Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan - It was good to be back on AS

I've been flying AS infrequently now since 2004. Usually I'll notch a few scattered flights a year, though far less now that I don't fly PHX-SEA-DFW-XXX on AA the way I used to.

I had to return from Portland, OR to Phoenix yesterday and instead of taking the usual US nonstop, I decided to book a PDX-SEA-PHX routing on AS. This is what I observed.

- No one was at the service center at PDX but an agent working another flight happily found me an exit row on my SEA-PHX flight.
- Free Coffee at the gate area for the PDX-SEA flights ^
- Gate agents were processing standbys on the half hourly flights in a very efficient manner and were very friendly despite dealing with annoyed passengers.
- The short flight up to SEA was on a comfortable CR7 (beats the CR7s DL and AA fly) and features Apple Juice, Water or Coffee and a biscoff for a full flight, double ^ here.
- Easy connection in SEA including my first time using the N Concourse
- Nice new 737-800 for the flight down to Phoenix with a spotless cabin.
- Two drink services (US would have done one) and snack mix and smiling crew for the whole flight.

If only I made more travels to the Northwest or AS was cheap on PHX-SEA/PDX-East Coast runs, I forgot what a pleasure they were to fly.

And when you got to PHX, you were outside within a few minutes of disembarking.