Alaska Airlines

Snaps from the Alaska Airlines Lounge at SFO

airline lounges, Uncategorized,

Here’s what’s inside Alaska Airlines new lounge at SFO Airport

Alaska Airlines debuted its new lounge in Terminal 1 (by Gate B6) at San Francisco International Airport (SFO) this week and we visited for a preview.

This new lounge has 230 seats, a wide variety of seating options, upgraded food and drink options, plenty of charging spots and some welcome bonus extras.

Alaska’s popular lounger chairs are here and they’re lined up in front of floor-to-ceiling windows looking out over the airfield. This is also the first Alaska Airlines lounge to install TalkBox phone booths for private conversations.

The lounge has two barista-staffed coffee stations serving espresso drinks made with San Francisco’s Ritual Coffee, a buffet food section, a bread station, and a candy station with jars of Ghirardelli chocolate square, Jelly Belly jellybeans and multi-colored Oakland Fortune Factory fortune cookies.

Love pancakes? Print them here

Pancake-printing machines are a highlight of all Alaska Airlines lounges. The new SFO Lounge has two!

If the complimentary food items aren’t quite enough for you, there’s also a food-for-purchase menu with pizza, cheeseburgers, chicken tenders, chicken teriyaki potstickers and taters tot or fries.

And of course, there’s a bar serving complimentary local craft brews, West Coast wines, cocktails and creative mocktails, along with premium wines and top-shelf spirits available for purchase.

Now two airlines will ship your wine for free

Airlines, , ,

Love wine? Love taking wine home when you travel?

We do too.

Alaska Airlines has a long-running and very popular Wine Flies Free program that allows members of its mileage plan program to check a case of wine without having to pay an extra baggage fee when flying from 32 West Coast cities in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and California.

As a great and valuable bonus, in Oregon, Washington and Idaho your Alaska Airlines boarding pass gets you free wine tastings at participatng wineries.

Now Avelo Airlines is joining the wine-flies-free bandwagon with its own version of the program.

The airline doesn’t service as many cities as Alaska does, but beginning on National Wine Day (May 25), Avelo customers can begin checking a case of wine for free from the Bay Area’s Charles M. Schulz Sonoma County Airport (STS) in Santa Rosa, CA.

Avelo currently offers nonstop flights from Sonoma to Salem, Oregon (SLE), Bend/Redmond (RDM), Boise (BOI), Glacier Park International Airport (FCA) in Kalispell, MT, Las Vegas (LAS), Hollywood Burbank Airport (BUR) and Palm Springs (PSP).

“We know that visiting the vineyards and sampling Northern California’s world-famous wines is one of the most appealing reasons for visiting the Sonoma County region,” said Avelo Airlines Founder and CEO Andrew Levy, “It is our hope Avelo’s new Wine Travels Free program will make our Customers’ trips to California Wine Country that much more enjoyable and memorable.”

On both Alaska and Avelo, you must be at least 21 years of age to take advantage of this perk. And on both airlines one case of wine is considered to be a single box or case containing up to 12 bottles and weighing 50 lbs or less.

Let’s raise a glass to airlines that let wines fly free.

(photo courtesy Flickr Commons)

Funny or not? Saturday Night Live on Alaska Airlines door plug debacle

Safety

Saturday Night Live aired a spoof commercial this past weekend using the recent Alaska Airlines door-plug emergency incident as inspiration.

The airline’s new slogan, SNL’s fake commercial says, is “Alaska Airlines. You didn’t die and you got a cool story.”

Other lines that may – or may not – make you chuckle, include:

“On other airlines, you can watch movies. But on Alaska, you’re in the movie.”

and

“We’re the same airline where a pilot tried to turn off the engine, mid-flight, while on mushrooms. And now we’re so proud to say, that’s our second worst flight.”

What do you think? Funny or not. Or a little too soon?

Airlines offer travel advisories/waivers for weather & 737-9 MAX inspections

Airlines, , , , , , ,

Between the storms in many regions of the country and the grounding of all Boeing 737-9 MAX aircraft for inspection, there are a lot of flight cancellations, schedule disruptions, and airline travel alerts.

Here are links to the current travel advisories and waivers (as of early Tuesday, January 9, 2024) in effect for some of the major airlines. Be sure to check your airline’s website for the latest updates on these advisories,

Alaska Airlines

On its website, Alaska Airlines is advising travelers that due to Boeing 737-9 MAX aircraft inspections and winter weather in the Northeast, they are offering a flexible travel policy for travelers who want to change or cancel their flights. Original travel dates include January 9.

American Airlines

American Airlines has a travel alert for close to 60 cities that may be affected by severe weather in the Eastern US and Canada. The airline will waive your change fee if you traveling in any fare class and are scheduled to fly January 9-10 and can travel instead January 9 – 15. See here for more details on American Airlines’ travel advisory.

Delta Air Lines

for Delta Air Lines has travel advisories posted for winter weather in the Midwest that may affect more than two dozen airports and as many in the Northeastern U.S.

JetBlue

JetBlue has also issued travel alerts for winter weather in the Midwest and the Northeastern US.

In the Midwest, the airline will waive change/cancel fees and fare differences for customers traveling through January 9 to or from Chicago (ORD), Detroit (DTW), Kansas City (MCI), Milwaukee (MKE), and Minneapolis – St. Paul (MSP). The travel alert covers about 15 airports in the Northeast. Customers may rebook their flights through January 13.

Southwest Airlines

Southwest Airlines has travel alerts posted for the Midwest and the East Coast.

United Airlines

For those scheduled to fly on a Boeing 737-9 MAX airplane, United Airlines offers these options:

You can reschedule your trip and have the change fees and fare differences waived. Your new flight must be a United flight departing by January 18, 2024. Tickets must be in the same cabin and between the same cities as originally booked. Trips rebooked after January 18, 2024, will still have the change fee waived, but there may be a fare difference. Cancelling and getting a full refund is also an option.

Alaska Airlines offers early boarding to holiday sweater-wearers on Dec 15

Holidays,

December 15 is National Ugly Christmas Sweater Day and to mark the holiday anyone wearing a holiday sweater (ugly or not) will be offered priority boarding on Alaska Airlines or Horizon Air flights.

Holiday sweater-wearers with flights that day will be invited to board after group B and throughout December all travelers will be greeted with festive decor and boarding music, as well as holiday movies.

If you don’t have a favorite holiday sweater or want to add to your collection with the 2023 edition of Alaska Airline’s holiday sweater, you’re in luck. The carrier is selling this year’s sweater online (for $42) in sizes small to 5X large at its Company Store website and in the Alaska Company store near Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. (Address: 19235 International Blvd, SeaTac, WA 98198).

You can also place an order via email (Company.store@alaskaair.com).

The Stuck at the Airport shopping team is based in Seattle and makes an annual pilgrimage to the Alaska Airlines shop for fun gifts for our favorite flyers. In addition to sweaters, t-shirts, and other apparel, the shop has a fun assortment of Alaska Airlines-themed gifts for everyone – including pets and kids – and several sizes of airplane models.