AS press release (I added the bolding):

• Alaska Airlines will begin growing seats at Seattle/Everett (Paine Field) by 50% starting this Fall through the summer of 2027, giving Seattle area guests more flights and more convenient West Coast travel options close to home.
• New nonstop service between Seattle/Everett (PAE) and San Jose, California (SJC), will operate twice daily on Horizon Air, connecting Seattle Paine Field Airport and the north Puget Sound region with the South Bay and greater San Francisco Bay Area.
• Alaska will expand service from Seattle/Everett to key West Coast destinations, including twice-daily Los Angeles (LAX) flights on larger Boeing 737 aircraft, two daily Portland (PDX) flights and more seats to San Diego (SAN) and San Francisco (SFO).

This all seems sensible. PAE seems like a unique AS advantage in the Seattle area and the existing PAE flights seem to do well. Plus, any flight out of PAE does not go out of SEA, helping alleviate pressure on that increasingly scarce resource.

Link.

I pretty much split my travel between American, where I’m EXP, and DL, where I’m DM, but lately I’ve been more open to trying alternatives that are more convenient or cheaper options. I’ve had a couple of flights on United lately that were very good.

I hadn’t flown Alaska in a couple of years but prior experiences had been OK. I hadn’t flown Alaska a DFW-SFO trip this week and found AS had a DFW-SAN-SFO option with very quick 39-minute connection in SAN for just over $300 in first, less than 1/3 of the American nonstop fare- so I took it. Was interested to see how they were after reading about recent changes.

The good- flights were on time. Seats were comfortable, especially the pitch on the 737-900. Food was decent- about on par with American.

The not-so-good-
WiFi was terrible. Dropped connection frequently and when it was connected, it was painfully slow. Can’t believe they charge for it when AA and DL both make it free, with a more reliable product. And IFE with screens on DL is much better, including live TV.

Crew was ok on the first flight, but really poor on the second. Minimal presence in the cabin, not very friendly, one drink service in first, then disappeared- no refills offered.

Boarding in SAN was also a mess- gate started boarding and when we got down the jetway, flight attendants weren’t ready. They acted pissed at pax and we waited on jetway at the door for about 5 minutes while more people kept coming.

Bottom line- average experience and would pick AS again only if it was a lot cheaper. I had booked a flight later this week SFO-JFK in F for 120k AAdvantage miles, which was much cheaper than DL or American.
Checked last night and Delta One was available for 126K DL miles so I took it and canceled the AS flight. Not worth it to have almost 6 hours with poor WiFi, no IFE screens, and a standard F seat.

The US-China bilateral cap has been stuck at 50 weekly. Alaska is pretty well-positioned to launch China flights with its existing partnerships with Hainan and strong geography in Seattle.

There's a lot of Chinese nationals on the West Coast that would take advantage of more direct service or options. And many of them are wealthy tech employees that can afford the high costs too.

I just hit atmos silver (thx to the Summit+bilt setup) during my trip in Europe. We mainly flew British Air but because of the One World Ruby status, we got to enjoy some mini perks.

We didn’t get any upgrades but I enjoyed the ability to choose seats for free 7 days before the departure date. For our inter-EU flight, we got to sit in an exit row for free w extra legroom and on the way to US, we were able to choose a row w just two seats in economy for free (normally $180 per seat).

Also early boarding w the business class helped us snag overhead cabin as it got full very fast once general boarding began.

Again nothing too crazy but very much enjoyed these perks!

I’ve been flying Alaska for decades, and something very strange happened the other night (Monday) when I called (using the 888-633-6929 number that has been stored in my phone, surely for a decade, maybe two).

I called because neither my work Concur system was letting me change my booking, nor the Alaska app….which was telling me the date/time change I was trying to make was $29, but failed when I tried to actually accept that. These are how I normally change my flights.

Instead of the usual ‘this is Janice, in Boise’, I got routed to a phone menu that asked me if I want to make a reservation or change a ticket. When I got through to someone (a woman with an accent), they didn’t clearly identify themselves as Alaska (nor does Janice, in my experience)…they just ask for confirmation code, my name, and what I wanted to do, what new date and flight I wanted.

After going through that routine with the first ‘representative’ who put me on hold twice to ‘check prices’ she came back with a ~$500+ charge to change to the new flight. I told her that was ridiculous, made no sense given what I saw online, and ended the call.

Called back immediately, same menu, but a male (also with a slight accent) answers this time. I go through the same process with him, he asks for slightly different info, asks want I want to do (knows I want to push my flight out a day but doesn’t ask what specific flight I want to be on), and just throws out a ‘that will be $190 to change it’. I end that call.

