we visited some family prior to heading to Europe. Though all three of us have oneworld Emerald status through American Airlines, living on the West Coast, we've come to prefer Alaska Airlines whenever possible for domestic itineraries. There's something about Alaska Airlines that I've always loved–they may not have the best hard product on longer transcon flights like this, but they still have a small airline feel compared to the bigger guys and I've always found their service to be consistently friendly and genuinely caring. Whether a flight goes smoothly or not, Alaska has always remained customer-focused and done the right thing in my experience–this flight was no exception.

And no, Alaska isn't paying me to say nice things about them. I just find them refreshingly customer-friendly and have yet to have a negative experience. 

routing

check-in & lounge

The morning of the flight, we got to the airport about 2 hours before departure. Airlines all over the US were experiencing many delays and cancellations due to staffing shortages as the Omicron wave was ramping up and staff were out sick or isolating after a positive test. Luckily, our flight was showing on-time. 

We arrived on a rare rainy and overcast morning. 

We'd already checked in online and just needed to drop off baggage. Despite the already-busy Holiday travel season and the aforementioned Covid-related chaos, the ticket counters were relatively calm and there was little wait for an agent. 

Not even three years old yet, my son already understood the concept of social distancing–such weird times for younger kids to be growing up. To them, all of this is normal. 

There was no wait for the First class & oneworld Elite check-in. The counters were decked out in festive Holiday decorations. 

We were helped by a cheerful agent, and we were on our way. 

Going through security was quick and painless, as it normally is with TSA pre-check access. 

As we had some time, we walked around the terminal a bit before heading to the lounge. We always make time to allow our energetic toddler to run around and tire himself out before a long flight. It makes sitting calmly for 6-hours much easier! 

My first time seeing an Alaska 737 MAX

Arriving at the Airspace lounge, the line to enter went all the way to the door so we initially waited outside. 

Now it feels more like the busy Holiday travel season! Yeesh

Luckily, the line moved quickly and the lounge itself was not overcapacity–it just seems everyone arrived around the same time. 

Note that we had access to the lounge through Priority Pass–Alaska Airlines First class passengers may only access Alaska-operated clubs, which are found in Anchorage (ANC), New York (JFK), Portland (PDX), San Francisco (SFO) and Seattle (SEA). Alaska being the only US carrier to give lounge access to domestic First class flyers.

 I love the open feel and great views from this lounge with the huge windows. 

Looks like I wasn't the only AvGeek there at the time!

Typical of US lounges, the complimentary food offering is nothing exciting–it it comprised mostly of pre-packaged snacks and fruit/pastries. Fresh food and hot dishes are available for purchase. Priority Pass members receive a $10 discount coupon upon entry which can be applied to food or beverage purchases. 

We just got a few snacks as breakfast would be served on board our flight. 

The sun was coming out again after a rainy morning. 

Again, common for US domestic lounges, most alcoholic beverages are for purchase–only some basic beers and wines were complimentary. There is a complimentary sparkling wine; however, it's pretty rough on its own and best covered up with something else. 

Turning the bad sparkling wine into a mimosa makes all the difference. 

boarding

We headed to the gate shortly before boarding was due to begin. The terminal was noticeably more crowded by then.

Pre-boarding was just beginning as we arrived at the gate and we were invited to pre-board with other parents with small children. 

As usual I'd selected seats in the last row of the First class cabin. 

Seats on the 737-900s are the older generation seats, which are well-padded and very comfortable, but beginning to show signs of ageing. I have yet to try the newer seats found on the reconfigured ex-Virgin America Airbus fleet and 737 MAX. 

No pre-departure drink service, but boxes of water are available at each seat. I like the ecological sentiment behind the cartons vs plastic bottles, but every time I find the water to have a cardboard-y taste, which I don't care for. 

For a change we were not the only ones with young children in the First cabin–there were 3 altogether. And they were all very well-behaved throughout the flight. 

The friendly cabin crew were all wearing festive Holiday hats for the season. 

Already a seasoned traveller, my almost-three-year-old puts his seat-belt on by himself like a champ. 

Looking back at the Economy cabin during boarding. 

The generous 40" seat pitch is spacious, and best among domestic US First class configurations, though less competitive compared to the international Business class seats the big 3 Legacy carriers and JetBlue are running on transcon flights of similar length from other West Coast cities to New York. 

the flight

Boarding wrapped up a few minutes early and doors were closed promptly. I was surprised to see a few empty seats in the First cabin, which is exceedingly rare on US domestic flights. 

We pushed back on time with an anticipated early arrival in Newark due to a strong winter jet stream, making for strong tailwinds. 

It was a quick taxi as usual for SAN

Luckily the rain and clouds had mostly cleared out, allowing for some beautiful views of San Diego Bay and Point Loma on the climb out. 

As we waited for the meal service, my son kept himself busy with colouring, stickers, and drawing. I always make sure to bring plenty of activities and make sure the tablet is full of downloaded content to keep the kid entertained and occupied on long flights so the adults can enjoy a quiet and restful(ish) flight.

