r/AlaskaAirlines

As far as comfort if the price is right, FC really makes you feel spoiled. I was on the Hon-Seattle morning run, and thoroughly loved the amenities compared to the other Boeing FC.
More FAs to refill and help with the controls. Highly recommend when you need that extra nice experience.

Also that sliding privacy door is great. No one had to see I was watching White Lotus, or reclining like a bum. 🤓

Since Alaska is going all out into longhaul expansion, I thought it would be an interesting to discuss what are considered Alaska's "premier" routes. Traditionally speaking, other airlines have flown these like the classic JFK-LHR or JFK-LAX routes, but since Alaska is very West Coast focused, I wondered what would be the flagship routes for each hub, it might look a bit different, so I thought it would be a fun exercise, this is my initial take, would love to hear thoughts and different opinions.

• SEA
  • This hub has a few because it's Alaska's largest hub and deserves more mentions
  • SEA to DCA, for domestic, this is AS 1/2 for a reason, flights are very full and fares are high
  • SEA to LHR, for international, Alaska purposefully gave it the AS 100/101 to mark such an critical route
  • Honorable mention for SEA to NRT, which marks Alaska's very first international longhaul flight
• SFO
  • SFO to JFK, it's one of Alaska's top routes by revenue, almost at the 100M per year level. This one is definitely the undisputed king for JFK. It's a flight that even the behemoth of SFO, United Airlines, cannot fly.
• LAX
  • LAX to HNL, this is the top 5 busiest domestic routes for LAX, and Alaska flies multiple widebodies on this flight all year long.
• HNL
  • This hub also gets a few because it has quite an interesting network
  • HNL to JFK, for domestic, this is one of the longest domestic flights in the world, and was the longest one in the US, until BOS to HNL happened
  • HNL to HND, for international, this is a route with a lot of history and importance due to the connection between Japan and Hawaii, and at one point HA flew this 3x daily.
• PDX
  • This one was very tough for me to decide. PDX acts as a reliever hub for SEA, so everything it does feels overshadowed by SEA.
  • PDX to OGG, I chose this one over HNL as HNL feels generic, and the fact that PDX can support up to 2x daily frequencies to OGG and make it to the top 10 list of busiest domestic flights feels impressive for a city the size of Portland.
• ANC
  • ANC to SEA, this is one of the most vital air routes in the US, and in fact is the busiest domestic route in the US during some months of summer. It's a critical connection that unlocks a whole world of connectivity for Alaskans. There are nonstop flights departing every hour during the day, I count almost 19x Alaska frequencies a day at the peak.
• SAN
  • SAN to DCA, Alaska is very proud of its DCA presence and gives them all very low numbers, this is AS 14/15, and Alaska is the only airline to fly SAN to DCA
  • I think another case could be made for SAN to JFK, but compared to the other airlines, Alaska is weaker.

If you ever get the chance I highly recommend the espresso tonic which is served as a pre arrival beverage.

Note some issues with the data

• The change in callsigns in 2026, hence the break in data between AS/HA.
• Passenger counts in the 2025 chart are double counted, so I can't connect it with 2026 properly, so the data is messy.
  • Passenger count should be 1/2 of what the Y-axis displays for 2025. i.e. 90k is really 45k monthly passengers.

With AS/HA's entry into the Seoul market last year, SEA to ICN now holds the distinct honour of being the only US to ICN route with 4 carriers on it (HNL to ICN used to have the crown, but HA no longer flies this route).

It is worth saying that nominally speaking DL/KE are functionally one carrier though due to the joint venture, with OZ also being absorbed in via the merger.

Incredibly, no other airport has more than 3 carriers, most have one or two, LAX, SFO, and HNL are tied for second with 3 carriers.

