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

introduction

Hello and welcome to the return portion of this short series of flight reviews in Alaska Airlines Domestic First class.

In these reviews we'll just be doing a quick roundtrip out to Washington, DC—nothing terribly exciting, but there were some new lounges for me to try on the return leg.

As a oneworld flyer living in Southern California (most of the year), I love having Alaska Airlines hubs and focus cities in the area.  For domestic and regional travel, Alaska have been my go-to carrier for years and try to fly them whenever possible. 

Though Alaska aren't a small airline by any measure, compared to the big guys, they still have that small carrier feel as they remain very customer-focused and, in my personal experience, are the most consistently pleasant US carrier to fly. This mostly comes down to consistently friendly service from airport agents and cabin crews—flying Alaska dozens of times every year, I have never once come across grumpy or rude staff. The same cannot be said about most other US airlines and this makes a big difference to me. 

routing

Reviews in this series:

check-in & lounges

I got to the airport early as I wanted to check out the recently opened joint Chase Sapphire - Etihad lounge as well as the other newish lounge at Dulles, the Capital One lounge. 

I had checked in on the app the previous day and only had cabin baggage, so headed straight for security on arriving at the terminal. 

Came across this cool lego model of the beautiful Saarinen terminal on the way to TSA Pre-check. 

Dulles Moon buggies for ever ♥

The Pre-check lanes were absolutely deserted at this early afternoon hour, which was a nice contrast to my last trip to IAD a few months prior when is was packed. 

Instead of taking the train out to the midfield concourse, I opted to walk through the underground tunnel this time. 

Gotta get those steps in before over-eating in the lounge and on the plane!

Even though I haven't lived in DC in a few years, seeing this terminal will always feel like home to me. 

It was a short walk to the Chase Sapphire lounge on the end of the A Concourse. I believe the Etihad Lounge had been closed for some years prior to the deal with Chase for a co-branded lounge—there's another joint Etihad-Chase Lounge at New York-JFK. 

From the outside, it just looks like a Etihad Lounge. 

Once you enter, it's quite clear the lounge is also a Sapphire Lounge, which is also reflected in the colour-scheme. Chase Sapphire Reserve cardholders have complimentary access for themselves and a guest through the Priority Pass membership that is included with the card. I guested a friend into the lounge, who was flying out of the A concourse. 

While the lounge isn't huge, the lofty ceilings and layout on two levels make it feel larger than it is. Luckily, it was nice and quiet on this first visit. 

The upper level was even quieter than the main level. 

The main dining area is by the bar, where one can enjoy table service. 

There is a smaller dining area on the opposite sie of the lounge, behind the staircase, which also offers some nice tarmac views. 

There is a self-serve buffet in this area, though there are more options that can be ordered to the table with the QR code at each table. 

Nicely presented small dishes, with both hot and cold options. 

As mentioned above, you can order drinks and food from the menu through the QR code at the table. 

The champagne was listed as Piper-Heidsieck Cuvée 1785, but I was later told they were out and was offered a California sparkling instead. 

There's a small made to order menu. It's not super extensive, but decent and covers most bases. 

For the appetiser, I grabbed some lamb kofta and hummus from the self-serve buffet. 

For the main, I ordered the Sapphire Noodles from the menu, which was very tasty. 

I purposely did my lounge-hopping backwards–I hit the Sapphire Lounge first as some friends were flying out of the A/B Concourse with earlier flights than me. 

Once they left to catch their flights, I headed out to the Capital One Lounge as I still had plenty of time before my flight was due to board. 

Normally, if you have a flight out of the A/B or C/D Concourses, it makes more sense to stop by the Capital One Lounge first since it's right there in the main terminal right after security, before heading out to the gates. 

The entrance is tucked away in a corner. I really like how the lounge entrance design keeps with the 1950s/60s mid-century modern aesthetic of the Saarinen terminal—I imagine this was a requirement imposed by the airport.

After experiencing the mostly empty and spacious Sapphire Lounge, I was slightly less impressed with the Capital One Lounge, which felt more cramped with lower ceilings and denser seating. It was also a lot busier than the Sapphire Lounge. 

The Capital One Lounge is likely larger than the Sapphire Lounge by square footage, but felt smaller as it was laid out in an L-shape and had multiple sunken areas with just a few stairs between sections. Still it's a very nice lounge with a chic design. 

Definitely a cool mid-century, JFK TWA hotel/terminal vibe, through with all the stairs, it's not ideal for anyone with mobility issues. 

The highlight of this lounge is the food. There's  a impressive amount of freshly-made tapas-style small dishes to try. 

I wasn't really hungry anymore at this point, but had to try a few dishes.

boarding

As I had to take the train back out to the B Concourse from the Capital One Lounge, I left the lounge about 10 minutes before boarding time. 

The Alaska Airlines gates are located close to the centre of the concourse, right near the escalators coming up from the underground train, so it actually only took a few minutes to get to my gate. 

