Alaska Airlines has debuted its new first class seat to replace the spacious seats on the ex-Virgin America Airbus fleet. Frankly, the seat is disappointing and Alaska’s strategy is perplexing.
Alaska will refresh the interiors of the Airbus fleet in both economy and first class. The new cabins will include (and I’m just quoting from their press release, so please pardon the fluff…):
- Refreshed color palette from the updated bulkhead design to the carpet, bringing in neutral tones that are associated with relaxing environments against pops of Alaska’s signature blue.
- Ambient mood lighting with calming, cool blue hues developed by lighting and color experts to complement the human body’s natural circadian rhythm. The result is lighting that changes throughout the flight to promote an uplifting energy during the day and calming energy into the evening.
- Advanced high-speed satellite Wi-Fi by Gogo will deliver faster connection speeds, including the ability to stream content from popular services like Netflix or HBOGo.
- Redesigned first class Recaro seats that evoke the feeling of both performance and comfort, like a luxury car. The sculpted design features memory foam and a 40″ pitch, along with footrests to support guests of varying heights.
- Ergonomically-friendly tablet holders at each seat that accommodate most tablets and smartphones. The holders free up tray table space and an added shelf keeps devices in prime viewing position. Flexible mesh pockets also allow for easy access to essentials during the flight.
- Upgraded premium and main cabin seats now feature memory foam for added comfort.
- Conveniently-placed and tilted power outlets at every seat (USB & 110V) that allow guests to easily locate and charge two devices at once. The electrical boxes under the middle seat have been relocated to provide more personal space for guests.
- Curated, onboard music program with a cool West Coast vibe that complements the relaxing and modern ambiance.
- Cup holders throughout first class and premium class, so that guests can multi-task while they savor a craft beer, wine, or cocktail and have full use of the tray table.
Executive Summary: Alaska is ripping out seatback IFE throughout the plane and replacing a first class seat with deep recline and 55″ of seat pitch with a seat with only 40″ of legroom.
We’ll go from this–
To this–
The Virgin America seat was great, but still uncompetitive compared its competitors, all of whom offered lie-flat seating on the premium transcon routes they were competing on. Now Alaska is taking a further step back.
Alaska – A premium experience at an affordable price?
Ben Minicucci, Alaska’s President and Chief Operating Officer, argued that Alaska provides a better value in its first class cabin:
After extensive feedback from our guests and in collaboration with our partners, we’ve infused the Alaska Airlines cabin with key brand elements from Virgin America – the result is a premium experience at an affordable price.
But does it?
Alaska offers standard seating on its transcontinental flights:
Meanwhile, American offers lie-flat seating:
So does Delta:
So does JetBlue:
And so does United:
So if Alaska offers a low-cost alternative to its premium cabin competitors, I could understand the business model. But it doesn’t.
Let’s look at some random dates in summer.
From San Francisco to JFK Alaska is the same price as the competition:
From Los Angeles to JFK, only JetBlue is more expensive:
Alaska is a bit cheaper if you fly to Newark, but the same as Delta and American for flights into JFK. And if you are going to buy business class, who would not pay an extra $120 for a real bed?
Maybe Alaska’s advantage is last-minute ticketing? How about San Francisco to New York tomorrow?
Nope, not that either.
Do you mean to tell me that you want to charge more than JetBlue for a far inferior product? Good luck.
CONCLUSION
I understand a business model that offers an inferior product at a cheaper price. But I simply do not understand an airline that is replacing an uncompetitive first class seat with an even more uncompetitive first class seat and expects to charge roughly the same as the competition.
What are your thoughts on the refreshed cabins for the Alaska Airlines’ Airbus fleet?
They remind me of Iceland Air. Decent product at an average price point but domestic first seating at a flatbed price. While this might work if they flew shorter routes (Yes they need a midwest hub). It doesn’t fly on long haul routes I don’t think. I like Alaska a lot but does seem short-sighted.
Never fly Norweigian Airlines – horrendous airlines with a very bad rating on Consumer Review.
This decision makes no sense to me. Virgin America’s planes were some of the nicest in the industry. Especially sitting in the back of the plane. The seats were comfortable, spacious, and seat back IFE is my preferred form of in flight entertainment.
There are a lot more routes than SFO to New York. I fly from SFO to the east coast at least once a month, but never to New York. What good do the lie flat seats Alaska’s competitors offer do me? Those aren’t available on most transcon routes and not on the routes that I fly. Certainly the new product is worse, but a key question is how many seats there will be in FIrst— are they using the reduced pitch to put in more seats? As it is, it’s hard to get upgraded as an MVP Gold on the SFO-WAS routes, so if this means more seats in First and a better chance of upgrades, it could be a good trade off.
