Review of Alaska Airlines flight from Seattle to Los Angeles in Economy

Background:
This series covers a quick jaunt up to Seattle for the weekend. As a reminder, the routing is:
Part 1 – LAX-SEA [AS 445, Boeing B737-800, First] – Here
Part 2 – SEA-LAX [AS 450, Boeing B737-900ER, Economy] – You are here
This report will cover the flight from SEA to LAX. The bonus for this report will be of Seattle and a trip up to Everett to see Paine Field and the new AF B789 awaiting final delivery.
Pre-flight:
At 10am, I received a push notification from AS that my flight had been delayed to 8:30pm. A little suspicious of a 5 minute delay so early in the day, I looked at the full details and saw that the arrival time into LAX had been pushed back all the way to 11:30pm so my gut told me the delay was going to be more than 5 minutes on departure. Either way, I left to return my car at SEA as the rain clouds started to roll into Seattle.
The rental car center is off-site so there is a shuttle bus that takes you back to the terminal.

Inside, the FIDS.

The empty AS check-in counters.

Almost everything is self check-in these days where you tag your own bag and then drop it off at counter.

I just stop in to grab a real paper boarding pass for my collection.

There were no glitches getting TSA PreCheck on my BP this time and was granted it at OLCI so AS managed to resolve the problem between flights. No one in the TSA PreCheck line so I was instantly airside.

Shame I wasn’t here on a sunny day, SEA has awesome windows overlooking the runways from this food court behind the FIDS.

The carriers leaving from the S Gates caught my attention, so I veered off to see what was leaving tonight. Also, I guess SEA is the only US destination for MF so far? I’d be interested to see their B787 product if they come to LAX soon.

So, it was pretty quiet at the S Gates. Only a BA B777 heading back to LHR.

My flight was leaving from the N gates, so I took the underground train over there to go find my gate.

Reaching my gate, my inbound aircraft just arrived and passengers were deboarding. There was an announcement from the gate agents that we would begin boarding as soon as the cabin was cleaned.

The N gates weren’t too interesting since it is the satellite terminal, just some shops in the middle.

The curse of the Pacific Northwest: nasty green carpet. PDX and SEA both need some remodeling.

————————-
Alaska Airlines, AS 450
Equipment: Boeing B737-900ER [N474AS, delivered June 2015]
Departure: 20:25 (ATD: 21:08)
Arrival: 22:55 (ATA: 23:35)
Flight time: 2:27
My plane is only a year old, but will be in the old livery.

The DYKWIAs are lined up awaiting boarding. No one else is crowding the gate as you can see.

Boarding was pretty laid back despite the delay leaving and there was no maddash to the lines when the gate agents started the pre-boarding. I joined the back of the Elites queue and headed down the jetbridge.

There was a logjam entering the cabin as the FAs were taking jackets from F passengers during boarding. The jetbridge controls.

Welcome aboard.

The FAs thanked us for our patience and ushered us in. I of course get bumped in the back as I take the picture of my row.

I settle into my seat, 6A, which is the first row of Y. This was picked on the basis that AS uses soft bulkheads behind F so you are guaranteed the best legroom on the plane.

The soft bulkhead.

A better look at the seats and the legroom.

The only downside of these seats is that it is the only row that does not have an outlet per seat. Charging my phone wasn’t an issue since the nice couple next to me had no objections.

Even with the soft bulkhead, it’s still a bulkhead seat and has the airbag seat belts.

Seatback contents are mounted on the fuselage.

Everything is the same as before.

The BOB menu.

Our nextdoor neighbor is an AS B738 in the new livery.

As boarding was wrapping up, the captain came on and apologized for the delay. He also said that due to flow control into LAX because of the runway repairs they are doing, we would not be allowed to leave SEA until 21:07 +/- 3 minutes in order to hit our landing slot at LAX. We pushed back and taxied out past a BR B77W.

We sat in the corner of the airport until exactly 21:07, then we pulled up to a runway and immediately aligned for takeoff.

Lifting up to the north over Seattle before making a U-turn to head south.

The drink carts came out. The FA immediately thanked me for my MVP Gold status and asked if I would like chocolates or a drink. I opted for the free premium drink given to MVP Golds and requested an Alaskan Icy Bay IPA and a glass of water. She returned after she finished the service and asked me if I wanted another one, but I declined since I still had to drive home.

I slept until we started our descent and the cabin was prepared for arrival. LA glowing in the horizon as we turn in over Agoura Hills.

We do the normal approach into LAX that takes a U-turn over downtown in order to land from the east.

We touch down just after 23:30, which is the arrival time they predicted back at 10am, so kudos to AS for that.

A peek into the AA hangars with B77W inside.

The standard action at TBIT.

We pull into our gate at T6 next to an AA A321.

We quickly deplane.

It’s downstairs and out to the street as I go to pick up my car and drive home.

And with that, this short trip to Seattle is complete. See you all soon!
***BONUS***
Seattle

Fall foliage

The salmon are heading upstream

Some don’t make it…

Chihuly Garden

Space Needle

Seattle at night

The rest of the pictures are from Paine Field to check out some of the planes awaiting delivery.
A pair of NH B789s (JA886A and JA888A).

HY B788 (UK78702), I like how their registration is so literla representing their 2nd B787.

BA B789 (G-ZBKP).

CA B77W that still has a temporary US registration (N5510E).

The first KU B77W sporting the airlines brand new livery. I think this is the first and only plane to have this new livery so far and it hasn’t even entered service yet. I couldn’t see the registration from the way it was parked.

Some old friends from Nagoya are also here^^

The rest of the planes parked off in the distance, nothing too exciting. Just some MU B77Ws, EK B77Ws, PR B77W, BR B77W, KE B747 and B777 cargo planes.

And maybe of most interest to the larger half of the site is the first AF B789 awaiting final delivery (F-HRBA). She certainly looks good in the AF livery.