Review: Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-900 First Class (AUS-SAN)

To kick off our trip to San Diego, Mrs. ATX, ATX Jr., and I flew Alaska Airlines’ First Class on the Boeing 737-900 from Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (AUS) to San Diego International Airport (SAN).

Booking

When we were planning this trip, Mrs. ATX and I were on the fence about where we wanted to go. Our primary criteria were direct, reasonably priced, First Class flight and a city that both or one of us hadn’t been to before.

Seattle and San Diego both looked like viable options but, in order to get a reasonable fare from Seattle, would have had to take the redeye back. While I am squarely on team travel with kids, I wasn’t about to subject my fellow passengers or Mrs. ATX to that level of torture. So, we landed on San Diego.

Mrs. ATX had been before but this would be my first trip and I’d heard nothing but great things about the destination. Ultimately, we ended up booking our two roundtrip First Class tickets with a lap infant for $1,032 total via the Alaska website.

Pre-Flight

After our first trip with ATXJr. I learned that we had enough checked luggage to warrant an early arrival at the airport. Thankfully we did as the Austin Airport was a disaster, and I don’t use that lightly. We arrived at the airport around 5:15a for our 7:15a flight and found no line at the Alaska counter. After a brief exchange with the agent, our bags were tagged to San Diego and we had our boarding passes in hand.

After bag drop, we headed off to security where the lines were crazy. Due to ongoing construction and some poor decisions by the airport, TSA PreCheck and CLEAR have been combined into one, entirely too small checkpoint. Lines for both CLEAR and PreCheck were backed up to the curb outside. Even with CLEAR and PreCheck, it still took us an hour to clear security. Employees at the airport were doing their best to direct travelers, especially amid frustrating conditions.

We finally made it airside at 6:30, 45 minutes before our scheduled departure time. While we would have been able to visit the American Airlines Admirals Club thanks to my British Airways Gold status, we headed straight for our departure gate.

Boarding

Our flight to San Diego was departing from Gate 12. N282AK, a seven year old Boeing 737-900ER was waiting at the gate to take us over to San Diego. When we initially booked our flights, it was scheduled to be operated by a Boeing 737-9 MAX. Alaska uses these two types of aircraft interchangeably so, while I wanted to review the newer aircraft, it’s a toss up as to which one you’ll actually get.

Boarding was scheduled to start in just a few minutes so I grabbed a gate check tag for the stroller and stood off to the side until boarding began. Alaska doesn’t allow families traveling with small children to preboard but, since we were flying First Class, we were able to board with the Priority group.

Alaska Airlines
AS 343
AUS-SAN (Austin-Bergstrom International – San Diego International)
Seat: 4C (First)
B737-900 (N282AS)
Scheduled: 7:15a-8:20a
Actual: 7:22a-8:15a

Alaska Boeing 737-900 First Class Seat

Alaska’s First Class cabin on the 737-900 consists of 16 seats spread across 4 rows in a 2-2 configuration. The airline is currently adding more premium seats fleetwide, though the 737-900 and 737-9 MAX will remain at 16 First Class seats. Our flight had the older style BarcaLounger seats similar to our United flight the month prior. Please excuse the photos of the cabin as it was dark outside and the carrier’s blue mood lighting was being used during boarding.

I assigned us seats 4A and 4C, located in the last row on the left side of the aircraft. In addition to the comfortable seats, there was plenty of legroom for my 6′ 2″ frame.

Alaska, like American, doesn’t have any IFE screens on its narrowbody aircraft (until the merger with Hawaiian, Alaska exclusively operated Boeing 737s) and the seatback was completely bare. No device holders were available, unlike what you’ll find on some other carriers.

Between the seats is a small tray table that could hold a couple of drinks and smaller items.

A second, smaller tray can be pulled up and out if extra space is needed.

The tray tables are located in the armrests closest to the window and aisle. When released, the tray table can either be fully extended or folded over in half, depending on your needs.

Individual reading lights and air nozzles were located above each seat. The cabin also featured Alaska’s signature carpeted bulkhead.

Departure

During boarding, the flight attendant working the First Class cabin, Ray, came around offering pre-departure beverages with a choice of water, orange juice, or coffee. I had coffee and Mrs. ATX chose water.

Because of the situation at security, the Captain announced that we would be taking a small delay to allow remaining passengers time to get to the aircraft. This was a nice touch and the cabin crew used this time to take meal orders. Alaska has the ability to pre-order meals online but I missed the deadline so we had to choose on board.

Orders were taken front to back and there were only three options left when they got to us. I chose the parmesan scrambled eggs & bacon while Mrs. ATX ordered the peach breakfast pantart. The other available option was the omelette. The full menu is below for reference.

After the last few passengers boarded, the forward door was closed and we pushed off the gate a few minutes behind schedule. By this point, the sun had come up and it looked like a beautiful morning to fly.

We had a quick taxi our to Runway 18L and, after a short wait for traffic, rocketed off towards the south. We made a right near Circuit of the Americas to head towards San Diego.

In-Flight

Once airborne the flight crew closed the curtains between the First Class cabin and the galley and I headed to check out the forward lavatory. The First Class lavatory on Alaska’s 737-900s are teeny tiny and appear to have the same, one handed sink as American Airlines’ Oasis’d 737-800s

Back at my seat, I perused the menu and inflight entertainment catalogue as the meal service began.

When taking our meal orders prior to departure, the flight attendant working our cabin asked us if we wanted to stagger our meals to make it easier to wrangle ATX Jr. This was a small, but nice touch and we happily agreed.

To start the meal service we both ordered mimosas and Mrs. ATX took her meal first. Her peach breakfast pantart looked pretty close to the photo and was very good from what I was told.

Next it was my turn, my parmesan scrambled eggs and bacon didn’t quite look like the photo but it was good nonetheless.

After our meals were cleared, Mrs. ATX and ATX Jr. took a nap while I spent some time working and staring out the window at the landscape below.

Ray was extremely proactive with snack and beverage refills, allowing me to pass the time with ease.

Before beginning our descent, the crew came around for one last round of beverages. Alaska is one of the few airlines that has its own specialty beer so I decided to try the Cloud Cruiser IPA from Fremont Brewing

As we began our descent into San Diego, the crew brought a pair of wings for ATX Jr. which I thought was a nice touch.

Arrival

Since we were coming from the East, it was almost a straight in shot to Runway 27. If you’re flying into San Diego I highly recommend sitting on the left side of the aircraft as you get great views of downtown.

We touched down ahead of schedule and started out taxi over to the arrival gate.

We had a short taxi over to our arrival gate but had to hold for a bit while traffic cleared from the alley. We arrived into Gate 21 five minutes ahead of schedule, pulling in alongside multiple Alaska Airlines planes.

SInce we were seated in First Class, we were one of the first groups off of the plane. However, I had to wait on the jet bridge for a few minutes to pick up our gate checked stroller. Thankfully, it came up quickly and we were on our way.

The terminals in San Diego are a congested mess but, after weaving our way through, we made it to the exit for baggage claim.

Our priority tagged bags were some of the first off the belt and, from there, we headed out to catch the shuttle over to the rental car center.

Thanks for coming along on my first, but definitely not last, Alaska Airlines flight!

Alaska Boeing 737-900 First Class Summary

First Class on the Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-900 doesn’t have a cutting edge hard product but, a rather mediocre one amongst the major U.S. carriers. Thankfully, the carrier has invested heavily in its food and beverage options and the crew was top notch. While I live in Austin and do most of my travel to the east coast, I’d still travel with Alaska again on my flights headed west.