Is Alaska Airways Good? – NerdWallet

As journey continues its crawl again to regular, it may be powerful to know which of the numerous U.S.-based airways is likely to be greatest in your subsequent journey. When you’re taking a look at a flight serviced by Alaska Airways, you could be questioning: Is Alaska Airways good?

Right here’s what NerdWallet discovered primarily based on a lot of elements, together with Alaska’s loyalty program, flight expertise, customer support and extra.

NerdWallet lately analyzed the greatest airline loyalty program this 12 months, and Alaska Airways got here out on high, with a score of 4.6 out of 5 factors — considerably larger than the three.8 level score of second place finishers, American Airways and Hawaiian Airways.

What helped set Alaska aside from all different U.S.-based carriers? It presents a high-value reward fee for its Mileage Plan program, has favorable insurance policies round charges and pets and presents top-tier advantages for its elite members.

Apart from topping NerdWallet’s rankings of greatest airline loyalty applications, there are extra the explanation why Alaska is a good airline to fly.

Your expertise on Alaska could range with class of service, vacation spot and elements like flight crew and passenger load. With that in thoughts, we’ve highlighted a number of factors beneath that ought to provide you with a greater thought of what you’ll expertise when flying with Alaska.

Reserving a flight on Alaska is comparatively straightforward, and you can also make your flight reservation both instantly with the airline (both on its web site or app) or by means of a third-party website like Kayak or Expedia.

Remember the fact that Alaska prices a $15 service price when reserving by means of an agent on the telephone (this price is waived for Alaska MVP Gold and 75k members), so it’s best to attempt to guide on-line when doable.

You’ll be capable to test in for Alaska flights as much as 24 hours prematurely. You possibly can test in both on the Alaska web site, on its app or on the airport.

When you use the app, you’ll be capable to obtain a digital model of your boarding move. In any other case, you may print your boarding move at dwelling or get a paper model when checking in on the airport.

Alaska Airways boards its planes utilizing seven totally different teams, beginning with pre-boarding (together with company with kids below 2), adopted by firstclass, Mileage Plan elite members, premium class ticket holders, foremost cabin passengers and people in Saver seats.

Your in-flight expertise can range broadly relying on the cabin you’ve booked and the airplane on which you’re flying. Most aircrafts supply $8 Wi-Fi throughout your flight, and you’ll nonetheless entry free messaging even when you don’t pay for web entry.

Be aware that Alaska doesn’t supply lie-flat seating — even on its cross-continental flights – so if having a mattress is necessary to your flying expertise, you’ll have to look elsewhere.

Alaska’s Mileage Plus loyalty program is top-notch. Award tickets could be redeemed for as few as 5,000 miles, and miles are accrued primarily based on the gap you fly, not how a lot you spent in your ticket.

Alaska can be a member of the Oneworld alliance, so you need to use your Mileage Plan miles to guide journey on accomplice airways together with Qantas, Cathay Pacific, American Airways, British Airways, FinnAir and Qatar Airways. You possibly can even use your Alaska miles to guide flights on a number of choose non-Oneworld alliance members like Singapore Airways, Aer Lingus and Korean Air.

When you’re involved about security whenever you fly, Alaska Airways is a good selection — Alaska was named the most secure airline within the U.S. and the eighth most secure airline on the planet, in line with a 2021 evaluation by airlineratings.com.

In comparison with 9 U.S.-based carriers, Alaska Airways ranked third for on-time efficiency in a 2020 evaluation carried out by OAG, a supplier of air journey knowledge.

Though Alaska wins factors for on-time efficiency, it doesn’t fare fairly as properly on the subject of baggage. In 2021, Alaska was ranked the fourth worst airline within the U.S. for misplaced or mishandled baggage by LuggageHero.

Alaska prospects are usually proud of the airline. In a 2022 North American airline satisfaction examine by J.D. Energy, Alaska was ranked second in buyer satisfaction by first and enterprise class passengers and obtained a fifth place rating by economic system cabin vacationers.

Though there are lots of causes to fly Alaska Airways, there are some vacationers who could need to keep away from the airline, together with:

• Vacationers preferring a lie-flat seat. Alaska Airways would not supply lie-flat seats in its premium class cabins, so prospects who need a mattress after they fly ought to look elsewhere.

• Vacationers who fly steadily outdoors of North America. Alaska Airways at present solely flies to the US, Canada, Mexico, Belize, and Costa Rica. Though you may leverage Alaska’s companions to fly elsewhere, if most of your flights are outdoors of North America, you could need to use one other airline.

• East Coast-based vacationers. The airline’s flight community concentrates closely on the West Coast and Alaska, so it won’t take advantage of sense for all flyers.

So is Alaska Airways an excellent airline? Normally, sure. To get essentially the most bang in your buck, we advocate researching the plane and in-flight expertise supplied in your particular flight, in addition to verifying the quantity of miles you’ll earn by means of Alaska’s loyalty program.

When you’ve determined to guide an Alaska flight, don’t overlook to hitch its Mileage Plan program to take full benefit of the airline’s top-rate loyalty advantages.

Picture courtesy of Alaska Airways.

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