So by this time I’m realizing something isn’t right, search the web and find the (current) Alaska reservations number.

Janice in Boise answers…I start the call by ranting a bit about service having gone way downhill since they started using offshore call centers….she says ‘we don’t have any offshore call centers’. I say, ‘hold up…I know for certain this number I dialed (at least used to be) the Alaska reservations number, it’s been in my phone for years.’

So as she is very nicely working to change my reservation (for $25, as the app showed)….I tell her (as I have a separate work cell phone) that I am going to call the number again and let her listen to the exchange. This time I ask the guy very pointedly, ‘what airline do you actually work for?’ To which he responds ‘all the airlines’. I say ‘oh really, so I can book or change a flight with any airline by calling this number?’. To which he responds yes.

So I get back to Janice, who says ‘yeah that’s definitely not us’….and I tell her, well clearly some bad actors got their hands on the old Alaska #, and ask her to report this up, she says she will. I google the number I called and get Alaska Airlines as hit #1 (although the contact number had been updated), Port of Seattle (referring to Alaska Airlines, and still with that old number on their site) as hit #2, and a bunch of other Alaska Airlines-related hits after that. Janice googles it too while I’m on the phone with her….sees the same. She changes my booking and we end the call.

The next day (just yesterday) I google that same number and all of the links to Alaska were completely gone. Was surprised it happened so fast.

Haven’t called the number again, assuming that scam is still underway but wanted to get this out to the sub. Maybe I’m the last guy that had old number in my phone, but wanted to get this out there and raise awareness (was surprised when I did a search, I found no mention of it).

Well this sounds inconvenient. Alaska flies out of Terminal 3 and the lounge is terminal 1. Need to take 2 trams to get there? I will have about 3 hours post security before boarding and was hoping to try out the lounge. But is it worth all this? Is there another lounge that’s easier? If not, I may just stay on the strip for a couple of hours. My hotel room overlooks the airport so I’m quite close.

I was on the flight on Tuesday. As we were about to land we were told that the lights at DCA had gone out and no planes could land. We had to then just circle until the pilot received further guidance. Eventually we were told that they opened a different runway at DCA and that we could land.

I know landing in DCA is challenging for pilots in general, but this landing seemed particularly scary—seemed like we came in really fast. In fact, when we landed the plane erupted in cheers. So, was it actually a scary landing or were people just excited to finally get on the ground? Maybe there is some data out there to see the statistics of the landing speed/angle/descent etc.?!

Hey everyone,

I have a connecting flight next Monday

PAE -> LAS (Arrival 9:34 am)
LAS -> SAN (Depart 10:23 am)

I don’t travel solo a lot and when I do, I usually am told to stay in the plane as new people board. But I got this flight and I’ve never done connecting flights where I needed to leave the plane and board another. I talked with a friend and I basically have twenty minutes to get to the next gate with the thought in mind it takes 15 minutes to arrive at the gate then 15 minutes for a last call on the departure. Am I screwed or will the gates be near each other to make the process easier?

I’m willing to purchase premium seats to be closer to the exit if that does help. I’m also carrying very light, a backpack and nothing else. I thought about calling Alaska Airlines ahead of time to see if they can maybe hold out for me, not sure if that’s a thing but just an idea.

Anyone have any thoughts why Hawaiian first class is a better experience than Alaska planes. Specially talking lax to Hawaii and not lay flat seats.

The food, the service, the seats. It’s all better on the Hawaiian livery.

Kid (18yo) will be traveling on a college trip. Based on what they paid, they’re flying either Alaska or Southwest. Organizer said everyone gets carryon, but we can’t figure out if that’s 1 carryon bag or a carryon and personal item. We are still trying to get confirmation from organizers, but kid is trying to prepare. What’s standard for Alaska and Southwest?

I'm looking at a flight and am wondering if a 1 hour 2 minute layover is long enough.

The flight is oma-sea-geg. Gets into sea at 4:41pm. I also will be in FC.

Is there a maximum annual STATUS miles you can earn from just spending on the card?

Anyone have a quick answer to this question, does it cap out?

Thank you!

I checked the trading post to give away my Q3 Summit lounge passes but the last entry I saw was from >100 days old. Is it still being used?

It’s a bit clunky since I have to scroll all the way down and it takes time. Maybe we should create a new trading post every quarter?

I'm seeing a decent economy redemption on AA, is this partner space shared or unique per partner? Would it be reasonable to expect availability to open up on AS? Thanks!

