Is Alaska Airlines 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 perhaps greatest on your subsequent journey. When you’re taking a look at a flight serviced by Alaska Airways, it’s possible you’ll be questioning: Is Alaska Airways good?

Right here’s what NerdWallet discovered primarily based on numerous components, together with Alaska’s loyalty program, flight expertise, customer support and extra.

NerdWallet not too long ago analyzed the greatest airline loyalty program this 12 months, and Alaska Airways got here out on prime, with a score of 4.6 out of 5 factors — considerably greater than the three.8 level score of second place finishers, American Airways and Hawaiian Airways.

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

Other than topping NerdWallet’s rankings of greatest airline loyalty packages, there are further explanation why Alaska is a good airline to fly.

Your expertise on Alaska could differ with class of service, vacation spot and components like flight crew and passenger load. With that in thoughts, we’ve highlighted a number of factors under 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 may make your flight reservation both immediately with the airline (both on its web site or app) or via a third-party web site like Kayak or Expedia.

Remember the fact that Alaska expenses a $15 service charge when reserving via an agent on the cellphone (this charge is waived for Alaska MVP Gold and 75k members), so you must attempt to ebook on-line when attainable.

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

When you use the app, you’ll be capable of obtain a digital model of your boarding go. In any other case, you’ll be able to print your boarding go at house 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 friends with kids below 2), adopted by firstclass, Mileage Plan elite members, premium class ticket holders, primary cabin passengers and people in Saver seats.

Your in-flight expertise can differ extensively relying on the cabin you’ve booked and the aircraft on which you’re flying. Most aircrafts provide $8 Wi-Fi in the course of your flight, and you may nonetheless entry free messaging even should you don’t pay for web entry.

Be aware that Alaska doesn’t provide lie-flat seating — even on its cross-continental flights – so if having a mattress is necessary to your flying expertise, you’ll must 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 amassed 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 ebook journey on companion airways together with Qantas, Cathay Pacific, American Airways, British Airways, FinnAir and Qatar Airways. You possibly can even use your Alaska miles to ebook flights on a number of choose non-Oneworld alliance members like Singapore Airways, Aer Lingus and Korean Air.

When you’re involved about security while you fly, Alaska Airways is a good alternative — Alaska was named the most secure airline within the U.S. and the eighth most secure airline on the planet, based on 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 effectively in terms 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 typically pleased with 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 acquired a fifth place rating by financial system cabin vacationers.

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

• Vacationers preferring a lie-flat seat. Alaska Airways does not provide lie-flat seats in its premium class cabins, so prospects who desire a mattress once they fly ought to look elsewhere.

• Vacationers who fly incessantly outdoors of North America. Alaska Airways at the moment solely flies to the USA, Canada, Mexico, Belize, and Costa Rica. Though you’ll be able to leverage Alaska’s companions to fly elsewhere, if most of your flights are outdoors of North America, it’s possible you’ll wish 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 a superb airline? Normally, sure. To get essentially the most bang on your buck, we advocate researching the plane and in-flight expertise supplied on your particular flight, in addition to verifying the quantity of miles you’ll earn via Alaska’s loyalty program.

When you’ve determined to ebook 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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