Originally Posted by keithguy

H class is an economy booking class.

It looks like you found an alaskaair.com bug.

The prices you quoted are H class fares - the same fare and price show up if you select Unrestricted Economy, except it books into coach all the way.

You do not get the H fare if you want First class through other booking websites (e.g. Travelocity, Expedia).

Further, this (First class seat for H class) only happens if there is a QX leg in the itinerary. In the PDX-PVR example, this is why the first class prices are cheapest via SEA. If you go through SEA, it's QX on PDX-SEA and thus an H fare gets you a first class seat on SEA-PVR. But if you go via SFO or LAX, it's first class on both legs and it prices as a F class fare.

A good example of this is GEG-PVR. If you search for first class fares, the itineraries with QX GEG-SEA will show up cheaper because it's H class while the itineraries with AS GEG-SEA will be more expensive because it's F class.

This also works for fares to/from CUN, LTO and possibly other Mexican destinations.

So if someone wants PVR-SEA in First, book PVR-SEA-PDX in H class on alaskaair.com and ditch the SEA-PDX segment. Or better yet, make SEA a stopover point and have a SEA-PDX segment for future use.