Alaska Airlines has been through a few ups and downs recently. The airline faces a pilot shortage (much like many carriers will soon face). This has led the airline to cancel some flights, especially those operated by their regional carriers. The airline, however, has been expanding very aggressively in California this year. After their acquisition of Virgin America, Alaska has been pairing carriers to meet capacity. This means there are more aircraft available to launch new flights. One example is Alaska Airlines New Orleans San Francisco flight.
Bay Area to Big Easy
Alaska launched the flight the past Thursday, September 21st. The airline celebrated with a live Jazz band in San Francisco before the flight took off. The flight will be operated by one of the former Virgin America A320s. The flight will fly daily with the following schedule:
| Start
date |
City pair | Departs | Arrives | Aircraft | Frequency |
| Sep 21 | San Francisco- New
Orleans |
8:48 a.m. | 3:03 p.m. | A320 family | Daily |
| Sep 21 | New Orleans- San
Francisco |
4 p.m. | 6:30 p.m. | A320 family | Daily |
What to Expect:
Alaska Airlines and Virgin America are consistently some of the best carriers in the US. Not only do they have an excellent frequent flyer program, but they also offer a solid onboard product. Business class will have 8 seats, with locally inspired meals. The aircraft is fitted with wifi, as well as streaming entertainment. As part of the streaming abilities, the airline also offers Free Chat to their passengers. Free Chat allows passengers to use iMessage, Whatsapp and Facebook Messenger free of charge throughout the flight.
Landing Thoughts:
I am glad to see New Orleans get a new flight. The airport recently got a flight to London with British Airways. They offer flights to Europe on BA as well as a flight to Frankfurt with Condor. I think the airport will probably land a new flight to Europe on Lufthansa’s Eurowings division. With the airport expanding, the Big Easy will be even bigger. The new routes, including the Alaska flight, will bring more business to the city. This will give even more life to the French Quarter and my favorite museum in the city: the World War II Museum.
What do you think? Are you going to fly on Alaska’s flight to New Orleans? Have you been to the World War II Museum in New Orleans? Let us know!
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H/T: Alaska Press Release
Images from: Alaska Airlines and Wikimedia Commons
There is no such thing as a “former Virgin America A320.” While Alaska and Virgin have started the process of merging, they still operate as two separate carriers with distinctly different products. The MSY-SFO flights are Virgin America, not Alaska. All of the product offerings you laid out are specific to Alaska, not Virgin America. Virgin has different food and beverage offerings and seatback IFE. They do not offer streaming IFE or free onboard messaging. And all of the photos in this article are specific to Alaska, so none of them are applicable to this new route. It will continue to be Virgin until 2019 when the brand is retired.