Alaska Airlines vs. Delta: Game on

 

Alaska Airlines purchased Hawaiian Airlines in September

Seattle-based Alaska Airlines is hoping its loyal base of Northwest customers will no longer have to look to competing airlines when booking international travel.

"This is our city to serve," said CCO Andrew Harrison, laying down the gauntlet primarily to Delta Airlines which flies 25 percent of international passengers out of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport compared to Alaska's 16 percent.

Alaska, which flies 57 percent of Seattle's domestic passengers, uses partner airlines for international connections. Now with a fleet of wide-body Boeing 787 Dreamliners acquired through its purchase of Hawaiian Airlines last September, it has been one-upping the much-larger Delta with a series of announcements aimed at including flights to 12 international cities by 2030. 

 Alaska will be flying non-stop between Seattle and London Heathrow; Rome; and Reykjavik, Iceland (seasonal flights aboard the 737-8 MAX) starting in the spring of 2026. It began non-stops to Tokyo-Narita in May, and will add non-stops for Seoul (using the Airbus A330-200) in September. 

Delta, which flies non-stop to Seoul, Tokyo, Taipei, Shanghai, London, Amsterdam and Paris from Seattle, relies on partners KLM and Air France for onward connections in Europe. It answered Alaska's moves by announcing plans of its own for a new non-stops to Rome and Barcelona next May, cutting out the need to connect through Paris or Amsterdam.

What will all of this mean for passengers? Hopefully some price competition. Alaska will now be competing with its current partner, Iceland Air, on flights to Reykjavik;  British Air on flights to London; and Japan Airlines on flights to Tokyo. 

Delta customers, unhappy with its requirements for elite status, could decide to switch their elite status to Alaska, given a wider selection of international options that can be booked directly with the airline. Delta requires a minimum yearly spend of $5,000 to maintain Silver Elite status while Alaska's requirements for MVP Gold center on the number of miles or segments flown, bars easier to reach with the addition of longer, international routes.

Flight amenities and comfort will depend on the specific route. Delta has the superior in-flight seat-back entertainment system while Alaska passengers must stream movies and TV shows on their own devices. Delta seems to have lowered the quality of its food service on international flights in recent years, so it will be interesting to see if Alaska can do better.

Alaska‘s newest lounge at Sea-Tac Airport

Both airlines have high-end lounges in Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, a busy airport getting busier with the number of new international routes being added by Alaska, Delta another airlines. 

To play in the big leagues, Alaska will have to up its game when it comes to the level of customer service and staffing that international flights require. Sea-Tac customers often complain of long waits to reach someone on the phone or long lines at its airport service desks when problems occur. 

Had a data center hardware failure that caused a three-hour, system-wide ground stop here recently occurred on a flight originating in Europe, customers would have been entitled to major cash compensation under European laws.

EC Regulation 261 grants passengers the right to seek compensation when they have experienced delays (two to four hours or more), cancelled, or overbooked flights, with few exceptions. Those include weather, strikes, security risks etc. but not technical problems.

All carriers, including U.S.-based airlines, are subject to the rules when flying inside or out of the EU.