Flew LAX to SEA on Alaska yesterday morning...7:30 flight. I was only 1 of 15 people, so I decided to sit in coach. I asked for a seat away from everyone, so they gave me 15 rows in the back to myself. It was by far the least amount of people in more than 5 years of flying 3-6 flights a week on average.

Wow! Sounds like a money loser to me for Alaska Air!!

Interesting... and not unusual. I fly LAX-SEA on AS in the evenings. They have something like four or five departures on that route in the 5p-9p period, and frequently there's only 30 or 40 people on my flight, whichever one I get. It feels like the AS fleet ends up stacked up in SoCal at the close of the day and has to be repositioned whether there's a pax load to warrant the movement or not.

AS has particular problems with that, which is why they are so glad to have the Mexican runs--lets them fly further before turning back---FAIANCSEALAX Cabo is an efficient use of the aircraft, for instance

I know this wasn't much of a trip report, but I had to make the observation about the empty plane. And had a made a trip report, I would have made an observation about the guy in the seat in front of me from SEA back to LAX on Thursday evening. I remembered him because he seemed to be about 35 and had two plastic grocery bags full of baseball cards in boxes when he got on. During the flight, he proceeded to unpackage them and put them in a collectors box with the rest of his cards.

Well, this Saturday night, I was at the Cheesecake factory in Beverly Hills to pick up a piece of cheesecake. And who walks up to the cheesecake counter but the guy on the plane. It sure can be a small world sometimes. I am thankful I didn't become and enemy on the flight (we didn't become friends either, but we remembered each other at the Cheesecake Factory).

JeffreyT: Between the two of you, you could have gotten a Darryl-Strawberry-Cheesecake!

Rich, You crack me up. I wish I could have that much creative thinking.

I am new to the board. I am not familiar with Alaska, but will fly it for a LAX-YVR run this December? I will be on first...

What type of breakfast does Alaska serve you?
Any thoughts about its food on both F and Y class!!!

Jeffreyt...I was on that same flight on the 7th, and it was the same...very few people on board, and the 8:30 flight was cancelled also!

Hi Carfield, Welcome to Flyer Talk. Alaska's food is fine, but not like the commercials made it out to be a few years back. In first, you will get usually choice of eggs (like an omlette) or cereal, banana, maybe a roll. Nothing fancy, but the service is fine, so you should enjoy it. And PAX loads on AS have been down lately, so it should be a comfortable ride.

Thanks Jeffreyt!

Sorry to bother you one more time! I am an airline food freak... I collect airline menus... anyway, I want to know more about the dinner service on Y class between LAX and YVR. How is the Boeing 737-400? Is it pretty much the same as the -300/500?

Have you tried the new Boeing 737-700s yet?
Alaska does not provide any info regarding its new 73G on its website.

Happy flying!

I miss Seattle... it is a great city.

I like to bring my menus home from DL first class flights and scan them on my computer and then trash them. It allows me to see how menus change over time. It was nice when DL brought them back and they still aren't consistent about using them. I've never received them on AS and I think that is because it is more of a discount carrier than say DL, UA, or AA. I haven't flown LAX-YVR so don't know that route. But I have flow in the 737-400 and it was comfortable. What I liked about it was that it was very clean, and I suppose that is because of the fact that it's a young aircraft and was only about 2/3 full.

Haven't had the opportunity to fly the 737-700

I have been quite pleased with AS in general.
Hopefully I can add some info for Carfield. I do know you from Hot Talk-(or at least I think I do!), so hopefully I have centered in on some topics of interest to you. Feel free to ask any other questions.

Aircraft: AS opperates 737-200s, 400s, 700s, and also MD-82/83s. They have the 1,000 th MD-80 in their fleet and the 3,000th 737.
You will rarely see a 200 south of Seattle, and there aren't many 700s yet. The 400 has 126 Y and 12 F, the 700 has 108 Y and 12 F, the MD80 has 128 Y and 12 F. The A/C are quite comfortable, and have a very attractive interior pattern of blue and gold. The coach seat pitch is usually 32 or 33 inchs depending on the aircraft. Coming next year will be 24 channels of live television (via satellite)at seat back monitors. This is planned to be installed on all aircraft, if a test run is successful. But, the full installation would take years.

In general, you will find the staff to be quite friendly, especially on-board. The meal service is typically nice. In Coach for breakfast (SEA-ANC), they served me some surprisingly delicious scrambled eggs with a muffin, small yogurt and a fruit salad. In First (ANC-SEA), I got a "Denver" style omlette, with breakfast potatoes, a big hot buttermilk biscuit w/perserves, yogurt and an assortment of fruit. In first class, you typically get hot towels. There is no menu. They have a "Wine Celler" listing in their magazine, that has several nice wine selections for First Class. For dinner service, a salad, followed by a choice of entree, and then a dessert is typical.

I use on-line booking, and instant travel with them whenever I can. If you book on-line, get an e-ticket, and check-in electronically, you can get a full 2,000 bonus miles per round trip. You can upgrade to First Class for $40 dollars on flights up to 1,299 miles ($80 for up to 2,500 miles), if there is availabilty within 24 hours of departure---I use this all the time.

[This message has been edited by West Coast Flyer (edited 01-17-2000).]