Shortly after takeoff, cabin crew came through the cabin with the pre-meal drink service. Drink orders had been taken on the ground. 

I got a sparkling wine as I often do. On Alaska, this means wine from a can–yes, a can–and it's been that way for years. While my French soul feels this should be wrong, this particular sparkling wine brand wasn't that bad–I found it more palatable than the sparkling wine-in-a-can brand they previously carried. 

When Alaska brought back hot meals in 2021, they also brought back the ability to pre-order. I always like this option as it allows you to ensure you get the option you wanted.  

Food can be pre-ordered between 2 weeks and 20 hours before a flight's departure. 

There were three options for this breakfast flight.
  

I ordered the Shakshuka for myself, mostly because it sounded exotic and different. It was quite tasty with some elevated flavours and was a nice change from the typical boring egg dishes that usually get served for breakfast.

For my son I'd pre-ordered the "everything bagel" quiche. It was an interesting take on a classic egg dish, and certainly not as boring as the typical omelettes we often see served on breakfast flights on other carriers.
 

I do think it's a shame that one can't order a child meal on Alaska, as this was way too much food for a 3 year-old. 

 Let's check out the in-flight entertainment. There is a guide in the seat-back pocket containing a drink menu and instructions for logging in to the streaming on-demand entertainment.

Signing on to the home page there are options for free texting plans, paid Wi-Fi plans (per hour, full flight, or monthly), and access to the free streaming entertainment. 
 

Being that it was Christmas Eve, Holiday movies were highlighted.
 

The Wi-Fi & Entertainment portal home page also has a moving map–a feature that I appreciate, despite its simplicity. 

There is a good selection of all genres of movies, TV series, documentaries, Children's programming, and music/audio material. 

It was a very cloudy day outside with no good views of the Rockies on this particular transcon–so I wasn't missing anything being in the aisle seat.

My son slept for more than half of the flight which meant I actually got to watch a whole movie on a plane for once! 

Flight attendants came through the cabin offering drinks regularly throughout the flight, which had become rare since the beginning of the pandemic. 

Towards the end of the flight, snacks were offered with another beverage service. 

We were making good time due to the strong tail winds…

…and were due to arrive 48 minutes early!
 

Night fell as we got closer to Newark. We could see that it had recently snowed in western parts of New Jersey.
 

The cabin was readied for arrival as we continued our descent.

Lights were turned off as we approached Newark. The cabin was then bathed in pleasant blue mood-lighting.

arrival

Coming from the West, there are often nice views of Manhattan from the left side of the plane. 

We landed 45 minutes before scheduled time, Yay!

Not so fast!
…of course a gate was not available for us as we were too early. Ok, fine, it's to be expected.

The captain made an announcement that it would be another 15-20 minutes before a gate was freed up for us.
Ok, fine, that's reasonable…we would still be arriving ahead of schedule.

The 20 minutes came and went and nothing…
Another announcement was made that due to Covid-related staff shortages, there were issues with getting the flights out on time, so our gate would still not be available for a while longer.

At this point we'd landed 45 minutes early, but were not going to even be to the gate by the scheduled arrival time!

So we waited….
and waited…
and waited some more.

Until finally a gate opened up for us! But by the time all was said and done, we pulled in to the gate almost a half-hour late!
After landing 45 minutes early, that made for a whopping 1h15m taxi time!
 

When we finally deplaned, I could understand why there were so many issues getting flights out on time. It was total chaos in the terminal! It turned out that the main culprit for the delays was the TSA checkpoint, which was completely overwhelmed. 

We had to walk along the TSA queue as we headed to baggage claim and saw a sign for a 30 minute wait from that point. Unfortunately, the never-ending line of passengers just kept going and going and going well past that sign, to the other end of the terminal and wrapped around. I can't even imagine how long it was taking people to get through security. Based on the size of the queue beyond the 30-minute-wait sign, it would have had to be well over an hour, maybe two!

I could imagine that flights weren't able to depart on time if they were missing  large portions of passengers. Being the night of Christmas eve with little to no options for re-booking, it made sense operationally to hold for passengers, so I did not blame Alaska at all for the delay.

Bags came out super fast, as always with Alaska–it was especially appreciated amid the chaotic operation. American could learn something from Alaska about timely baggage delivery. 

Nevertheless, I was tired and glad to be on the AirTrain and on the way to the rental car!

As I stepped off the AirTrain, I received a message from Alaska apologising for the delay on arrival and offering each of us a $50 discount voucher for future travel. I was taken aback by this message as I'm not used to any sort of proactive customer service from the two airlines we fly most, American Airlines and British Airways, despite all three of us having top tier oneworld Emerald status. 

The next day we received another letter with the discount voucher codes and another apology. 
 

This kind of level of customer care is really what sets Alaska apart from other US carriers and I'll continue to prefer them for domestic travel. I've said it before–as a new-ish West Coaster and long-time oneworld frequent flyer, I'm a fan of Alaska and very glad they joined the alliance earlier in 2021.