Traveled on Alaska Airlines for the first time on our trip to Seattle. Things I think are great about Alaska and that other carriers should implement:
1) They actually actively enforce the 1 carry-on and 1 personal item rule, with the gate agent visually checking to make sure your bag fits, making any violators check any over sized or extra carry on’s. How many times have you boarded a flight with passengers that have roll-a-board luggage plus one honkingly massive backpack, purse, laptop bag, or shopping bag thereby robbing you of overhead bin space?
2) If the flight is expected to be full, they ask for volunteers to gate check their carry on luggage without collecting a bag fee
3) They allow people who don’t intend to use overhead bin space to board before general boarding, including the volunteers mentioned in #2
4) At your destination, they roll out a set of stairs giving you the option to exit the plane via the rear door.
5) If your luggage is not at baggage claim within 20 minutes of your plane parking, you get a $20 discount on your next Alaska flight (essentially giving you a refund on your bag fee if they are late with your bags) or 2500 bonus miles
All these little details are probably marginally more costly to Alaska Airlines, but it leads to a better, more enjoyable and faster boarding and deplaning process compared to the other airlines (although it could be argued Southwest’s process can be even speedier). Alaska probably realizes that speeding up the process also allows them to turn their planes around much quicker, which leads to leads to better utilization of planes and therefore higher revenue.
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