But on these premium transcontinental routes do you agree with me that Alaska is woefully uncompetitive?
Good god. I’m on a JFK-LAX flight right now. This “first class” seat is literally worse than economy plus on JetBlue or other traditional airlines. There is simply no serious recline (as much as in a standard economy seat), no footrest and no seat-back TV monitor. My neck hurts from staring down at the tables on a stand on my food tray. I WILL NEVER FLY ALASKA AGAIN. Period.
I dunno, man. I can get instant upgraded to Alaska first class on LAX-EWR for $429 if I look.
Tell me, is LAX-EWR CPU eligible on United? ’cause it is on Alaska if the space is available.
What’s Jet Blue’s Mint upgrade policy, incidentally? I’m dying to know.
I’d prefer to pay the extra $200 for a lie-flat bed and to earn more EQMs and PQDs.
As an Alaska Gold 75 member, I could not agree more!
After an entire year of promoting all the upgrades to the soft product they were making, especially in first class, we are now back to the same chicken and pasta choices on long haul flights, tablets are gone from most flights, as are the briefly seen duvets. There are still no pillows. There is adamantly no pre-departure beverage—ever. There are fewer and fewer amenities, and somehow the think we are going to pay the same (or higher!) prices than JetBlue Mint or Delta first class? I just don’t get it.
While I am likely to continue to fly Alaska on some routes for convenience and fir miles, I have purchased JetBlue Mint 3 times in the past 3 months….I would never have done that a couple of years ago.
As a fellow G75K member, I’m not sure what you speak of. I get offered a tablet every flight (never take it, I have my own preferred IFE), always take the pre-departure coffee (offered every flight) and have no issues with the upgraded FC cabin.
(ANC-PDX-BOS-SEA regularly)
VX’s first product while not as nice as other transcon products was still a roomy and very nice product for a 5-6 hour coast to coast flight (and still is on airbuses that haven’t been converted). On non-trancon flights it was/is the best medium and short haul F product out there.
I can understand why Alaska is standardizing their fleet, and the new F product with 40” pitch looks as good, if not better, as anything else in the US for non-trancon fights. We’ll all miss the old VX F seats on these medium and shorter routes, but for all categories other than transcon flights (which is a lot of routes) Alaska will have a very competitive product.
Regarding transcons Alaska is at a big disadvantage compared to it’s competitors. When your F product isn’t as good as Delta’s 767s, you know your product is out of it’s league. I think Alaska’s going to have to either discount transcon F, or innovate and eventually offer another product. I think the most likely reason they haven’t done this yet is that they currently have bigger fish to fry.
Meow? “Alaska’advantagege” You may need the premium version of Grammarly after all!
Also, does anyone find it ironic that “grammarly” isn’t even a word?
I don’t find that ironic at all… what’re they going to do, trademark the word grammar? Nope.
@Matthew it appears Grammarly is having a glitch right now as sex_cat pointed out above. Same thing is happening to mine, so make sure you double check the corrections.
I find it more ironic that ‘phoenetic’ isn’t spelt the way it sounds.
They’re refurbishing the A320s for not quite trans-cons i.e. SEA-CMH.
Alaska has been overrated for years. Virgin America’s F seat was heads above Alaska’s. Alaska is Southwest Plus – and even that’s debatable. Alaska value engineered their F cabin from V. Am.’s. Alaska’s high ratings come from decades of Seattle and Portland hometown pay-to-print boosterism in the media, city hall, chamber of commerce. Just google hometown boosterism. Part of the propaganda toolkit. Shame that VA is gone. Anything that’s good doesn’t last long, so take advantage while it’s there. So glad I was able to experience VA’s F cabin.
TLDR- We can’t sell our F seats on premium routes at market prices, so we might as well debase them.
Just flew first class on a 6 hr flight to Kauai, and it was a subpar experience with mediocre food and poor service. For me it isn’t worth the cost of first class for just a marginal upgrade from premium economy. This article just confirms that for me. I’ll save my hard earned cash for the first class on other airlines.
I actually kind of understand Alaska’s decision to rip out the Virgin America seats. As one airline, they can’t offer two vastly different in-flight experiences on the A320 vs the 737. It isn’t a good business model to have two different types of aircraft which have extremely different cabin interiors. To have a synchronous in-flight experience, Alaska wasn’t about to put in-flight entertainment screens and big white Virgin America recliner chairs on all of their 737s as it just isn’t that economically feasible for them as they rather would sell more seats but take away some comfort. Additionally, at least the new seats have foot rests which is something that neither United, Delta, or American have. Finally, I wholeheartedly agree with the article that Alaska offers a very uncompetitive product on the premium transcontinental routes. It probably would be a good idea if they retrofit at least some of their A320s or 737s with a lie-flat business class product on those routes so they can compete with Delta, American, United, and JetBlue on those routes.
