Review of Alaska Airlines flight from San Diego to Washington in Domestic First

introduction

Like every year, we headed home to France for the Holidays, and like most years, we made a stop on the East Coast for a few days to visit with family and friends. 

When flying domestically from my home airport of San Diego, I try to fly Alaska Airlines as much as possible. As a oneworld flyer, I was glad when Alaska re-started nonstop flights between San Diego and Washington, DC in 2023 after having suspended the route for several years since the pandemic. 

routing

Reviews in this series:

check-in & lounge

Eastbound transcon schedules are never great, you either have to leave early in the morning to arrive at a decent afternoon hour, or do a dreaded overnight redeye.

For our 8AM flight, we had to get up at O'dark thirty to arrive at the airport by 6:30AM. I really don't like early morning flights, but the bright side is that morning flight are almost always on time–and an 8AM departure is still much better than a 6AM departure. 

The Alaska ticket counters were all decorated for the Holidays. There was no wait for check-in at the First class counters and service was efficient and friendly as always. 

While the regular TSA line was super long, there was no one in the TSA Pre-check lane, which is typical around holidays. We were through in a few minutes and headed to the Aspire lounge as we still had about an hour before boarding.

The Aspire Lounge is accessible with Priority Pass.

It was a lot less crowded than usual on this Christmas Eve morning. The complimentary food offering is pretty basic, with mostly snacks, cereals, pastries, and fruit at this time of day. I believe you can order hot food from a menu for a fee. It's similar with drinks with complimentary beer and wine, but most other "premium" drinks for a fee. 

Boarding

We could see our aircraft from the lounge so we knew we didn't have far to go. We headed out to the gate about 5 minutes before scheduled boarding time. 

Boarding has just started as we arrived at the gate.

Like most 737-800s, this one still had the old cabins, which are pretty comfortable, but beginning to look dated. 

Speaking of dated…I know this carpet bulkhead design has Alaskan cultural significance, and it's pretty, but looks out of place on an aircraft and just feels old. 

Legroom is very good in the bulkhead row, but bags must be stored in the overhead lockers during takeoff and landing. 

The Wi-Fi and streaming entertainment systems are available from gate-to-gate

Alaska offer free messaging and entertainment, while Wi-Fi costs $8, which is a decent value compared to most other carriers. 

As a T-Mobile customer, however, I get free Wi-Fi, which I always appreciate!

The wireless streaming entertainment has a good amount of content, certainly enough choices for domestic flights. 

the flight

We left the gate a few minutes early.

Taxi time was short, as usual at SAN. 

Awesome views of Mission Bay and Mission Beach on takeoff. 

Each seat has a combo AC Power + USB unit. 

The lead flight attendant, Brad, was among the best cabin crew I'd ever seen. He was very genuinely kind and welcoming to all passengers from the second they stepped on the aircraft. Shortly after takeoff, he addressed the First class cabin by speaking directly to the cabin standing in row 1 and promised to take good care of everyone, also wishing all Happy Holidays. It's so refreshing to see someone who takes so much pride in their work. Alaska cabin crew are always very good, but this was above and beyond. 

As he came around to take drink orders, he confirmed our pre-ordered meal options. In chatting with him, I mentioned that I thought it was a shame that there's never been an option to request a child meal–it seems child meals in First class just aren't a thing at Alaska. Being that my son is only four-years-old and can never finish full-sized meals on planes, I asked what the dish came with to try to avoid any waste and just take out some parts that could be used for someone else, or even the crew themselves, I suggested.

Brad went out of his way to proactively find a solution that would work for everyone. He went to the back and brought up a Kid's meal pack from the Buy-on-board selection and offered it to my son, which he absolutely loved because it was much more fun than a boring adult meal. 

Brad offered to still bring the pre-ordered meal, but I said it would be a waste and to please give it to anyone who may want it so that it didn't go to waste. I figure there's always someone who may not be happy with the meal option they got or even the cabin crew could have it. 

For my meal I'd pre-ordered the Southwest Ranchero Eggs, which I'd had before and enjoyed–it always seems to be on the menu for breakfast flights on this route. In fact I'm taking this flight again in a few days and pre-ordered it again, haha. 

Southwest Ranchero Eggs
Chorizo sausage, toasted farro, marinated pinto beans, cage-free scrambled eggs, cotija cheese, salsa verde, and scallion

The Kid's meal box came with some fun puzzles and games, which helped to pass the time on this 4.5 hour flight. 

The Wi-Fi portal has a rudimentary flight map. It's definitely simple, but it's always nice to have an idea where you are on longer flights. 

Throughout the flight, the cabin crew were checking on passengers, refilling drinks, and offering snacks. They were definitely not hiding in the galleys as is a common complaint on many other airlines. 

Towards the end of the flight, Brad handed me this lovely hand-written thank you note addressed to me and my son. I honestly don't think I've ever had that happen on any flight despite having held oneworld Emerald status for almost a decade. Like I said, absolutely outstanding service–and of course I later sent in a compliment to Alaska customer relations. 

Soon enough we were making our descent into Washington-Dulles as we crossed the Appalachian mountains. 

On pulling in to the gate I remember being jealous when I saw a 737 MAX 9 at the gate nextdoor as I was supposed to have an Alaska MAX 9 for a work trip a few weeks prior but got swapped out to a 900. I was disappointed at the time as I'd never gotten to fly an Alaska MAX…then of course, just a 10 days later came the door plug incident…Suddenly I was in less of a hurry to try out the MAX 9. 

Though we've been in Southern California for a few years now, walking into the terminal at Dulles (or DCA) always feels like coming home, having spent such a big part of my life in the DC area. 

Despite taking our time getting to baggage claim, especially since we had to hop on the underground train, our baggage still hadn't come out. Another super-customer-friendly policy at Alaska Airlines is their 20-minute baggage delivery guarantee. Alaska aim to have your bags delivered within 20 minutes of the aircraft's arrival or they'll offer you your choice of 2,500 Alaska miles or a $25 discount voucher. Now that's customer service!

And indeed it took more than 20 minutes to get our bags delivered so we were able to claim a voucher at baggage claim with no problem. It's this great customer-oriented culture that keeps me coming back to Alaska.