Greetings from Seattle. Today is Alaska’s media and investor day, and the airline is showing us the next step of its “Alaska Accelerate” program. What are we learning? Well, the basic details are out, and it looks a whole lot like an airline trying to put together a competitive product as a global premium carrier. In other words, this is about playing catch-up to be more like the big three on long-haul… and in the transcon market.
What I’m hoping to learn at the event today is more about how it will differentiate itself from those airlines going forward as well as more details on performance, and we’ll talk about that tonight when we record The Air Show Live podcast. (And to be clear, this is live on tape, but if you aren’t one of the lucky ones in the room, you’ll have to wait until we release to the public, most likely at the usual Thursday morning time.) Realizing there is more information to come, let’s just talk about what’s in these initial announcements. Note that all images are via Alaska Air Group.
A B787 Mini-Me
American is transitioning to its XLRs, Delta has widebodies and B757s (but will eventually have A321neos), and United awaits its Coastliner. All of these have flat beds to cater to the premium demand in the transcon market. Alaska has had nothing to compete on those domestic routes. There was talk about buildling on a solid Virgin America transcon product after the merger, and then there was a thought that maybe we’d see an A330 on transcon after the Hawaiian merger, but none of that has happened. Now there is a plan to compete in this space.
There will be a subfleet of “at least” 25 of its incoming B737-10 MAX deliveries that will be configured with a transcon offering on-board. This will be a Mini-Me version of the B787, right down to the livery which will have the new “Aurora” design.
It will have 12 flat beds onboard, but instead of that herringbone layout that is now being put on the A321 family, Alaska has a reverse herringbone which means you can actually look out the window.
There will also be 12 new premium economy seats — a new cabin which Alaska is calling Premium Reserve — onboard in a 2-2 configuration.
What we don’t know from the release is… where will these airplanes fly? I would not expect to see Alaska competing on LA to JFK with this. More likely we’ll see these with a heavy focus on Seattle and Portland, some San Francisco and LAX, and San Diego if the short runway allows it. Seattle to JFK? Absolutely. But what else will show up I hope to learn more about today. With a fleet of at least 25 airplanes, it will be able to cover a fair number of transcons. And will it fly to Hawaiʻi too? We don’t know, though since these will have the Alaska name, that seems unlikely.
A Much Needed A330 Update
Hawaiian’s onboard product on the A330s desperately needs updating. The 2-2-2 cabin up front is small and the seats are worn. In the back, there just aren’t enough premium seats, and as we all know, premium is everything now. The A330 will remain a Honolulu-based airplane branded as Hawaiian, and a refit had been announced before. Now we have details of what that will look like.
Up front will be the new Leihōkū suites. (Hōkū means “star,” so it’s a lei of stars.) This airplane will go from having 18 beds in three rows to 22 reverse herringbone beds in five and a half rows.
These are flat beds with direct aisle access, and yes, a door. (I still don’t get the door thing.) I like that it retains that teal accent.
We’ll also see 28 Premium Reserve seats on this aircraft, though it is a very different look than the more private version being put on the Alaska fleet. My guess is that the feedback was that more people are traveling together on Hawaiian and want to interact.
There will be new seating in the back as well. We don’t know exactly what the total seat count on the aircraft will be, but premium seating will rise from 30 to 40 percent of the cabin. I’m going to assume that includes the Premium — not to be confused with Premium Reserve — extra legroom section.
A Surprise B787 Retrofit
We knew that the airline was working on some improvements for future B787 deliveries, but it is also going to retrofit the existing B787s with a new so-called “Aurora” suite. Yes, Aurora is now the name they’ll use across the Alaska brand for long-haul premium. It’s not entirely clear to me what will be different, and how these will be better. I assume we’ll learn more about that in media day today, but this is what they look like.
We’ll also see the airline put 35 Premium Reserve seats onboard the B787 fleet.
Love for Lounges
It looks like we’re going to learn a whole lot more about lounges today, including plans for the massive, brand new Aurora Lounge in Seattle. It’s actually 41,000 sq feet on the C concourse that’s split between a regular lounge and an Aurora Lounge for those long-haul premium passengers.
Honolulu will also get its new lounge, but that’s a mere 13,000 sq feet at the entrance to the Mauka concourse. San Diego, not to be outdone, will have a new 14,000 sq foot lounge.
Atmos Gets More Juice
There’s a whole separate release talking about changes to the Atmos program. Don’t worry, these aren’t negative changes. First, there will be a new debit card offering for those who want to earn more miles. There’s also a ton of fluff in here, including some things that have already been announced but now are going live. There really was only one thing that grabbed my attention.
You will be able to transfer points into Atmos from “eligible Bank of America card products” starting in 2027. This sounds like a whole new thing for BofA, joining the likes of Chase, Amex, Citi, and Capital One. Other than that brief window where you could transfer Amex to HawaiianMiles post-merger, this is the first time I’ve heard about an option to transfer to Atmos points from the generic credit cards.
It’s not stopping there, noting that at some nebulous point in the future, it will create the ability to transfer from “other select global financial institutions.”
There is a little more in here, including dining improvements and things like that, but you can go to the website and read about those yourself. I’m expecting there may be some surprises in store today, so stay tuned for more.
