point fu

Unremarkable domestic trans-con flight in 38” first class recliners. Friendly flight attendants, uncommunicative pilots.   Pros Alaska miles are versatile  Power at seat in Business Class Free messaging on wi-fi Salt and Straw ice cream Friendly FAs Snack basket + candy before landing Cons Newark terminal has indoor porta-potties instead of bathrooms No seatback entertainment, they hand out a small tablet PC instead.  70 minutes from boarding to wheels up with zero communication from flight deck about why we were delayed No food choice (I guess I'm having the vegetable pasta!) Complimentary upgrades means Business Class is always full Alaska refuses to enforce the "use the lavatory in your ticketed cabin" rule Wi-fi is very expensive: $39.99 for Gogo's slow-go internet   Tips Sit near the front of the Business Class section if you'd like to have a choice of meal   How I did it $502 for a one-way flight . I chose this pr...

I honestly have no words to explain the email I got from Alaska Airlines today. It's an email proudly announcing the removal of the big First Class recliners (with 58" of legroom!) from the ex-Virgin America planes and their replacement with run-of-the-mill 38" slimline (i.e., minimal padding) seats. But y'know, the airline industry has gotten so Orwellian in their marketing lately that I wouldn't have otherwise made a fuss over it. But then I read THIS paragraph: WTF? Now at this point, I actually starting poking at the email headers to make sure it hadn't come from The Onion or some other news satire site. Is this what we've come to? Giving people a glass of water on a plane is now cause for a customer-wide email with this as a pull-quote? We can't be more than a few months away from this now, can we?

I (mostly) hate Twitter. Despite all of it's obvious problems, I find it especially horrifying to see respectable writers forced into to spelling "your" as "ur". But despite all that it's still one of the best ways to get customer service these days. Recently Alaska Airlines and Virgin America merged, and I'd read several reports that customers were getting 10,000 bonus Alaska miles upon linking their points accounts with both airlines. I linked my accounts and moved all of my Virgin points into my Alaska account but never saw any bonus. I waited a month or so and then tweeted @AlaskaAir to inquire about it. They replied the same day in a private window asking for my account details and a day later 10,000 points showed up ! It never hurts to ask… Another thing I'll mention as I stare out at a foot of snow on the ground: definitely use Twitter if you want to know the precise moment that travel fee-waivers are issued due to bad weather . Our ...

Alaska's buyout of Virgin became official last year. The two airlines slowly merging operations and we've reached the point where you can transfer your Virgin points to Alaska points. Each Virgin point will get you 1.3 Alaska points . Make sure you have your logins for both programs and then head here . Once I clicked Confirm, it took about 10 minutes for the transfer to complete. There's also some talk over at The Points Guy that some people are getting 10,000 point bonuses as part of the points plan merger (that's not happened for me yet, though). They're also reporting that you can now redeem Alaska miles for Virgin America flights... UPDATE: and there's now a page  (log in to your Alaska account before you click) where you can link your Alaska account to your Virgin one so if you have Elite status on one, you'll have status on the other.

Alaska Airlines and Virgin America have been slowly merging. Since I moved away from the west coast I've not had much opportunity to fly either airline, but I have 20,000-ish miles with both carriers that I'll probably put to use at some point. I've used both Virgin and Alaska's shopping portals to earn a few miles here and there and keep my points from expiring. Virgin's First Class recliners – a midpoint between two domestic First Class extremes Now that the merger is nearing completion they've announced that each Virgin point will become 1.3 Alaska points. Details about the transfer process are still TBD. (Let's not forget the other awesome use of Virgin points – getting a 30,000-point match from JetBlue earlier this year!) At this point the most exciting thing about Alaska miles is all of the great partner redemptions you can do with them (like Japan Airlines or Iceland Air ). Since they're spending a lot of money on this merger in hope...

Alaska Airlines ended their partnership with Iceland Air a couple of years ago with little notice or fanfare. I've been to Iceland twice now, and took advantage of this partnership both times to credit my Iceland Air flight to my Alaska account. I'm really glad to see it's back - it's a great option for affordable Business Class flights to the continent. They have 40" recliner seats, similar to most US carriers' domestic Business Class, but the food, drink, and service are better, plus it comes with access to their awesome First Class arrivals and departures lounge in Reykjavik as well as the BA Galleries lounge at JFK. They have an interesting setup where you land in Reykjavik from the US in the morning and you can then continue on to the continent immediately, or you can go into town or into the famous Blue Lagoon Spa for the day, and then continue on your way in the evening. I've done this before and I swear it's the reason I basic...

Looks like Alaska Airlines is rolling out a Premium Economy experience similar to Virgin America – basically they're selling the exit/bulkhead row seats with a free alcoholic beverage for a $15 - $50 (each way) surcharge. I've flown Virgin's Main Cabin Extra and it's always comedic watching the crew try to keep people from "self upgrading" into those rows after takeoff. At one point on one of my flights, the FA found a crewmember who was deadheading and asked him to sleep lengthwise across the 3 unoccupied exit row seats. I had my own inter-passenger seat drama when two large Russian ladies from New Jersey decided they were going to self-upgrade into my Main Cabin Select exit row from a regular Economy seat. I looked at them and said, "No. I'm in the Aisle seat and ONE of you can sit by the window, but you're not both cramming into this row with me." Of course they argued but it's amazing how cooperative they became when I reached ...

The Delta – Alaska 'Battle in Seattle' continues... Now Delta has decided that as of April 1st, flights on Alaska will no longer earn Medallion Qualifying Dollars. Details here .

Delta and Alaska Airlines have been partners for years. Alaska's huge west coast route network fed into Delta's huge international and transcontinental network out of Seattle. They each honor the other's elite status and you could earn miles on one for flying on the other. Earlier this year, though, things started to go sour, and it's pretty clear Delta is bullying Alaska into allowing themselves to be bought up by their former partner. While this drama unfolds, it's probably a great time to find cheap fares and lots of bonus point opportunities on routes where they're competing (pretty much Seattle to anywhere in the western US and DC/NYC). RECAP HERE