Alaska Airlines Review — Air Travel Booking & Comparison Comparison (2012)

On Alaskaair.com you can plan and book all your travel in Alaska and in any of the Alaskaair.com destinations, you can also book cruises, hotels and car rental worldwide due to Alaska Airlines' partnership with Orbiz.com. Alaska Airlines also offers several useful travel planning tools to help complete your travel itinerary.

In addition to this the Alaskaair.com site provides:

• No service fees on bookings.
• An attractive mileage plan.
• Travel planning tools which will make booking your travel easy even for first time travelers.
• The Easybiz plan for corporate travel.
• Extensive routes to destinations large and small in the West Pacific area.
• Low cost flights in the USA, Canada and Mexico.
• No extra fees for luggage.

Alaska Airlines flies to over 70 cities throughout the USA (including Hawaii), Mexico and Canada. Alaska Airlines works together with their sister company Horizon Air which operates smaller propeller planes that fly to the remote regions of Alaska. Within Alaska the larger airlines only reach the capital of Alaska, Anchorage and the city of Fairbanks. 

Alaska Airlines concentrates it's flight routes on the West coast of the US and flies more frequently than other airlines to the less popular and more remote destinations.

For those traveling to places like Adak Island, Kotzebue and smaller cities in Mexico, Alaska Airlines offers a transport solution which only minor airlines provide.

Other advantages of using Alaskaair.com include:

• Alaska Airlines does not charge baggage fees.
• Before making your purchase there is a useful currency convertor and the site is also available in French.
• Within Alaska their prices are competitive and even lower than most airlines.
• Alaska Airlines are the most frequent fliers within the state of Alaska.
• Their customer service includes "live online chat".
• If you're flying dates are flexible you can use a low fare calendar to show you the flight prices for a week.
• Alaskaair.com has partnered with Orbitz.com to provide hotel, car rental and cruise booking so that you can complete your Alaska travel bookings on this one site. You can also book hotels, cruises and car rental worldwide from Alaskaair.com.

Alaska Airlines is one of the only air carriers which services the smaller cities and islands in Alaska although American Airlines, Continental, Delta, Northwest and United Airlines also serve Anchorage and Fairbanks connecting them with the lower 48 states.

Destinations within Alaska

Since many of the remote towns and cities in Alaska are not connected to the major cities by easily navigated land routes air transportation is essential. Alaska Airlines flies these routes along with smaller airlines such as ERA Aviation, Frontier Flier and PenAir. Frontier Fliers flies only from Anchorage and Fairbanks but ERA and Pen Air service more destinations within Alaska than Alaska Airlines. Pen Air flies to 45 destinations in Alaska, a lot more than Alaska Airlines' 12 destinations. Some travelers may feel more confident using Alaska Airlines rather than these smaller airlines.

Connecting Alaska with the world

Hawaiian Airlines  also services the Pacific area and a customer comparing the two airlines said:

Paul Roos: Both airlines are attentive to needs, but Hawaiian has the edge with unsolicited water, drinks, etc. Costwise, Alaska charges about $300 less than Hawaiian.

In comparing a return flight from San Francisco to Honolulu Hawaiian Airlines asks $532 and Alaska Airlines asks $840, the Alaskaair.com flight is not direct! When the flight is within the state of Alaska however Hawaiian Airlines is not an option as they do not fly to Alaska. 

2buzy: Ah Alaska airlines. I know them well! We seem to fly them a lot for short destinations in the Northwest. They have flights from Sea-Tac to all our neighboring states more often than other airlines which make it easy to find a suitable flight....

As this customer explains one of the advantages of Alaska Airlines is the frequency of their flights and range of destinations within the Northwest, they are on home turf when it comes to the state of Alaska.

However as several customer reviews state the older planes are not as well maintained as perhaps the larger airlines and Alaska Airlines seems to save on the little luxuries that we are accustomed to getting on other airlines:

Lisa J: Alaska air provided a filthy interior and unacceptable food quality

When comparing airfares of flights which connect Alaska to the lower 48 states Alaskaair.com is often the lowest or average price, for example on a flight from Anchorage to Seattle the Delta Air price is $720, Continental $739 and Alaska Airlines $775.

On comparing flights to and from Fairbanks I encountered many instances where Alaska Airlines was the only airline which serviced the whole trip where as Delta and Continental Airlines service the route through partner airlines.

Flights not going to or from Alaska

A return flight from Los Angeles to Mexico City will cost you $664 on Delta Air, $328 on Continental Airlines and $328 on Alaska Airlines.

Travelers going to or from Alaska would most benefit from using Alaskaair.com. Alaska Airlines reaches 12 cities in Alaska where as the larger airlines connecting Alaska to the lower 48 states serve only Anchorage and occasionally Fairbanks.

Those living in the remote areas of Alaska would find Alaskaair.com an essential lifeline to the rest of the world as Alaska Airlines flies frequently to these regional areas.

Business travelers can join the Easybiz program which affords members special deals, a travel tracking service and more flexibility with cancelations and ticket changes. The frequent flights of Alaska Airlines would help business people get from meeting to meeting in a time efficient manner.

A traveler who is not planning to make Alaska one of their stops would most likely not find this site essential, however if your path should cross Alaska on any leg of your journey then Alaska Airlines can provide an invaluable service.

One Stop Travel Booking for Alaska and Beyond

Due to Alaska Airlines partnership with Orbitz.com you can book car rental and hotel rooms anywhere in the world from the Alaska Airlines website. Although this is convenient, once you have started these travel plans you are then a customer of Orbitz.com and need to use the Orbitz.com customer service. For cruise booking on Alaskaair.com you will be dealing with CruisesOnly. So why do this through Alaska Airlines?

In my opinion the Alaska Airlines website is best used for booking Alaska Airlines flights and travel within Alaska, and for services handled by partners why not just go directly to the partner's (Orbitz.com or CruisesOnly.com) websites.

Live Chat Customer Service

One of the key benefits of Alaskaair.com is the live online chat, this is invaluable when making or changing travel plans.

Alaskaair.com Travel Tools and Easy Site Navigation

• The Alaska Airlines website is easy to navigate and offers all the information you might need from booking to boarding. Travelers will find the booking experience on Alaska Airlines website smooth and simple. 
• The Alaska Airlines site has an excellent airport guide which includes very specific airport information and a brief travel guide for the airport city.
• You can also book package deals on Alaska Airlines and many of their vacation packages are low cost, for example they are the preferred carrier of Disneyland and so their deal is one of the cheapest online.
• Travelers heading for Alaska should use the expert knowledge of the area that Alaska Airlines provides and the extensive number of their regional destinations throughout Alaska even to the smaller Islands (St. George Island for example).
• Use Alaskaair.com for the frequently scheduled flights to Northwest Pacific destinations but don't expect luxury travel or the latest in air transportation, it is a simple airline with good service but not many (if any) frills attached!
• Alaska Airlines are an environmentally aware company and in the last 5 years they have reduced the intensity of their carbon emissions by 23%.

For flights throughout the Northwest Alaskaair.com offers a good online travel booking service, frequent local flights, flights to remote destination in Alaska and competitive airfares but not always the cheapest so it is worth comparing with other airlines.