• LAX has KE, OZ, and YP (Air Premia), and was one of the busiest international routes for the US, and the 2nd most volume to Asia at one point, but since then declined due to the KE/OZ merger. LAX to ICN is still the #1 ICN route in the US in terms of volume. And DL is expected to launch their own LAX to ICN flight once they receive their A350-1000s.
• SFO has UA, OZ, and KE. SFO to ICN does technically actually have more frequencies as UA flies 2x daily and AS is still only 6x weekly.
• HNL has KE, OZ, and YP, with significant increases in frequencies during peak season, KE even uses 747s on this route.
• JFK to ICN only has KE and OZ, if you include EWR, then YP also flies EWR to ICN, with UA making an entry into the market with EWR to ICN later this year, so NYC to ICN would technically have 4 carriers as well. DL is similarly expected to join the fray once they take deliveries of their A350-1000s.

From the data though, if you adjust for the double-counts in 2025, the SEA to ICN market has not really grown significantly. It's sitting at about 45k to 50k passengers monthly. This seems to me that rather than growing the market, the different carriers are cannibalizing each other. However, with the Asiana merger, I expect OZ to retreat from this route and there should be better capacity discipline.

Never flown first class, curious about seat selection tips

Just flew main cabin Alaska 171 SEA-> ICN and they def have some kinks to work out

Uncomfy seats aside, they so stingy with the water. They didn’t do any walk-around service serving water which is pretty standard during long-haul flights, nor did they offer self-serve water in the back. Everytime I went to the back galley to ask for water, the attendants seemed so annoyed and also would only fill it half full 😭 and when I asked for more she poured it to 75% 😭😭😭

Also the food quality was lower than I expected. The portion sizes were pretty small, and I’ve had better meals on chinese budget airlines. Lady next to me literally ate rice with 6 pieces of unseasoned tofu LMAO (pic attached). They also only served pretzels -> lunch -> a cookie -> dinner. It is the signature Alaska warm cookie but it’s kind of a heinously tiny snack, considering Hawaiian usually does a nice sandwich on their long hauls. I was surprised the food was bad because Hawaiian flights to-from Japan have pretty good meals, and even the regular for-purchase food on Alaska flights are quite tasty as well. 

Good points- lots of bathrooms, never had to wait very long. No wifi, but good entertainment selection tho def lacking in international options. 

Overall I’d probably wait a couple months until they get these growing pains worked out and have the wifi up as well. And get a cushion for the stiff aah seats. 

Was too scared to eat the left side. Had half the burger ….

I priced a two week round trip from SEA to FCO. In August, the main cabin pricing is super reasonable to cheap $1000 ish ( or 60 K miles ) but business class is over 9K ( or over 500 K miles). In September, the main cabin is $1800 ish (125 K miles) which is not bad but in Business class is close 10K ( 650 K miles ) . I am sure they know the market and prices are set based on some intelligent analysis but I am frankly surprised by these prices. I guess good for them.

Easy_Money_ posted comment with a site a had been unaware of (T-100 Tool) and it has some additional functionality that allows one to slice the load factor (and other) data in different ways. (It also appears to have loads for international flights.)

By searching just by airline and airport, it will provide a list of all that airline’s flights and they can be organized by load, among other things (sample above). The image is for mainline (i.e., no Horizon or SkyWest) domestic flights during Feb. 2026 that had a load factor of at least 90%. (I excluded Hawaii flights because I think those flights are slightly different but the data is easy to get.)

I looked at the hubs and a few places with routes I thought might have full mainline flights. I may have missed some. I don't think any of this is surprising and there were lots of flights at 89% (this is plainly an arbitrary cutoff). Just eyeballing the data, I would think leading contenders for MAX10 flights would be anything to BOS, JFK, and MCO.

The usual caveats about load factor apply, of course. It tells us nothing about fares and other critical network factors. By itself, it provides only one measure of a route. That said, it is easier to make money with full planes and harder to make money with empty planes so it is telling us something. Of course, this is also just a single winter month.

Source.

Alaska tapping into debt market, same as Jetblue and American had to do.

https://www.staradvertiser.com/2026/05/06/breaking-news/alaska-air-seeks-500m-amid-rising-jet-fuel-costs/#