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

Introduction

Hello and welcome to a short 2-part series of Flight-Reports. We'll once again be flying Alaska Airlines in Domestic First class from San Diego, but this time we'll be going Internationally…so technically it's Business class. Oddly, Alaska still market the premium cabin as "First" on international flights, unlike most other US carriers which market "First" only domestically and call the same cabin "Business" on international routes. 

For my son's spring break from preschool, we decided to go on a few days' beach holiday to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Alaska Airlines offer the only nonstop flights between San Diego and Puerto Vallarta—convenient for us as oneworld frequent flyers. 

Routing

Check-in & Lounge

We arrived at San Diego Airport's Terminal 2 a little more than two hours prior to departure. 

We weren't able to check-in on the app ahead of time as my passport wouldn't scan for the international documents check. It turned out that my passport's chip was damaged from frequent international travel, haha…I've since gotten a replacement. 

So even though we only had hand luggage for our short beach holiday, we still had to stop by the ticket counters to check in. Luckily, there were only a few people ahead of us in the First class lane and it moved quickly. 

There was a long line for the standard security lanes, but TSA Pre-check was much quieter, thankfully, so we were through to airside in a few minutes. 

As usual we headed to the Aspire Lounge, the only 3rd party lounge at SAN. And as usual, there was a wait to get in, but it was less than 5 minutes, so not too bad. 

We used our Priority Pass membership for access as Alaska Airlines, like most US carriers, don't grant lounge access for short-haul flights. 

It was the usual crowded mess, but better than being out in the even-more-crowded terminal. The food options are pretty basic in the morning with fruit, yogurts, cereal, bagels, and breads for toast. I didn't see any hot items. I didn't get anything as we'd have breakfast on the plane shortly. 

One of the things I do like about this lounge are the nice tarmac views. 

Boarding

It seems at least half the time I fly Alaska, my flight is departing from Gate 30, which is by far my least favourite gate as it's in a windowless corner of the terminal and very cramped. It seems a lot of passengers who checked in online still needed to have their documents verified in person, so there was a long queue at the gate podiums for passport checks, which was blocking the boarding lanes. Ah, the joys of short-haul travel from the US. 

Once boarding for First class was called, we had to politely excuse ourselves while slaloming through the crowd to get to the boarding lane. 

These cabins are old, introduced a bit over a decade ago, but the seats are still comfortable. Alaska recently announced that they will be refurbishing cabins throughout the fleet over the next 2-3 years. 

With 40-41 inch seat pitch, legroom is the best of any North American carrier in the Domestic First class/Short-haul Business class category. Typically, seat pitch in Domestic First/Business on other North American carriers is between 36 and 38 inches. 

Despite their age, all seats in both cabins are equipped with 110V universal power outlets and USB ports. 

All 737-800s are equipped with streaming-capable satellite Wi-Fi, which can be purchased for $8–Instant Messaging is free for all passengers. Complimentary streaming entertainment to personal devices is also available on all Alaska aircraft. 

Cabin crew did a pre-departure drink service on this flight. As is typical of most US carriers, drinks are not served in real glass on the ground. 

The Wi-Fi and Streaming Entertainment are accessed through the same portal and are available from gate-to-gate.

As a T-Mobile customer, I have free access to the full Wi-Fi for the entirety of the flight.

There's a rudimentary flight map on the Wi-Fi portal home page. 

As mentioned earlier, the streaming IFE is also available from gate-to-gate and has a ton of content—over 800 movies and shows according to Alaska Airlines. 

The Flight

Unsurprisingly, with the long line of passengers waiting for passport checks at the gate, the flight was running a few minutes behind schedule. 

Once boarding wrapped up, the aircraft was pushed back from the gate. 

Nice views of downtown and the harbour from the end of the runway. 

After a short taxi we were off.

Nice views of Mission Bay and Mission Beach on the climb out of SAN. 

Along with the rudimentary flight map, there's also destination weather available on the Wi-Fi portal. 

Being that San Diego is right there on the border, we were over Mexico shortly after takeoff. 

Isla Coronado, just off the coast between Tijuana and Rosarito. 

Inland over Baja California the landscapes are very dry. 

We're not dry in the air though, as cabin crew are in the cabin with drink orders shortly after takeoff. 

I finally got to watch the new Hunger Games, which I'd attempted to watch on a recent AA flight from Australia, but had buggy IFE. 

Not long after, pre-ordered meals came out. There were 5 options of meals for pre-order compared to 3 options on board. 

Scrambled Eggs with Red Pepper Jam
Cage-free creamy chive scrambled eggs, seared pork Portuguese sausage,
And potato pancakes served with a roasted red pepper sauce. 

Breakfast is never terribly exciting on planes but, as usual, Alaska provided some creative and more-interesting options than the usual omelettes or fruit plates you often see on other airlines. 

More scenery of Baja California's deserts meeting the sea over the Gulf of California. 

Cabin crew were friendly and attentive as always. They came through the cabin regularly for drink refills and offered snacks towards the end of the flight. 

Almost there! 

Beautiful landscapes and beaches on final approach. 

The scenery here is very similar to coastal Southern California—dry, but greener than Baja. 

Arrival

We landed a few minutes ahead of schedule. A gigantic Mexican flag welcomes visitors to Puerto Vallarta. 

We pulled in to the gate 6 minutes before the scheduled arrival time. 

It was a long walk to the baggage claim and immigration & customs area. 

Unfortunately, any time gained by our early arrival was lost at immigration. Thankfully we hadn't checked any baggage so were able to queue up right away—it took a full hour to get through the line at immigration!

I know this is pretty typical of what foreign passport holders go through on entering the US or Europe so I'm not complaining, but I definitely realised we aren't used to waiting in line on arrival when we shuttle back and forth between the US and Europe all the time. We're lucky to have Global Entry when entering the US, and French passports for automatic passport gates when entering Europe (or at least the faster EU national queues). 

Nevertheless, we were happy to be in Mexico to have a few days of stress-free relaxation at an all-inclusive beach resort! Thanks for reading and don't hesitate to ask any questions below.