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The ins and outs of in-flight connectivity

Aug. 22, 2017 update:

Alaska Airlines has selected Gogo to provide next-generation satellite-based inflight Wi-Fi service across its entire Boeing and Airbus fleet. Gogo’s broadband 2Ku service provides the significantly faster connection speed needed to stream content from services like Netflix, Hulu, and HBO GO while in the air. Utilizing this advanced technology, guests can use their devices in flight just as they would on the ground.

The Gogo 2Ku service will be installed on Alaska’s Boeing 737 aircraft beginning in the first half of 2018, with 40 to 50 planes expected to be completed by the end of the year. The remainder of Alaska and Virgin America’s mainline fleet will be fully satellite Wi-Fi equipped by early 2020. Regional jets operated by Horizon Air and SkyWest, which serve shorter flights, will continue to offer Gogo’s ATG4 internet service (including Free Chat) along with free movies and TV.

Original story:

If it sounds incredible, that’s because it is: Internet access at your fingertips, while traveling at 500 miles per hour through the troposphere. But eight years after in-flight Wi-Fi became commercially available in the U.S., the service is so commonplace and commonly frustrating that it’s become fodder for jokes, rants and countless Tweets.

In the words of comedian Louis C.K., in his viral 2009 “Conan” rant, “everything’s amazing and nobody’s happy.”

“Customers rightly expect quality Internet like what they get at home,” says Jordan Lapin, a senior engineer at Alaska Airlines. “Matching the service and expectation they get from a cable modem at home is a pretty big challenge.”

That disconnect can be frustrating, and Lapin and others who work on the airline’s in-flight connectivity know it. That’s why they’ve spent the past year adding resources and have just started to retrofit most of Alaska’s fleet of Boeing 737s with a new solution that will improve the bandwidth currently available on Alaska flights.

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Travel advisory: Operations restored in northern Alaska

Image credit: David Schneider / Alaska Volcano Observatory / U.S. Geological Survey

Update: 12:30 p.m. PDT, March 30, 2016

Operations have been restored to six northern cities in Alaska as ash clouds from the Mount Pavlof eruption have dissipated. Regular flights have resumed to and from Bethel, Nome, Kotzebue, Barrow, Fairbanks and Prudhoe Bay today and Alaska’s employees are working hard to get customers and cargo to the affected communities.

Alaska has added one extra flight between Anchorage and Nome and Anchorage and Kotzebue respectively and upgraded the plane to Bethel from a 72-seat combi to a 144-seat passenger jet.

Customers with tickets purchased on or before March 28 for travel between March 28-30, may rebook through April 3 without incurring a change fee or additional costs, or apply for a full refund for the unused portion of their ticket by calling 1-800-ALASKAAIR (1-800-252-7522).

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Always innovating: Alaska testing electronic bag tags

Travel can be a hassle.

Nobody knows that better than the members of CX Labs, Alaska Airlines’ customer research and development team, who spend their days at the airport looking for travelers’ pain points and brainstorming ways to soothe them.

Since the department’s creation in 2013, the team has tested all kinds of new products and processes – some successful, some less so. In 2014, the team piloted the use of biometric check-in in Alaska’s Board Room airport lounges. In 2015, they expanded biometrics to a test of fingerprint boarding passes and IDs. Now, they’re taking checked luggage to the next level by testing electronic bag tags.

“Alaska has a long history of being willing to go out on a limb and test new technology – we were the first U.S. airline to sell tickets via the Internet, the first U.S. airline to offer Web check-in and the first airline in the world to use GPS to land airplanes. This culture of innovation is in our DNA,” says Sunae Park, Alaska’s managing director of airport services.

“We may try something new that never makes it to the customer, and that’s OK. The point is that we’re always thinking about what comes next.”

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Dog’s best friend: Alaska Airlines honors Iditarod mushers who provide best care

Mushing over 1,000 miles in the frozen Alaska wilderness is no easy feat. At the Iditarod Awards Banquet in Nome, Alaska, the mood is one of excitement and accomplishment as rookies, veterans and fans of the Last Great Race pour into the Nome Recreation Center to celebrate the culmination of the 2016 Iditarod.

It’s no secret who this year’s winner is. Musher Dallas Seavey arrived in Nome on March 15 completing the course in a record 8 days, 11 hours, 20 minutes and 16 seconds.

But what is still unknown as the mushers and fans settle into their seats, is who will receive another highly coveted honor – the Alaska Airlines Leonhard Seppala Humanitarian Award. While the Iditarod is at its core a competitive race, it is also a demonstration of the special bond between a musher and their dogs. The award recognizes a musher who takes outstanding care of their team along the trail and is presented each year by Alaska Airlines.

