Alaska Airlines, Flight 20, SFO-JFK

Flight Details

Flight: AS 20

Aircraft: 737-9 Max

Departure: SFO, 2:25pm

Arrival: JFK, 10:25 pm

Seat: 3D

Service

This was my second ever flight with Alaska Airlines, and my first longer flight (previously I had only flown SFO-SEA, which you can read about here).  We were slightly delayed boarding because the plane was deemed too hot to be safe (!), and then slightly delayed pushing back because bags were still being loaded, but, the delays were minor, we took off only 15 minutes late.  We had significant tailwinds helping us still arrive early.

No PDB, although there was boxed water at our seats.  No amenity kits, no pillow, but a thin blanket was waiting at our seat.  It was really quite cold on board, and the little blanket didn't do much to help.   The flight attendant was efficient, but barely spoke to us.  She wasn't unfriendly, she just ... didn't really talk to us.  No hello, meal trays dropped off without a word, no offers of refills, that sort of thing.

Food & Drink

The main meal served is ... linner.  The timing of the meal on this flight is definitely awkward, 3:40pm in SF time, 6:40pm in New York time.  Too late for lunch where we came from, too early for dinner, but, at what will be dinner time where we are headed.  When there was exactly 2 hours remaining, a snack basket was passed with Border Canyon chips, Lesser Evil popcorn, Kind bars, beef jerky, and Karma toasted coconut cashews.  I was pretty happy to see the popcorn, as it is definitely my snack of choice, and the flavored nuts definitely called out.  I've had many of Lesser Evil's popcorns before, but had never tried their basic Himalayan Gold, which is what the snack basket contained.  Drink refills were also offered.

Drink Menu.

Orders for our drinks were taken once underway. There was only one choice for red wine, even though the menu listed two. 

Seltzer, Nuts.

Our drinks were served with a small thing of nuts (almonds, cashews, tiny bits of pecans). Not warm.  The sparkling water was Polar seltzer.  I was given a (mini) can and ice, it wasn't poured for me.  No offer of lemon nor lime garnish.

Ste Chapelle Winery Red Blend.

I went for the red wine, which turned out to be Ste Chapelle Winery Red Blend.  This is a cheap $12 bottle, definitely not as premium of wine offerings as the competitors on this route.

It was non-offensive.  No complexity at all, but, not too much tanin nor acid, so it was fine.  ***.

Straightaway Oregon Old Fashioned.

"The Old Fashioned is revered for its versatility and simplicity. This variation on the classic speaks to wistful days spent in Milton-Freewater, OR, and we’ve transposed our fondness for the Pacific Northwest bouquet into our own bitters. Whether consumed around a mountain-top campfire or from the safety of your drawing room, tradition has it that one’s first Old Fashioned should be served by a friend."

Later on, I moved on to the Old Fashioned, which I'd had before.  I was handed a can, and glass of ice.  Not poured for me, no garnish.  I still thought it was a nice cocktail though, same as my previous review.  ***+.

Menu.

The menu was available online to pre-order, which I did.  Pre-order gave 5 options, 2 of which were pre-order exclusives (the fruit & cheese plate and vegetarian white bean chili).  I nearly went for the chicken dish, not for the chicken obviously, as I'm extremely chicken adverse, but, for the grits, asparagus, and lemon caper sauce, all things I quite like!  But I opted for the lemon fennel manicotti instead.  

For those who didn't pre-order, they could select from the 3 onboard choices.  Well, technically they could.  The steak ran out in row 1, seat A.  Um, yeah.  They loaded 1 for the entire non-preorder cabin!  The chicken ran out in row 3.  I was surprised how few people had pre-ordered, perhaps lots of upgrades?

Meal service was pretty quick, with the first row getting served at exactly the 1 hour post-takeoff mark, mine arrived within 10 more minutes.

Linner.

So at 3:40pm, my meal showed up.  I had eaten a fair amount in the lounge (mac and cheese!), and definitely wasn't particularly interested in food at this point.  Which turned out to be fine, as the meal was pretty lackluster.

Meals come all one one tray, with a roll, salad, the entree you ordered, along with butter, and packet of salt and pepper.

Bread, Butter, Dressing.

The roll was lightly warm.  Pretty average airline quality.  Not stale, but, not particularly good, no real crust to it, just, soft. 

Salad dressing was fairly solid, seemed to be lemon vinaigrette.  Butter also very solid, impossible to spread. 

**.

Salad.

The menu didn't provide any details on the salad, and everyone got the same.  It was just mixed greens, with a few bites of cooked beets, a few pickled red onions, and goat cheese.  Given that I loathe goat cheese, and don't really care for beets, this was a miss for me, but, I suspect if you liked those things, and liked the lemon vinaigrette, this was a decent salad.  The greens were fresh and crisp.  **+.

It was also served in a bowl that was kinda too small, it was hard to eat without bits falling out.

Lemon Fennel Manicotti.

"Lemon ricotta stuffed pasta | grilled baby fennel | tomato basil ragout."

The main dish was served moderately warm.  I certainly wanted it hotter.  The portion was three large manicotti, plus a decent amount of fennel and the chunky tomato ragout.  

The pasta was microwave dinner quality.  The pasta itself was not dried out or overcooked at least, but was as boring as it gets.  The filling was, well, ricotta.  Some minor lemon flavor.  Very, very boring, and essentially cafeteria/frozen dinner quality.  I gave up on it after eating one of the three tubes. *+ pasta.

I did like the fennel, it was well cooked and flavorful, and the chunks of tomato and onion in the ragout were tasty as well.  *** toppings.

I combined the salad + fennel + tomatoes + onions to make a quasi-ok dish, but I certainly wouldn't get this again.  I wish I had gone for the chicken, just for the grits, asparagus, and tasty sauce.

Salt & Straw Sea Salt with Caramel Ribbons.

"Our reimagination of the classic. We spike our cream with just enough Guatemalan fleur de sel to bring out its nuances, then drizzle in ribbons of our hand-burned caramel."

After our trays were cleared, the flight attendant came through offering ice cream.  Just as I was shocked by how many people didn't pre-order, I was even more shocked by how many turned down the ice cream.  Yes, timing was odd, but ... Salt & Straw is good ice cream!  The flavor was Salt & Straw's most famous, sea salt with caramel ribbons, which I've had before, and loved.

It was served quite solid, so it took a while to become possible to eat it.  But once it softened, I dug right in.  It matched my memory of the flavor - nice quality base ice cream, and TONS of very gooey, very sweet, caramel.  I added my own fresh strawberries and sprinkles, and quite enjoyed.  And then I enjoyed an extra, which I volunteered to take off the flight attendants hands (so generous of me, right?).  She happily obliged, given how many extra there were.  ****.