Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-900ER From Dallas/Fort Worth To Portland

My flight from Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport
(DFW) to Portland International Airport
(PDX) departed at 15:40. I arrived at Terminal E at 12:56 because a friend dropped me off, or else I would not have arrived so early. I am known for arriving just one hour before a flight because I almost never check a bag and have both CLEAR and TSA precheck
, meaning I make it through security in no time.

DFW is the second-largest airport in the United States by land mass and one of the busiest in the country. It is so big that it has a freeway running through it. For those arriving via car, the terminals are basically split in two. There are signs at each terminal that will say something like ‘Gates 1-15’ and ‘Gates 16-30’, which determine which direction to go depending on the gate of your flight.

Photo: Lukas Souza | Simple Flying

At the airport

My flight was at gate E11, but because I have Priority Pass
and was planning on going to a restaurant located at E5 to use my credit for lunch, I had my friend drop me off in the 1-10 section. Once inside, the Transportation Security Administration
(TSA) checkpoint was immediately to my right. Another interesting thing to note is that at Terminal E, baggage claims and check-in counters are on the top level, making for a chaotic traffic experience outside.

By 12:57, I had already checked in with CLEAR
and was on my way to security. Despite not needing to pull out any identification, the TSA was using a new system that took a photograph of me before I was cleared at the checkpoint. As I mentioned above, I have TSA PreCheck, and there was almost no line, so by 13:00, I had cleared security and was inside the terminal.

Photo: Lukas Souza | Simple Flying

The E-Terminal at DFW is one of my favorites because it has a small feel, which is very different from Terminal D, where American Airlines
operates many flights, which feels like a giant shopping mall. After ordering my food to-go, I decided to find a gate that had a good view of the ramp and ended up going to E12, one gate over from my departure gate.

The gate area for my flight was quite crowded and was right next to the escalator for the Skylink, DFW’s train that takes passengers between terminals. One of the things Alaska is most well-known for is its customer service, and my interaction with the gate agent was fantastic. I asked for a paper copy of my boarding pass as I collect them, and also asked if there were any window seats available.

When I checked in on the app, I was automatically assigned seat 26D as I had booked a Saver fare and did not want to pay for seat selection. I was pleased to have an aisle and not a middle seat, but it did not hurt to ask for a window. The agent moved me immediately to seat 27A.

My flight was scheduled to board at 15:00, and at 15:02 the gate agents started the boarding process. The agent in charge of the boarding process got creative, and instead of using the phonetic alphabet for the boarding groups, she used words like beautiful, charming, and fantastic. By 15:18, my group, F, had been called to board. (I later discovered this to be the standard at Alaska Airlines)

Photo: Lukas Souza | Simple Flying

One minute later, I was on my way down the jetbridge to the Boeing 737-900ER that would take us to Portland. The gate agents were efficient, but passengers were not quick to board the plane, causing a jam in the jetbridge. But, just six minutes later, I boarded.

On the aircraft

To my pleasant surprise, the aircraft was equipped with newer overhead bins which accommodate bags on their sides, meaning more passengers can fit their bags. I was afraid that being in the last group, I would have to check my bag, so I was relieved. By the time I reached my seat, there was plenty of space in the bins.

Upon sitting down, one of the first things I noticed almost immediately was how much legroom I had. I am by no means a tall person, but that does not mean that flying in economy is sometimes a tight fit. There were no inflight entertainment screens, which I already knew, but there were also no device holders for entertainment.

Each set was equipped with a universal power outlet, which was located just under the left side of the tray table, above the seat-back pocket. I found this very odd and had never seen it before, but it was better than fumbling for an outlet under my seat and not the one in front of me, like on many other airlines.

Before we took off, I went to the rear of the aircraft to use the lavatory and noticed that there were three in the back, two next to each other on the left side, and one on the right. It had been some time since I had flown on a Boeing 737-900ER, but I have flown on plenty of other planes and do not recall seeing this lavatory configuration before. Last month, I flew on a United Airlines Airbus A320, which had a half galley in the back of the plane, along with two lavatories side by side.

We pushed back a couple of minutes behind schedule and taxied for about 18 minutes over to runway 36R. This is pretty normal for DFW, but for some reason, it did not feel like we taxied for so long. Fortunately, there was not a long line for taxi, and by 15:56 we were rolling down the runway and headed to Portland.

Climbing out of DFW, we hit a little bit of turbulence, and the plane shook a little bit, but soon we reached our cruising altitude. About 30 minutes into the flight, the flight attendants began their inflight service, during which we hit some more turbulence but nothing severe. At 15:52, I was served a small bag of pretzels, and soon after, another flight attendant came by with the beverage cart.

Photo: Lukas Souza | Simple Flying

Alaska is the first airline in the US to have fully eliminated plastic bottles, cups, and stir sticks from its flights. I had noticed that the water was Boxed Water, but it was not until I saw the advertising on my cup that I noticed that none of the beverages were in plastic bottles.

Photo: Lukas Souza | Simple Flying

Right when I was served my snack, I decided to connect to the inflight WiFi and see what Alaska offered. Like United, Alaska offers free messaging and free connectivity for eligible T-Mobile customers. A full-flight pass was just $8, which I found to be a reasonable price for the four-hour flight. I used the T-Mobile free connectivity, and logging on was simple and only required a phone number.

For the purpose of this review and my own curiosity, I ran a speed test on the network and was impressed. The result was about 72mbps, which, for a plane, is pretty impressive, although there are better systems out there. Though I was able to use the WiFi throughout the flight, I noticed that it was slow at times and ran another speed test after the second service.

Photo: Lukas Souza | Simple Flying

The second speed test I ran had very different results. This time, I got less than 5mbps for a download speed. As I wrote this review, about half an hour from landing, I ran one more test, and this one was slightly slower than the second.

Photo: Lukas Souza | Simple Flying

Overall

Landing in Portland was smooth, with overcast and slightly rainy conditions. Our flight touched down at 17:55, five minutes after our arrival time. After eight minutes of taxiing, we arrived at our gate. The trip was relatively smooth, and I would fly Alaska again if the opportunity presented itself.