#55 out of 94 Airlines A minimum of 10 flight-reports within the past two years is required to appear in the rankings.
85 reviews
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!
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.
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.
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?).
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!
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…
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!
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?.
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!
How is there any space to complain about Alaska Airlines on this flight? The seats were the most comfortable of any US carrier (similar to JB) and I had three of them to stretch out on! The crew was fabulous going above and beyond by leaving me a snack while I was sleeping. The flight was on time. The list goes on and on. I was extremely impressed with Alaska Airlines.
It feels like AS is more of a leisure airline compared to the other US carriers, and it was a perfect way to start a trip that would almost cause me to pass out from exhaustion.
I wouldn't hesitate to fly Alaska Airlines again in economy after this!
4 Comments
I'm exhausted just reading that ?
True, though I still like having a Priority Pass for domestic US travel because sitting in a mediocre lounge is still a hell of a lot better than sitting in the terminal, especially with how crowded it usually is these days.
Hah yeah AS, and AA, have a tendency to board earlier than it says on the BP, when things are running on time anyway.
In 2024, that's amazing! Time to play powerball!
Same, very convenient placing, especially to keep tablets charged while watching content. I hate when power is under the seat behind the legs--I'm sure a lot of people don't even know it's there since you can't see it. Unless they're some sort of crazy contortionist who knows where to look ?
One of the reasons I love flying AS, they're so much more laid back than the big US3 and generally have more consistently friendly service. I fly mostly F on AS and never have a problem of "gate lice" rushing the gate and blocking the way like on AA. I always dread boarding on AA, but it's usually much more civilised on AS. I think it may be because of their route network that they do serve a lot more leisure customers so they are less entitled DYKWIA elites compared to the US3---just a theory. That and West Coast vibes, lol
Thanks for sharing!
Regarding boarding time, I had no idea, but thanks for the tip!!!
Have to agree with your comments on AS. I would love to try the First Class offering and just checked a couple of deals. "gate lice", oh one of the funniest sayings?. I'll have to go re-read your review now of Alaska F!
Thanks for reading!
Well...my backlog is about two years now, I'm trying to write every weekend that I can. You have nothing to be sorry about!
Wow!
I like AS' decor and colours, their planes look great. I'm glad to read service was also good. What about the IFE?
Thanks for sharing!
I have to say I made a little error, I forgot to check out the IFE as I was sleeping most of the time?, guess I'll have to fly it again and report back?. Service was top notch and I definitely agree with you, the decor on AS is gorgeous!
Thanks again and have a great day! Look forward to reading some of your reviews from the 2 year backlog!
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