Alaska Airlines recently joined the more premium economy arena with their own offering, Premium Class. Upgrade pricing ranges from $15 on up, the seats offer you 4 extra inches of leg room, a snack box, and free alcoholic drinks.
Booking
It all started with booking experience, while my primary airline of choice right now is Delta they don’t offer direct flights to Palm Springs from Seattle so I chose Alaska instead. During booking you can pick to upgrade your economy seats to Premium Class, for me it was only $25 to upgrade which was well wort it for the extra leg room. Alaska varies the price of Premium Class depending on demand and availability. Upgrades to Premium Class start at $15 and go up from there.
Check-In & Boarding
Check-in was nothing special, no priority lines but they do have the option to self-tag your checked baggage which eliminates the need to stand in a long line to check your bags. Alaska has engineered a very elegant way to pay for your checked back and print out your own bag tag at home so you can just show up to the airport and drop your bags off with no hassle.
During boarding in Premium Class you get to board early, unless your an MVP frequent flier with Alaska you get to board right after first class and MVP Mileage Plan members. For flights where I have carry on baggage I love this perk, it means I can get my bag safely stowed in an overhead bin before anyone else makes their way on. For my flight it was overbooked and almost everyone had carry on bags. With early boarding I was able to get my bag in the bin right over my head while the others who didn’t get to board early had to fight for space and some even ended up having to check their bags because there was no room. This is another huge perk for me.
The Seat
Alaska’s Premium Class is outfitted with Recaro Slimline seats which worked out just fine for my flight. With the seats being slim fitting and they way they’re designed to allow for more knee room they were perfect. As a person on the taller side I felt like I had a lot of room to spread out and enjoy myself in the seats stretching my legs all the way up under the seat in front of me. My seat in 9A had a double window (misaligned) while 10A behind me did not have a window. While the seat was mostly comfortable the padding was very firm and near the end of the flight my behind was ready to get up and stretch out before landing.
Service
With this being a short two and a half hour flight all we got for a meal service was drinks and our snack box. With Premium Class you get not only soft drinks and coffee but alcoholic drinks as well complimentary. The snack box had some yummy snacks including locally made gummy bears, fig bar, and nuts. It was a bit more than what you would get in economy and hit the spot for the duration of the flight.
Final Thoughts
Alaska is my hometown airline of choice, they always have amazing service and very friendly staff. Being a Seattle based company they have direct flights to almost anywhere you want to go out of Seattle and they don’t punish you as a traveler for buying economy tickets like some major airlines. The Premium Class seats are nice, legroom was perfect I do wish there was a way to squeeze a bit more width out of the seats but overall it was comfortable for the most part. The padding was stiff and hard and meant I had to stand up if it went on any longer than it did. Overall it’s worth paying the extra fee if you’re a tall person and you value your knee space.
Extra: Video Of Takeoff & Landing