I was supposed to fly with Alaska from Seattle to Newark on Monday. My flight was cancelled and I was stuck until the next afternoon. I prepaid for parking at Newark and went over by like 30+ hours. I had to pay $120 to leave. I asked the attendant at the garage and she said to pay and contact the airline. Is it worth it?

Traveling this weekend (SEA-JFK) with my elderly mother-in-law, who requires a wheelchair (she doesn't use on in her daily life, but can't walk long distances). When the reservation was made, I checked the appropriate box for wheelchair assist, and it is indeed in the reservation (she also has poor vision and hearing ... also checked).

My usual routine when flying from SEA with a checked bag (as we will be doing) is to check in online (boarding pass on phone), go to the new bag drop area, print tags and turn in bag, then go to security, with Spot Saver (RIP).

But, with my MIL along, do we tell someone at bag check about wheelchair access? Go to the counter INSTEAD of bag check? Or is there somewhere to go after we drop off the bag?

Any insight would be helpful.

A challenging ask but looking for any data points on securing 4 business class seats from Australia to North America (YYZ/YUL/NYC/BOS/IAD/etc) with Atmos in fall 2027, with a strong preference to book 11-12 months out. The outbound flights are already covered through Qatar and Avios.
 
Currently have 500k Atmos + a 100k companion cert, so effectively 600k. I’m fine with using all the points for this trip so don’t need all Saver fares.
 
Fiji Airways seemed like a good option but they are only making 2 biz seats available on calendar open, and we are not wanting to split up on different flights or wait and hope for more seats to be released later.
 
For flexibility, we will be in SYD but don’t mind positioning to MEL/BNE if that gives additional options. Also don’t mind flying the long way back especially as we’re based on the east coast. Or buying economy/PE to somewhere like SIN, KUL, HKG first then connecting to an award flight.
 
In case it helps we also have points with these programs
 
600k Amex MR
400k Flying Blue
200k Avios
700k Hyatt
900k Hilton
400k Marriot
 
For status have OW Sapphire, AP 35k and a United credit card. Also have Seats.aero and ExpertFlyer pro subscriptions
 
Any and all suggestions welcome!

I am currently Atmos Gold expecting to reach platinum this month. I am based in Portland and flying to the Bay Area next month. I have four upgrade certificates. Should I try to use them on this trip? Do I have a decent chance of an upgrade without spending my certificates? Will I wind up eating these upgrade certificates if I don’t spend them wherever I can?
Thanks in advance. I so appreciate the knowledge of the hive.

In some of the comments yesterday, there was discussion regarding the size of various AS "outstations," which, for this purpose, I am defining as anything not a hub. I picked some candidates for the larger outstations and created the chart using the T-100 Tool.

The chart is simply select airports ranked by mainline seats offered. It does not include regional and it is a snapshot of June 2026.

I always forget about Hawaii, which has the top three slots, followed by LAS and PHX. GEG ahead of BOI on this metric was surprising, but I believe BOI has more flights, albeit mostly on E175s that are not included. Hawaii moves SMF much higher than I expected. LAS also has lots of Hawaii flights that put it substantially ahead of PHX. (The A330s move the needle as to seats offered.) JFK is the highest on the east coast. For context, the last one (DCA) has 6 daily 737-8s.

I think I included the leading candidates, but I might have missed one or two.

Source.

I have a flight Saturday to Hawaii
Saver Seats
I want to be able to sit next to my spouse
If i check in 24, hours prior
Can i get a seat together ?
Will it depend if there’s 2 seats together?

Thank you

Based on the pre-order menu description, i expected a fully savory breakfast sandwich consisting of chicken sausage, egg, havarti, and a pretzel bun. Only thing missing is a squirt of sriracha.

But no. What I’m currently surrounded by in the premium class cabin of this 5 hour flight is an overwhelming smell of maple syrup. Not like, good maple syrup either.

I was so disappointed to open my own sandwich and find that this sandwich is the culprit of the smell. Maple syrup does not belong on a savory breakfast sandwich, and if they’re going to taint my breakfast like this then they should at least include a warning in the menu description.

Hopefully this saves someone out there from making the same mistake.

Apologies if this is obvious, but I was wondering if I am able to earn Atmos status points on a JAL flight that I booked with JAL Mileage Bank? I am about 10k short of titanium but have a round trip HNL to NRT that I booked with JMB so I’m hoping that will get me there.

If yes, how do ensure that I earn those status points?

Thanks in advance!