ghillier

I relocated to Portland, Oregon in 2008 and began flying Alaska Airlines regularly as they have frequent service from PDX. I am an AAdvantage Platinum for Lifer and also fly Delta and Hawaiian occasionally and I am shocked how terrible Alaska's First Class is.

A flight on Alaska used to be a great experience, especially in First, but continuing bad experiences make me wonder what's up. I will share a few recent experiences with you.

Alaska's First Class begins with two big strikes against it: the seat pitch is among the smallest and there are no power outlets on any Alaska Airlines plane. Once onboard, Alaska steadfastly refuses to offer a predeparture beverage - the only airline I know of that scrimps on this familiar perk. You do not get a full meal on Alaska unless the flight is four hours or longer.

On a recent Anchorage-Seattle run, which is just shy of the magic four hour mark, the "Snack" service was a nasty salad with two small ravioli. Period.

Transcon and Hawaii flights on Alaska are miserable: the seats and lack of space really add up after a couple of hours. I fly to Boston frequently and Alaska has a nonstop flight from Portland. Eastbound is a breakfast service complete with a printed menu card but the eggs benedict was nothing more than an Egg McMuffin with disgusting fake hollandaise sauce served with a cold muffin. The westbound flight, at 6 hours, is torture. Dinner was a nasty pork roast with tasteless spuds and a dry salmon starter. This is sad because Alaska's food was the best for many years.

The biggest letdown: Alaska's Flight Attendants. I have never encountered a more bitter, rude, and unhelpful bunch than the FA's at Alaska. I have witnessed these FA's get into shouting matches with passengers, complete with threats and profanity and the all-time worst was the FA in First on a recent Seattle-Hawaii flight that refused a request for a pre-departure glass of champagne for a newlywed couple, despite being prodded by the rest of the folks in First. When she said "It is against the Law" I spoke up and said every other Carrier offers a pre-departure beverage, she threatened to get the Gate Agent and have me taken off the flight !

Other Pax I have talked to share similar horror stories. Please let me know if you have had a similar experience.

Seat 2A

I first flew on Alaska Airlines in 1976 and have since logged over 800,000 miles with them. While I won't contest the fact that their First Class meal service has suffered a precipitous decline over the past seven years, their employees and in particular their Flight Attendants remain amongst the best and friendliest in the industry.

But I don't know ~ maybe it's just me because I find most Flight Attendants regardless of their employer to be reasonably friendly. Although you'll find a few slackers on any airline (except maybe SQ or CX), it's been my experience on most airlines and in particular Alaska that these types are more the exception than the rule.

Gardyloo

Like 2A, I've flown on AS regularly for many a year. I suppose I could say that things have gone downhill steadily since they got rid of the Convair 880s and Golden Samovar Service (I do miss the Cossack FA outfits).

I just spent around 10 days on and off doing a 25K+ mile MR (2x EQM/3x RDM promo on AA) which involved several segments in AS and AA domestic F, including two AA and one AS transcons (SEA AA JFK, MIA AA LAX, and MIA AS SEA). Next week I'll finish up with AS F SEA-ANC-SEA for turkey with friends. So around 28K BIS miles with AA and AS in F & J during November.

My verdict is that AS' hard product definitely needs an upgrade, but its soft product is streets ahead of AA's on single-aisle transcons and midcons. (Note this is NOT to say that AA's hard product is anything to write home about - AA's 738s and MD-80s are no roomier than AS, and the dreadful AA 757 domestic F seats are well known as no place to spend 6 or 7 hours.)

Coming out of Miami on AS the day before yesterday, we got a pretty good choice of French toast or a sun-dried tomato quiche, both of which were really quite good. By comparison, on AA between SEA and JFK a couple weeks ago, the breakfast was absolutely dire - inedible stringy corned beef shreds served with scrambled egg-like substance that could double as a dog chew toy. On AA we got a hot cookie before landing; on AS we got cold nuts. Big whoop. At least we got digi-players, rather than flickering overhead drop-down CRT movies on AA. (How many times can one watch "Dinner for Schmucks" in one week? Answer: kill me now.)

I don't like generalizing about FAs, but at least on my limited data base, the AS FAs were more helpful, positive, and professional than most of their AA counterparts, although they're really small differences - I think most FAs do a good job and know their stuff.

I guess my feeling is that AS' F product overall is decent, not stunning. It's nowhere up to international standards, and in fact having flown a few west coast segments in VX F I don't think AS comes within a light year of VX's hard product. But for everyday service, attitude, and general product, I'm not too disappointed.

Seat 2A

In terms of quality, I think Alaska's First Class meals are generally pretty good. My complaint is with regard to quantity. On the transcons you get a decent meal, but the "snack" service being offered on the midcons (SEA-DFW/IAH/ORD/MSP/ANC/FAI with flight lengths of 3-4.5 hours) is inappropriate to the length of the flight. On a four hour flight departing at 6:00pm, you should receive a proper dinner and this doesn't happen on Alaska.

