Alaska Airlines 737-800 economy class exit row Seattle to San Diego

Alaska Airlines 737-800 economy class exit row Seattle to San Diego

Upon arrival from Bellingham, I quickly discovered that my Alaska Airlines 737-800 exit row economy seat flight to San Diego had been delayed, and they hadn’t even started boarding yet. Score! Hoping for the opportunity to get put back on that flight instead of the later one they had rebooked me on earlier in the afternoon, I approached the gate agents to see if there was any chance that they could fit me in.

Quite simply…nope. That flight was overbooked and they already gave my seat away. Oh well – I was confirmed on the next flight only two hours later so I really didn’t mind.

Now that I had some time to kill, I quickly took notice of how massively busy the Seattle airport is. It seems every time I come through this place it’s standing room only and the gates are bursting at the seams. I did notice it in years past, but this time it really hit me. This is a very (very) busy place.

seattle airport
Central terminal of the Seattle Airport

I decided to grab a healthy hummus wrap for dinner at Wolfgang Puck Express, but was bummed to see that they included a huge pile of irresistible cheese fries with it. Dang it! Here I was trying to be healthy, but…those damn fries were freaking amazing and I ate every single one. Ugh. Oh well.

AS496
Seattle, WA (SEA) – San Diego, CA (SAN
Saturday, August 1 2015
Aircraft: 737-800
Seat: 17c (exit row)

alaska airlines 737-800 drawing
Alaska Airlines 737-800 N597AS side view illustration by Norebbo.com
seattle to san diego flight map
Our route down to San Diego today: HAROB4 FEPOT OED RBL SAC AVE LAX BAYVU3

After dinner I took my time walking over to the N gates to wait for my flight to San Diego. This was the first time that I’ve ever used the inter-terminal train at SEA, and I’ve got to say that it’s quite nice and it made me appreciate how big this airport really is. But I wasn’t in a hurry to get over to N – I was there last year for another SEA-SAN flight, and I remember it being small and crowded with no place to sit.

seattle airport inter terminal train
Waiting for the inter-terminal train to take me over to the N gates
airport train seattle
Inside the train – ready to go!
The N concourse
The N concourse
flight information board
Is it time to go yet?

Luckily the gate being used for this flight to San Diego was N2, which is located in the far corner of the terminal away from everything else. It was relatively quiet compared to all the others, so I did manage to sit and relax a bit before boarding commenced. I was still pretty bummed at myself for gorging on those cheese fries…

alaska airlines 737-800 seattle
Our aircraft pulling up to the gate. Looks like it’s got the Lei livery with split scimitar winglets!
flight boarding at gate n2
Boarding has commenced at gate N2. Why is it that there is always one person who is looking directly at me when I snap these boarding pics?
boarding alaska airlines
Just about to step onboard

As I said at the top of this post, I wasn’t much in the mood for taking pics as I boarded the plane and found my seat. That’s just as well though – this is simply Alaska Airlines economy class, so there’s nothing really special to say about it other than the fact that the power ports at EVERY seat was a very welcome thing to see. The exit row seat I had wasn’t too shabby either. Leg room for miles it seemed.

Boarding the flight
Boarding the flight
exit row leg room
Pretty good leg room here in the exit row (as expected)
Power ports at every seat
Power ports at every seat. Nice!
alaska airlines 737-800 interior
All buttoned up and ready to go. Let’s get this show on the road!

The only other thing really worth mentioning here was my craving for a diet coke during this flight. I can hear the “so what’s” from all of you now, but you’ve got to understand that I never drink soda. I just don’t like the stuff but I had two on this flight. Weird, I tell ya.

alaska airlines in flight snack
Me, drinking a diet Coke? That’s just weird.
737-800 interior in flight
It got dark pretty quick, so all there was to do for a majority of the flight was to sleep

Arrival in San Diego is one of the best feelings in the world, and I was feeling really good to be home again once I got off that plane and walked into the Circle of Death (terminal 1). I did start to think that this trip went by way too fast and that yet again I tried to cram too much into too short of a timeframe. I’m not a young kid anymore, so I’m not sure how many more of these bonsai “gogogo” two-day trips I have left in me. I’m ready to start staying at my destinations longer!

terminal 1 san diego
Arrival at Terminal 1 in San Diego. Rare to see it this empty!
alaska airlines 737 san diego
There isn’t much to like about terminal 1, but there are some nice ground-level views of the aircraft near the security checkpoint
san diego terminal 1 ticket counters
An eerily empty terminal 1 ticketing area here in San Diego. Normally this place is a zoo!
walking to terminal 2 san diego
Did you know that there is a covered walkway between terminal 1 and 2 here in San Diego? I parked at terminal 2, so that’s where I’m headed…
terminal 2 san diego airport
It only takes a minute or two to walk between terminals, and it’s much easier than taking the bus IMHO

Comments (2)

  1. Albert

    April 8, 2020
    • SANspotter

      April 11, 2020

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