This was my first time flying Alaska Airlines and I was surprised to discover the aircraft was painted in the Virgin America livery.  What appeared to be a pilot sitting behind me explained that Alaska Airlines acquired Virgin America in 2016 and were still in the process of repainting and refitting the planes they purchased off VA.

Airline and Flight #

Alaska Airlines|AS1486

Aircraft 

Airbus A320

Departing Airport and Terminal

LAX, Los Angeles, California, USA| Terminal 6

Scheduled Departure Date and Time

Sunday 7 October 2018 | 12:15pm

Flying Time

1 hour 16 minutes

Luggage Allowance

Checked Luggage

Checked luggage is not included in the price of the ticket with Alaska Airlines.  The airline charges $25 USD each for the first two bags and $75 for any additional bags.  Bags must not weigh over 50 lbs (22.67 kg) and must have a maximum linear dimension of 62 inches (28.12 cm).  A $75 surcharge applies to each bag over the size or weight limit.  There are seasonal restrictions that apply in busy periods but also certain waivers allowing free checked luggage for certain passengers such as First Class passengers and active duty US military passengers.

Carry-on Luggage

• 1 piece of carry on luggage not exceeding  56x36x23 cm (22x14x9 in) including the handles and wheels. The three dimensions when added together must not exceed 45  (114.3 cm). The bag must be able to fit in the sizer at the airport.  These dimensions used to be a bit bigger but were changed recently to allow passengers to more easily fit their bag into the overhead compartments.
• 1 personal item which must fit under the seat in front of you.  This includes for example, a purse, briefcase or laptop.

Fun Facts

• Alaska Airlines acquired Virgin America in 2016 for $2.6 billion USD
• The airline has its headquarters in Seattle in Washington State, USA
• Texting has been adopted by Alaska as one way of delivering customer service
• In-flight messaging is allowed on Alaska Airways

Website

• You can book your flights and manage your trip via the Alaska Airlines website. I used a travel agent as I was flying predominately with Qantas but taking a look at the website, it appeared user friendly and contained enough information which was helpful without being too cluttered.

Check-in

Check-in can be done in one of four ways:

• Online – check in on line and printing boarding passes can be done within four and twenty four hours prior to departure.  Enter your departure city and select one of the options such as your booking or itinerary number or credit card number to bring up your flight to commence the check-in procedure.  You can also pay for checked luggage or seat upgrades if necessary.
• Mobile – check in at alaskaair.com or by using one of the airline’s apps on your mobile device from between one and twenty four hours prior to your flight’s departure.
• Kiosk – check in can be done at any of the kiosks located at any of the airports the airline flies out from.  If you are flying without checked luggage, then you can use the kiosk to check in on the day of travel up to 40 minutes prior to departure.  Once your boarding pass has been printed you can proceed to the gate.  If you are checking in with luggage then you can pay for this up to four hours prior to departure. Once you have printed your boarding pass proceed to the baggage drop off.
• Counter – check in can be done at the counter if you have a paper ticket or you would like some extra assistance.  Checked baggage is only accepted within four hours of departure.

Seating 

The A320 is a narrow bodied jet with a 3-3 configuration in Main (Economy) and the Premium rows.  The aircraft has 146 seats divided into 8 first class seats, 12 premium class seats and 126 main cabin (Economy) seats. We were seated in row 9 of 26 in the exit row so we had lots of leg room and padded seatbelts which contained an airbag seeing as the distance from us to the seat in front was so great.  The black leather seats were well padded and comfortable.  There were adjustable arm rests and footrests wouldn’t have worked as they would have been too far away.