Not to mention that they should be flying their transcons using 739s not A319s- the incremental cost isn’t that much more but getting to sell extra coach seats for lower-frequency flights helps drive revenue up.
But it doesn’t exactly make much sense to fly 8F uber-premium F on SEA-SFO and 16F not-so-premium SFO/LAX-NYC.
The 319 rarely flies transcons. It’s normally the later series 320’s and 321’s. The 321NEO is the best aircraft in Alaska’s fleet by a mile.
Since 80% of my flights are up and down the West Coast, where Alaska is by far superior, I’m not going to change carriers (and give up my status) by switching for the few flights I have between the coasts. I think Alaska is counting on that. And it’s not like it’s a 10 hour flight. At best you can only get in a couple hour nap, even with a lie flat. And they still have the only FF plan with any real value from flying.
BUT…does it make sense for Alaska to take all transcon’s and convert those supporting aircraft with life flat seating to be as competitive? Vs. using these new seats as a more regionalized first class? As a consumer as I look for value if I can get Jetblue transcon for $399 one way in their lie flat product which has awesome food vs. Alaska then the winner is Jetblue. Yes the Seattle market has $399 fares and you can even score Delta lie flats at the price as well from time to time. So Alaska taking over VA has worsened a once great brand meanwhile they are not bringing over the same experience even though they think they are.
I think you’re ignoring Alaska’s strategy. They’re not trying to sell most of First class on transcon, they just want to offer a better product to upgrade to. Alaska has been on record saying that they’re going for the leisure traveler that seeks value, not the folks looking to pay a huge premium for lie-flat. This pricing and product are consistent with that strategy (more seats are left for upgrades). With fares (regular economy) as low as $130 one way transcon, it’s a great deal for a 75K out of Seattle (like myself), or even MVP Golds out of LAX and SFO where there’s less elite competition.
To rehash the point, I fly across the country a lot, on a budget. I’ll definitely choose Alaska anytime where I can reliably get an upgrade to F having paid $130, plus getting 5.6k miles each way for the trip.
I get the desire for Alaska, as a smaller airline, to not have a subset dedicated fleet for transcons, but…
…the very fact that they’ve got a split fleet between Boeing and Airbus ac means they’ve already got a de facto dedicated fleet.
I think there are two issues at play.
First Alaska has had an ugly year in many respects and the merger and integration has been far from seemless. My Virgin pilot friends have nothing nice to say about Alaska management and how they have handled this. Consequently I don’t think their leadership team is doing any long term strategic thinking. The simplest thing they can do is to just put the Alaska product on the Airbuses and be done with it. So that’s what they are doing. Because it’s the easy way out.
Second Alaska is being run as a very old school airline. They offer first class for sale of course and they are just matching their competitors fares (because it’s easy. See above). But they aren’t really trying to sell that product. Just like an old school airline first is mostly about elite upgrades and selling some seats as cheap day of travel upgrades.
If the above hold true then what they are doing makes perfect sense. That’s not to say it’s actually an optimum way to run the airline. JetBlue has clearly found a pot of gold in their Mint product and deciding not to grab a piece of that isn’t the best call Alaska has ever made.
I am Diamond on Delta and fly ATL to SFO return twice a month. I have never had a lie flat seat!
“Curated, onboard music program with a cool West Coast vibe”.
Wow, I’ll bet the other major airlines don’t have cool “curated” music…… Reason enough to pick Alaska if you ask me.
I agree that AS’s new product is uncompetitive on transcons, BUT to play Devil’s Advocate, I think there might be a method to the madness:
1) For the majority of AS’s routes, i.e. short and medium haul like SEA-SFO, DAL-LAX, etc., the new F product is arguably superior to what the competition offers. Especially after AA finishes Oasis-izing its 737 fleet.
2) On the transcon routes, as a couple of others have suggested, perhaps the idea isn’t to actually sell those F seats at retail, but rather, to differentiate themselves as “the airline where you can actually use your upgrades to fly up front on a cheap Y fare”. I get your point that you prefer to pay a little extra for the extra PQDs – but Mileage Plan doesn’t have a PQD requirement, yet, so I don’t know that the pull is quite as strong for AS customers.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not convinced that #2 is actually a winning strategy, but I can at least see what they were thinking.
It also depends where you are located. I am a frequent business traveler based in Seattle, and lie-flat seats are only available from here to JFK or BOS. I rarely ever visit those cities for my job (I rarely fly transcon at all, and when I do, it’s usually to NoVA/DC), so their F product is plenty competitive in my situation. I do miss those VX Airbus power recliners, though.
