ADeutsch

Flying on Alaska but using AA miles. Found a Business Saver Award for 25K which in the end will cost me 10K miles. What should I expect on this flight. Dreading not paying 50K more for a AA metal business class flight.

sfozrhfco

Keep your expectations low and you will be fine. No lie flat seats, no seat back entertainment. Generally friendly flight attendants and OK food. For free it will be decent.

ADeutsch

That is what I was thinking especially for a 9AM departure and a 6PM landing into JFK. Only issue is the entertainment. I need something for 5.5 hours. I mean I can afford the other flight just for free I am willing to take a risk. If its operations that day however Alaska is the first to cancel.

eponymous_coward

https://www.alaskaair.com/content/tr...ainment/tablet

In theory you can use the Windows tablet to play the streaming movies as well as the ones preloaded on the tablet. In practice I found doing this stuttered a bit (A Microsoft product hogs resources and isn't good as Android or iOS at things they do with no problem? Color me shocked!) so I would stick with the movies loaded on the tablet (which work fine).

sfozrhfco

I would plan to entertain yourself. If you need video content you actually would like to watch, download something from Amazon/Netflix/iTunes and have it available to watch. Otherwise, bring a paper/e-book or magazine.

Legend717

Just like practically every other US airline (with exceptions by fleet type), you can stream tons of stuff to your own device, and charge it at the same time on Alaska.
So I don't see what the problem is.
And frankly, it's not like Alaska is somehow the backwoods airline of the West. Are they as luxurious as the big three? Well, maybe not, but I've certainly had my fare share of negative experiences on those carriers, too.
Alaska is generally a friendly little airline that sets service standards in the middle and prices to match.
If you're that dependent on a seat back monitor, go ahead and fork over your 50k miles...... I mean, it's a few hours... not like you're taking up residence in their airplane for the rest of your life.

sfozrhfco

That may be true but OP is not flying in coach and this is a premium route for every other carrier but AS. So, unless you are flying for free or have a very low paid F ticket, any other carrier that flies non stop from SFO-JFK/EWR has a better overall product than the AS 737. This is why the question was asked. Is the AS product horrible--no--but if prices are comparable, then the AS 737 from SFO-JFK would be the last choice for any rational person. AS has made it very well known that they do not intend to compete on this route so anybody selecting them should keep their expectations in check.

eponymous_coward

I've found I wanted to watch the preloaded content on the devices handed out in F on recent AS transcon trips, though as I said, it's laggy if you watch the streamed content on the tablets handed out in F (my own device works fine for that though). I've made enough of them in the last few months that I'm speaking from personal experience. But please, enlighten me...

I think paying 50k more AA miles for better IFE (if indeed it's better- my experience of AA IFE is "well, this is fine" but it's not like EK) is a bit questionable unless you assign the value of 50,000 miles at around the cost of two movie tickets.

Since a one way to Europe's 57.5k AA miles I think I'd rather keep the AA miles and "suffer" through whatever AS is giving out on the flight. But hey, different strokes for different folks.

ADeutsch

Actually I agree. Just looking at Thanksgiving and have to spend it in NYC from SFO. 50,000 Transcon business flight on AA available on Sunday Thanksgiving weekend.

eponymous_coward

Legend717

1. The prices AREN'T the same, in this case, they're DOUBLE.
2. I never said AS had a fantastic product that beat all their peers. But I DID say that, for a single handful of hours, I mean, #firstworldproblems . You seem pretty down on the AS product. That's fine. I'm not delusional about it, either. But... for five hours in a metal tube, half price is half price.

91foxbody

I fly AS transcon 5-10 times a year. I've gotten lucky and flown F awards on AA A330's which were great, but AS if fine for me as I try to consolidate EQM's onto AS if I can. The service usually beats DL/AA/etc.

PV_Premier

its all about perspective. 5 hours is a short flight in my book, so i go with what is cheapest or at least the best value per mile/dollar spent at this stage length.

if the OP is used to short hops around the west coast and doesn't travel internationally, maybe the lie flat "experience" on this flight is worth the miles or money.

for me, i won't fly premium transcon unless the cost is under $500 one way, or can be obtained at the saver level and even then i am expecting a lie flat seat.

eponymous_coward

I'm sort of confused because there's no 50k level for transcon business in the AA chart:

https://www.aa.com/i18n/aadvantage-p...ward-chart.jsp

Saver J is 32.5k, Saver F is 50k.

At various times it's been "50k more" than "'50k" so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I guess I might consider FL Dining at JFK and a really nice lie-flat seat a reason to spend an extra 25k, but still, that's a lot of miles.

tphuang

I was pretty confused by that too. I've recently done the saver j on JFK-SFO. Since I have AA credit card, I got another 10% saving, so it came out to be 29k. Which when you factor in the flagship lounge at JFK is a pretty good deal imo.