As expected, it was an old cabin on this 737-800. Alaska just announced that they've begun retrofitting the 737NG fleet with new cabins, and it can't come soon enough! These old seats are still comfortable, but they just look old and battered after over a decade in service. 

There are only 3 rows of Domestic First on the 737-800 vs 4 rows on the 900s. With the retrofits, the 737-800s will also get 4 rows of First, so all aircraft Boeing aircraft in the Alaska fleet will eventually have 16 seats in First. 

There was a small blanket pre-placed on each seat. Pillows were already rare in Domestic First prior to Covid, but it looks like they're gone for good now. It's fine for a day flight, plus the headrests are adjustable and quite soft. 

Much like AA, AS can be a little hit or miss when it comes to pre-departure drinks services. On this flight, cabin crew offered a choice of water or orange juice.

Legroom is very good. Alaska's 40 inch seat pitch is the best of any US airline for Domestic First cabins, which are usually pitched between 36 and 38 inches. 

The old bulkhead design just adds to the drab, tired feel of the cabin. I understand the cultural significance of the design to Alaskans, but it just looks old and dirty after all these years. 

But wait…not all is vintage! Alaska were actually ahead of the curve when they first installed these cabins in 2011 and equipped each seat with AC and USB power. In-seat power sources are always appreciated! For all their faults, US carriers are pretty good about providing in-seat power. Being that I spend a few months a year in Europe, I can definitely attest that it's not as consistent when flying within Europe. The new cabins should have USB-C ports as well, which will be a great addition!

Looking out the window, the AvGeek in me always appreciates the diversity of traffic at IAD. 

Checking out the Wi-Fi and Entertainment as boarding continues, the system is usually available from gate-to-gate. 

Wi-Fi and IFE are accessed through the same portal. Alaska offer free messaging for all passengers, and Wi-Fi for the whole flight costs only $8, which is better than AA and UA, but not as good as the free Wi-Fi you'll find on B6 and DL. 

As a T-Mobile customer, I get free Wi-Fi on all Alaska Airlines flights, which is a really nice perk, especially since I fly Alaska often, so the savings add up. 

If you are a T-Mobile customer, just enter your phone number and boom…free high-speed Wi-Fi for the whole flight! This is also available on UA and most AA aircraft. 

The streaming in-flight entertainment, is free for everyone of course. 

There's a good amount of content, from release Hollywood releases, to old classics…

TV series and documentaries…

Audio content…

And childrens programming. 

My main complaint with these older cabins is that there are no eye-level device holders to watch the streaming IFE, which has become a standard amenity over the past few years. 

the flight

Boarding wrapped up on time and we pushed back a few minutes later, ahead of schedule. 

Just another minute…Mobile Lounge moon-buggy coming through!

Taxi time was short as there was little traffic at this time of day and we were off. 

Nice view of the Udvar-Hazy Center (Part of the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum) on the climb out. 

Thanks to our early departure from the gate, we'll be arriving in SAN about 20 minutes ahead of schedule. 

Shortly after takeoff cabin crew were in the cabin taking meal orders and offering pre-meal drinks. 

Drinks were served with warm nuts, reminiscent of American Airlines service. 

I had pre-order my option through the app several days before the flight. There were 5 options for pre-order, whereas there were only 3 options to choose from on board. 

Birria Beef
Slow cooked Mexicali style spiced beef served with tomato cilantro rice, black beans, and salsa criolla 

Nothing fancy, but it was tasty and I like how Alaska often have Southwestern flavours. 

For dessert there was ice cream, but there was only one flavour: Cinnamon Snickerdoodle. It just didn't appeal to my European sensibilities…so. much. cinnamon. 

Though there is a very rudimentary flight map on the WiFi/Entertainment portal homepage, with the free WiFi it's much more fun to follow along on Flightradar24!

No doubt about it, we're over the Midwest!

Landscapes get more interesting the further west we go, 

These interesting canyons were in norther New Mexico. 

Beautiful views of snow-capped mountains over the southern Rockies. 

Funny enough, I was watching Oppenheimer as we flew over Los Alamos. 

The landscaped around Los Alamos are gorgeous. 

This was the first flight on which I'd ever seen the famous Meteor Crater in Arizona. Almost missed it due to clouds setting in. 

We began our descent into San Diego over the Imperial Valley where desert meets intensive agriculture. 

Nice sunset colours and good visibility as we could see all the way to the mountains around Palm Springs. 

Landscapes become greener again closer to the coast. 

We made our usual turn going south around Mount Miguel, just over my neighbourhood. 

For a change, I was sitting on the right side. Sitting on the left side gives great views of the tall buildings in the downtown core, but views from the right side are also pretty good, as you flight right over Balboa Park.

With that beautiful Colonial Spanish architecture, it almost looks like Andalucía!

We did end up landing about 20 minutes early.

Taxi time was short, as usual arriving into San Diego.

Always nice to arrive early!

Thanks for reading!