SOMEWHERE OVER LEEDS, ENGLAND—Anthony Bourdain was eating a cobra heart in the movie on my suite screen when flight attendants rolled up with an ice-cream-sundae cart.
The Seattle-based airline began nonstop flights to Rome and London earlier this year, flying Boeing 787 Dreamliners outfitted with the posh business-class suites big-spending business and vacation travelers demand today. (It acquired the planes in its 2024 merger with Hawaiian Airlines.) To size up the newcomer, I booked a nearly $2,500 one-way ticket from Rome. The Alaska flight was the cheapest splurge of the bunch, excluding the $939 last-minute upgrade to United Polaris from London to San Francisco. I booked the ticket about 10 days before departure and a regular economy ticket was $1,700 one way. (Business-class tickets on surrounding dates topped $5,000 one way.) I took a cue from the business-class veterans across the aisle and started by putting my mattress pad on the seat.
They said it gets sticky without one. Alaska is a new West Coast entrant in the competitive trans-Atlantic market. Consider it the fourth installment of this back-of-the-plane traveler’s business-class chronicles. I know plenty of you forking over thousands for business class do it solely for the solitude, space and sleep. There’s little not to love about the abundant riches of business class—at the right price. And Alaska’s price was right.
We started with American Airlines a year ago, followed by all business-class La Compagnie and then United earlier this year.