Regarding upgrades, I am a Gold 75k, and I was upgraded on 53 out of 56 Alaska flights with an F cabin this year, including 6 award tickets. Coworkers on my team who live in other cities and fly different airlines don’t come anywhere near my upgrade percentage, and my employer only pays for economy, so I can’t really complain.
I’m also earning a ton of AS miles, which are still the most valuable airline miles out there for international premium cabin redemptions, and that’s when having lie-flat seats REALLY matters.
I miss the Virginia America flights I used to take. The difference in experience was such that I’d go out of my way to take them. I wouldn’t do that for Alaska.
When I status matched over to AS, one of the first things I learned is this airline has absolutely no clue how to price its F inventory. As a bay area based flyer, it’s great for upgrades, as they’re hardly able to sell any of the seats.
Not sure where you are finding fares between LAX/SFO and JFK/EWR under $1000 on Jet Blue, AA, DL, or UAL Fares are routinely well over $1000 for the nonstop flights with flatbed seats, While the First Class Alaska fares are between $500 and $800 in those markets. Now outside the flatbed routes they are all priced similarly. patstravelreviews.com
I included the dates in my results above. I routinely found Alaska at the same price or higher.
And these fares were for the Big 3’s nonstop lie flat seats? I have seen Delta and United offer these fares from San Diego on the lie-flat nonstop (and AA on regular First Class) but never anything thru or from/to LAX or SFO. Always $1200 or above (and I fly to NYC a few times a year). Hope I can find those fares 🙂
I completely agree with the central theme. Alaska is offering a dramatically inferior product on transcontinental routes. As a former VA loyalist, I stuck with Alaska through the absorption and elimination of Virgin. I started the year trying out United, which offers a great premium class, but my experience is that it costs more and is rarely available for last minute travelers on the most popular routes. If you can’t get premium class, United is a particularly unpleasant experience on transcontinental routes, so I’m done with that experiment. I find myself back on Alaska today and sitting in the newly redesigned first class cabin only reaffirmed my views. I will try JetBlue next.
My dad is flying SEA – EWR a week from Sunday. The flight is scheduled to depart SEA at 0820, arriving EWR approx. 5 hours and 30 minutes later. In FIRST CLASS the ONLY meal service is BREAKFAST! Nothing else! Fu#k that.
There will be a cookie before landing.
Worst worst business class ever. Service at lounge terrible, checking counter terrible. I will never fly this airline again and I bet this airline will bankrupt soon. Guaranteed!!!!
Alaska USED to be a great airline and they still are as far as on time and super great FA. But for the last couple years this airline has lost a lot of customers out of Seattle and Portland to Delta which now has a better product to offer as far as FC goes..Alaska FC is a joke on seating and food..Alaska is not even using wide body planes to HI, so dont even think of flying Alaska to HI on a single wide cabin, its awful even in FC.
Just flew Alaska SFO – PHL redeye. Just like my previous time, no offer of a pre-departure beverage (but the FA had more than ample time to chat idly with us all in First Class, no blankets (just a “no blankets, they don’t give us any” – no apology or any discussion of substance), no club soda (apparently their supply was contaminated), and the “Mood lighting” lighting was so bad you couldn’t sleep very well.
Last time I flew from PHL – SFO first class, instead of the ice cream dessert I asked for a cheese plate from the back (after looking at the “food to purchase” pamphlet. To my shock the FA said if I wanted that I’d have to pay for it!!
I love how their website extols the virtues of First Class but does nothing in practice to follow them. I won’t fly them again. Inconsistent product with unfriendly service.
I’m a Seattlite who travels Alaska frequently, but for miles only. My wife and I fly first class and do so for the product rather than the status, and I have made suggestions as well as “complaints” to Alaska recently about their airline. They have recently shaken up their partnerships which more than impacted choices for international travel using miles and did so for the worse.
When it comes to their first class, it is a definite let down. In flight entertainment is becoming more and more common these days, even in economy seat-backs, and is almost standard in fist class cabins, except for first class. The seats are a bit wider and more comfortable, the food is O.K., but there’s nothing spectacular, or even anything that makes me say “wow, this product is worth the premium they charge.” Ultimately I think it’s the cost and the lack of IFE that causes this. Does a first class cabin gain “20 points” for having seat-back IFE, probably not, but will it lose that same “20 points” for not having it? In 2019 it loses the points for sure and even then some.
It makes sense in terms of creating loyal passengers. The previous airbus cabin featured I believe only 4 first class seats? Also because of the way they recline you cannot travel with pet in cabin underneath the seat. More first class seats=more opportunities for upgrades for loyal members as well as discounted upgrades for non elite members during checkin. If I’m not mistaken the new cabin AS is going with will follow room for upwards of 16 first class seats which allowA for many opportunities for low priced checkin upgrades and complimentary upgrades for elite members.