Eastbay1K

My AS breakfast this week was actually better than what UA served me in PS C earlier this year. I was shocked at the decline in quality of that service.

AS = food quantity on midcon and AK services, seat pitch and comfort, and on occasion, how long it takes to commence F service and how early the cabin is prepared for arrival.

AS ^ = more than not in recent years, a crew that doesn't have an attitude, doesn't kvetch about the job while on the job, serving usually an edible food product. The transcon/HI foodstuffs - it isn't that they have gotten that much better, it is that the competition has sunk even more.

(This refers to F issues specifically, not to other issues w/the airline.)

jackal

Indeed; what's with this?! On AS143 earlier this week, the pilot had just started the descent and hadn't even yet turned the seat belt sign on, and the flight attendant pounded the back of my seat and woke me to tell me to bring my seat back up. I groggily complied and then was so uncomfortable that I inched it back literally three degrees of recline (almost imperceptibly--just enough so I wasn't falling forward). Moments later, she pounds on it again and tells me to bring it up. I think at this point we were at maybe 33,000' (having come down from 35,000').

Once she sat down, I dropped my seat back and kept it there until they made the announcement (a good 10 minutes later) to bring all seat backs and tray tables up to their locked positions. At that point, I complied and brought it forward for landing. I'm sorry, but I have an issue being told to do it 10 minutes before the rest of the plane is told to do it.

As to the OP: Some valid points in there, but in over 60,000 miles and 40 segments of flying in AS's First Class, I have never encountered flight attendants that fit anything close to the OP's description.

seanthepilot

My limited experience with Alaska was pretty darn OK, but then I'm used to United

I was able to use the same paper upgrade voucher multiple times and it was never collected. I thought that was pretty good. The cert was gifted to me and after using it 4 times, I gave it to another FTer to use.

eponymous_coward

I'd agree, with a lot of segments in F (and even some recently through PDX).

To the OP: you don't have much luck in AA F, either, do you, from your first post?

MatthewLAX

Food is a disappointment in AS F, but I have always found the service to be good.

Swanhunter

As this now more resembles a debate on AS F, we'll move this over to the Alaska forum for further input.

Swanhunter
Moderator, Trip Reports

HDK

I've been AS MVPG since 1998 and my experience re: FA's is dramatically differnent than the OP's. I can only recall two perhaps three segments where I thought the FA's were off their game.

Maybe I'm in the minority but I certainly don't fly just to get a free drink before they close the door or anxiously await my dining selection.

It's a good thing that the OP flies out of a city with some other choices in carriers...

beckoa

Was wondering where this thread came from

As for the concerns, yes, the pitch on AS isn't the greatest, and power is well... nonexistant unless you run an outlet from the lavatory (have not done this yet) but its a decent little airline that provides prompt service, and a nice soft product. Meals on transcons beat what DL offers by miles - at least ex-SEA/PDX - nice to have a choice. Wifi on most of their birds, and unlimited free space available upgrades to elites are hard to beat, especially to Hawaii... (even if they don't always clear).

And try flying DL to Hawaii from the West Coast... that is a painful experience... especially when in the back.

beckoa

This was compounded IMO due to traveling nearly nonstop the day prior, and entering into the 45th hour... There were quite a few gusts in ANC prior we were all anticipating a bumpy decent... thankfully this did not happen ^

Eastbay1K

Is that what the "lady" you encountered near the Princess Kaiulani was trying to sell you? (Sometimes typos are funny, sometimes they aren't.)

golfingboy

I have flown in F on CO, AS, and DL this year.

My comparison of AS's F product compared to CO/DL:

Pros

Great FAs
Great Legroom [better than CO and miles better than DL]
Transcon meals are ^^^ I need to report what I had on 3 LAX-DCA flights
Good liquor selections [Crown Royal, Glenlivet, etc]
Great beer
BR Access when flying on paid F/A
WIFI
A tray table where your drink does not slide towards you a la Delta
Decent storage space under the seats... DL/CO's are restricted due to entertainment system.. Not a big deal for me.

Cons

Midcon and short flight [SEA-LAX] meals
No full service PDB [CO/DL managed to do them all without issue on all of my 737 flights]
No Power Ports
DigEplayer
Seats are a big except for legroom.. CO and DL's seat blows AS away by miles
Fewer FAs serving F... Only one, while on CO/DL normally see more than 2... During meal service on CO we had 2 FAs. On LAX-ATL on the 757 we had 3!

On CO on a 1,200ish mile flight, for dinner I had:

Entree plate [pasta with stuffed spinach covered in tomato sauce, quite tasty but my tummy was full from crabcakes ]
Bowl of Salad
Soup
Warm Roll
Berry Pie for dessert [wasn't that good, but heard the brownies are good]