Mastodawn

I guess this means I might actually run into you at SEA.

So, luggage, I am aware of the firearm case issue you mentioned, as far as I can guess it was maybe a miscommunication with the courier. Out of hundreds of flights I have only had one time where the baggage was misplaced and they got it to me asap (went from SEA to SMF instead of ORD) and I got something like 5k flown miles out of it.

Other baggage oddities: Pelican cases that are larger than the 1560 will often come out in the oversized area, sometimes they will ask for ID for them. At SEA they say there is an oversized area around claim 11, but the one near the baggage desk at claim 14 is what is usually used.

They are slowly adding baggage tracking to the app, there is limited baggage tracking in the system currently. They are apparently working on app based passport verification currently.

Kyle Fox

Issues with Alaska:
Outstation employees are sometimes contractors and sometimes sparse, if your flying into RNO or DAL they may have only one set of people who work both the bag check _and_ the gates, but this is getting better with more flights post pandemic.

Another issue is basically summed up as "American Airlines." Where Alaska charges just the highest of any applicable bag fee, American stacks them. This means my Steadicam case might cost $75 on Alaska, but something like $300 on American. I don't think this applies when the first leg is on Alaska, I've generally avoided any itineraries involving American.

The credit card is decent, its from Bank of America and works like any other BoA card as far as I have experienced. Its slightly better if you have a BoA bank account, even if your not using that for anything other than dropping a payroll deposit in and then using that to pay the card.

You can configure it with alerts, send those alerts by text or email or both. There's an app, I do not currently use it so I don't know anything about what it does.

If you've done your status match you will have access to to the MVP expedited customer service line, its decent. The only limitations I have found with the customer service line relate to who has access to do what, if your at the airport its better to go to a customer service counter or the gate. For example: If they change the equipment from a B739 to a B738 and your seat assignment disappeared, the gate can fix that, but the call center can not.

So, as far as the new places in the airport: Poke to the Max and Beechers are great, the pho place and taco place in N are okay. There's a Filson outlet in N as well if you want clothing that will last a lifetime with a price to match.

Aircraft: Horizon no longer flies the Q400, so you will not need to experience those aircraft on Alaska marketed flights. All of the 737s should have in-seat power and I have yet to have it not work. Most newer 737s have the Boeing Space Bins which are substantially larger. All of the 737 fleet has about the same Recaro seats.

Alaska Horizon and Alaska Skywest flights are flown on Embraer E175 aircraft, these have decently sized seats, not the cramped ones like the Q400s had. As far as I know the E175s only have in-seat power in First Class.

In flight internet typically works, you will often get an email up to several days ahead of time if they know your flight will not have internet for whatever reason. There are certain routes like Hawaii that I have noticed internet being unavailable more often this is probably related to some capability limitation with older aircraft's hardware. Internet on Alaska flights is free with certain T-Mobile plans.

If at all possible, you will want to order your food ahead of time. I think the window is something like 2 weeks to 24 hours before departure for pre-ordering food. You will want to do that in the app. First class food options are free.

Deviant Ollam Oct 10, 2023

@thekayfox many people are telling me about the ordering food ahead of time thing. Is that something you can do from the mobile app?

แอท-ทริด Oct 10, 2023

@thekayfox @deviantollam yes, you have to preorder food (at latest the day before, i always forget) & you can do it from the app

Deviant Ollam Oct 10, 2023

@astrid @thekayfox Nice nice. I am indeed quite interested in how this will all work out