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The savage beauty of winter in Iceland

During the deepest darkest parts of winter most people dream of a vacation somewhere warm and tropical. But me, I dream of clear cold days and dark long nights in one of the northernmost countries in the world.

I’m not alone either. While Iceland’s high season still centers around its brief summer, more and more visitors are flocking to Iceland in the winter time, drawn by the better deals, lack of crowds, and I have to assume, the snow-covered scenery.

So how cold is it? My trip in February was pretty chilly for this Pacific Northwestern wimp, yet completely bearable. Temperatures hovered slightly below freezing but it was not as cold as it was in New York City that same week. The sky was clear and sunny, though, and that made all the difference. Every once in a while a bracing wind would blow that woke you up and made you take notice.

Cold is a terrific cure for jet lag.

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Chasing the shadow of the moon: To intercept eclipse, Alaska Airlines adjusts flight plan to delight astronomers

There’s no luck in physics.

When the sun and the moon and the Earth aligned this week, an Alaska Airlines jet was in the right place at the right time to catch the total solar eclipse.

The March 8 rendezvous over the Pacific Ocean was not luck, but a precisely planned equation. The calculations began a year ago. The only variable was the plane.

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Strategies for booking international award tickets

If you read Mileage Plan 101 on the basics of booking award travel, then you should know that Alaska Airlines has 16 different partners that can help you get almost anywhere in the world. However, award space can be limited, and the sheer number of possible itineraries on these longer trips can sometimes make it difficult to book.

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Twitter exchange sparks new in-flight partnership with Sub Pop Records

Looking for something fresh and exciting to do during your next flight? Then Alaska has some good news for you. Beginning this month, the airline is partnering with Seattle’s Sub Pop Records to bring some of the label’s best music onboard – for free.

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Travel disasters: Foreign jails, lost passports and more (and how to recover)

Riding through eastern Europe is scenic but local customs and laws are not always tourist-friendly.

By Christy True

While we all look forward to time away from work when we can relax on peaceful beaches, enjoy local cuisine, hike pristine trails or shop in local open markets, anyone who has traveled much knows things don’t always go as planned.

There are the run-of-the-mill mishaps, such as forgetting your swimsuit on a beach vacation, missing a flight or a reservation mix-up. For the most part, those minor inconveniences are easy to recover from (you have a back-up plan for that missed flight, right?), but other misadventures qualify as travel disasters and require a little more effort to set right.

If you are paying thousands of dollars for a packaged tour or a cruise, a serious incident is less likely. But for independent travelers, all bets are off. And that’s why their travel stories are usually a lot more fun to hear. Ever heard the expression tragedy + time = comedy?

I experienced this first-hand a couple of years ago while on a bike trip through Eastern Europe.

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Mileage Plan 101: The basics of booking award travel

Earning Mileage Plan miles is as easy as addi­­ng your member number to your ticket or when booking with Mileage Plan partners. Redeeming miles is just as easy, but if you’ve never done it before, you might not know where to start. Fortunately Alaska’s easy online search tool can find and book almost any Mileage Plan award ticket, including partner awards, and these tips will help you improve on the results.

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Seattle fashion designer Luly Yang will design new uniforms for 12,000 Alaska employees

For the past six months, Seattle couture designer Luly Yang has been traveling undercover on Alaska Airlines flights, interviewing pilots, flight attendants and customer service agents about their uniforms.

“I tell them I’m on a research project,” says Yang, who was tapped in February 2016 to redesign uniforms for Alaska’s 12,000 uniformed employees. The uniform project is the next visual step in Alaska’s biggest brand update in 25 years.

Though Yang is focused on creating a beautiful aesthetic, she isn’t just looking for design feedback. She interviewed pilots about how their shirt collars feel against their necks, spoke with flight attendants about how their shirts move when they raise their arms overhead to open or close overhead bins.

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Walking the Great Wall’s wild side

Robert Reid is a travel writer based in Portland, Oregon, whose writings have appeared in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal. He’s been the spokesperson for Lonely Planet, appearing on CNN, NBC’s Today Show and NPR to discuss travel trends. He’s currently the Digital Nomad for National Geographic Traveler.

This is exactly what I wanted. I’m alone on a Chinese mountain, a couple hours north of Beijing, following an unrestored section of the Great Wall of China. After two hours’ of hiking, I’m just 10 minutes short of my goal, a spot on Wohushan Mountain where the Great Wall dead ends atop a gorge. There are no souvenir stands or cable car rides here. Just crumbling ramparts of what’s known as a “wild wall.”

Also I’m terrified.

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