Alaska Airlines elevates First Class menu and experience, with a West Coast twist
 

https://newsroom.alaskaair.com/2018-03-16-So-fresh-Alaska-Airlines-elevates-First-Class-menu-and-experience-with-a-West-Coast-twist-upgrade

In addition to meal changes, there will be "thoughtful product extras" like "a cozy quilted throw and entertainment tablet on longer flights" and "one-of-a-kind Schönwald serving pieces inspired by Virgin America".

Oh. And new seats:

No mention of lay flats.

Neil

New and different can sometimes be a good thing. Excites to see this roll out.

i have a crafting friend whose husband is working on the menu integration/updates, I think she'll be happy to hear my say something positive about the food instead of some of the stuff she is probably tired of hearing me say. Then again, not everyone is stuck eating overcooked lima beans in pistachio pesto on a three week rotation and find it already appealing.

I am actually the most excited about the quilted throw. I’m probably quite strange and felt that the VX blanket was the best thing about flying their F product transcon, and even the buy on board Nap Pack in Y was worth the purchase on one IAD-SFO.

MOAR POLENTA

^

Guess this explains why we've seen so much unbranded glassware floating around.

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/alas...assware-f.html

Anyone getting an error thrown visiting the site on Chrome?

This one works fine, though:

https://newsroom.alaskaair.com/2018-...-twist-upgrade

I like the dishware and blanket upgrades. Hopefully it's as good as the VX duvet. Not impressed by the trendy smoothie shots. If quiche is gone, I guess the first picture is now a frittata. Also interesting is the new 675 mile cutoff for meals. That cuts SFO-PDX.

I wonder what percentage of refurbed VX cabins are part of the half of the mainline fleet by the end of 2019 number. I assume those will already be a priority for harmonizing with the rest of the fleet. Could mean as little as a 1/3 of the 737 fleet get new seats if all of the VX fleet get new seats.

This does look nice:
https://prnewswire2-a.akamaihd.net/p.../100012/type/1

Weird. I updated the post with the updated link, thanks.

Still mum on SFO lounge

The press release speaks of reimagined lounges, not imagined lounges.

♫Imagine there's no lounge there, it's easy if you try. No pancake machine there, for coffee there's a line ... ♫

Since the tablets are sticking around, it's at least nice to see tablet holders in the seats.

I like that AS has PacNW treats (like Tim's chips, Tillamook cheese grits, and once upon a time an amazing Crater Lake Hazelnut Espresso Vodka), so bringing in more regional things from the West is cool.