The Details
- Flight: AS251
- Aircraft: A320
- Class: Premium
- Seat: 6A
- Route: Chicago O’Hare (ORD)-San Francisco (SFO)
- Distance: 1,855miles
- Flight Time: 4hrs 6min
- Departure: 7:40AM (CST)
- Arrival: 9:47AM (PST)
The Preflight
After arriving on my separately ticketed flight with United from IND-ORD, I had an hour layover before my Alaska Airlines flight to San Francisco. Once I arrived in Terminal 1, I quickly made my way over to Terminal 3 where my flight was departing from. Boarding began just was I arrived at gate G4 at 6:58AM.
The A320 today, registration N854VA, was painted in the colorful “Fly with Pride” livery. She was originally delivered to Virgin America in March 2012 before being transferred to Alaska in January 2018 after the merger between the two airlines.
The Flight
Alaska Airlines A320s feature a total of 138 economy seats arranged in a 3-3 configuration. The first four rows of the economy cabin make up the Premium seats which offer 37″ of pitch and 17.7″ of width. I was seated in 6A, the first row of the Premium.
Alaska Airlines does not use bulkheads between their economy and first-class cabins which meant my seat had a very generous amount of legroom as well as under-seat storage. I had easy access to two separate literature pockets (meant for the middle seat).
The legroom was fantastic for an economy seat.
For the row of three seats, there were two USB ports and two 110V outlets to share.
In the armrest was a sturdy bi-fold tray table with a built-in tablet holder.
The boarding doors were closed at 7:23AM and we pushed back two minutes early at 7:28AM. We took off from runway 28R at 7:40AM.
The main cabin service began half an hour into the flight with pre-ordered food being delivered individually to passengers. I decided to pre-order the Breakfast Protein meal to try.
Premium class passengers are also offered complimentary alcoholic beverages so I had my customary Bloody Mary. I really enjoyed this breakfast meal onboard as all the ingredients were fresh and relatively healthy.
Halfway through the flight, the attendants came through with another full beverage service. I decided to have a Gin&Tonic. Alaska also served a delicious snack packet of braided chips.
At the rear of the cabin were two economy lavatories.
It was a beautiful day in the Bay Area and we had a birds-eye view of San Jose Airport on our approach.
We raced a Southwest B737-700 on a parallel approach for our landing on runway 1L.
We landed at 9:46AM and arrived at the gate five minutes later. There was a slight delay with the gate crew not being ready to open the doors but at 9:59AM we were let off of the plane, 15 minutes early. Thanks for the ride!
The Alaska Airlines Premium service remains my favorite extra legroom economy option compared to other US carriers such as Delta, United, and American. The industry-leading legroom, complimentary drinks, and friendly crew make the Alaska experience a top choice for me.