It’s nice to try other carriers once in awhile and I found Alaska Airlines top-notch on my flight from Los Angeles to Dalllas onboard an Airbus A320 in first class.
Alaska Airlines A320 First Class Review
I booked my ticket for a remarkably cheap $199 a few weeks in advance directly in first class (to international readers, consider it business class – U.S. carriers just prefer to use the term “first” class). I’ve paid more in economy class on flights to Dallas in the past.
Alaska operates from Terminal 6 at LAX. I walked through the check-in lobby, which was empty, but did not need to stop by the desk because I had already checked in on my mobile phone.
As an added bonus, Alaska Airlines grants lounge access to its first class passengers. Those who purchase a revenue ticket or redeem miles for first class can access the lounge (without guests). Upgrades are not eligible for access. I arrived early to review the lounge, which will be published tomorrow.
Boarding began on-time 45 minutes prior to takeoff. A flight attendant standing in the galley greeted me as I boarded.
Alaska Airlines 823
Los Angeles (LAX) – Dallas (DAL)
Friday, September 10
Depart: 5:00PM
Arrive: 10:05PM
Duration: 3hr, 05min
Aircraft: Airbus A320
Seat: 2A (First Class)
The A320 was on the way out at Alaska Airlines, but now their future is unclear. Alaska traditionally had an all-Boeing mainline fleet but inherited a number of Airbus planes from Virgin America after the merger. It tired to dump the A320s, set them aside during the pandemic, but re-activated them due to stronger-than-expected demand. Alaska also operates A321neos ordered by Virgin.
Seat
First Class contains only 12 seats, another reason I did not want to gamble on an upgrade. The three rows of 2-2 seating featuring a generous 41 inches of legroom and a retractable footrest from the seat in front (the first row has footrest included as part of the seat.
Between seats is a center console housing the tray table, power plugs, and USB-A ports. The center console also has a built-in cupholder, which keeps drinks more secure in case of turbulence.
IFE + Wi-Fi
When this plane operated for Virgin America, it had seatback screens at every seat. Alaska ripped them out because Alaska wished to harmonize its fleet and never has offered seatback screens.
But Alaska Airlines has introduced streaming in-flight-entertainment and I was quite impressed by the selection of movies, TV shows, and audio available.
Wi-Fi Internet was also available for purchase, at a cost of $6.50/hour or $15.00 for a flight pass. Messaging apps, however, are not behind a pay wall.
It was also nice to just look out the window:
Food + Drinks
A laminated menu in the setback pocket indicated the drinks available onboard, including water, juice, beer, wine, and spirits.
Alaska offers meal pre-ordering in first class and I had pre-ordered about a week before my flight. Choices included:
- Butternut squash risotto – mascarpone butternut squash risotto with roasted butternut squash, herb marinated roasted tomato, wilted spinach, and smoked tomato cream sauce.
- Roasted chicken clementine – boneless roasted chicken breast marinated with clementine and fennel, accompanied by roasted fennel and clementine slices, saffron basmati rice, and marinated Tuscan kale
- Fruit & cheese plate – Cheddar, brie, crackers, grapes, apple slice, and a chelate truffle from Seattle Chocolate
I ordered the chicken, which the flight attendant confirmed while taking meal orders after takeoff.
First, I love that Alaska Airlines offers hot meals on flights over 1,100 miles and not just slop on a plate, but thoughtfully-created, tasty meals. The chicken with fennel and orange flavoring was very tasty and I felt it was one of the healthier airline meals I have had lately.
After the meal tray was cleared away, the flight attendant appeared with a paper bag containing a hot cookie inside with pecans and white chocolate. It was so tasty and the highlight of the meal.
As if that wasn’t enough food, before landing another beverage and snack basket was offered, including:
- Chex Mix
- Kind bars
- Popcorn
- Cheese puffs
- Granola cookie
I took a couple items to go (and enjoyed them later). The quality of Alaska’s snack basket selection is far superior to United’s.
Service
The service was tremendous on this flight and I want to offer a shoutout to the flight attendant for being attentive throughout the entire flight: she did not rest for one moment.
Pre-departure beverage? Check (water bottle).
Addressing passengers by surname? Check.
