November 1, 2010
Delta Air Lines West Palm Beach - Atlanta 550a – 743a 757-200 Economy Class
Delta Air Lines Atlanta - Portland 845a – 1111a 737-800 Economy Class
Horizon Airlines Portland - Seattle 130p – 218p CRJ-700 Economy Class
Alaska Airlines Seattle – Los Angeles 300p – 536p 737-800 First Class

Monday, November 1st, 2010. Many elite level flyers in Alaska’s Mileage Plan have had this date highlighted on their calendars in anticipation of the latest start date for reciprocal upgrades with Alaska’s partner carrier Delta Air Lines. I say latest because the promise of reciprocal upgrades between Delta and Alaska has been ongoing for over a year now. A good number of start dates have been announced either by date or in a more general sense (Spring 2010), and all of them have come and gone without any program in place. The main problem seems to lie with Delta’s IT department and despite our having been told that fixing this upgrade issue is one of Delta’s biggest priorities, I can’t help but wonder if it’s fairly far down a long list of many big priorities facing Delta. Surely mollifying a few frustrated elite level fliers from a much smaller partner airline that isn’t even a Sky Team member can rank very high on Delta’s To Do list.

All the upgrade hullaballoo notwithstanding, I think we Alaska MVP Golds are still getting a pretty good shake with Delta. We can reserve priority seating including exit rows at time of booking, and when checking in we can use Delta’s Sky Priority service which provides a number of benefits geared towards a faster transition through the airport, such as use of the priority lane at security checkpoints, zone 1 boarding, specially tagged baggage that really is delivered first off the plane and free checked baggage. Frankly, if First Class upgrades never happened, I’d still be a happy camper. That said, a seat in First Class is always preferable to one in Coach, so I hope Delta gets its IT problems worked out soon.

This morning’s 5:50am departure also illustrated why Alaska elites shouldn’t get themselves too lathered up over the prospect of many upgrades on Delta. Despite the horrendously early departure time, the flight up to Atlanta was full. Even if Delta were to have had the upgrade program in place for us Alaska elites, I wouldn’t have had a chance to clear as there were 24 people on the upgrade list, all of whom would likely be above me in the upgrade hierarchy . Things were even worse in Atlanta where my Portland bound flight had 47 people listed for just two available seats. I suspect that Delta upgrades for us Alaska elites will be few and far between, typically on a Saturday afternoon flight between Atlanta and Birmingham, and then only if Georgia is playing Alabama in a big SEC rivalry. Speaking of which, I saw a good T-shirt the other day, probably being worn by a Bama fan. It had AUBURN spelled out as an acronym meaning

Alabama
Usually
Beats
Us
Red
Necks

Ya gotta love a good rivalry! Oh yeah, back to the flights.

My 5:30pm flight between Seattle and Los Angeles had been showing totally sold out in First Class for the past few days. Given the popularity of that hour for business travelers, I never gave much thought to the possibility of clearing the waitlist and so stopped by Waji’s Asian Bistro for a bowl of chicken fried rice prior to proceeding to the gate. Imagine my surprise then upon handing over my boarding pass at the jetway entrance only to be informed that they had a new one for me, in Seat 3A. Thanks, Alaska!

Despite the dinner hour departure, Alaska bills its First Class meal service on this two hour ten minute flight as a snack. As such, we were offered a plate bearing three mushroom raviolis accompanied by a pile of salad leaves on the side. Dessert was a small wrapped chocolate from Seattle Chocolate Co. I tried a couple of bites but found the flavor of the ravioli fairly bland. Thankfully my bowl of chicken fried rice was still fairly warm. The addition of some hot chilli sauce made for a much more flavorful meal. Seatmate looked on longingly and we got to talking. Turns out she’d been flying Alaska Airlines regularly up and down the West Coast since back in the days of Gold Coast Service. She lamented the current offerings and remembered the days of real dinner service on this route. Below are pictures of what we received tonight followed by a few photos of entrees off Alaska’s mid-range routes like SEA-LAX in years past.



Mushroom Ravioli Dinner SEA-LAX November 2010



Halibut Entrée June 2003



Chicken Pasta Dinner December 2008



Some kind of meat and mushrooms on pasta April 2003



Barbecued Turkey Breast March 2003