Review of Alaska Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Liberia in Economy

intro

Well well well, welcome to the First flight report of the trip I just got back from featuring 12 flights, 7 countries, 2 world wonders in 10 days! I'll be posting one report every 2 days to maximize details for each flight!

Firstly, I want to apologize for the lack of posting. The past ten days have been extremely chaotic, and with little sleep, I had almost no energy to write anything. I am back home in California now, and it's time to write about the trip I just returned from! 

The first leg of the trip would take me on an Alaska 737-900 in Economy from Los Angeles to Liberia in Costa Rica. This flight was nothing short of perfect for an economy experience and after reading this full review, you might choose Alaska as well?.

Let's get into it!

routing

how i booked

Nothing fancy about how I booked this ticket. While I could have gone with points bookings, I found the cash price of 214$ which included seat selection and a carry more than acceptable for a 5-and-a-half-hour flight.

arriving at lax

An 8:20 am departure from LAX meant leaving my house at 5 am from Orange County, just to be safe from the Spring Break airport mess. 

Luckily, there wasn't too much traffic at this time of morning. 

After about 40 minutes I arrived at LAX terminal 6, excited to embark on an adventure to change my life. 

Terminal 6 was quiet, and immediately upon entering, an Alaska Airlines representative approached me, asked where I was flying, and took my passport away. Moments later she returned with a boarding pass! Talk about service!

Boarding pass in hand, I headed up the escalator and made my way through TSA precheck which at this hour wasn't too busy either surprisingly.

around terminal 6

When it comes to lounges in the US, I don't care for most of them apart from the AA lounge in MIA or Chelsea Lounge in New York. I decided that this would be the perfect opportunity to walk around and explore Terminal 6.

Eventually, I found a spot to sit down and enjoy my Starbucks ham and cheese croissant ? (best value for Starbucks Points btw?).

boarding

Approximately 40 minutes later, boarding commenced on this bird. I didn't realize that boarding was almost done when I walked over to the gate (30 minutes before departure).

Slowly but surely, I made my way into the last bit of the line.

And headed down the jetbridge.

There were a couple of gate-checked bags, which confused me since the flight was showing as only 4/5 full.

With a trustworthy knock on the metal, I boarded this plane at 7:58 am. 

Heading past First Class and the first half of economy (more on cabin shots later), I found my seat 24F for this flight this morning. I had been monitoring the seat map for some time before the flight and when I saw a row of 3 open, I switched to the window seat.

Thankfully, my hard work paid off, and the two seats next to me remained empty the whole flight!

departure

By 8:05 am, the bags were fully loaded and the cargo doors were sealed.

The boarding doors were closed at 8:08 am. 3 minutes later, the captain came on to announce our predicted flight time of 5 hours and 4 minutes, while expecting a smooth flight to Liberia 

4 minutes ahead of schedule at 8:16 am, we pushed back.

Right next to an American A321.

At 8:22 am, we began our taxi ride to 25R as we were departing south. I'll attach a gallery so if you are interested you can swipe through! 

At 8:30 am, we had lined up on 25R ready to head down South. If you want to follow the takeoff through pictures, see the slideshow below! 

We had a smooth climb out with stellar views of the deep blue ocean. Plane thought: How many Striped Marlins are in those waters currently ?. Probably none since the water is freezing…

the seat/cabin

Much like Delta and United on their narrowbodies, the seats are arranged in a 2-2 configuration in First Class and a 3-3 configuration in Economy.

I managed to snap a couple of cabin shots for you guys and girls when deplaning.

Back to my seat, 24F. I found the legroom to be adequate and the seat more comfortable than other US carriers. There just felt like there was a little bit more cushion than usual. 

It did help that I was able to have a lit flat seat for 214$ for a five-and-a-half-hour flight! Even if someone was sitting next to me, I think I would have rated the seat the same. The First Class seats were old and battered though when I walked by. Perhaps this is the first time flying economy is better than flying First?.

At each seat lay a USB charging socket. Personally, I am a huge fan of how they are located as half the time I can never find them when they are under the seat?. However, if it becomes too loose on the odd chance, I could imagine that heavier chargers might fall out.

Never in my life have I slept 4 hours interrupted on an economy daytime flight. However, with comfortable seats, I was able to do just that with Alaska. Huge props to you there AS!

snack service

After takeoff, I hit the hay immediately and woke up about an hour before landing, just in time for the second drinks service. We had just entered Guatemalan airspace, flying over La Aurora which I had just been to the month before?.

Here is what blew my mind. Back in the seat next to me were a couple of packs of Biscoff cookies from the first meal service. The rule of thumb is if you are asleep, you will miss the snack service but the flight attendant put a few snacks for me on the seatback!

5 minutes later, the second service arrived next to me. I had a glass of water (to shake off this hangover hehe) and a couple of bags of pretzels.

Of course, I hadn't eaten much today so I headed to the pack and asked the FA for a couple of more Biscoff Cookies. They happily provided me with some and we got into a conversation. I told them about my trip to 7 countries in 10 days and they were a bit shocked?.

arrival

At exactly 2:00 pm local time, the captain announced our initial descent and expected us to be on the ground in about 30 minutes. 

At 2:13 pm, another announcement followed stating that it would be a bumpy approach and that the cabin crew should take their seats immediately. Here is a slideshow of the beautiful descent into Costa Rica.

Sure enough at 2:30 pm local time, we were on short final into Liberia after some twists and turns to line up.

We touched down at 2:36 pm local time onto the solo runway.

Upon exiting we taxiied past an Air Transat A321neo who was waiting for a vacant gate due to a delayed outbound flight. 

After a 3-minute taxi, we pulled into our gate at exactly 2:39 pm, 1 minute ahead of schedule. 

Getting off the plane was relatively efficient and the crew bid each and every one of us farewell.

I'll tell you what wasn't efficient: immigration. I estimate that there were upwards of 500 people in the line and it took over an hour and a half. A word of advice: be prepared to wait as this was the only flight in Central/South America that I had to wait more than 10 minutes to enter the country. INCLUDING BOLIVIA!!

Anyways, Country 77 complete! Next up, flying a Cessna Caravan!

As always, thanks so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed it! If you are interested in reading more, feel free to check out more at my blog!