Drinks refilled? Check,
Trays collected promptly? Check.
I could not have asked for better service on this flight.
Lavatory
Before landing, I visited the lavatory in the front of the cabin. It included no special amenities, but I liked the big reminder to wash our hands.
CONCLUSION
We landed ahead of schedule at Dallas Love and I was soon on my way to my hotel – DAL is an easy airport to fly into.
Alaska impressed me with its soft product onboard and would not hesitate to fly the airline again, especially at that price point. While I prefer a lie-flat bed for longer flights, this is a very good product for a three-hour flight.
Such a basic review of alaska first class, which has been done millions of times over. And way too long. Suggestion: Can you do 2 min reads with the key highlights/takeaways. This is like a novel.
Reminds me of the old Northwest airlines in the late 90s-mid 2000s – footrest in first class, no screens, a decent meal for mid length flights, but not market leading for anything long haul
I recently had a flight up front from FAI to SEA on Alaska; no complaints whatsoever.
As a MVP 75K living in NW Louisiana, but consistently using AS out of DAL and DFW, your experience on this route is abnormal compared to mine…probably because you were on mainline vs. the numerous times I’ve had to take this route and it’s operated by SkyWest on the E175s.
For starters, I’m surprised your flight boarded and left on time…that has yet to happen to me on the LAX-DAL flights I’ve taken this year on AS (err, SkyWest).
Addressed by name? Yep, only got that on AS mainline…have yet to receive that on their regionals (Horizon, I’m talking to you too).
Love the mainline AS service…imo, it’s the best in the business on domestic flights. Regionals? It’s hit-and-miss.
Ditching UA for more AS/B9 this year and next. 2022 could be my last year as UA Platinum.
I feel like so many bloggers sleep on Alaska Airlines. I am perfectly happy with the first class product for a daytime flight from SEA-JFK, which is about 5 hours. As a short person that footrest saves my back. And you are right – the food options are all healthy.
Visited the enormous new Alaska First Class Lounge in Seattle on the way home from Alaska in August 2019 – really special.
I hope they keep those Airbuses, I live in Seattle and I rather fly Delta if Alaska goes to an all 737, at least Delta has choices.
I started flying on Alaska Airlines just over a year ago; mostly on their Boeing 737s, with one flight on an Embraer 175 operated by their regional partner, Horizon. But for my last flight, which was a just a short one within my state, I was able to book it on one of their A320s for my very FIRST flight on any Airbus. I purchased a seat in Alaska’s premium seating and got seat 8F. I immediately noticed the difference in the windows from the 737! However, I found out that the engines are made by the same company that makes engines for the 737–CFMI–yet their design is obviously a little different, and I thought they were a bit quieter. After landing, I asked permission to take a look at the flight deck, something I have never done before because I’m always in a big rush to get off the plane. I’m familiar with the 737 lay out so it was interesting to compare with the Airbus, and the most obvious thing is there are no control yokes in front of the pilots, as they have side sticks instead (which I couldn’t really see past the pilots’ bodies). Next, if possible, I want to fly on the A220!!
We want more United content!!
Sadly that was a better meal than we received in our transcon earlier this summer. Hopefully AS is rolling that menu out to all flights and not just Dallas.
Love the Airbus! I work for Google out of Seattle and a lot of my colleagues enjoy flying Alaska, not sure we will if they only have 737’s. Thank goodness we have Delta to fall back to in case!
Alaska’s A320 First Class doesn’t look anything special for the extra cost. No dedicated cabin…..just a flimsy curtain which never completely separates the different cabin areas. The front row of seats up against the galley bulkhead seem to offer less legroom. The laminated menu smacks of Coach Class (even allowing for Covid sanitation considerations) and to me, further reduced the appeal of Alaskan First Class on the A320. The meal, as reviewed, seemed ok; but again, nothing special, and I would expect more for my buck, quite frankly.
Watching an in-flight movie on a seat-back screen is frankly bad enough in any cabin class, but to have to squint at a generally much smaller phone/iPad screen, the pax have to provide themselves, to receive download streaming of entertainment is not my idea of premium service.
As for the review itself………
Too long winded: should have been more concise. Only averagely written, in my opinion…….