An Alaska Air cabin refresh is coming! Announced yesterday, the refresh will affect most of the mainline fleet, including the new Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft. Moreover, as Hawaiian has done with its new Boeing 787-9s, Alaska is expanding the availability of premium seating onboard its aircraft.
In an announcement made on July 17, 2024, an Alaska Air cabin refresh is coming. This refresh seeks to increase the capacity of premium seating aboard much of the mainline fleet as demand for First Class and Premium Class continues to surge. To me, this is a smart move, as it’ll help generate additional revenue for the airline and can also improve Mileage Plan elite members’ chances for upgrades. However, questions remain about what’s actually going on here.
Alaska Air Cabin Refresh
Today, Alaska Airlines operates with a three-class cabin configuration across its mainline fleet, which currently consists of six different aircraft types.
In its press release, Alaska Air says it’ll be making changes to 59 Boeing 737-800s, 79 Boeing 737-900ERs, and 80 Boeing 737 MAX 9s. These changes will encompass all of the jets of these types Alaska currently has in its fleet (or, in the case of the MAX 9, aircraft that have yet to be delivered). However, as you’ll note, the Boeing 737 MAX 8 has been left out of the plans, which I find odd, as they have the exact same configuration as the -800. Then again, with only 15 more yet to be delivered, there won’t be all that many to begin with.
Anyhow, the specific changes during the Alaska Air refresh include adding one row of First Class seats to the Boeing 737-800s, giving them a total of 14 each, and converting a row of Main Cabin seats to Premium Class across the Boeing 737-900ER and MAX 9 fleets, which will increase those total to 30 seats each. Since Alaska will be converting a row of Main Cabin seats, I imagine they’ll be reducing the pitch of other rows of seat to make up the difference.
Premium Class offers 35″ of pitch, so adding another row means finding four additional inches somewhere. Being that all Premium Class seats are now immediately behind First Class and don’t include Exit Row seats, plus the fact that there are five rows between Premium and Exit, I think the extra space will come from there. Alaska currently offers 31″ to 32″ inches of pitch in Main Cabin, though they don’t say how much space is available where, so I’m thinking that the seats behind Premium Class will see their space shrink to between 30″ and 31″ inches. The only other option is to remove a row of seats, but I don’t see them doing that to free up four inches. Plus, they would’ve said so (or should have) in their release to prevent negative speculation.
As for the additional row of First Class seats being added onboard the Boeing 737-800 during the Alaska Air cabin refresh, that one is more difficult to figure out. My guess is they have to remove a row or two of Main Cabin to get these to fit.
Beyond the increase in premium seating, the Alaska Air cabin refresh will also see the aesthetics of the aircraft interiors change to the newer standard, which was introduced during Virgin America’s fleet integration. However, only the Boeing 737-800s will receive the newer Recaro First Class seats that were introduced in 2019. The 737-900s will likely retain whatever they have today.
Final Thoughts
The Alaska Air cabin refresh project will occur in stages. First up is the Boeing 737-900ER fleet, which is set to begin this fall and will wrap up in Summer 2025. The 737-800s get their turn in early 2025 and will wrap up by summer 2026. Finally, the MAX9 updates will begin in spring 2025 and finish in summer 2026. That’s not a bad schedule, especially when you consider how long it takes United and American to update their fleets. It will also be great to have more consistency across Alaska’s fleet, though I still find it odd that the 737 MAX8s are being left out.
For me, personally, the Alaska Air cabin refresh is nice, but it won’t make a huge difference. I don’t have status with Alaska, and I don’t fly First. I do usually fly Premium, but I usually buy my upgrade myself. Heck, I don’t think I’ve ever been on an aircraft with their newer interiors.