Trip Report: Alaska Airlines (B737-900ER) Main Cabin SFO-ORD

The Details

Flight: AS1208
Aircraft: B737-900ER
Class: Main Cabin
Seat: 16A
Route: San Francisco International (SFO)-Chicago O’Hare International (ORD)
Distance: 1,930miles
Flight Time: 3hrs 41min
Departure: 11:18AM
Landing: 5:17PM

The Preflight

After arriving from San Diego aboard the E175, I had a few hours to kill before my flight home to Chicago. Despite Alaska being located in Terminal 2, I decided to head over to Terminal 3 to grab breakfast in the American Express Centurion Lounge. Thanks to CLEAR and TSA Precheck the whole process to re-clearing security took under five minutes.

The Centurion Lounge was surprisingly full given the early morning time. Breakfast was being served from 8-10:45AM.

I had a delicious and hearty meal including perfectly cooked scrambled eggs, quiche, sausages, and avocado toast.

After breakfast, I headed back to Terminal 2 which involved re-clearing security again. Once again, thanks to CLEAR and Precheck I breezed through the checkpoint. Prior to the flight, I had been checking Flightradar24 and was pleased to find out that the plane was the special livery “Honoring Those Who Serve” B737-900ER.

Alaska Airlines operates a total of 79 B737-900ERs as well as 12 B737-900s. Our special livery -900ER, N265AK, was delivered to AS in 2016.

Boarding began at 10:46AM.

The Flight

Alaska Airlines features a total of 138 coach and 24 Premium seats onboard their B737-900ERs arranged in a standard 3-3 configuration.

I chose to sit in Seat 16A which is an exit row coach seat. Unlike American Airlines, Alaska does not designate the exit rows as Premium/Main Cabin Extra. The perks of the exit row included extra legroom while the con was that the seat could not recline.

The seat in front of me also could not recline which gave me much more room to stretch out.

In the seatback was a literature pocket and standard tray table with two cup holders. Noticeably absent was any sort of personal device holder.

Each seat also had a personal 110V outlet and USB port which I appreciated.

Boarding was completed 30 minutes after it commenced as we pushed back from the gate at 11:23AM. After a 15 minute taxi to the runway, we took off from 1L.

Once in the air, I loaded up the inflight entertainment system on my tablet. For some reason, I could not load the flight map on my device.

Service began 20 minutes after takeoff with a small snack packet which was tasty.

It was followed by a beverage service.

I absolutely love the Alaska Signature Fruit and Cheese plate and pre-ordered it for lunch. It is only available if pre-ordered on the inflight app. Thanks to my Bank of America Alaska Airlines Visa card I got 20% off the cheese plate.

Yummy.

We had stunning views of the Rockies as we cruised eastward. Quiet the juxtaposition with the American flag on the wingtip.

Halfway into the flight, I used one of the three rear lavatories in the main cabin. It was rather dirty and the floor was wet…

The rest of the flight was uneventful. I managed to watch a few movies on the Alaska app and flight attendants came through the cabin a few times offering more water.

Flight attendants prepped the cabin for landing 30 minutes out from O’Hare. As we approached O’Hare from the east, we had stunning views of downtown Chicago.