• There were no pillows, blankets or head sets on the seats.
• Seat pitch in Premium is a generous 37 inches (94 centimetres) whilst seat width is 17.7 inches (45 centimetres).
• Trays weren’t folding but with so much leg room it didn’t matter

The extra leg room in Premium class combined with the well padded leather seats made for a very comfortable flight.  Some people complain about the padded seat belts being uncomfortable but I didn’t find this to be the case.  As this was an ex Virgin America plane, the attractive mood lighting in tones of reds and purples rather than blues and greens, added to the ambiance.  Apparently the red and purple tones suppresses appetite whilst also managing to maintain a feeling of calmness.  The windows were a little on the small side and the shutters opened from the bottom which was a bit unusual.

In-flight Entertainment

Electronic Devices

Personal electronic devices can be used throughout all parts of the flight, gate to gate.  Devices should be put into flight mode straight after the door closes and until landing.

Power

We couldn’t see any power outlets in our row although Alaska state they do have them at every seat on most aircraft. Maybe because this aircraft hadn’t yet been fully converted from Virgin America.

Reading Material

In the seat pocket in front was a copy of Alaska Airlines’ magazine Beyond which included a copy of the menu. There was also an attractive looking safety booklet titled Take Care.

WiFi

WiFi service is provided by GoGo and prices vary from $11 USD for half an hour to around $50 USD for an all day pass.  If you are with T-Mobile as we were, you get an hour of internet for free.  All passengers have access to free mobile chat via iMessage, Facebook Messanger or WhatsApp.

Entertainment System

This flight was fitted with individual touch screens with a remote nestled in the inside armrest of the seat.  The airline was still using Virgin America’s entertainment system RED which is built by Panasonic and powered by a Linux computer. It has a button just below the screen for viewing a 2D flight map.  The map is simple displaying your current location, how far you have travelled and how far you have to go to reach your destination.  The other screen options are:

• Watch – this allows you a choice of over 500 free movies and TV shows, classic & Indi movies, documentaries and featured content.  Some movies such as recent releases you have to pay for.
• Talk – this allows you to talk seat to seat or as part of a chat room
• Learn – provided details on where Alaska Airlines flew to and their mileage plan
• Eat – there were four menus here which were Drinks (the good stuff and on the house), snacks, meals and order history.  This allowed you to order food and drinks, pay for it on your card and have them delivered to you.  On this shorter flight however, the service was not available.
• Shop – this option was not available
• Kids play – a selection of children’s movies and TV shows along with parental controls
• Quicknav – allows you to see all the options on one page

The live TV which Virgin America had running on their planes, along with the music and games has been removed to make it consistent with the rest of Alaska Airlines’ fleet.

Catering

Menus

On this short flight there were no menus available in either the seat pocket or via the screen.  That was because there was no meal or snack service for this leg.  I found in the inflight magazine a copy of some of the drinks available on longer flights. Cabin crew did however come around with a selection of complimentary drinks.

Food/Drinks

As mentioned above, there was no food service on this flight but complimentary beer, wine, orange juice and bottled water was served. I was happy with some bottled water.

Restrooms

There were two restrooms at the rear of the plane and one at the front.  They were fairly simple containing the basics.  I was surprised to see the soap dispenser was built in to the sink rather than being a separate bottle.

Service

The staff on board were polite and friendly.  It would have been nice to have been served a snack on board but only drinks were handed out.

Pros

• Leg room was excellent
• Individual screens offering inflight entertainment were located at every seat
• The aircraft appeared fairly new and was nice and clean inside
• The leather seats were well padded and very comfortable
• The mood lighting was very attractive

Cons

• There was no meal or snack service on this flight
• The windows were a bit small
• The aircraft still looked like a Virgin America plane painted with the VA livery and VA interior.
• No ear buds or headphones were handed out to use the entertainment screen

Conclusion

Apart from not receiving anything to eat on this flight, I enjoyed our experience with Alaska Airlines.  I loved the extra leg room in Premium class as well as the individual screens for all passengers.  And you couldn’t help but love that funky mood lighting.  Given this was an ex Virgin American aircraft, I would be interested to see how it compares with one of Alaska Airlines’ own planes.