Are Alaska mainline flights better than Alaska regional flights? Part 1: SFO-LAX

With my new job, I’m generally limited to taking weekend, short-haul trips from the SF Bay.  One unintended consequence of this reality is that at one point, the only flights I had booked were on Alaska Airlines to/from SoCal, including both Los Angeles and Palm Springs.  Three major US airlines have bases in the SF Bay: Alaska, Southwest, and United.  United is the biggest player at SFO, and their hub is their most profitable.  I haven’t flown United within California recently because every time that I’ve checked, their prices from SFO have been double that of Alaska or Southwest.  Understandably, I have been primarily flying Alaska and Southwest. 

Alaska is, in general, my preferred airline for these flights because it is part of the Oneworld alliance and offers a very reasonably priced first class experience that still earns full tier points on British Airways.  As such, I took the following flights during Q1 of 2023 on Alaska: SFO – LAX, LAX – SJC, SFO – PSP, PSP – SFO, SFO – LAX, and LAX – SFO.  All of them were, at one point, booked onto Embraer E175 aircraft. 

The first one is the topic of this article is my February trip to Los Angeles. Although this trip was originally booked onto an E175, I had to change the timing of the trip, and when I rebooked, I specifically selected a flight operated by a 737(-900) for my evening flight.  As per usual, I started my journey at the Alaska Airlines lounge.  It’s definitely not as good as the Centurion Lounge, but the Centurion Lounge is in a different (connected) terminal, so I haven’t really found it worth walking to if I’m not at the airport early.  And the flipside is that the Centurion Lounge isn’t really worth getting to the airport early if I’m not arriving until after dinner anyway.

Given the situation, for this flight, I simply decided to relax in the Alaska lounge before my flight.  Alaska used to allow anyone with a paid domestic First Class ticket uses its lounges, but as of early 2023, that policy no longer applies.  Instead, First Class passengers only get access on flights over 2 100 miles, which are some of Alaska’s longest flights and generally represent transcontinental or Hawaii flights. 

I really like the Alaska lounge at SFO.  It’s right beside security, which is great, and the fireplace in the middle of the lounge makes it feel so warm and inviting.  They also sometimes have a hummus bar set up between the entrance and the fireplace, which is fun.

This flight was late enough that the main meal service had ended, and so only snacks were available. 

The snacks consisted of hummus (so no hummus bar in front), cold cuts, cookies, and bread.  But more importantly, the lounge had my favorite Alaska Airlines specialty on offer: pancakes!

I decided to also sample some of the other offerings for completeness: some bread, a small brownie, some hummus, and a piece of sourdough bread.  Everything was as expected and constituted a nice snack before my short flight.

I decided to board my flight towards the end of boarding but not at the very end because I had a short walk from the lounge.  Apparently, Alaska does not offer a separate priority boarding lane, so I just had to join the regular lane in the middle of the large pack, which I did not enjoy.  If I had known that, I’d’ve just stayed in the lounge longer. 

Upon boarding, I immediately sat in my aisle seat of choice: 1C.

My seatmate in 1A had already arrived, and between us were 2 bags of pretzels and 2 water bottles.  I had eaten a snack in the lounge and so was not interested in the pretzels, but I became even less interested in them, when I saw my seatmate was eating from the bag on my side of the armrest.  Since I had not arrived first, I didn’t know if she’d taken any from the other side, so I just left them alone.  Eventually, she noticed and just started eating both.  Is this a big deal? No, I didn’t want pretzels.  Did I find it weird/rude? Yes.

No welcome drink was offered, probably since boxed water is provided at the seats.  After takeoff, drinks orders were taken, and I requested a mimosa, and was promptly served some orange juice and a can of sparkling wine.  The can was the same as offered on my recent Alaska Airlines E175 flights.

As is always the case with short flights like these, the extent of the service was the drink and a snack basket.  The snack basket has yet to change on me, and I’ll be interested to see if it gets updated any time soon. 

Upon arrival into LAX’s terminal 6, I noticed that there was a display set up near Alaska’s gates that I thought was really cool! 

In summary, on a short flight like this one, I can’t tell a difference between an Alaska Airlines crew and a SkyWest crew.  The ground experience at SFO was the same, of course.  The minimal snacks available at the lounge was a bit less than normally on offer, but the lounge itself felt as inviting as always (3/5).  The 737 first class seat was strictly a downgrade from the single E175 seat (3/5).  The pretzels at the seat were, technically an upgrade over the E175, but not enough to upgrade the score (3/5).  The service was good but no different from a SkyWest-operated flight (4/5), and the IFE was typical for a 737 (3/5).  Overall, I give it a middle-range 16/25, which reflects that I’d prefer to be on the E175 and not have a seatmate.

This flight was a good price at $139, which I put on my Ritz-Carlton Card, which earned me 3x Marriott points/$ spent.  Why didn’t I put it on my Amex Platinum Card like I normally do? Well, at the time, the card had a Chase offer where I could get 10% back on Alaska Airlines flights (up to I believe $30 back), which is definitely the better deal.  I credited the flight to British Airways, which earned me 625 Avios and 40 tier points as usual.  British Airways has finally fixed their systems, and Alaska flights are now crediting automatically and correctly.  For short flights like this one, earning miles based on the money spent would generally be preferred, but that’s not possible on an Alaska Airlines flight no matter where I credit the flight.