Airbus A319/20/21N Reconfiguration/Retirements Tracking Thread
 

Alaska is in the process of preparing the VX fleet for interior mods to match that of the AS fleet. Seating in First Class will change to 12 from the current 8, and Premium Class will be getting 6 more seats. Ultimately, these aircrafts will be transfers from their Transcontinental Routes, to more North/South Corridor routes on the West Coast.

Just a note: N362-365 have sharklets but are not ETOPS . Only N281-6VA are ETOPS certified.

I assume F seats will be replaced with Alaska <current> F seats?

As I understand it, the new F seats will not be coming until late 2018 and we don't know if they will get prioritized to the Airbus aircraft yet (since those seats have to be replaced anyway).

I've heard like Q2, but that was a while ago so it probably switched to later 2018. This thread is probably useless until then as I suspect repainting and cabin mods are gonna happen together.

https://seekingalpha.com/article/411...all-transcript

Take it with a grain of salt, but the conversions are now scheduled to start September 2018 and run 15 months.

I hope we can get comp F upgrades sooner, but the merger elite benefit roadmap says late 2018 in alignment with the reconfigs I guess?

Will that mean only comp F on Alaska F seats?

Or... will we get comp F once they are using only the Alaska reservation system in April?? One can hope we get comp F in VX F seats :)

If it's all AS flight numbers and AS tickets with AS elites, they'll have to do some kind of time-limited logic ("OK, it's an Airbus, so don't upgrade anyone") that could get totally messed up with equipment subs, and will just get everyone mad.

The elite benefits roadmap now says mid-2018 for comp F upgrades on VX flights.

I would think that once 4/25/2018 happens (assuming that is when SOC happens and all tickets/flights are now AS), how is AS going to stop upgrades on what was VX equipment? There are no VX flights at that point. It's all AS flights.

"SOC" (FAA certification) and "all tickets/flights are now AS" (marketing/DOT) are two separate events that have nothing to do with each other.

In recent past mergers, the SOC happened well before the 2 airlines were being marketed/sold as a single entity. It isn't much different than Horizon (despite being owned by AAG) operating under its own FAA Operating Certificate yet being marketed as AS.

SOC = January 2018
Single Passenger Service System (all flights are now AS) = 4/25/18

Glad to have "the rest of the story" here ^

N925VA has been delivered to MIA a few days ago and is reported to be in all white livery. It appears this may be the SF Giants livery previously announced. I am not sure if it is going to be VX on the inside though. N924VA is coming in the next few weeks - again in XFW in all white livery...rumors are this is the first airbus in AS colors...again unsure if the inside is gonna be the VX red....

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...9545f76dc2.jpg


My best guess is that since it'd being configured at MIA, where VX TechOps is based (despite not flying there) -- where every single new plane into their system is configured -- I'd imagine that it'll be VX on the inside. MIA TechOPs and new plane config is done elsewhere.

By painting it in MostWestCoast livery, it can remain that way for years to come or indefinitely.