What’s up folks of yonder IFC? Today I decided heck to the balls why not I’ll up,old some photos and gab about my experiences this past Saturday onboard Alaska Airlines. Right off the bat, this is my first time flying them. I had high hopes since they’d bought out VX and many have ranted to me about how they are superb to every other airline. So I went in with an open mind. Let’s see how that turned out ;)
My aircraft thanks to FR24
We boarded the flight promptly at 6:10AM and sat on the ground for 31 minutes due to a light coming on in the cockpit (according to the FO). By the time we taxied to Runway 8 we were 45 minutes behind schedule. The flight departed with nothing out of the ordinary other than my camera laughing in my face and producing horribly fuzzy images for my YT channel (thanks camera).
My first complaint about Alaska - this aircraft was incredibly dirty. The windows were covered in dirt specks and the paint seemed faded in many places. Not surprising considering it to be a 10 year old plane but the dirt covering the windows was a bit annoying.
My second complain is with the food service. For certain flights you can preorder food they will charge it once you get to your flight and service has begun and the food is given to you. It was the cheese platter for $8.50 and I preordered it, excited to try it out (including the authentic Seattle chocolate that came with it). Long story short, they never delivered it. I even asked the very nice male FA the following:
“Hey I’m sorry to interrupt your service but I ordered the (insert name of dish) and I never got it.”
The male FA smiled and said he’d be right back. He came back maybe 15 minutes later saying “we don’t have anyone by your name or seat number with a (insert dish name) order. I’m truly sorry. Would you like to order it now?”
I told him no as I’d already paid for it once and wasb’t going to pay double its price for one platter. When I got home I checked me bank account and sure enough they’d charged me for it. So that was annoying and I don’t really mind that the male FA couldn’t give it to me. For all he knew I could have been lying for free food. But it irks me that they charged me when I never got it.
One thing I do have good to say, the sunrise while coming in to Seattle was absolutely gorgeous! This picture doesn’t do it justice but I love dawn arrivals!
The landing was really bumpy and hard, causing the lady next to me to jolt awake and grab her arm rest. When she saw we had landed she laughed to herself. We taxied I’m over to ASA’s gates and spent the next 20 minutes taxiing in circles. It made for good footage as I got to see the ASA A321Neo “More to Love”, several Disney ASA 737 liveries, and special Dash 8 liveries. By the time we got into our gate I was really confused because the gate we’d pulled into was one that had been open the entire time we’d taxied in a circle but whatevs lol at least I could get off.
This is not a photo of the incident just a photo of the inside of the aircraft
We pull into the gate and before the plane has even stopped this guy jumps up and starts walking to the front. The FA comes over the loudspeaker
“Please remain seated until the fasten seatbelt sign has turned off sir” (directed right at the guy). The man makes it to the cockpit before turning around and walking back. By the time he made it mid cabin the lights came off and everyone started getting up. They were all then told to sit back down while the FAs marched forward and started talking to the man. Long story short nothing major happened but by the time I’d gotten off the plane I’d been on the ground physically in Seattle airport for 1 hour.
Ratings Time:
Flight Crew: 4/5 kept us well informed but weren’t very social when we boarded or left.
Cabin Crew: 3/5 two of the FAs had nothing but glaring daggers for anyone who had the audacity to ask them something, I’m super lucky I sad in the way back because I was able to get the nice male FA. The two mean female FAs were in the front with First and forward economy.
Aircraft: 3/5 the plane seemed old and not ancient per say but not really comfortable. The seats got rough to sit in after only 2 hours and like I said before the windows were horribly dirty.
Inflight service: 1/5 as I mentioned above I paid for something I never received. Also it was weird but the FA who serviced me drinks and a snack seemed to not care about sleeping passengers. She got down and spoke loudly to the woman next to me who was asleep, to ask her if she wanted anything.
Inflight wifi: 2/5 for the most part it was okay (kind of slow) and the WiFi free messaging didn’t work on my flight.
Overall flight experience as a first time ASA flyer: 1/5 the best parts of this trip is what is keeping this flight from being a completely flop. I know enough not to judge the airline based off of one flight and I will be flying them more (especially on their turboprop fleet) but for my first time with them, I’m not impressed. Virgin America was 10x better than Alaska. Even Southwest has more to offer imo than Alaska. But again I hope that changes with future flights.
Usually I’d make this longer but I’m writing this with a flu so I apologize if I made things unclear or left things out. Feel free to comment below!
Also my apologies for any negative comments. I had such high hopes for ASA after all the people I’ve listened to. But I didn’t find that this time. I’ve gotten much better service in Frontier than I did from Alaska. And I’m not just saying that because I love Frontier. I had high hopes for Delta and they crushed it with an incredible service so far every single flight.